292 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



thumb-stalls and you are ready for the fray. The Bass come 

 in from the sea with the tide, and are found at different 

 stages of it, either near the Inlet, on the sand banks, in the 

 creeks, or along the edge of the marsh; and a stranger needs 

 a guide to find the fish. For bait, cut-mullet, or small ones 

 used whole; the half of a crab is a good bait also. We usu- 

 ally fish on the bottom, but Bass will take at mid-water, or 

 on the surface, and often near the boat. This fish spawns in 

 August or September, in the inlets and bays, as I am 

 informed by Florida fishermen, and deposits many eggs, 

 making it a prolific species perhaps the most abundant on 

 the southern coast. Specimens of ten or twelve pounds are 

 the best for the table; the large ones are coarser, and the 

 young fish have less flavor. They may be boiled, baked, or 

 fried, and make a firm, well flavored and succulent dish. 



The following description is from Jordan and Gilbert's 

 Synopsis of the Fishes of North America: 



Scicena ocellata Gthr. Channel Bass Red Bass: Grayish 

 silvery, iridescent; scales with dark spots forming faint 

 irregular undulating stripes; upper part of base of caudal with 

 an oval black spot as large as the eye, bordered by white or 

 orange; this spot is often duplicated. Body rather elongate, 

 not much elevated, compressed behind, an almost even curve 

 from snout to base of dorsal; preopercle distinctly serrate; 

 eye large; one and a half in. snout; five and a half in. head; 

 gill-rakers short and thick; mouth large; maxillary nearly 

 reaching the posterior margin of the orbit; caudal truncate; 

 second anal spine rather strong, two thirds as long as first ray ; 

 pectoral fins very short, not reaching half way to lower; 

 pharyngeals narrow, with conical teeth. Head 31/3 ; depth 3^ 

 D. X. I. 25; A. II. 8; Lat. I. 50. Cape Cod to Mexico, 

 common southward; known at sight by the peculiar caudal 

 spot. 



BASS-FISHING IN WINTER. 



'The noble bass, with scales intensely dyed, 

 At bay and inlet drift in with the tide; 

 A roving fish, deep channels it explores, 

 Mud -flats, and oyster-beds, and shelly shores." 



McLellan's Poems of the "Rod and Gun." 



In the month of February, 188- leaving the frosts and 



