SPOKTIVE ESTUAKY FISHING. 81 



ing, and its colors are gray, masculated on the back and 

 down to the middle of the sides with clouded spots of dark- 

 er shade, and all terminating in a gold-colored belly, pecto- 

 ral, ventral, and anal fins. The dorsals and tail are clouded 

 like the back. The first dorsal is composed of spiked rays, 

 and the second soft. 



In angling for large squeteague about the Elizabeth Isl- 

 ands and in the Vineyard Sound, heavy combination tracing 

 sinkers are used, and the shank-headed bass-hook, baited with 

 menhaden, is preferred. There they are taken by still-baiting 

 from a boat anchored from thirty to fifty rods from shore, in 

 from fifteen to twenty feet water. The squeteague is one 

 of the swiftest fishes of the square-tails, and its ready and 

 dashing bite, and short fight, render angling for it with light 

 bass-tackle as exciting as for almost any other fish of our es- 

 tuaries. For the very small fish shrimp is the best bait ; for 

 the yellow-fins shedder crab is the best; but for those of the 

 large and rounded form of the salmon, the menhaden bait is 

 generally preferred. 



It is almost superfluous to state that angling in the tide- 

 ways with success requires that attention be paid to the 

 stages of the tide. In general, squeteague bite best on the 

 second half of the flood tide, but there are places where they 

 bite best on the ebb. If outside the mouth of a river, the 

 first of the flood is best, while well up the estuary they begin 

 biting when the tide is half up, and continue until half ebb. 



Though feeding-ground for squeteague is in deeper water 

 than is chosen by striped bass, yet they generally forage 

 along the bank of the channel. I have frequently anchored 

 my boat so that, angling with the tide, I was sure to take 

 nothing but striped bass, but by casting to the right or left, 

 outside the bank, within three rods of the boat, I would take 

 nothing but squeteague, and an occasional blackfish or tautog. 



In a commercial point of view the squeteague is important. 

 The runs of shad up our rivers cease about the first week in 

 June, when the squeteague become numerous in our bays and 



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