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FISHING IN SUEZ CANAL Arabian Waters Happy Hunting Grounds for the Expert Angler Many Varieties and All Sixes Includ ¬ ing Svrorilfifth and Tana Can Be Can Rlit The Suez Canal is one of the happiest hunting grounds an angler could wish for An inkling of its fame reached me before I left England and at various stages en route I heard stories of the big fish which are taken from its waters writes J H Hurst in the Fishing Gazette of London England My actual experiences were disappointing at first but later I had ample proof of the truth of the statements made It waa soon evident that the canal contained swordfish for their fry could be seen swimming in shoals near the surface of the water I caught one with a small hook and found that its formidable sword was covered with a deli ¬ cate skin It was a slender fish and apart from its sword had no protection But the swordfish is a master swordsman and as his slender form in ¬ dicates is one of the swiftest among a population of swift swimmers swimmersA A little later the doublecypher line was strain ¬ ing to the tugging of a tuna Not a lifesize tuna of course but an infant of about five ounces His brothers followed him with keen curiosity and only veered off when he was drawn to the bank He was a plump silvery fish with a blue back and a yellow tail Later on he made an excellent live bait The small tuna were rather a novelty this being the only shoal I saw during a week of fishing There wore thousands of young pilchard and seabream however and one day when I swam acrqss the canal I found a large Japanese crab in the shallow water it the other side I was half inclined to try to catch it but thought it hardly worth while es ¬ pecially as the crab displayed a keen inclination to meet me half way wayApart Apart from the capture of a torpedo fish of about one pound and the loss of another fish of doubtful species which took the light tackle instead of the heavy stuff and added to its bad behavior by wind ¬ ing the r rx x gut round a submerged pile 1 had no sport worth mentioning for a few days The canal salmon a large silvery blackspotted fish with a prickly dorsal fin refused spoon baits and cuttle ¬ fish and disdained small pilchards Then a friend told me he had discovered a small island round which fishes of all sizes gambolled and frolicked all lay long I accordingly visited the island equipped with some goodsized live baits including the tuna previously mentioned mentionedSALMON SALMON AND TUNA IN PLENTY PLENTYThe The island was a great discovery Shelving shal IOWH surrounded it haunted by large shoals of small fishes up to eight inches in length They ame to the shallows to escape the salmon in the deep water The latter occasionally followed their prey to the shore and the resultant commotion was something I shall never forget Down at the other end of the island the little fish would begin to jump and scatter like sparks from an anvil fleeing along the surface partly in and partly out of the water while in the center of the disturbance a heavy swirl denoted the presence of the canal sal ¬ mon Then the small fry a rushing up to the head of the island with the salmon close at their heels Sometimes two or three salmon would at ¬ tack the unlucky shoal from different sides and put tem into such a state of panic that it was possibe to catch them in the landngnet landngnetThe The silvery tuna had not been in the water two minutes before it was seized and the fish a heavy salmon was off like a flash of lightning with the reel spinning round at express speed In the middle of the canal where the water is thirty feet deep the salmon stopped to yawn and the tinkit came out of its mouth with the remnants of the bait The salmon made another rush at the bait as it was being drawn out but stopped short when it saw its condition The tuna was cut clean in two with the tail half missing and the remaining half again sliced nearly into two pieces piecesHalf Half ail hour later just as I was watching a disturbance some distance away another salmon grabbed the new bait and departed like a shot with a flight of hooks and a yard of gut I was fast discovering that fishing for canal salmon is a sport to be taken seriously Pikefishing is nothing to it An instants Inattention and all kinds of things can happen happenFIGHTING FIGHTING FISH OF UNKNOWN SPECIES SPECIESTowards Towards dusk a mighty specimen of the finny tribe played small hell around the island He started at one end and in half a minute spread terror in all directions He was here there every ¬ where splashing plunging rushing upon his prey liis huge mouth agape with rows and rows of needlepointed teeth showing Twice he jumped clean out of the water displaying his brilliant sinews to the covetous eyes of the angler on the island The small lish went berserk darting back ¬ ward and forward not knowing which way to flee from the fury which rushed through their scattering ranks like a whirlwind Then the float shot under and I felt a strong resistance resistanceAway Away he went in a furious dive with line tearing off the reel and me hoping there would be no hitch no jamb for a twist of the line round the handle of the reel or any sudden check would have spelt disaster I followed him down the island till he stopped at last and I was relieved to find every ¬ thing running smoothly and the fish apparently well hooked Then he gave in He came up quite tamely at the finish Like an English chub he had put all his strength into the first rush It was an inglorious end for a fivepound fish which a few minutes before had been beating all records of frightfulness But the sequel when he was served tip for dinner nicely cooked and garnished closed his career with more befitting ceremony His jlesli however was quite white Of course he was no relative of Salmo salar at all allThe The large swordfish do not maie their presence so evident but night Is the time when the levia ¬ thans of the canal come out to play After dark all sorts of weird and tremendous plunges can be heard in the canal One night a school of por ¬ poises went past bellowing like bulls and churning up the water like a steam tug tugYet Yet at sunrise the next morning all was calm and still A few Arab dhows were moored snugly to the bank their sails furled their masts reflect ¬ ing in the placid water and the whole scene more like a picture of some sluggish Dutch canal than tin habitat of some of the biggest and most for ¬ midable submarines that Nature can produce
