SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 67 



Breydon, November 3rd. Several were quite as large as full- 

 grown Herrings. 



A very curious incident occurred in Yarmouth Roads, when 

 a Middlesborough steamer encountered strong winds and heavy 

 seas. When abreast of the town a particularly heavy sea was 

 shipped, and when the water had receded the deck was found to 

 be half-covered with Mackerel, a species which was exceedingly 

 abundant on several occasions during the Herring fishing. 

 Many of the Mackerel were washed back into the sea through 

 the scuppers, but enough were secured to serve the crew with 

 fresh fish for two or three days. 



On November 25th Mr. Robert Beazor exhibited on his 

 fish-slab a very pretty little Sunfish {Orthagoriscus mold), which 

 had been taken in a drift-net and landed on the fish-wharf. It 

 measured 25J in. in length, and from tip of dorsal to tip of anal 

 fin, 36 in. ; weight, 26| lb. 



A Sprat famine characterised the East Suffolk fisheries 

 during the end of 1909. 



I have to thank Mr. Robert Beazor for the following notes 

 on the local Smelt fishery of 1909. He writes : — " The Smelt 

 season commenced in the beginning of March, the Gorleston 

 fishermen starting, when some six or eight boats landed catches 

 varying from three to eight score. They were exceptionally fine 

 fish. Many of the river smelters had given up and sold their 

 nets and boats because of the action of the Bure and Yare 

 Commissioners, who debarred them from fishing above Breydon 

 [a very senseless procedure, as no fresh-water fishes come down 

 so low as the confluence of the two rivers, nor for miles above it, 

 owing to the constancy of salt water, which goes higher up rivers 

 year by year]. This caused a certain supply of Smelts to 

 diminish. April was a fair month, and when the weather 

 allowed the beach boats to work some procured from thirty 

 to forty score a day. The largest Smelt I weighed was 22 oz., 

 and I have had as many as fifty Smelts in on one day weighing 

 16 oz. apiece. The autumn fishing was a failure ; what few 

 were taken were secured at the top end of Breydon. I sent away 

 sometimes as many as four thousand fish per diem — a much 

 lower figure than in some years. Prices were remunerative to 

 the catchers, who averaged two shillings per score, the highest 



