SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 11 



About double the quantity is landed on the Beach, but no 

 figures are available. A Bass about 12 lb. in weight was caught 

 off the Pier in November." 



I observed in the ■ Daily Press ' of December 10th that the 

 Sprats " set in " abundantly, heavy catches being taken into 

 Lowestoft by the Lowestoft, Kessingland, and Pakefield boats, 

 ranging up to some eighty " maunds " (local baskets) : these 

 realized from 3s. to 3s. 6d. the maund. 



My old friend Mr. Bobert Beazor, fish merchant, writing me 

 on December 9th, states that " the Smelt season was very poor, 

 and to the workers not very remunerative : the fish were small. 

 I take it that they do not like the polluted state of the water 

 through which they have to pass to their spawning haunts : and 

 I think that year by year their numbers are less. I found 

 Salmon-Trout conspicuously absent, and those taken were small. 

 The best take of the season came from Winterton. Our own 

 local fisherfolk seem to have quite gone out of this branch of 

 fishing [at one time our beach men made quite a feature of the 

 autumn draw-netting for the 'trout']. The Mackerel season 

 (May and June) was a fair one, and I saw only a few Scribbled 

 Mackerel {Scomber var. scriptus), and one black one (S. var. 

 concolor). I had during the year four Anchovies brought me for 

 identification — Bed Mullet a few. Large Mackerel came late in 

 the Herring fishery. I weighed several ; the largest was 2f lb., 

 and many exceeded 2 lb." 



The voracity and want of discrimination in the Pike is well- 

 known ; and the bold fellow occasionally attacks more than he 

 can possibly hope to devour. In September a lady, bathing in 

 certain baths at Norwich, was bitten severely in the ankle by a 

 Pike of some 6 lb. or 7 lb. weight. The bite of a "jack " is by 

 no means a pleasant experience, as I can remember to my own 

 cost, when a 5-pounder seized my finger, closing its jaws with 

 a vicious snap, puncturing holes that were slow to heal and 

 extremely painful. I had to lever the brute's jaws open with a 

 piece of wood before I could free my finger. 



I have a note dated June 22nd recording the capture of six 

 Salmon-Trout at Oulton Broad, near the lock, by one fisherman 

 on that date, fishing with live Shrimps. On October 29th 

 following Mr. J. T. Hotblack, of Norwich, in a letter to the 



