116 American Fisheries Society 



KNOWN GROUNDS 



South River, North Carolina. — As early as 1875 I be- 

 came aware of the capture of at least one fine striped bass — 

 12 to 14 pounds — in South River near Hawes' Bluff, a 

 point not on the map hut on the Bladen and Pender County 

 lines about due east of Kelly, a Cape Fear River landing in 

 the former county. A local fisherman took the fish on a 

 third day's trial and somewhat unexpectedly, as on the first 

 two days his bait and hooks had been taken off with sudden- 

 ness and so devoid of spring in the fishing line as to prac- 

 tically convince him that he had fouled the tackle on a sunken 

 log. When he dropped his hook at the same spot in the same 

 deep cove — a point he passed in going to and from the 

 chosen black bass and crappie grounds— —it was more an act 

 of curiosity than expectation. To his amazement the hook- 

 was seized by a striped bass of such strength and size as to 

 put him to his best effort to draw it into his skiff, and in the 

 fish's jaws he found both his recently lost hooks and other 

 hooks whose original owner could not be guessed, 



This capture took place at a point 40 to 50 miles above 

 the confluence of South River (there called Black River) 

 with the Cape Fear, a stretch of down-flowing stream that 

 is unaffected by the lunar tides more or less prevailing in the 

 last named river up to the point of confluence. 



Neuse River. — In 1877, having business at New Bern. 

 N. C, I learned that hook and line capture of striped bass, 

 a mile or two below the town and the confluence of the 

 Neuse and Trent Rivers, was not uncommon but there were 

 secrets or difficulties attending it that prevented general par- 

 ticipation. One of the difficulties was the current belief that 

 no bait was successful except fresh herring roe, an article 

 denied except in the spring months and difficult to keep on 

 the hook when had. It was understood that fishing mi those 

 grounds was by hand line. This point was not many miles 

 above brackish water and in some years when the fall months 

 were dry brackish water invaded the grounds where the 



