Being careless, or perchance engrossed by the attractions of the Senora who was for beauty a very swan, the amateur steersman had precipitated them among the mackerel nets.
The mackerelwere there in their hundreds--in their thousands.
Although the zenith of the season was over, mackerel fishing was still going on there in full vigour, and immense crowds of men, women, and children covered the sands.
But can you tell me at what time the mackerel boats may be expected this evening, for it seems the old fellow is not often to be found at home during the day, and we shall be pretty sure to find him on the beach when the boats arrive?
The Mackerel (Scomber vernalis) belongs to the family Scomberidae, and is so well known that no description need be given for the purposes of identification.
Mackerel swim in shoals in the open sea, pursuing and devouring the fry of herrings and other fish; and in order that they may be enabled to cover enormous distances their muscles are richly supplied with blood.
The Horse Mackerel (Caranx trachurus) is found principally in the same parts, where it devours the fry of other fishes.
Garter snakes may be found almost anywhere during the spring and summer months.
When some object of prey, a frog, or mouse, for example, is seized, the teeth hold it fast to the roof of the mouth and by a backward and forward movement of the lower jaws it is gradually drawn into the large oesophagus.
In general the provisions for seizing prey are confined to sharp teeth and the strong muscles which propel the caudal fin.
Little fishes nibble at this, the mouth opens, and they are gone.
It has at its tip a fleshy appendage which serves as a bait.
Especially on the banks of Newfoundland are codfish, herring, and mackerel caught.
The members of the great mackerel tribe swim in the open sea, often in great schools.
A silvery mackerel sky, serene and calm, gives promise of a bright Spring day, as, drawn by the iron horse, we spin along betwixt fields and hedgerows en route for Dorrington Station.
Another, on his return from mackerel fishing exclaimed, "What a glorious spot to recuperate exhausted nature!
In one of the rivers near the city mackerel were once so abundant that an ox-cart was driven through, and a full load was obtained with a scoop-net in crossing.
From nearly all of these places summer visitors may put out with the fishermen and join in the cod and mackerel fishing.
We rather prefer a girl who habitually blows out the gas, and who is impudent when complaint is made because she soaks the mackerel in the tea-kettle.
Ciel pommelé et femme fardée ne sont pas de longue durée = A mackerel sky, not long wet and not long dry.
See how they bite the herrings and mackerel out of the nets, only leaving their heads.
Below us were the rocks, which could be seen far enough down, all draped with the brown and golden-looking weed; and we felt as if it was a shame not to have a line over the side for pollack or mackerelon such a lovely afternoon.
The fish to which the name horse-mackerel is applied in Great Britain is Caranx trachurus, distinguished by having the lateral line in its whole length armed with large but narrow bony plates.
Horse-mackerel are found singly on the coast all the year round, but sometimes they congregate in shoals of many thousands.
And when I looked at that melancholy vinegar cruet, I thought of the anecdote (a very, very old one, even at that day) of the traveler who sat down at a table which had nothing on it but a mackerel and a pot of mustard.
Why, thunder and lightning, I should think there wasmackerel enough there for six.
Besides pilchards, mackerel and herring are taken in great numbers, and conger eels of great size; mullet and John Dory may be mentioned.
The mackerel fishery is especially productive from mid-March to mid-June.
The tinned mackerel was diminishing; some days we had no bread.
We wondered why, in such a fertile country, a party of hard-working people should be condemned to eat tinned mackerel and vegetables brought all the way from England?
The mackerel made elevenpence a dozen to Jemima Caley, the old squat fishwoman who wears a decayed sailor hat with a sprig of heather in it.
Soap and water, the buzz of the children, their mother's loud voice, and mackerel for breakfast.
It is often said that the mackerel allows itself to be caught as easily by a beginner as by an old hand.
It is the shine of the bait at which the fish bite, as at a spinner, but probably the fresh lask leaves behind it in the water an odour or flavour of mackerel oil which keeps the shoal together and makes them follow the boat.
And if the mackerel will not bite at all we invent a score of reasons and blame a dozen people and things.
The only pocket-money he ever received was a copper or two 'thrown back' from what he could earn by going to sea for mackerel early enough to return to work by half-past six in the morning.
He refilled the kettle, hunted out an old pair of trousers, rammed himself into a faded guernsey and picked up three mackerel lines[9] from the dresser.
The herring and mackerel drifters, which may venture twenty miles into the open sea, cannot be more than twenty-five feet in length else they would prove unwieldy ashore.
He hauled a mackerel aboard, and, catching hold of the shank of the hook, flicked the fish into the bottom of the boat with one and the same motion that flung the sid overboard again; and after it the lead.
The lines are trailed astern of the boat as it sails up and down, where the mackerel are believed to be.
Clean the mackerel well, and let them lie a short time in vinegar and water.
Mackerel cannot be eaten in perfection except at the sea-side, where it can be had immediately out of the water.
Mackerel cannot be cooked too soon, as they spoil more readily than any other fish.
Sir John Herschel compared it to a surface studded over with flocks of wool, or to the breaking up of a mackerelsky when the clouds of which it consists begin to assume a cirrous appearance.
Mackerel Cove was surrounded by high banks, the path from the grove above being very steep and difficult.
Although she returned from the picnic at Mackerel Cove very weary, she did not rest until she had written a dainty missive to Jacob Wentworth, the brother of her late step-father.
The gathering was to take place at Mackerel Cove, a little bay jutting inward, amid lovely groves of beech-trees, from a larger inlet of the Atlantic.
On the present occasion Mrs. Brown had reached Mackerel Cove just as preparations for dinner were being completed.
The latter, with their hard mouths, resembling parrots' bills, cut up the mackerel and herrings with great adroitness.
When red mullet are abundant in fishmongers' shops, a finemackerel season may be expected.
The early mackerelare frequently attended by a few mullet; and whenever they nearly, if not altogether, equal the mackerel in number, the circumstance is generally the presage of the approach of great shoals of mackerel.
Few even of the herring-trawlers sailed nigh, except in the late summer, when the mackerel came eastward in vast shoals.
They swim at a much greater depth thanmackerel usually do, and, while I was busy with one line, the other had sunk some twelve or fifteen feet down where the sculpins dwelt.
Mackerel will bite at any very small object, almost, that they can see, and sometimes fishermen fasten a small silver coin to their hooks, which will do duty as bait for days.
The mackerel came in "schools" in late summer, and sometimes were very plentiful.
Indeed, as soon as the hook was thrown into the water, severalmackerel would dart for it.
They wish to catch as many fish as they possibly can, while they are biting, for mackerel are very notional.
In short, those engaged in the pursuit of mackerel have to content themselves with "fishermen's luck.
The season is short, but most of the fishermen, before the mackerel come and after they go, engage in fishing for cod and hake, which are plentiful also.
Uncle James produced some bread and crackers from his basket, and, after roasting some of the nice, fat mackerel on sharp sticks before the fire, we sat down to what seemed to us a delicious breakfast.
He cut from the under side of a dead mackerel six thin pieces, about half an inch in diameter, and gave each of us two.
When mackerel are inclined to take the bait, they are usually close to the surface of the water.
