FISHES OF TUE E.\ST ATLANTIC COAST. 57 



on both sides (one side is always white), through all shades of mot- 

 tled brown. 



The big fellows (known to many local fishermen as tide runners) 

 are a deep, rich brown or black — frequently, like the blackfish, marked 

 with spots of gray. Often the color changes after they are caught. 

 The young ones and the smaller kinds are lighter in tint, when very 

 small being translucent. I don't mean to say you could read a news- 

 paper through them, but holding them up to the light you can see 

 the arrangement of the bones and fins. 



It is a curious physical fact that the young of the fiounder, the 

 fry, when first hatched are shaped like other fish, with an eye on 

 each side of the head, but through a process of adaptation, as the 

 fish matures the eye, strangely enough, slips around the head, and 

 takes up its station permanently near the other. I have never seen 

 this done, but it is a fact. 



The flounder is caught from April to November, .".nd is in the 

 best condition at the extremes of the season. They run of all 

 weights. I have seen them that didn't weigh anything, (they were 

 the translucent ones) and others that Avould make the index point to 

 six pounds ; these last being popularly termed fiukes. If we count 

 in the halibut, then say 250 pounds as their highest limit. The 

 flounder has the habit of lying in the mud, being fitted for this by 

 nature, and so well is his back simulated to his surroundings that it 

 takes a pretty old crab to tell where the flounder ends and the mud 

 begins. 



The peculiarity of flounder fishing is, that you seldom know when 

 you have a fish on. He nibbles softly at the bait, or very slowly 

 Kucks it in. In fishing for flounders let the sinker terminate the 

 line ; then above this rig on three or four more hooks, small but 

 strong. Let the lead find the bottom and every now and then lift 

 it a foot or so. It is claimed that this manoeuvre makes the fish for- 

 get his usual calmness and dash at the bait. The best bait is sand 

 wojms, and the best tide during which to fish is the first of the flood, 

 just as it turns. 



Flounders are a great deal misunderstood. People buy them 



"nine days old," and then find they are not good to eat; but 



15] 



