CHAPTER IX. 



THE SALT WATER CATFISH. THE CONGER EEL. THE SILVER, OR 

 WHITE MULLET. THE YELLOWTAI, OR SILVER PERCH. 



SALT WATER CATFISH GAFF TOPSAIL. ^Elurichthys marinus 

 (Mitchell). This may be set down as a game fish, being strong, 

 active, and enduring in fight. Its play is much like that^ of 

 the channel bass or redfish of the same waters, and it takes the same 

 baits. In the spring it comes into the inlets and bays in great num- 

 bers, and becomes rather a nuisance to the angler, being an unpleas- 

 ant fish to handle on account of its slimy covering, which besmears 

 the hands and the tackle, and its long barbed pectoral spines inflict 

 painful wounds on the incautious angler. It is a handsomely formed 

 fish, with a forked tail, long dorsal fin, and barbels depending from 

 the mouth. Color steel blue above, below silvery ; from three to ten 

 pounds in weight. _ Flesh white and firm, and well-flavored, as I 

 have found from experiment, though it is not often eaten. The 

 eggs of this species are golden yellow, and of the size of grapes, 

 which they much resemble, in bunches of ten or twelve. The fish- 

 ermen say that this catfish carries its young, when hatched, in its 

 mouth. 



CONGER EEL Murcena ocettata (Agassiz). I have never seen 

 the common eel on the Florida coast, but the conger is found in cer- 

 tain localities. If one goes near nightfall or on a dark lowery day 

 to a certain deep channel about a mile from the mouth of the Halifax 

 River, he may capture one or more of these ferocious fishes. At 

 the breaking out of the Secession war there was at this place 



