TIDAL WATER FISHES 



and is still more intense when it is dead. The 

 weakfish is one of the choicest table fish, when 

 cooked in an hour or two after being taken from 

 the water. As a rod fish, it yields exceptional 

 play; but, as its name implies, its struggle is brief; 

 yet, when fished for in a gentle tideway, on a 

 nine-ounce fly rod, six feet of single gut leader, 

 single hook, and crab bait, the latter causing the 

 line to sink to midwater, where it undulates in 

 the slow tide, the weakfish is a quarry to be 

 sought with zeal and resultant excitement. The 

 squeteague has no congener of kin in New Eng- 

 land waters, all other members of the genus, of 

 which there are nineteen in American waters, 

 living farther south, or on the coast line of the 

 Pacific. 



The bluefish, also called the snap-mackerel, 

 skipjack, and fat-back, is too well known as a rod 

 and table fish to require a detailed description. 

 It is technically designated as Pomatomus saltatrix, 

 the generic name arising from the saw-like form 

 of its gill-cover, and the specific from the Latin, 

 " one who leaps," both being among the most 

 accurately descriptive appellations which science 

 has given to a fish. Its gill-cover is serrated, and 

 as a leaper, particularly when hooked, it is not 

 inferior to the salmon. It is a single species of a 

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