CHAPTER IV. H BAITS AND DIARY. AVING dwelt on the various devices for presenting bait to the fish, we now come to the baits themselves. NATURAL BAITS. As might be expected, fish-food forms nearly the whole of a long list of baits: the great thing to observe is that the bait shall be perfectly fresh. I think the most concise way of putting the reader in possession of the various natural baits for sea-fish will be to give a list in their order of precedence as general baits (ie., leaving all local baits, or those that are attractive to one species only, till last), and to place opposite each the fish most likely to take it, also in order of precedence. Remember the first eight of these, as they are particularly good all-round baits, and there are few fish that will take none of them. 1. LUGWORM. 2. MUSSEL 3. SQUID 4. SAND-EEL 5. FRESH HERRING 6. PILCHARD. Whiting, Pout, flat fish. Smelt, Pout, flat fish, Codling. Bass, Conger, Whiting. Pollack, Bass, Conger. Bass, Conger, Whiting. Conger, Cod, Bass, Whiting. I will now supplement this list with a few remarks. 1. Lugworm. This is the best all-round bait you can get. The digging is an art to be acquired only by practice, but it is worth learning, as at some places lugworms are very dear. Use a strong tin spade with a small blade-it moves quicker than a heavy one. It is useless to attempt to instruct you how to dig them. My advice is: watch a professional digger, but don't have your spade with you while you are learning from him, or he will stop digging. That is, at least, how I learnt at Bognor. You will see the "marks' on the sand. Only try for the white ones: the black marks should be left, as the worm is at too great a depth. For large Whiting, &c., use the worm whole without squeezing it, but for Chad and Pouting squeeze its inside out (keeping it well away from your eyes), and then cut it into three baits. 2. Mussel. This is used alive or scalded. I prefer them scalded. In Fishing I remember once seeing an Australian recipe for preparing them, by putting them in a bottle in layers of salt, and filling up with fresh water. The hook is passed through the "tongue." 3. Squid.—A valuable bait for large fish. For Conger it must be softened with a hammer and cut into strips about 4in. long. You can keep it for a month in salt, providing the box be kept underground. 4. Sand-eel. A valuable whiffing bait, used alive or dead. If alive, sand-eels are hooked through the back of the head if dead, through the lips. Small freshwater eels are sometimes, faute de mieux, baited in the same way. : 5. Fresh Herring.-This must be well hammered and boned for Conger. 6. Pilchard. This is used whole-but remove all bones and soften with a hammer. 66 7. Ragworm.—For whiffing, ragworms are used whole, and are hooked through the head or on spinning tackle (see chapter also on July" in Part II.). For Chad and Wrasse they may be cut into morsels. They should be kept in a dark cellar, in wooden boxes lined with damp green seaweed. 8. Mackerel.-Strips of mackerel-skin ("lasts"), half silver and half blue, will take Mackerel and Bass. 9. Shrimps are used alive, or dead (peeled), or boiled (peeled). When used alive they are hooked through the tail. Peeled unboiled shrimp is very difficult to stick on the hook: the process is facilitated by rubbing the piece of bait in a little dry sand-it can then be pushed on to the hook with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand; otherwise it is very slippery and fragile. 10. Prawns are similarly baited. 11. Hermit Crab.-The tail end only is used. Remember the worm in the end of the shell is a fine whiffing bait. 15. Limpet.-A hard thing to bait with; but I always found a piece of limpet on the shank of a hook, kept on by a piece of lug over the point and bend, a most killing bait for Codlings. 20, 21. Skate's Liver and Soft Roe of Herring.— These very soft baits require, as a rule, to be lashed to the hook. This should be done with a bit of silk, and not tied so tightly as to cut through the bait. 22. For the method of baiting with weed, see chapter on "August" in Part II. I have now, I think, treated baits as fully as tackle. I have, moreover, mentioned such baits as I have myself used. The late Mr. Frank Buckland recommended for Stour Mullet a portion of the mud from the bed of that river; but never having tried it, I am unable to endorse the recommendation. The experimental angler will doubtless discover many "tips" about these and other baits; but this is by no means a sign of incompleteness in a book, which is meant in all cases to be suggestive rather than comprehensive. To two very interesting questions-everlasting bones. of contention on the subject of baits-I will briefly refer. The first question refers to local baits: Do fish feed principally on the baits that abound in their own neigh bourhood; or is a new bait, because unknown, often the most killing? Opinions seem about equally divided. My own leans to the former side, viz., locality of bait, though I have certainly met with more exceptions than would be necessary to "prove the rule." One of these is the introduction of various artificial baits, and their deadly success in spots where they could never have been seen before. The Mullet is undoubtedly very "local" in his tastes-the weed of a particular river, or the shrimps from a particular groin, often proving the only reliable bait. I have, however, come across signs of this "local taste" in other species. Pollack are a very strange exception to this rule. Mr. Bickerdyke points this out in connection with sand-eel as the best bait for Pollack (rock-dweller). To this I have two replies: First, the Pollack, though a rock-dweller, feeds anywhere (vide Deal Pier); secondly, a bait for Pollack, although not so well known as it should be, is the live prawn (vide Selsea)-this is evidently a "local taste." Another important exception has always occurred to me in the fact that whelk, in spite of its hard shell, is such a killing bait for Cod and Haddock. The reader will at once say, "Oh! but the Cod must crush and digest shell and all." This is a good reply, and I suppose is in a measure correct. But in a very careful examination of the stomachs of several freshkilled Cod, I have failed to discover any trace of undigested shells. We all know that the stomach (inside and out) of the Pout shows traces of powdered crabshells (vide also Buckland's "Curiosities of Natural History," vol. ii.). During my stay at Bognor (1886) I learnt a similar fact with regard to Cat-fish (also |