FISHES Or THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 91 



and pound nets are all used successfully at the mouth of the Dela- 

 ware, at the Potomac Falls, in the Hudson, and at the mouth of the 

 Connecticut Kiver. 



In appearance the shad is a heavy and broad fish, with rather 

 small head and mouth, large eyes, forked tail and small fin develop- 

 ment. His body is covered with a heavy coat of large scales rather 

 loosely held on, and when he is first drawn from the water his scaly 

 armor is resplendent with every tint, but this beautiful coloring 

 soon fades. 



But the chief wonder about the fish only comes to light when you 

 eat him It is his prodigious amount of bones. Some one once 

 said that if all the bones of a six pound shad were placed end to end 

 in a continuous straight line they would go twice around the world, 

 and if they were piled up in a heap, it would form a pyramid two 

 feet taller than the pyramid of Cheops. But it is very apparent 

 that these statements are largely exaggerations, evidently induced 

 by a sharp attack of bone in the throat. Still the shad has more 

 bones in comparison with equal weight of other fish than any four 

 other salt water fish taken together. Shad is one of the many fa- 

 vorite dishes of the bluefish, and it has always been a standing mar- 

 vel to me how the bluefish could eat him and not choke to death. 



,The interest that the shad has for anglers lies in the tact that he 

 is a surface biter, and will take the artificial fly. Fishermen who 

 have caught the shad in this way name the following flies as the 

 most successful: a white miller, a red fly with red wings, a scarlet 

 fly with mottled-brown wings. The hooks used are numbers one, 

 two or three, Limerick. The rod and reel are the same as are used 

 in striped bass fishing of the lighter variety. This applies, of course, 

 also to the line, which should be a least one hundred feet in length. 

 The best fly-fishing for shad can be enjoyed on the Connecticut 

 River in early June. It is the correct thing to cast the lures in 

 some deep and silent pool at the base of a rapid, or in the rapids 

 themselves. 



The shad run in weight from two to twelve pounds, the average 

 being about four pounds. As I write this at the beginning of the 

 shad run, I learn that they are drawing a seine net every morning in 



