84 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



ers, sheepshead, and several other species of anglers' fishes, 

 all of which are much more numerous than they are in the 

 latitude of New York. Fishes for the troll are also very nu- 

 merous along the coost of the Southern States ; such, for ex- 

 ample, as the Spanish mackerel, bonetta, or bonito, pompineau, 

 redfish, cero, and bluefish ; and while gunners extend their 

 sporting tours as far south as the Floridas, and west to the 

 Rocky Mountains, anglers seem contented with trouting in 

 spring, visiting Canada for salmon in summer, and casting 

 the hook baited with menhaden for bass in the surf along the 

 rocky shores of the Atlantic in the autumn. But it would be 

 well worth while to make an angling tour southward in au- 

 tumn ; and such as may desire to extend the sporting season 

 would do well to take a trip to Washington, and angle for 

 striped bass below the falls of the Potomac ; thence to Nor- 

 folk, for meeting the Spanish mackerel, striped bass, sea trout, 

 and hogfish a great delicacy and other fishes of the coast. 

 If the sportsman be a relative of Nimrod, he may close the 

 season's sport along the coast of North Carolina by shooting 

 wild geese, and the numerous varieties of duck which congre- 

 gate there in myriads. 



SECTION THIRD. 



SHEEPSHEAD. 



At mouth of river, or where deep 

 O'er mussel-beds the bay tides sweep, 

 The bulky sheepshead loves to hie 

 When summer suns ride hot and dry ; 

 And there, for hours, in anchor'd boat, 

 Hopeful, the patient anglers float, 

 Only too happy if a score 

 Of dainty fish enrich their store. 



The sheepshead is one of the most interesting on the list 

 of anglers' fishes. It is a dinner-fish, and by many termed 

 the American turbot, because it frequently figures at alder- 

 manic dinners. It is really a delicious fish when either boiled, 

 or stuffed and baked. It usually makes its appearance in our 

 bays and estuaries about the first of June, and remains until 



