SEA AND COAST FISHING.
Sea a,id Coast Fishing. By.F. G. Afialo. (Grant Richards. 6s.) —Angling for sea fish is a sport which has made great strides of late years, partly, we suppose, on account of the increasing diffi- culty of getting good lake or river fishing, partly also because it can be combined with a healthy holiday at the seaside. It has also the advantages of being open to all anglers and of usually providing some sport, and the fish when caught are more edible than fresh-water coarse fish. It is some eight years since the British Sea Anglers' Society was formed (which every one who means to take up the sport will be well advised to join), and a number of books have already been written on the art of angling in salt water. Few persons know more about the subject than Mr. ALI), and the book he has now written is just the thing for a man to buy who intends to spend a holiday on the sea coast and wants to go in for some sea-fishing. In half-a-dozen chapters we are told by Mr. Afialo the results of many years' experience,— what fish may be expected, what tackle has proved most reliable, what baits are most killing, bow to fish, and, most important, where to fish. The disadvantages of sea-fishing are, first, the dis- gusting character of the baits and the coarseness of the ordinary tackle ; at least, so they seem to anglers who are accustomed to red-quills on 000.eyed hooks and drawn gut. The next disad- vantages are the sickening motion of a small boat at anchor in a choppy sea and the need of boatmen, at whose mercy the angler finds himself. But as Mr. Aflalo shows in a chapter devoted to that subject, there is plenty of excellent sea-fishing to be had in smooth water if you know where to go, and also from rocks and piers from which the angler with the weakest stomach can enjoy himself. There are also fish in the sea which may be caught with artificial spinning-baits, and even with the fly, and the old hand-line is more or less superseded by the sea-rod with a large winch, fine line, and gut trace. All these things combine to provide much more enjoyable sport than was to be got with the old methods. Mr. Aflalo's book is thoroughly practical. He has fished in the sea round the English coast for over twenty years, and has caught with a hook and line forty different sorts of fish.
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