144 STRIPED BASS. 



use the salmon rod, line, and reel, but to substitute 

 a shrimp for the fly. The casting is theii done in 

 the ordinary manner, and the gentleman referred to 

 claims, that it is by far the most killing mode. If 

 even equally successful, it is certainly far preferable 

 to the use of the float and sinker, or to the dull 

 monotony of bottom fishing. Any gport that brings 

 into adtiv^ play the faculties of body or mind, and 

 which demands practice and experience, surpasses 

 the one that requires the merely passive quality of 

 patience. 



The most successful, and excepting perhaps fly- 

 fishing, the most skilful method of taking the 

 striped beauties of the northern coasts, is with the 

 menhaden bait, cast into the boiling surf of the 

 ocean, or the larger bays ; and this sport is univer- 

 sally enjoyed along the iron-bound shore of New 

 England, from New London to Eastport. This en- 

 tire reach, is one mass of rock, indented by innu- 

 merable bays, or severed by inlets into barren islands, 

 where the tide rushes, and the surf beats ; and in 

 every favorable locality are the bass taken with a 

 stout rod, a long line, and menhaden bait. From 

 almost every bold rock, or prominent island, can the 

 angler cast into the vexed water of some current, 

 made by the huge waves rushing over the uneven 

 bottom, and allure thence the fierce bass, who has 

 been attracted from the ocean depths, to feed on 

 the small fry that hide in the clefts and crevices ; 

 and waiting with fins often visible above the tide, 

 to pounce upon his prey, mistakes for it the angler's 



