252 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



a sharp pair of scissors. Properly played this bait has a capital 

 motion in the water, and will often kill very well. Baits of similar 

 shape are cut out of sole-skin, parchment, gurnard skin, pork skin 

 and ray-skin. Of these the pork and ray- skin are the best. The 

 pork baits are cut from the salted pork in wedge-shaped strips 

 about four inches long. They are kept from six to ten days in salt, 

 and subsequently about four days in fresh water, and are thus 

 made to assume a clear white hue. Ray-skin baits are simply 

 wedge-shaped pieces of the skin of the ray dried upon a board. 

 Before immersion a ray-skin bait is a dull, dirty white in color ; 

 but after being a short time in the water it becomes a beautiful 

 pearly white, and whether for use with the rod, or for trolling on 

 the surface at the end of a hand line, it is a very useful lure. The 

 most cleanly, convenient and deadly baits, are Brooks's " silver 

 launce " and Captain Tom's "spinning sand eel." The silver 

 launce was introduced about four years ago by Messrs. C. & R. 

 Brooks, Plymouth, England. It is a long, narrow, bright spinner, 

 running around the gut trail immediately above a triangle of 

 hooks. It is light and spins very freely, and is well adapted for 

 use with the rod. 



With a dexterity which practice can alone assume, the expe- 

 rienced anglers carefully sway the rod until the squid describes 

 its slowly moving circle around the head, and then by a quick, 

 inexplicable movement cause it to dart like an arrow straight out 

 far over the sea, and the reel whizzes and whirls until it seems to 

 flash fire, and you wait long and patiently for the cessation of the 

 hum which indicates that the squid has dropped, full one hundred 

 feet, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet away. The pleasure and 

 excitement of capture is intense, and often the struggle lasts for 

 an hour, when the fish is large. 



Another exhilarating method of taking this fish is to back up a 

 small boat close to the " combers," with a good oarsman to keep 

 her clear, and then throw the squid into the surf, where the fish go 

 to feed. Striped bass have been taken with the rod, that weighed 

 seventy-six pounds and have been known to grow to the weight 

 of one hundred and fifty pounds. [See Striped Bass in South- 

 ern Coast Fishes.] 



