FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 



105 



four winters in Florida; it is light and handy, costs only four or five 

 dollars, and will last as long and kill as many and as big fish, as a 

 rod costing twenty-five dollars. Other necessary tools are a landing 

 net for sheepshead and small bass, and a large gaff hook with a 

 handle four or five feet long. A pocket revolver for shooting sharks 

 and big rays, I have seen used in a boat. 



As most of the fishing is done from a boat in shallow water, a 

 light flat bottomed skiff ten or twelve feet long and from two and 

 a-half to three feet wide, is most convenient. 



For rod-fishing, one angler is enough in a boat, the stern "being 

 the only comfortable place to fish from. Of hand-line fishermen 

 three or four could be accommodated in the same space. The most 

 essential thing of all, is to have a boatman who is handy with a cast- 

 ing net. for on this depends your supply of mullet bait. Your boat 

 should be anchored at bow and stern, so as to hold her in position 

 against wind and tide ; a few feet one way or the other often makes 

 great difference in the catch. 



I extract from my journal, kept for ten years in Florida, the fol- 

 lowing record of my catch of different kinds of fish. In some seasons 

 one Kind may be scarce, in the next it may be plenty. These years 

 show about the average. 



In writing of the fishes of the Southern coast, we at once meet 



IS] 



