YHE MAOKEREL-HOOK FISHERY. 279 
seven to tavelve fishing cleats in his berth at the rail. On these cleats are fastened an assortment 
of lines with jigs of various sizes, the heaviest being used when the mackerel are biting fast or 
when the wind is blowing fresh; the lightest, when the water is very smooth, or when the mackerel 
are “picking,” or nibbling daintily. 
The fishermen always made their jigs in molds of metal or soap-stone, this operation being 
similar to the old-fashioned method of making bullets. In former days these molds were made of 
iron, but many of the fishermen, being dissatisfied with the shape, constructed them for their own 
use of lead. At present the soap-stone jig molds and the lead and pewter constitute a part of the 
outfit of a vessel. 
When jigs were first introduced, however, it was customary for fishermen to cast them for 
themselves in molds improvised in buckets of sand or ashes, afterwards beating into shape the 
rough castings, and boring the hole for the line.” This custom was prevalent on some. vessels as 
late as 1850. In the later years of this fishery the fishermen became very critical in the matter of 
jigs, and were not satisfied unless they were elegantly shaped and brilliantly polished. The lines . 
were six or eight fathoms in length, of cotton, being either hawser or shroud laid. Of later years 
these have always been of cotton. In early days, when the heavier jigs were in vogue, much larger 
lines were used than at a later period. Since 1860 it has been customary to use a kind of snood, 
called “snapper-line,” made of strong linen thread, and usually colored blue. The “snapper-lines” 
are from 15 to 18 inches long, one end being bent to the jig, and the other fastened to the fishing- 
line with what is called a “‘water-knot.” During the voyage the lines are generally coiled up and 
hung upon the fishing-cleats on the waist when not in use. Besides each man’s stock of lines, with 
jigs of different sizes, fastened to the cleats at his berth, a quantity of extra lines and hooks are 
earried by the vessel. 
THE MACKEREL FLY-HOOK.—The mackerel fly-hook, formerly very popular and introduced 
before 1850, has been discontinued since 1860. This is an extra hook, on a ganging from 12 to 15 
inches long, fastened to the jig-line 8 or 10 inches above the jig. Not being weighted, this hook 
floats at an angle when the jig is sinking, and by using it two mackerel are sometimes caught at 
once, one biting at the jig and one on the fly-hook. The fly-hook went out of favor because it was 
liable to become entangled with the other fishing gear. 
THE MACKEREL-GAFF.—The mackerel-gaff is an iron rod a quarter of an inch in diameter, 33 
feet long, having at one end two recurved sharp points about 2 inches long, and separated at the 
extremities by an interval of one-half to three-quarters of an inch, returning in a line parallel with 
the direction of the rod. The mackerel-gaff is fastened to a wooden handle about 10 or 12 fect 
long, and was used when the mackerel were schooling thickly alongside of the vessel and were not 
inclined to take the hook. The gaff was thrust among the fish and rapidly drawn back, often 
impaling one and sometimes two mackerel at a time. This implemeht has not been used since the 
introduction of seines and but rarely during the last twenty years. 
THE MACKEREL “BOB” OR “BOBBER.”—This is an instrument resembling the mackerel-gaff 
in the manner of its use. In its rude form the bob was a stick of wood, around the end of which 
three or four cod hooks, with their barbs filed off, were fastened. The same idea has since been 
developed in various ways. The bob is fastened to a string and drawn through a school of fish, 
impaling them in the same manner as the gaff. This instrument was discontinued long before the 
gaff, and, in fact, has never been so popular. These bobs were used only when the mackerel were 
schooling in great numbers alongside of the vessel and refusing to bite. 
BAIT AND APPARATUS FOR ITS PREPARATION.—Bait used in the mackerel fishery is of two 
kinds, (1) that put upon the hooks and (2) that thrown into the water to attract the fish. 
