358 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



surface, though a small brass box-swivel may be 

 used to connect the snell and line, as in black- 

 bass fishing. A leader is not necessary, but it 

 may be used if thought best. 



The bait may be a beach-flea, or a very small, 

 silvery fish, as a sardine, pilchard, or mullet, 

 though a small shell squid, or a trolling-spoon 

 of the size of a nickel, with a single hook, may 

 be employed in lieu of live bait, and is quite 

 successful if kept in constant motion. The min- 

 now is to be hooked through the lips and cast 

 as in black-bass fishing, reeling it in slowly on 

 or near the surface. 



The fishing may be done from any convenient 

 place near a pass or inlet on the flood tide. A 

 sand-spit at the entrance, or a boat anchored just 

 within the inlet, are desirable places, though good 

 fishing is sometimes available from the end of 

 a pier in a tideway. Fine fishing may also be 

 had at other stages of the tide about offshore 

 reefs and shoals. I have taken the lady-fish, with 

 both fly and bait, in Biscayne Bay, in Cards and 

 Barnes sounds, along the keys to Key West, and 

 at nearly every inlet on the Gulf coast, as far 

 north as Pass-a-Grille, above Tampa Bay, and 

 usually found it associated with the ten-pounder. 



