THE STRIPED BASS. I4I 



the tackle used at present for all heavy sea-fishing is substan- 

 tially the same as that invented for or suggested by the vet- 

 ■erans, founders of the great Bass fishing clubs — Cuttyhunk, 

 Pasque, ^^'est Island, and Squibnocke — who had served their 

 apprenticeship and acquired their skill amid the boiling wa- 

 ters around Pot Rock. There are many honored names 

 in the fraternity. Frank Forester, Genio Scott, Peter 

 Balen, Robert B. Roosevelt, Ed. Phalon, Phenix Ingraham, 

 William Woodhull, James Vallotton, and S. M. Blatchford 

 — the designer of the jetties now used on the ocean beaches 

 •of New Jersey, for Bass fishing, with great success — all were 

 graduates from Hell Gate. 



There is an uncanniness about night-fishing in this local- 

 ity which never fails to produce a profound effect on the 

 mind. The dark, swirling waters, of unknown depth, as they 

 sweep past the stern of the boat, are suggestive of mysteri- 

 ous thoughts which no amount of philosophical reasoning 

 can dispel. On one occasion an angler, while fishing in Hell 

 Gate, had come to anchor off Mill Rock, and having met with 

 considerable success, had prolonged his stay, notwithstand- 

 ing that the night had grown dark and that thick clouds had 

 gathered overhead, threatening a storm. A cast was made 

 toward the eddies which form about the rock, and as the 

 baited hook disappeared in the darkness he felt it strike and 

 catch in some object which the tide was bearing rapidly 

 away. For a moment the line paid out with great velocity, 

 but checking it gradually, he felt it slacken its speed and 

 ■come to a stop, though the pressure of the tide still kept a 

 severe strair on the rod. He tried to loosen the hold of the 

 hook by alternately easing and jerking the line, but without 

 success, and finding that the object yielded to a steady pull, 

 ■commenced reeling it in slowly. 



What was it.' It was evidently inanimate and floating. 

 He peered out into the darkness, straining every visual 

 nerve, but he might as well have attempted to see through 



