116 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



hook as will answer for small striped bass and squeteague, 

 and one strong enough for tautog, or one rather larger than 

 the cpmmon blackfish hook. Let. your leader be part of your 

 line, say three fourths of a yard long, and attached to a brass 

 swivel ; run the line through the tracing sinker, and attach 

 it to the upper end of the swivel. Bait with shrimp, shedder 

 crab or shedder lobster, fiddler, soft or hard shell clam, or the 

 sand-worm dug along the sandy shore at low tide. 



The tautog bites like the sheepshead, but with less power. 

 You feel the premonition, but when he dashes aside the pull 

 is weaker than that of a sheepshead. I mean now a tide-run- 

 ning tautog of from three to eight pounds, which feeds on the 

 edge of swift water, has a white nose, and is fair game. The 

 tautog which feeds close to the base of the rocks is an adept 

 at getting hooks or sinkers fastened in the clefts, for so soon 

 as he bites he darts under or between the rocks, leaving the 

 angler thankful if the fish will liberate the hook or sinker as 

 the price of his freedom. The bite of a small blackfish of 

 from one fourth of a pound to a pound is like that of a roach 

 or sunfish, but large ones bite with energy, and play so as to 

 afford sport. All the fishes angled for along the coast, except 

 the striped bass and bluefish, are usually landed with a net. 

 The color of the tautog is bluish-black, with a lighter shade 

 under the belly and lower mandible. The mouth is furnish- 

 ed with very small teeth. The engraving is a perfect coun- 

 terpart of the fish in appearance. 



THE FLOUNDER. Pleuronectes Flesus. 



The flounder is an important estuary fish for boys and hand- 

 line fishers, though it is not appreciated very highly by rod 

 fishermen. It is one of the latest fishes angled for in autumn 

 when the icicles begin to form, and it is the first fish that 

 bites in the spring. It is to be found in the estuaries and up 

 the rivers as far as salt water runs ; also in our bays. It is 

 a fish of the temperate zone, and, from its great numbers in 

 spring in all the inlets from the Atlantic, is a profitable fish, 



