118 FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 



and easily alarmed, and after one has escaped from the hook, or after 

 the capture of two or three, the others seem to take fright and will 

 seldom take a bait in that place for some days. When hooked — 

 and it is always near its hole that a grouper takes a bait — it makes 

 straight for the roots, and can only by main force be kept from get- 

 ting under them, so that only those of moderate size can be taken 

 ■with rod and reel — say up to five or six pounds weight. The larger 

 ones can only be landed with a heavy hand line. It is a trial of 

 strength between the man and his tackle and the fish; the latter, if 

 of large size, often proving the stronger, and breaking line or hook, 

 or reaching its fortress, from whence it cannot be dislodged, the re- 

 sult being loss of tackle and of patience. The rod fisher loses half 

 the number of groupers that he hooks. I think I have never been 

 able to kill on a rod a grouper over five pounds in weight. I have 

 hooked many large ones, but they always got the better of me. 

 Other rod fishers may perhaps have been more fortunate or skillful. 

 A friend who was fishing near me in the Halifax River killed a pair 

 of these fish at once, weighing four and five pounds, but I think the 

 two ran different ways to their respective holes, and so pulled against 

 each other. If they had both made for the same hole I think tJiey 

 could not have been stopped. As is well known to anglers, the first 

 rush of a strong and heavy fish cannot safely be resisted, and the 

 grouper makes only one. If he would only fight in open water like 

 the red bass, he could be tired out ; but he gives the angler no 

 plav. 



The best day's si^ort I ever had with the groupers was in the Hali- 

 fax River, I think in April, 1875, with B. C. Pacetti, a very skillful 

 fisherman of that coast. He took me in his skiff to a deep hole in 

 a creek among the Mangrove Islands, which he said had not been 

 fished for a long time, and for an hour the sport was fast and furious. 

 The groupers were hungry and took our mullets eagerly. I killed 

 three of 3, 4, and 5 pounds, and lost three still heavier by the break- 

 ing of my line. My companion, who used a cod line, killed four of 

 5, 6, 6^ and 7 pounds, and had his line broken once and his hook 

 once, by monsters which he could not handle. Seven groupers from 

 one hole was uncommon luck, but the survivors were so • much 



