After Christmas, [29] they
returne to the Sea, altogether spent & out of season, whome, as the
spring time commeth on, their fry doe follow: and it hath beene
obserued, that they (as also the Trowt and Peall) haunt the same
ryuers where they first were bred. Vpon the North coast, and to the
Westwards of Foy, few or none are taken, either through those ryuers
shallownesse, or their secret dislike. To catch them, sundrie deuices
are put in practise: one is, with the hooke and line, where they vse
Flies for their baite: another, with the Sammons speare, a weapon like
Neptunes Mace, bearded at the points. With this, one standeth
watching in the darke night, by the deepe pooles, where the Sammons
worke their bed for spawning, while another maketh light with a waze
of reed. The Sammon naturally resorteth to the flame, playing in and
out, and therethrough is discerned, strooken and drawne on land by a
cord fastened to the speare. The third and more profitable meanes of
their taking, is by hutches. A head of Fagots, or stones, is made
acrosse the ryuer, and his greatest part let out, through a square
roome therein, whose vpper side giueth passage to the water by a
grate, but denieth it to the fish, and the lower admitteth his entrie,
thorow certaine thicke laths, couched slope-wise one against another,
but so narrowly, as he can find no way of returne, while the streame
tosseth him hither and thither, and the laths ends gall him, if he
stumble on the place.
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