A PRESIDENTIAL FISH—THE TAUTOG OR BLACKFISH. 
BY. SWiM....C. 
No man exists whose nature is fully 
attuned to the pastime of angling that 
has not a soft spot somewhere for a 
special fish, which he selects out of the 
two hundred and fifty that take a baited 
hook, to be his particular and favorite 
quarry, whenever time and opportunity 
serves him to go a-fishing. This fancy 
of anglers sometimes runs into strange 
grooves, for we have known earnest and 
intelligent rodsters to turn up their 
noses at the brook and river beauties of 
the salmon family, and earnestly and 
lovingly devote all their fishing hours to 
boating the lowly catfish or the still less 
gamesome carp. With this fact before 
us, we cannot be surprised at the ang- 
ling idiosyneracy of our fisherman 
President, that leads him to select the 
toothsome tautog for his quarry, when 
all around Grey Gables the noble 
striped bass and the huge yellow-finned 
squeteague or weakfish should be at his 
mercy, provided his lures be well se- 
lected and his skill in handling the fish 
commensurate. 
Judging from what we hear and read 
about President Cleveland's fishing, he 
is certainly what may be termed a com- 
posite angler, for a man who can with 
equal success boat an acrobatic black 
bass and a deep surging tautog, or en- 
joy casting the feathers on mountain 
brooks and then plumbing the depths of 
salt water with ‘‘fiddler”’ and shedder 
crab lures, has all the elements of char- 
acter and experience that should earn 
him the enviable reputation of an ‘‘all 
‘round angler,” the w/tzma thule of all 
good and gentle fishers. 
We regret that the President, or his 
HARRIS. 
angling historian, or his score keeper, 
has not told us in detail about the tackle 
he uses when fishing for tautog. This 
knowledge would enable us to judge 
more leniently of his selection of this 
bottom, and not particularly game fish, 
as the objective of his fishing outings. 
If His Excellency has discarded the old 
bean pole, lager beer keg float, and 
half-pound sinkers, which the fishing 
gear of most salt water fisherman is 
usually, and not inaptly, described as 
being, and if he has adopted the light 
rod, say of eight or nine ounces, and has 
entirely discarded the float and the sink- 
er, we will feel more disposed to forgive 
him for slighting the two greatest game 
fishes of our salt water bays—the stri; ed 
bass and the tide-runner weakfish. 
We will also condone his angling lapse, 
if he has foresworn the ‘‘ bitter water ”’ 
practice of hand-over-hand haul, and 
the still more to be condemned habit of 
‘‘vyanking ’em out,’ and our condonation 
will be still more sincere, if he persis- 
tently uses a landing net, with which to 
boat his fish, andif, in the enthusiasm of 
thus boating them, he spares a moment 
to the study of their coloration by watch- 
ing the beautiful tints as they fade or 
glow before they become set in death; 
and, if he devotes a few of his leisure 
hours to the study of their life-histories, 
either from his own experiences among 
them, or as described in the text-books. 
And this brings us to the objective 
of this communication, the subject of 
which is intended to be a description of 
the habits and mode of capture of the 
tautog or blackfish. 
The name of tautog is of Indian 
