290 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



silvery fish is the best lure, though a strong 

 spinner or a shell or block-tin squid answers well. 

 Even a piece of bacon-rind cut in the semblance 

 of a fish proves very attractive, in the manner 

 commonly used by the fishermen of Key West in 

 trolling for the kingfish. 



The largest groupers can be taken on rocky 

 bottom in the deep holes about the inlets. On 

 the southeast coast, Indian River Inlet, under 

 the mangroves, and Jupiter Inlet, both afford 

 good grouper fishing. Farther south, at Hills- 

 boro and New River inlets, and in the deep 

 holes about the passes between the Florida Keys, 

 from Cape Florida to Key West, groupers are 

 more or less abundant. The first gag I ever 

 caught was in the winter of 1877, while trolling 

 off Cape Florida; it was a big one, too, weigh- 

 ing about fifty pounds. "What is it?" asked a 

 Kentucky boy who was with me. I was com- 

 pelled to look it up in my books before replying 

 that I thought it was a "scamp," as it agreed 

 pretty well with the description of that grouper, 

 though I was not fully satisfied that my identi- 

 fication was correct, and less so, when in about 

 an hour we caught a real scamp. This was 

 some two years before the gag was described as 



