BOAT-FISHING. 183 
bag is usually varied on such occasions by a few 
good-sized whiting and pout, both of which 
are capable of taking the largest baits used for cod. 
The smaller cod, or codlings, are caught inshore 
throughout the year, especially in May and June, 
and one of the best spots for them that I can call 
to mind is, or was, the particoloured buoy outside 
Ramsgate harbour. They are, like the majority of 
sea-fish, most capricious in their comings and 
goings, more particularly in certain sheltered bays 
that lie somewhat outside their course. Thus, one 
July morning in 1896, I caught a score of fine 
codling on the Pier Rocks, Bournemouth, in the 
course of half an hour, few running under a pound. 
With one small exception, in August, these were 
the only codling I saw at Bournemouth that 
summer; while in the present year, I have seen 
not a single one. Bournemouth Bay is, however, 
rather subject to sudden and unlooked for incur- 
sions on the part of capricious migrants ; thus, the 
present summer witnessed an almost unprecedented 
July arrival of small scads, or horse-mackerel, 
numbers of which were taken in the sean-nets, and 
a few even from the pier. In the course of an ac- 
quaintance extending over a number of years, I 
only once before saw these fish in any quantity at 
Bournemouth, and that was close on ten years ago. 
Conger-fishing is the same all the world over ; 
and, though it entails night-fishing, with all Conger- 
its attendant discomforts, cold, darkness, ing 
and the rest, there are few who do not desire at 
one time or other the novel experience of a night’s 
congering, or, having once tried it, are satisfied 
with one taste only. For, in truth, it is most ex- 
citing, and differs in every respect from the methods 
