BOAT-FISHING. 189 
felt, the strike acting moreover directly on the 
fish without raising the lead from the ground. 
The baits for flat-fish are, as already intimated, 
many, among the most effective being mussel, 
which sometimes requires tying on, especially when 
the fish are biting so shyly as to require half a 
mussel only on the hook. It is easy enough to bait 
with a whole mussel, fixing it securely on the hook 
without the aid of thread; but a portion of the 
mollusc, necessarily deficient in some of the more 
gristly parts that help to fix the whole on the hook, 
offers no such facilities, and a few turns of brown 
thread will be found most useful. 
Other baits for these fish are lugworm, not more 
than half an inch of which should be allowed to 
hang from the hook, raw shrimps, and fragments 
of mackerel, fresh herring, squid, or sand-smelt, the 
last being, as already mentioned, one of the most 
killing baits for turbot. Owing to their shape, 
these fish offer considerably more resistance to the 
water than others of like weight and sizc, and a 
landing-net should always be handy to relieve the 
strain on the rod-top and gut trace. Not only in- 
deed are they rarely of a size to require the gaff, but, 
save on those of very large size, that implement 
would be very difficult to use. It is not unusual 
out in the deeper water to hook a heavy skate or 
ray of some kind while fishing for flat-fish, and 
some patience must be exercised in hauling this 
odious-looking creature very slowly, otherwise the 
strain will break the gut. <A gaff is easily used on 
these gristly scavengers, and care should be taken 
to avoid a blow from the whip-like tail, armed in 
some with sharp spikes. 
It would take too many pages to give a tithe of 
