98 AX ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



mile?, with many a cove and pocket, where large black bass may be caught with 

 bait, spoon, or bob of hair and feathers on almost any warm day throughout the 

 year. It then broadens into an expansive estuary which averages three miles in 

 width, and so continues for thirty miles seaward to Brown's Sound, whose brackish 

 waters come up to mingle with the outflow of the upland swamps, replenished 

 diurnally by the ocean tides which flow in through the inlet, giving abundant nour- 

 ishment to many kinds of anadramous ard fresh-water fish, which are seined by 

 the ton and carried daily to the Newbern and Wilmington markets, as well as to a 

 great variety of luscious oysters, crabs ar.d terrapins. There is no such nursery 

 for fish of all sorts and proclivities as New River and White Oak River adjacent. 

 I have seen the drag nets capture at one haul both large and small-mouth black 

 bass, rockfish, blue and yellow catfish, mud cats, yellow perch, white perch, chin- 

 quapins, red horse, mullets, sunfish or robins, white and hickory shad, branch 

 herring, red drum, shots, weak fish, pickerel and garfish; and once, at the Newbern 

 annual fair, which occurs every February, there were eighty varieties of sea and 

 inland fish displayed, all fresh caught from neighboring waters, besides nineteen 

 varieties of oysters. A happy combination of sound, river, estuary, ocean and 

 inflowing creeks, and a meeting of tidal fluvial currents has made the waters 

 of Eastern North Carolina the most prolific nursery and pasture ground for edible 

 fish of all places on the coast. Early in February white shad began running, and 

 with the melting of the ice and warm weather which ensued, the run waxed heavy 

 Herring will follow the shad, and seining for both species will be active until the 

 middle of May. Seines are operated in some localities by steam, and $10,000 profit 

 has been realized by a single fishery during the season. As many as 180.000 herring 

 ard 3,000 shad have been captured at a single haul. Some seines with the ropes 

 attached make a circuit of a mile. An outfit for fifty men costs .*2o,000. 



Besides seines gill nets are used for catching shad, which, stretched on poles 

 lengthwise of the river, sometimes extend for a mile or more. And all the way 

 up the rivers are fishing stands made of poles or planks projecting from the banks, 

 where negroes stand with long-handled dipnets, and scoop the fish as they ascend to 

 spawn, sometimes lifting out as many as half a dozen at a time, worth 75 cents per 

 pair. Occasionally rude windlasses are seen, fashioned of unpeeled logs and poles, 

 and used for hauling drag nets, and there are also stake nets set across the mouths 

 of tributary creeks. Every settler along the riverside makes full use of his riparian 

 rights in this respect, and for a month past fishermen have been making big 

 earnings, two crews of ten men each having divided $700 in one instance as the 

 net profits of twenty-four hours' fishing. 



As to angling for sport, pure ar.d simple, it is an unknown art in these waters. 

 In December a great many weak fish or sea trout are caught with hooks and 

 handlines, and during extraordinary runs, such as occur periodically, hosts of ama- 

 teurs, including ladies, join the ranks of piscatory professionals. This fishing is 

 done in the vicinity of Beaufort and Morehead City, on the beach. In the fall 

 there is some lively trolling for bluefish, and in spring for Spanish mackerel, off 

 the beach, but river angling is almost unpracticed. Occasionally a venerable negro 

 will take his rickety old punt and steal away to a favorite bend in the stream, 

 where there is a deep hole and a stake to tie to, and sit so quietly that his russet 

 garb can hardly be distinguished from the dead grass of the marsh which lies 

 alongside. But sportsmen are seldom seen on the rivers. Natives do not under- 

 stand fly fishing and other scientific methods, and northern anglers have not yet 

 found their way hither. When they do they will have a rich experience. All 



