104 FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 



doned it for the rod and reel, which if it does not take more fish, 

 certainly affords more sport. 



Having no market near Mosquito Inlet, where I lived, we never 

 cared to take more fish than could be used in one family. If we did, 

 they were fed to the dogs, pigs or poultry, all of which live princi- 

 pally on sea food. So to use sheepshead, a fish which brings from 

 twenty-five to fifty cents per pound in New York, seemed at first 

 wasteful; but at the Inlet they are so abundant in tneir season thai; 

 from fifty to one hundred might be killed in a day by a single line, 

 if the fisherman seriously sets himself at work and was fishing " for 

 count." 



Fish of jnost kinds being most abundant near the shore where the 

 bottom is covered with snags and roots of the mangrove, the hooks 

 often get fast and are lost. In many places the bottom is paved 

 with oyster shells, which cut off a fine line. Therefore silkworm 

 gut is not suited for this fishing, nor is it necessary for these bold 

 biting fish. Sharks cut off many lines, and rays break them, so that 

 a line of 100 yards long is generally used up in one season. 



We lose five or six hooks daily, on an average, and some sinkers. 

 For red bass, salt water trout, groupers, snappers, and cavalli, I 

 use New York bass hooks, Nos. 1 and 2. For sheepshead, the Vir- 

 ginia pattern, Nos. 6 and 7 answers best, being made of thick wire 

 which resists the powerful jaws of that fish the same hook for the 

 drum. For small fish, such as WankfinK, whiting, pigfish, etc., I 

 use the Virginia hook Nos. 6 and 7, which are strong enough to hold 

 a good sized bass. As the numbers and sizes of hooks vary, I remark 

 that these figures are taken from the catalogue of a fishing tackle 

 house in New York. 



A Cutty hnnk Knen line, 15-thread, 300 feet long, will hold and 

 kill most of the fish encountered on this coast. Of course a 500 

 pound jewfish, a tarpum six feet long, or a ray six feet across, wil 

 get away with the tackle. Reel, a multiplyer, of brass or German 

 silver, to hold 100 yards, provided with a drag to increase resistance. 

 Thumb stalls of heavy knitted yarn are necessary, to save cut and 

 bruised fingers in a fight with a runaway fish. 



I find that a bamboo rod eight and a-half to nine feet long, in 

 three, or better in two pieces, will stand the hard work of three or 



