xm. 



THE FISHING GROUNDS OF FLORIDA TACKLE AND 



LURKS. 



By Dn. C. J. KENWOIITHY. AL FRESCO. 



In Florida, as elsewhere, almost any hotel and boarding-house 

 keeper who resides near a creek, river or lake refers in laudatory 

 terms to the fishing. The majority of such statements should be re- 

 ceived cum grano sails. As a rule, good fishing cannot be secured 

 near large cities or where fishermen use seines and cast nets. 



Jacksonville is the objective and distributing point of the, State, 

 but fishing near by is poor, very poor. At the mouth of St. John's 

 River 'twenty-five miles below Jacksonville, fair fishing can be se- 

 cured. Ten days since my friend, Col. H., spent a day at this point. 

 He used an eight-ounce split bamboo and landed 210 sea trout, bass 

 and sheepshead. He fished again on Monday and landed sixty. On 

 Friday last Arno and his partner (professional fishermen) caught, 

 with Japan cane rods, 130 strings of fish, and on Saturday 110 

 strings. A " string " of fish in this market consists of one or more 

 fish weighing about four pounds. 



As yet no OHC has tried fly fishing for sea trout and channel bass 

 in the creeks emptying into the lower St. J ohn's River, but we are 

 of the opinion that they will seize the feathery lure as well as on the 

 southwest coast. Fair accommodations can be obtained at Mayport 

 and Pilot Town at two dollars per day or ten dollars per week. In 

 some of the creeks tributary to the St. John's River, between Jack- 

 sonville and Sandf ord, bream, large-mouthed bass and pickerel can be 

 caught in great numbers. In January and February the bass will 

 take a spoon or fly. In the upper St. John's (above Enterprise) and 



