THE FISHERIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 513 



of these different baits (the prawn, though thirty years ago unknown as a bait for drum, are decid- 

 edly the best), let out your line until it keeps the bottom, and stand prepared for a bite. The un- 

 pacticed sportsman who supposes that their bite will be in proportion to their size and strength, 

 will draw up many a naked hook before he draws a fish. They approach cautiously, and almost as 

 if they expected a snare. As soon as you feel him certainly at your hook, jerk with your utmost 

 strength, aud draw quickly upon him until you have fixed the hook in his jaws. The instant he 

 feels the smart he dashes off with all his force; and this is the critical moment, for if you resist 

 him too forcibly, he breaks your tackle or tears out your hook, and if you give him slack line, he 

 darts toward you, and shakes the hook out of his mouth. A just medium, as Sterne says, pre- 

 vents all conclusions. In media tutissimus ibis. You must give him play, keeping your line tight, 

 yet not overstrained; preserving an equable pressure; managing your line with one hand, and 

 keeping the other in reserve, either to draw in rapidly when the run is toward you or to regulate 

 the velocity when the run is against you, and severe. By degrees the efforts of the fish relax, and 

 he is drawn to the surface. At the sight of the sun he makes a final effort to escape, and plunges 

 till he has reached the bottom. The fatal hook still adheres to his jaws, and when he reappears 

 exhausted on the surface of the water, it is only to turn on his back and resign himself to his fate. 

 A barbed iron, fastened to a wooden staff, is then struck into him and you lift your prize into the 

 boat. Generally speaking, you are occupied five minutes in taking a fish; but if the tide be strong, 

 and the fish large, your sport may last fifteen. 



" There is great uncertainty attending this sport ; the patience of the fisherman may be 

 severely tested. Sometimes you have the mortification to hear them drumming beneath your boat, 

 while they stubbornly refuse to be taken, rejecting untasted the most tempting baits you can offer; 

 at other times they are in better humor. As a general rule, with five lines in your boat, you may 

 count on 15 or 20 fish as the result of a day's sport. Occasionally, you have memorable luck : 63 

 were taken during the present season, by a boat with seven lines, and I once knew a boat with ten 

 lines to take as many as 96. The best success I have met with personally was to take 40 to three 

 lines; 18 fish fell to my share of the sport; my two oarsmen took the remainder. Thirty fish were 

 all that the boat could conveniently contain ; her gunwale was but a few inches above the waterj. 



aud we slung the 10 (which were de trap) alongside by a rope. 



******* 



"I love all sports whether by flood or field, and have engaged in many an animating scene 

 of sylvan and aquatic amusement, but I have found none, devil-fishing alone excepted, possessed 

 of so absorbing an interest as successful drum fishing. Imagine yourself afloat on our beautiful bay, 

 the ocean before you, the islands encircling you, and a fleet of forty or fifty fishing boats (their white 

 awnings glistening in the sun) riding sociably around. Suddenly a school of fish strike at some par- 

 ticular boat ; second is engaged ; the direction of the school is indicated ; the boats out of the run of 

 the fish draw up their anchors and place themselves rapidly alongside, or in the rear of the successful 

 boats, and soon they participate in the sport. And now, two, three, a dozen, nay, twenty boats, 

 are engaged ; in some boats 3 at a time are drawn alongside ; the fish dart across each other ; the 

 lines are entangled; the water foams with the lashing of their tails, and the fisherman scarce 

 knows, while they flounder on the surface, which fish belongs to his own hook, which to his neigh- 

 bors; the barb is dashed hurriedly and at random into the yet struggling fish, and each one is 

 burning with anxiety to secure his fish and return to the sport before the favorable moment has 

 passed. The interest is intense. Isaac Walton knew nothing like this. If he had, he must have 

 disdained all smaller fry, and have abandoned the impaling of minnows aud the enticement of 

 trout, to indulge in the superior pleasure of drum fishing."* 



* Carolina Sports. W. Elliott, pp. ld:j-l-.'.' 

 33 G R F 



