VARIOUS METHODS. 3<J3 



fishing, the hair and silk line takes the precedence of all others. 

 A rod of twelve or fourteen feet will suiBice from a boat, but for 

 bank or bridge fishing one of about eighteen feet is preferred by 

 the best fishers. 



Comparatively few persons troll for Bass as described above ; 

 for, in fact, the great majority, even of our good fishermen, are 

 in some sort pot-anglers, and prefer taking monstrous giants of 

 the water with coarse tackle, to the far greater excitement of 

 skilfully and delicately conquering a moderate-sized fish with 

 the finest tackle. The Striped Bass, it is said, is known to attain 

 the weight of a hundred pounds; but such giants are rare, 

 though up to forty or fifty pounds they are no rarities. The 

 largest fish are taken in deep, rapid tide-ways, such as Hellgate 

 or the Haerlem River, by trolling from the stern of a row-boat 

 with a strong hand-line and a large hook baited with that 

 hideous piscine reptile, or insect rather, the real squid, or with 

 the artificial squid of tin or pewter. A good deal of skill is re- 

 quired for this mode of fishing, but yet more strength than 

 skill, and it is a very wearisome pursuit. 



Still more fatiguing is the exercise of squidding for them with 

 the artificial bait in the ocean surfs of the outer beaches, in which 

 the toil of throwing out and dragging in the squid becomes a 

 real labour. 



Neither of these methods, any more than taking them on set- 

 lines baited with spearling or tom-cod, as is very successfully 

 practised in the Hudson, do I regard as legitimate or honest 

 fishing ; and they are resorted to rather by the professional 

 fisherman than by the amateur for sport. 



Nor can I say that I look with much sympathy on those who 



