Fort Myers 
pounds’ weight can be caught with a fly-rod, 
whereas all those I saw and handled from the sea 
were well over one hundred pounds each. In 
the freshwater rivers an entirely different method 
of catching them is pursued to that in the salt- 
water passes. In the former a small boat is 
moored anywhere in a spot that may be con- 
sidered likely. A few dead mullet are then cut 
up into pieces and thrown overboard in the 
vicinity of the boat. This is termed in the 
vernacular “chumming,” but in England would 
be known as “ ground-baiting.”” The rod is but 
seven feet long and very stiff; the two I own 
are made of ironwood, but any suitable stuff, 
such as cane, hickory, or greenheart, may be 
used. The reel is a multiplying one, and is large 
enough to hold easily two hundred yards of 
very thin but extremely strong flax line. The 
reel has a piece of raw hide sewn on to one of its 
bars; this is used as a brake to check the rush 
of the fish, and is worked by pressing the leather 
on to the line on the drum of the reel with the 
thumb. Two rods or more can be used in chunk- 
bait fishing, and to the reel line is fastened a 
snood or strip of raw hide, and to this the large 
hook. The hooks being baited and line weighted 
with lead to keep them on the bottom, the check 
is taken off the reel and the baited hooks thrown 
Some distance from the boat. A little line is 
loosely coiled down on the bottom-boards of the 
N 177 
