338 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



We got another Bass, and then took lunch, after which 

 P. raised the anchor, and we went up the creek with the tide. 



"I will go home," said he, "by the inside passage, so we 

 will have the tide with us." A few hundred yards, and we 

 came to a creek running north and south which intersected 

 the one we were in. At the point of junction the water 

 flowed very deep around a high bank, with some large tree- 

 tops above the surface. 



"Now, here is a deep hole where the biggest fish live 

 Groupers and Snappers and Bass," said P. "I often lose 

 hooks and lines here shall we try them?" 



We anchored, and the major and P. both dropped their 

 baits into the hole; while I made a cast into mid-stream, 

 where the tide ran quickly over an oyster-bed. 



"Hold him fast!" shouted P., as the major's line ran off 

 "I can't hold him there he has got me fast to the bot- 

 tom." 



Judge: "Let the hook lie for a while; perhaps the fish will 

 loose it." 



Now P. had a heavy bite, and by main force he hauled 

 out a Grouper of some five or six pounds. 



"This is the kind of line for Groupers; yours is too light, 

 major." And after waiting for some time' the major was 

 obliged to break his line, the hook being in some hole in the 

 rocky bottom. Presently P. hooked another and larger fish, 

 too heavy for even his line, for it parted at the hook. 



"I reckon they have got the best of us, major; we might as 

 well quit." That must have been a Jew-fish that I got hold 

 of; I have caught a twenty-pound Grouper with this line." 



Just then I hooked a two-pound Trout on my fly; and after 

 boating it, we left the deep hole, and went northward with 

 the tide through many winding ways, among islands so intri- 

 cate, that without a good pilot, one would soon be lost. 

 This we had, for P. traced his devious course without hesi- 

 tation. 



