FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 25 



swarm and it is their habit to run in from deep water on the incom- 

 ing tide, the large ones swimming four or five feet below the sur- 

 face. 



Before the rapacious bluefish came from the South in such num- 

 bers and regularity, the weakfish were much more plentiful on our 

 coasts, and though it is a sort oi jjost hoc prop hoc argument, yet 

 many claim that the gradual decrease in the supply of weakfish is 

 due to tho bluefish's advent. 



As above stated, the weakfish can be taken almost anywhere on 

 the Atlantic cciast from the Chesapeake Bay up to the Connecticut 

 river, and a few of the best places to take them are the fol- 

 lowing: 



Princess Bay, reached by way of the South Ferry; Fort Lafay- 

 ette in the Narrows; Newark Bay; up the Long Island Sound at 

 Westchester Creek; at Atlantic City, and at the mouth of the Del- 

 aware river. 



The nearness of many of these places to the great cities, New 

 York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, gives an opportunity to the an- 

 gler with little leisure to take his day or two of fishing in the tossing 

 ocean and take what he catches home wuth him. It would be best, 

 too, to do this last as soon as he can, for the weakfish unless eaten 

 while yet the brilliant tints shine on his sides is of a poor and in- 

 sij^id flavor. 



The weight of this fish varies from two pounds running close in 

 shore, to those of eighteen pounds, rarely caught, and that only in 

 deep water. 



A^- eakfishing is generally carried on from a boat anchored in the 

 tideway and the best stage of the tide is the flood tide, and especial- 

 ly the last half of it. It affords the most sport to fish for the 

 squeteague with alight bamboo rod; with a rod his capture is more 

 certain, and it is not true fishing to take a delii^ate fish like the 

 Aveakfish out of the water with a heavy hand line, though perfectly 

 allowable in the case of the fierce and weighty bluefish. 



The reel should be large, the same as is used in fishing for the 

 small striped bass; the line, a finely-twisted linen one, light as may 

 be consistent with strength. The lighter the line the lighter the 



131 



