Читать книгу The Sea Shore - William S. Furneaux - Страница 11

Fig. 32.—Fishing from the Rocks

In addition to these, there will be various other species that require gentler treatment, and may be hooked and landed much in the same manner as fresh-water fishes, since they are free swimmers, usually keeping well clear of the rocks and weeds.

If the day is calm, and the water clear, the sea angler will often be able to watch various fishes as they swim, and to bring the bait gently within their reach; and here we find the advantage of the rod as compared with the hand line. Sometimes quite a shoal of small fishes may be seen sporting near the surface, and, as a rule, there will be no difficulty in obtaining one for identification and study. These are generally best secured by means of small hooks, with but very little bait, and will often bite freely at the tiniest fragment of worm on an almost naked hook.

After the water has been searched at all depths, it will be well to allow the bait to rest quite on the bottom, even at the risk of losing a hook or two in the weeds and rocks. This may enable one to take some fresh species of fish or to secure a crustacean or other creature that is not often found between the tide-marks. Care should be always taken, however, to keep the hook well clear of the weeds that grow on the sides of the rock, and sway to and fro with every movement of the restless waters.

Angling from piers may be pursued much in the same manner as described above in those places where the bottom is rocky, but since the chances of hooking large fish are greater here than close to shore, it is necessary to be provided with stronger tackle and larger hooks. If, however, the bottom is sandy, the rod tackle may be modified by placing the lead at the bottom, and arranging two or three hooks above it, about one or two feet apart, the lowest one being near the lead. With such an arrangement the line may be cast some distance out, but for angling close to the pier itself there is, perhaps, nothing better than the single-hook arrangement suggested above, for with this one may fish on the bottom and at all depths without any alteration in the tackle being necessary.

If, however, the rod line is to be cast as suggested above, or if a hand line is to be similarly used, the following hints may be useful as regards the arrangement of hooks and lead.

The line itself may be of twisted silk or hemp, terminated with about a yard of strong gut. The lead, preferably of a conical or pear-shaped form, should be placed at the extreme end, and its weight regulated according to the necessities of the occasion. A few ounces of lead are quite sufficient where there are no strong currents, but it is well to be supplied with larger sizes, to be substituted if circumstances require it. Two hooks will be ample. One of these should be only a few inches from the lead, and the other about eighteen or twenty inches higher. The whole arrangement, known as a Paternoster, is represented in fig. 33, in which the method of fixing the lead and the hook links is also illustrated.

Fig. 33.—The Paternoster

Fig. 33.—The Paternoster

It will be seen that a swivel has been introduced in connection with the bottom hook, the object being to show the manner in which this useful piece of tackle is fitted. It must not be supposed, however, that swivels are always necessary. It is often useful to insert a swivel on the line itself, above the Paternoster, when it is of twisted material, in order to prevent it from kinking; but its use is more frequently serviceable on the hook links, especially when fishing where the currents are strong. When the bait used is one that presents two flat surfaces to the water, as would be the case with a strip of mackerel, a strong current will set it spinning round and round, thus causing the hook link to kink if it has not been fitted with a swivel, and the same effect is often produced by the spinning of a fish on the hook.

The employment of a suitable ground bait will often make a wonderful difference in the angler’s haul. It frequently attracts large numbers, keeping them near at hand for some considerable time, and apparently sharpens their appetite. It may be often observed, too, that a fish will bite freely at the angler’s bait when in the neighbourhood of the ground bait, while the former is viewed with suspicion in the absence of the latter.

When fishing on the bottom only, the ground bait should be weighted if it is of such a nature that it does not sink readily or if it is liable to be carried away by currents; but it will often be found more convenient to secure it on the end of a string, tied up in a muslin bag if necessary, so that it may be adjusted to any desired depth.

Among the attractive viands suitable for this purpose we may mention mussels, crushed crabs, pounded liver, the guts of any oily fish, and the offal of almost any animal.

Along the east coast, and in some of the sandy bays of Devon and Cornwall, fishing from the beach is practised, but we can hardly recommend this as of much value to the amateur whose object is to obtain as great a variety as possible of fishes for study. Some good food fishes are often caught by this means, but the methods employed are often very primitive, and would lack all interest to those who love good sport.

On the east coast a long line, fitted with many hooks, is slung out as far as possible by means of a pole, and the home end either held in the hand of the fisher or fastened to the top of a flexible stick driven into the sand. The latter plan becomes necessary when more than one line is owned by the same individual, and he is made aware of the bite of a large fish—and a large fish only, since the hooks are placed beyond a heavy lead—by the bending of the stick.

The naturalist, however, is as much interested in the small fish as the large ones, and, even for beach fishing, a rod and line, fitted with one or two hooks only, and a lead no heavier than is absolutely essential, will be preferable. A little practice will of course be necessary in order that one may become expert in the casting of the rod line, but with large rings on the rod, and a reel without a check, or a check that can be thrown off when desired, the necessary proficiency in casting ought to be acquired without much difficulty.

In some of the sandy bays of the south-west, long lines with a heavy lead at both ends and baited hooks at short intervals throughout the whole length, are placed on the sand at low tide close to the water’s edge, and left unwatched until the next tide is out. As far as our observations go this primitive mode of fishing is usually anything but successful, the receding of the tide generally revealing a long row of clean hooks, with, perhaps, one or two dead or half-dead fish; and it is probable that most of the bait is devoured by crabs and other crustaceans before the water becomes sufficiently deep to allow the desired fishes to reach it.

There is one other method of fishing on which we may make a few remarks, although it hardly comes under the heading of shore fishing. We refer to a method of catching surface fishes from a moving boat, which method is known as whiffing. The line is weighted with a lead which must be regulated according to the speed of the boat. If the boat is an ordinary rowing-boat, kept going at only a moderate speed, a few ounces of lead will be sufficient, but a whiffing line trailing behind a sailing boat travelling in a good breeze will require a pound or two of lead to keep the bait only a little below the surface.

Beyond the lead we have three or four yards of gimp or strong gut, at the end of which is a single hook fitted with a spinner, or baited with some attractive natural or artificial bait. Whatever be the bait used, there will certainly be more or less spinning caused by the resistance offered by the water, hence it will be necessary to have a swivel beyond the lead.

When whiffing near the shore, care must be taken to avoid outlying rocks that approach the surface of the water, or a sudden snapping of the line will give you an unwelcome warning of their existence. Further, we should note that the fishes which are to be caught when whiffing do not always swim at the same depth, thus it will be advisable to fish at different distances from the surface by varying either the weight of the lead or the speed of the boat.