SEA FLY-FISHING. 115 



attached. A piece of lead is fixed on the line at a short dis- 

 tance above the hook. 



The boat must be rowed or sailed at a moderate rate, and 

 from five or ten fathoms of the line allowed to traU behind. 

 The boat end of the line should be turned once or twice round 

 the arm, and held tightly in the hand ; if the line were fastened 

 to the boat, there is every chance that a large lythe — and they 

 are frequently caught upwards of thirty poimds weight — ^would 

 snap the tackle. The fish, when hooked, gives considerable 

 play, and rather strongly objects to being lifted into the boat. 

 The clip or gafi^ is in this case always necessary. In fishing for 

 lythe, mackerel and dogfish are not unfrequently caught. The 

 best place for prosecuting this sport is in the neighbourhood of a 

 rooky shore ; and the best times of the day are the early morning 

 and evening. This fish wUl also take readily during any period 

 of a dull but not gloomy day. 



The most amusing kind of sea-angling is flyrfishing for small 

 lythe and saithe (coal-fish). The tackle is exceedingly simple : 

 a rod consisting of a pliant branch about eight feet in length ; 

 a line of light cord of the same length, and a little hook roughly 

 busked with a small white, red, or black feather. The fly is 

 dragged on the surface as the boat is rowed along, and the 

 moment the fish is struck it is swung into the boat. The fry 

 of the lythe and saithe may also be fished for from rooks and 

 pier-heads, using the same tackle. A very ingenious plan for 

 securing a number of these little fish is carried on in the Firth 

 of Clyde and elsewhere. A boat similar in shape to a salmon- 

 coble, with a crew of two — one to row and one to fish — goes 

 out along the shore in the evening, when the sea is perfectly 

 calm or nearly so. The fisher has charge of half-a-dozen rods 

 or more, similar to the one already mentioned. These rods 

 project across the square stern of the boat, and their near ends 

 are inserted into the interstices of a seat of wattled boughs, 

 on which the fisher sits, not steadily, but bumping gently up 

 and down, communicating a trembling motion to the flies. The 

 course of the coble is always close in shore, and, if the fish are 

 taking* well, the same ground may be fished over many times 

 during the course of the evening. 



As to set-line-fishing, it can only be practised in places 

 where the tide recedes to a considerable distance. The cord 

 used is of no defined length, and at certain distances along its 

 entire extent are aflSxed corks to prevent the hooks sinking in 



