80 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



a pair a minute for some time ; but the fish would not scale 

 over half a pound each. Shoals of them rise to the surface 

 like mackerel, at full tide, and take bait as fast as it can be 

 cast to them ; but after they sink it is useless to angle longer 

 for them.- Then you will generally hear a croaking sound in 

 the water all round your boat, which indicates their presence ; 

 but while croaking they will seldom bite. They generally 

 croak for half a minute after being landed. 



At full tide slack I once rowed out from the Bath Hotel, 

 where I was passing the summer, nearly to the mouth of Co- 

 ney Island Creek, where I took eighty-four squeteague within 

 forty minutes. They averaged about three quarters of a 

 pound. This was in July. At every cast I hooked a pair, 

 and fished as expertly as possible until a shoal of porpoises 

 approached, when the squeteague settled, or sank, and quit 

 biting. 



This is a white-meated fish, the meat rather mealy when 

 small ; but after it scales ten pounds it becomes as flaky as 

 a salmon, and resembles one very much, except in its being 

 a square-tail. It is an excellent pan-fish if cooked when first 

 caught, being free from the flavor of any foreign substance ; 

 but it soon deteriorates, and its juices become absorbed. In 

 point of delicacy of flavor, many epicures prefer it to either 

 the striped bass or bluefish. Its eyes being oval, it is sup- 

 posed to possess the strongest sight of any estuary fish. Al- 

 though it has no teeth on the tongue or in the throat, its jaws 

 are armed with pretty strong and sharp ones, which are set 

 so far apart as to prevent it from biting off a gut snell. Its 

 mouth is very bony, and the meat being tender, it is there- 

 fore liable to unhook easily by the hook tearing a large ori- 

 fice, or not taking sufficient depth of hold. I therefore rec- 

 ommend a hook of fine wire, well tempered, and of large bend. 

 The rushing bite of a squeteague is precisely like that of a 

 brook trout, but its play is of shorter duration, and it sooner 

 yields to fatigue. 



The shape of the squeteague is represented by the engrav- 



