THE STRIPED BASS. 



BY FRANCIS ENDICOTT. 



OF the many game fishes which swim the salt or brackish 

 waters of the eastern coast of the United States, the 

 Striped Bass seems to have claimed more of the atten- 

 tion of the angler than any other. 



Many clubs have been formed, and thousands of dollars 

 spent in fitting them up; islands have been bought outright, 

 and rocky points utilized, by building out jetties on solid 

 iron stanchions, for the purpose of affording angling sites 

 for this silver-sided racer. In fact, he has given his name to 

 most of the tackle used by anglers on the coast. If in northern 

 waters we are fishing for the Sheepshead, the Bluefish, the 

 Weakfish, or the Kingfish, or in Florida waters for the Ked- 

 fish or the enormous Tarpon, we use the Bass-rod, the Bass- 

 reel, the fine cable-laid linen thread line known as the Bass- 

 line, and the hooks commonly known as Bass-hooks. 



There is a most interesting uncertainty in angling which 

 constitutes its great charm; you know not whether your 

 cast will attract a minnow or a whale, and this is perhaps 

 better exhibited in angling for the Striped Bass than for any 

 other fish, for in many of his haunts you cannot know 

 whether you will strike a fish of half a pound or one of sixty 

 pounds. As an instance, on a visit to the Cuttyhunk Club, 

 on one of the Elizabeth islands of that name, having a repu- 

 tation, as all the islands have, for the large size of the Bass 

 caught on their rocky shores. I saw on the records that one 

 of the members had caught an unprecedentedly small Bass 



