June 3, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
411 
DORSETSHIRE: ITS RIVER AND SEA 
FISHING. 
(Continued from page 309.) 
By Alfked Jardine. 
During July and August when the weather is very 
hot, early morning soon after daybreak—and up 
to eight o’clock—also in the cool of evening, are 
the best times to fish for bass ; it is little use 
trying in the forenoons or afternoons of bright 
sunny days, for they are such timid fish, that when 
the water is clear a movement of the angler or his 
rod will give them instant alarm, and cause them 
to seek other waters less disturbed; yet, some¬ 
times on breezy days, with the sea heavily rippled, 
bass will feed, and continue to do so, within a few 
yards, comparatively, of where the angler may be 
standing or sitting. 
Other localities, besides the swift currents 
flowing between rocks, or round headlands, in 
which these sport-giving fish can usually be 
caught, are tideways setting into or from harbours, 
and the estuaries of tidal rivers. Up the latter 
they frequently ascend some distance, as if the 
blending of fresh with the sea water was to their 
liking; it certainly appears to whet their appetites, 
and I have known of good catches made in such 
places; for instance, at Littlehampton river, 
Poole harbour, Weymouth, Exmouth, Dartmouth, 
&c. 
Float fishing is oftentimes successful, whether 
in harbours or from pier-heads, and should the 
water be a little coloured, as is frequently the 
case after windy weather or heavy rains, so much 
the better for fishing. A pike float should be 
used, large enough to carry an ounce pipe lead for 
the sinker, and below it a hook on a snood twelve 
inches long, and two or three others above the 
lead; the hooks fixed on the line at intervals of 
two feet apart, this tackle is a floating paternoster. 
For baits, mussels, pieces three-quarters of an inch 
square from the sides of mackerel, herring, or 
pilchard, and fish liver—best of all the liver of 
a skate, but it is a tender bait, and may have a 
wrapping of fine silk, to keep it on the hook. 
Where the water is very deep a travelling float 
should be used ; this is made by putting the line 
through the tube of the float, and then making a 
loop or half hitch in the line, so far above the lead 
weight, as is the depth desirable to fish. In this 
loop place a short piece of narrow india-rubber 
band, and tighten the loop on it; the upright rod 
rings being large— i.e, three-eights of inch 
diarneter—as previously described, the line with 
the india-rubber stop is drawn through the rings, 
and the float drops down till it rests on another 
stop, made of a small bit of wood or lucifer match, 
half an inch long, placed transversely on the line, 
close above the top hook. On casting out the 
baits the weight pulls the line down through the 
float, till the india-rubber stop prevents the baits 
sinking any deeper. By this method almost any 
depth of water can be fished. It is best to let 
the lower hook be no nearer than twelve inches to 
the sea-bottom, so as to avoid baits being taken 
by crabs, which are, at times, great nuisances to 
fishermen. 
I hope ray description of this kind of pater¬ 
noster fishing is plain enough for anglers to 
understand; it is a method that can be adopted 
for capturing whiting, mullet, pollack, and various 
other sea-fish. 
Pollack, or lythe, though similar in shape to 
silver-whiting, differ in colour, being olive-brown 
on the back, shading through lighter tints at 
the sides, to white on the belly; they often attain 
a large size, as much even as 121b. or 151b., but 
an eight-pounder is not an uncommon capture off 
the Dorset coast. Pollack are very strong fish, 
and when exceeding 41b. in weight require careful 
management; they sheer from side to side, and 
in a current or tideway must be humoured on the 
give and take principle, for, if the tackle is fine, 
there is almost certain to be a break away, with 
loss of hooks. As a rule, they are not caught at 
distances far away from the coast; they seem to 
delight in rocky ground, .about which the boat 
should be rowed slowly, i.e., with just enough 
motion (o keep the bait above the rocks and 
weeds. This method is called “ whiffing,” and 
differs from drift-fishing from a boat fixed by an 
anchor or stone-killick, and the lines, not leaded, 
are allowed to drift or stray with the current or 
tide. 
For whiffing the line should be eighty yards 
long, of twisted flax or hemp, or, better still, a 
waterproofed pike-line, with twenty yards of 
hemp-line joined on to it, this to carry half a dozen 
pipe-leads placed on the line at intervals of a 
fathom, i e., Oft. apart, and increasing in weight 
from one ounce (the end one) up to two ounces; 
the last 5ft. or 6ft. of this tackle to lie of horse¬ 
hair snooding, or twisted gut. The line should 
be marked with a small piece of red, blue, and 
yellow cloth, at three, six, and nine fathoms, to 
show what length of line is overboard. These 
are hand-lines, and two can be used, but two stiff 
rods, of 8ft. or 10ft. length, with reels, and 
lighter tackle, conduce considerably to the sport 
when playing fish of fair calibre. If a rod is 
phaced out from each side of the boat a hand-line 
can be paid out over the stern. 
Baits for whiffing are sand eels, small fresh 
water eels, and lampreys, either living or dead, 
rag, lug, or large lobworms ; the hook should be 
of mackerel size, with a small one bound on two 
inches up the gut. The largest hook is put in at 
the mouth of the bait, carefully threaded two 
inches down and out of the side; then the small 
hook is placed through the head, which prevents 
the bait slipping and getting out of gear. Narrow 
thin slices, three to five inches long, cut from the 
sides of mackerel, gurnard, or bass, make capital 
baits, and when baits are scarce imitation india- 
rubber eels, or thin slices of bacon rind may be 
used. Pollack occasionally take artificial flies, 
such as already described for sea fishing, if worked 
under the surface, on a lightly leaded whiffing 
line. While pollack fishing, codling, bream, 
pout, haddock, gurnard, and wrasse are frequently 
caught, and occasionally large mackerel. 
One fine day, late in July, 1891, a friend and I 
arranged to go pollack fishing ofi: the coast, east 
of Lulworth. J\Iy rods and tackle were put 
aboard the Lively Polly, with certain creature 
comforts for ourselves and “ the skipper,” Harry 
Vye, who had procured some sand eels, rag and 
lugworms, and whelks for baits. About two 
o’clock we hoisted sail, and on going over the 
reef at the entrance to the cove caught a couple 
of mackerel, which came in handy later on in the 
evening, when baits began to run short. There 
was a steady breeze from the south-east; so, 
putting out two whiffing lines, we sailed for 
Meops Rocks, and, fishing the various channels 
between them, caught a fair quantity of good- 
sized fish ; one pollack, a six-jiounder, gave 
capital sport, and required a lot of playing before 
it was in the landing net. Four others weighed 
between 31b. and 41b. each. 
Then we “ whiffed ” the six-fathom water of 
Meops Bay, Airish-Mell, and Worbarrow Bay, 
sailing back, and over this course again many 
times, for there were plenty of pollack, and they 
were feeding well, sometimes a fish on each line 
being brought simultaneously to our boat. At 
last I got hold of what appeared to be a very 
large fish ; we were tacking, and when the boat 
was getting well under way, my rod was nearly 
dragged overboard, the check-winch rattled out a 
screech, and line was rapidly running off; but in 
less than a minute the boat was veered round, 
then the fish was well in hand, fighting against 
the flexibility of my rod and a tough pike line. 
He bored down and out across the tide several 
times, battling hard for life, but in a quarter- 
hour I had a 101b. pollack gaffed and in the boat, 
not the largest, but one of the gamest I have ever 
caught. 
t)n returning late in the evening, we caught a 
31b. wrasse, just by Lulworth Cove. Wrasse are 
most beautifully marked in various hues—greens, 
purples, golden olive, cinnamon, browns—and 
scarcely two fish are alike; their colours fade 
quickly when out of the water, and as edible fish, 
wrasse are almost useless. 
But I must hark back to fresh-water fishing, 
and the memory of two days excellent sport pike 
fishing near Lulworth in the winter of 1879. It 
was bitter weather during that January, all the 
lakes and most rivers were frozen over, only the 
swiftest among the latter wereat all fishable, and 
even these, where the current was slack or 
arrested by weirs and mill heads, were coated in 
such places with thick ice. If my recollection 
serves me, it was on Tuesday, the 21st of January, 
that 1 made one of my frequent visits, on pike 
slaying bent, to AVareham, Dorsetshire ; tho 
Frome then contained plenty of twenty-pounders. 
The Brown Bear was my headquarters, a snug, 
cosy little inn, where the jolly landlord and his 
bunny wife always tried, and never failed, to make 
their customers comfortable. 
This particular visit is fixed in my memory 
because, in spite of apparently hopeless chances 
and insuperable difficulties, my friend, J. P. 
Wheeldon (to whom I wired to come, if he could 
stand tho cold), and myself, had extraordinary 
sport, although the river was almost blocked with 
ice which, in the mid-channel only, was floating 
hurriedly along to the sea; the sides and all the 
quiet corners being bound inches thick with solid 
ice. 
Tired with the four hours’ ride from London, 
J. P. Ay. arrived at one o’clock in the middle of 
the night—or, rather, early morning—frozen 
to his bones, and glad of the hot supper and warm 
welcome awaiting him at the Brown Bear; the 
landlady had thoughtfully chilled a bottle of 
excellent burgundy, to which, and a roasted hen 
pheasant, my friend did ample justice; then, 
one whiskey toddy each, and off we went to bed—• 
he to dream of giant pike. I had already captured 
a dozen good fish that day. 
The next morning’s outlook made our hearts 
glad. A keen frost had crisped the hedges and 
trees with silver traceries, and made the country 
all around very beautiful. 
A wagonette was ordered for eight o'clock. Our 
rods and luncheon baskets were stowed away, our 
pipes lighted, and we were off—driving along a 
roughly paved road, cut through the earthern 
ramparts thrown up by King Alfred’s garrison, 
A.D. 885, to defend AA^areham from incursions of 
the Danes, and which circumvallation of earth is 
now nearly perfect, after the lapse of a thousand 
years. I called my friend’s notice to a quaint 
wayside inn, with a projecting signboard, 
announcing that it was the “Pure Drop,’’ by 
Adam ^ Short. I have been informed that 
there is only one other inn similarly named in 
England. 
For a mile or two the road traverses heather- 
covered moorlands, overlooking a valley through 
which the river takes a most serpentine course, 
some of its bends returning again to within a few 
yards of where they started from, although 
always to a lower level; thus, in floods, the water 
pours over the isthmus or neck of land. Hero 
and there the river is cutting new channels, and, 
in course of time, will be much less tortuous, 
which will not improve the fishing, for at every 
bend the water has washed out deep holes under 
the rush-covered banks, making sure and certain 
harbours for pike, admirably adapted for pater- 
nostering. 
As we descended the hill and passed Holme 
Bridge, with its ancient buttresses and pointed 
arches, overgrown and grey wiih lichens, the sun 
began to peep out, giving promise of a glorious 
day; and on reaching our destination at East 
Stoke, where I had left my punt the previous 
evening, mv first pleasure was to call and intro¬ 
duce J. P. W. to another good chum of mine, Mr. 
Henry AVhite, who then had Stoke Farm, and 
through whose land the River Frome flowed. 
Returning to the punt, we found our boatmen, 
John and William, had cleaned it out, rigged up 
our rods, and had all ready; but before getting 
afloat we walked up stream to a large pool, with 
hatchways, through which salmon ascend, and 
are then able to go as far up the river as Eindon. 
In this pool I caught a twenty-])ound pike, when 
fishing with the late H. L. Rolfe, the previous 
autumn. I hcoked the fish close to the bank in 
deep water, at the mouth of a culvert which carried 
off surplus water from the mill head into the 
main river, and many a good pike I have caught 
there since; in fact this place and the pool used 
to be full of fish. But on the occasion that I 
am writing about, we found this fine “ holding- 
place” was nearly unfishable in consequence of 
(juantities of ice, some floating, but mostly 
stretching over the water for some distares from 
the rush-fringed margin of the river’s bank. I 
got hold of a heavy pike on paternoster, and once 
had a view of its head and shoulders, as it dashed 
through, and partly out of, the ice-encumbered 
stream; but it ran under the frozen slabs on my 
side the river, and although J. P. AY., who was on 
the other side, made a dexterous cast from his 
reel, skilfully catching hold of my line with his 
