108 FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 



on the sand-flats near the inlet, fishing for the schools of bass as 

 they come in with the tide, I have noticed that they will appear to 

 be curfous about tlie l)oat, they will approach and swim around it 

 as if to examine it. At such a time nearly the whole school may 

 be taken, and when a bass is being on the rod others will follow it 

 nearly to the boat. 



During the cold northerly winds which sometimes prevail for two 

 or three days in winter on the Florida coast, the bass retires to deep 

 holes, and cannot be induced to bite until a change of weather oc- 

 curs. It is a warm weather fish, and in the summer appears on the 

 coast in immense numbers and of large size. As the fishermen say, 

 " the surf is red with them." At this season it is in its best condi- 

 tion for the table, being firm of texture and well flavored; one of the 

 best of the coast fishes, either boiled, broiled in steaks, in a chowder 

 or fried as is the usual method of cooking. A fish of ten or fifteen 

 pounds 18 about the best size ; the large ones are rather coarse, the 

 small ones have less flavor. 



As a sporting or game fish the rank of the red bass is high. A 

 strong and persistent fighter when hooked, making long runs in open 

 water, and not coming to gaff until exhausted, it is the favorite 

 object of pursuit to anglers on the Florida coast, - From its open 

 tvay of fighting, if the angler has one hundred yards of good line on 

 his reel, and is not impatient, he is pretty sure of killing his fish, up 

 to forty pounds. The hand-line fisherman who works by main 

 k. Irength is apt to lose the big ones. 



The same sort of tackle that is used in Northern waters for striped 

 bass, answers well for the red bass, except that a sinker of one or 

 two ounces weight is used here in casting from the reel, and it is un- 

 necessary to use gut or delicate tackle, and gut is more apt to be cut 

 by the oyster shells which cover the bottom in the best places, than 

 a length of line which we use for a snood. 



A bass of twenty-five to forty pounds will consume from twenty 

 to forty minutes in the capture with rod and reel, the old rule of 

 one minute to the pound holding good with this fish. The writer 

 has taken some hundreds in various ways — on the bottom, with a 

 float at mid-water, and on the surface with spoon or feathers — and 



