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
