Deep-sea fishing

“ Thus the mouths of streams discharging themselves into the sea are usually good fishing pitches, as are the waters covering reefs and beds of sunken rock, which crop out and raise their crests above the ordinary sea bottom. On sand and gravel stretches flat fish of most kinds are to be successfully sought for; whilst a rugged, rock-strewed bottom, broken up into deep crevices and yawning weed-fringed gulfs, is a favourite resort of the larger crustacea. Nearly all sea fish are most disposed to feed as the tide rises. In tidal rivers many species of fish come “down” in force to the coming flood ”

“ The fins are small—so small as to appear almost rudimentary—yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their enormous "gripsack" mouths. The approach of a boat or a person walking along the sand will cause them to at once speed like lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud which is washed off their backs in their flight. ”

“ Bottom-fishing is roughly divisible into two kinds, float-fishing, in which a bite is detected by the aid of a float fastened to the line above the hook and so balanced that its tip is visible above the water, and hand-fishing, in which no float is used and the angler trusts to his hand to feel the bite of a fish. In most cases either method can be adopted and it is a matter of taste, but broadly speaking the float-tackle is more suited to water which is not very deep and is either still or not rapid. In great depths or strong streams a float is difficult to manage. ”

“ As soon as they near the shore, they bring the two ends of the net to the land, fix them there, and are then able to pick up and throw ashore all the fish that are in the net. Some of the more active fish escape by leaping over the upper edge of the net, and some of the mud-loving and crafty wriggle their way under the lower edge; but there is always a sufficiency of fish to reward the natives for their labor.
Like the fishing line, the net is made of chewed reeds, and the labor of chewing and twisting the string belongs exclusively to the women. ”

“ The fish is transferred from his native element to the deck; the granes is disengaged from the quivering muscles, and again passed to the officer, who, it may be, soon adds another to the killed. It is sometimes the case that half a dozen dolphin are captured in this way in a few minutes. A hook and line over the stern, with a flying-fish for bait, will often prove a successful means of capturing the beautiful inhabitants of the deep. ”

“ Wading up stream, the angler casts before him into every likely stream and eddy, allowing the line and bait to come down towards him in mid-water, and striking the moment he perceives a check. This is a very killing plan, and is adopted with a modification of tackle, to fish with beetles, larvae, palmers, and, in fact, almost any kind of insect ; for the trout is a very omnivorous fish, and will hardly refuse anything that is small enough. The lure is cast overhand, as in fly-fishing, and practice enables the angler to cast nearly twice the length of the rod. ”

“ Think of the muscles needed for this sort of thing; the quickness of eye and hand, where a delicate balance must be maintained, and one is constantly alert to guard one's face against the fish, which whizz past at all angles. Then remember that it is a pretty serious matter to capsize in this torch-lit water, swarming with sharks, where it is imprudent even to trail one's hand overboard.
"In the bend of a bow-shaped islet at the north end of the lagoon, under the palms behind a shore of blue water and dazzling sand, lived an old chap named Ruri, who introduced me to another kind of fishing. ”

“ Hand-line fishing requires very close attention and a light touch. If you are not smart the smaller fish will continually get away with your bait. For all kinds of sea-fishing the evening is the best, and a half-tide, either rising or falling, is considered most favourable. It is little use fishing where there are many jelly-fish about.
Sometimes the hand-lines will capture a specimen of the larger fishes (more usually taken by the professional fishermen, who set long lines) , such as cod, ling, conger-eel, skate, and even the halibut, locally termed turbot. ”

“ For trout are brook-wise or river-wise according as they have been reared, and the habits, attitudes and behavior of the one are as different from the other as are those of the boys and girls reared in the country from the city-bred. If one of these river-bred fish breaks from the hook here he does not immediately bore up stream into deep water and disappear beneath a sheltering log, bank or submerged tree-top as one would having a claim on these waters, but heading down-stream, he stays not for brake and he stops not for stone till the river is reached. ”

“ On the other hand, the black bass, while inhabiting larger and deeper streams, is, unlike the trout, a great rover, or forager, frequenting both deep and shallow waters. As a rule, he is in shallow water early in the season, retiring to the depths in the hottest weather; again appearing on the shallows in the fall, and in winter seeking the deepest water to be found. Trout inhabiting deep ponds and lakes rise to the fly only when in comparatively shallow water, or when near the surface. The fly-fisher, therefore, must expect to be successful only when the proper conditions exist. ”

“ Whale fishing is a grim business. A struck whale has completely smashed a boat, leaving its crew struggling in the water, and the 166other boats have gone on after the monster and left their companions to paddle about on the wreckage as best they can until the leviathan is killed. ”

“ Apart, therefore, from differences in local conditions, for example of temperature and food supply, there is practically no obstacle to the world-wide distribution of any particular species of fish. At the bottom of the sea, the temperature, the food supply, and the general conditions of life are singularly uniform all over the world, consequently there are no barriers at all to the dispersion of demersal fish, and we find various species widely distributed in all seas. Demersal fish, on the whole, are more primitive in type than those that live nearer the surface. ”

“ The other method of securing a continuance of sport, the adoption of sea-angling as a substitute for fresh-water fishing, is quite a modern thing. Within the memory of men still young the old tactics of hand-line and force were considered good enough for sea fish. Now the fresh-water angler has lent his centuries of experience in deluding his quarry; the sea-angler has adopted many of the ideas presented to him, has modified or improved others, and has developed the capture of sea-fish into a science almost as subtle as the capture of their fresh-water cousins. ”

“ In stream fishing he must either cast his ground-bait in so far up stream that it will find bottom in his swim, or he must knead it into balls with a stone in the middle or mixed with clay, so as to sink it to the bottom at once. In choosing a swim on the banks of a river, if the angler cannot see a good stock of fish any where, he should choose some spot which fish may be supposed to haunt, a spreading root, or bough, or over hanging bank with a hole under it, a deep hole near banks of weeds, or a deep eddy off some sharp stream. ”

“ Owing to those mighty fields and mountains of ice, the dangers of the Northern or Greenland whale fishery is ten times greater than are those of this country, as our whale ships take these fish upon the coast of Japan, in the Pacific Ocean, and upon the Brazil Banks, and always in the open sea. There are several rules among whalers which are observed in approaching this fish, to prevent as far as possible the animal from taking the alarm. As the whale is dull of hearing, but quick in sight, the boat steerer always endeavors to get behind it. ”

“ These are some of the creatures which share with the Fisher Folk the seas of the East Coast, and hundreds of devices are used to capture them. Nets of all shapes and sizes, seine nets with their bobbing floats, bag nets of a hundred kinds, drop nets, and casting nets. Some are set all night, and are liberally [144] sprinkled with bait. Some are worked round schools of fish by a single boat, which flies in its giant circle, propelled by a score of paddles dripping flame from the phosphorescence with which each drop of the Eastern sea is charged. ”

“ But below the surface, when chasing fish, he uses only the fore-paws. The hind legs then stretch straight out behind and are used, with the heavy tail, for a great rudder. By this means he turns and doubles like a flash, following surely the swift dartings of frightened trout, and beating them by sheer speed and nimbleness.
When fishing a pool he always hunts outward from the center, driving the fish towards the bank, keeping himself within their circlings, and so having the immense advantage of the shorter line in heading off his game. ”

“ BENEFITS FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR DEEP-SEA FISHERIES. What would the proper development of our deep-sea fisheries mean? In the first place, it would lead to a more widely diffused use of fish as an article of diet, within the easy reach of all classes, being thus of incalculable value from a health point of view. Next, it would ensure employment to many hundreds, and eventually to many thousands, both directly and indirectly, and as a natural consequence this would bring about the creation of a sturdy and desirable maritime element in our population. ”

“ Choate, "that in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, between Miami and Key West, more than 600 varieties of fish are to be found. They vary in size all the way from the tiny sea-horse, the size of a baby's little finger, to the great tarpon and killer-whale, the latter a vicious creature weighing many tons and large enough to swallow a good-sized boy without scraping the buttons off his jacket."
"It must be a lot of sport to catch some of these fairly big fish," remarked John Ross. ”

“ The dolphin, the bonito, and the albacore, are sometimes caught with the grains, but generally by means of lines baited either with bits of tin, or with pieces of the flying-fish, when any are to be had. In fine weather, especially between the tropics, when the whole surface of the sea is often covered with them, a dozen lines are hung from the jib-boom end and spritsail yard, all so arranged, that when the ship sends forward, the hook, with its glittering bait, barely touches the water, but rises from it when the ship is raised up by the swell. ”

“ From daylight till dark you may watch the fish,—big and little, from the thirty-pound leviathan to the little one or two-pound sea trout—in their eagerness to reach the spawning-beds of the upper waters, hurl themselves high in air over this great barrier-wave, then, gallantly struggling, continue for a while their course up the rushing torrent, till gradually they lose way and come tumbling back, head over tail, into the pool from which half a minute before they had emerged. ”

“ Rod fishing is done in comparatively deep water on the rocky reefs or shelly banks along the keys, from an anchored boat. Any natural bait, as a small fish, crab, crawfish, or conch, will answer, though a small fish, as the mullet, sardine, or anchovy, is the best. When of large size the gag is a very gamy fish, and must be handled very carefully to preserve one's tackle intact. ”

“ In the summer and fall fishing with bait, the boats may go 10 miles to sea, but the largest part of the catch is taken within 3 or 4 miles of shore, and a very considerable proportion close inshore in the bays.
The fishing in the early part of the season—that is, in March, April and May—is done mostly with old nets and is conducted only at night. While the boats are lying near by and the men sleeping, the nets are allowed to drift. No bait is used. The fish thus caught are not fat and are not used for canning, but are salted or sold for immediate consumption. ”

“ He takes with him a hand-net and a stick about two feet in length, jumps into the water, and dives among the coral, holding his net over the nooks and crevices with one hand, while with the stick he drives the fish out of their hiding places into the net.
By this mode of fishing great numbers are captured, but the fisherman is always exposed to two dangers. In the first place, there is a chance that a shark may come up unobserved, and carry off a limb, even if it does not kill the man. ”

“ Though this plantain is inferior in quality to most of the others it affords great subsistence to the natives. We received almost every day presents of fish, chiefly dolphin and albacore, and a few small rock fish. Their fishing is mostly in the night when they make strong lights on the reefs which attract the fish to them. Sometimes in fine weather the canoes are out in such numbers that the whole sea appears illuminated. In the canoes they fish with hook and line and on the reefs they struck the fish with a spear. Some likewise carry out small nets which are managed by two men. ”

“ In their season, which is at intervals from early Spring to late in Fall, they are taken on the bars and in every creek of our extensive coast. The net destroys the greater number, but they bite freely and fight bravely for their lives. Great skill and experience are requisite for their successful capture when they are shy and scarce, but when abundant or hungry, although always a dainty fish, they bite rapidly and boldly. Like the squid of the deep seas, these may be said to be the largest and smallest of fish; they are taken from an ounce to a hundred pounds’ weight. ”