SNAPPING MACKEREL. 159 
see one after another of the green-backed, silvery snap- 
pers dart from nnder the accumulated froth, chase and 
swallow your baitj and no slight satisfaction to observe 
the increasing number in your basket, and think of how 
your friends will enjoy their supper that night. 
There is one singular fact to be observed, that whereas 
blue-fish invariably take the invitation squid, or artificial 
fly, with voracity, the snapping mackerel, except in the 
South Bay of Long Island, can rarely be tempted by it. 
In Long Island Sound I have failed with the fly and the 
spoon entirely, and have found the gutta percha minnow 
to work only passably, whereas in the South Bay they 
are taken readily with a leaden squid, of a peculiar 
shape, run on a large hook and polished bright. 
The spearing is their favorite food, but the extreme 
sensitiveness of that remarkable little fish, that renders 
keeping him alive impossible, injures the attractive- 
ness of the bait. As has been elsewhere observed, 
when small fish are used, it is desirable to keep them 
alive if possible, and the snappers will often give the 
preference to a lively killey, that by his efibrts to escape 
incites the eagerness of their pursuit, over a dead spear- 
ing, that by his peculiar manner of resting in the water 
arouses their suspicions. 
As the season advances, the fish are found in all rapid 
currents of the salt water, and the barred killey is by far 
the most killing bait. The best way of rigging your 
tackle is to have a small float and light swivel sinker, 
below which there is a short leader of gut. The latter is 
fastened to the middle of a piece of whalebone or wire 
about two inches long, to each end of which the hook, 
