STRIPED BASS. 209 
in a deep pool, occasionally leaping out or slnggislilj 
showing their back fins on the surface and refusing all 
allurements, let him try scollops, and he will think of 
me in his dying hour. 
As the days grow colder and the crab reassumes his 
impenetrable coat and dangerous pincers, shrimp again 
come into play, and on many occasions the belly of the 
white soft clam will attract the bass even earlier in the 
season. But in August I have had excellent sport cast- 
ing, if I may use the word, for him with the spearing. 
Early in Summer a delicate little fish an inch or two 
long, pearly white and semi-transparent, with a black 
eye and a white band along the lateral line, makes its 
appearance on the shores of Long Island Sound and else- 
where, and has come to be called the spearing. It is 
a beautiful fish, and properly dressed might rival in 
delicacy the far-famed English white-bait ; but it is never 
brought to market till later in the season, when it has 
grown several inches long and is comparatively tasteless. 
Being too small in the early summer to take a hook, 
they are difiicult to catch ; but an excellent net, both for 
them and killey-fish, can be made of mosquito netting 
stretched double between two hoop-poles, with a stout 
cord run along the top and bottom to receive the leads 
and floats respectively. The netting being of extra 
width, can be doubled together with the lead line laid in 
the bag, or, as sailors would say of a rope, in the bight, 
and the leads being small pi]3e, fastened at short intervals, 
will keep the net close to the bottom — an important par- 
ticular. It should be five to six yards long; and two 
men, taking each a handle, can sweep a considerable part 
