92 FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 



the North River at the foot of 125th street. As it is done at three 

 in the morning I have not verified the report, but there is little doubt 

 that it is true. 



There is a celebrated method of cooking the shad which I will 

 mention here. This dish is known everywhere as "planked shad." 

 A large fish is taken and split along the belly from head to tail, it is 

 then fastened with the meat side outward to a smooth oak plank and 

 slowly roasted before an open coal fire. It is then, when nicely 

 cooked (and right here lies the delicacy and success of the opera- 

 tion) served up with lemon, on a hot dish, having been previously 

 buttered and seasoned. The great place for the " planked shad " 

 used to be Gloucester Island in the Delaware River, nearly oppo- 

 site Philadelphia. 



Enthusiasm in fly-fishing for shad has to a great extent died out, 

 principally because where it can be enjoyed, striped bass, the mon- 

 arch of the salt waters, are also to be caught, and again because the 

 shad is not very gamy; not as gamy as you might expect from his 

 bones. 



In closing this essay on salt water fishes of the North Eastern 

 Coast, the writer cannot have been free from error and omission 

 in such a brief notice of so many fish. But I trust that all matters 

 of interest to anglers, and such little information as lays in my 

 power to give that may assist any of the angling brotherhood, have 

 been at least clearly set forth. Of course it would be impossible for 

 any one man to have a wide and accurate knowledge of every salt 

 water coast fish, or even of the game fishes, and wherever my own 

 acquaintance with the facts has been small or wanting, I have not 

 hesitateJ to seek the standard authorities for verification, or to draw 

 from t'te columns of The American Angler, such new points as 

 were a » once interesting and authentic. I do not lay down my pen 

 without asking both the indulgence and kindly criticism of salt 

 water anglers. 



