How TO SAIL AND TROLL. 123 



proach nearer shore with the rising tide, the sail-boats may 

 be working nearer home, so as not to be obliged to stem a 

 strong ebb tide in returning to port. The best grounds for 

 large bluefish are outside and near the inlets of Fire Island. 

 These inlets are formed by the tides of the Atlantic passing 

 through Fire Island into the South Bay ; the principal ones 

 are opposite Islip and South Oyster Bay. But late in the 

 fall the best trolling is off Rockaway and Jamaica Bay, the 

 grounds extending from the Highlands, off the Jersey shore, 

 to some ten miles below the light-ship. 



As a sample of the sport, I will recount my last day's ex- 

 perience. My respected friend Gilsten having retired nearly 

 twenty years ago to the charming village of Fort Hamilton, 

 of which he owns the greater part, residing on the border 

 of the trolling-grounds, and in close proximity to the favor- 

 ite resorts of sheepshead, squeteague, and kingfish, has given 

 his exclusive attention to field-sports for many years, angling 

 and trolling in the waters between New York City and the 

 Narrows until November, when he repairs to his island near 

 the coast of Virginia, and shoots duck and wild geese until 

 the first of January. Being a gentleman of good taste and 

 large experience, as he could not angle in the winter, he has 

 kindly employed his time in designing trolls and stools for 

 fishing and shooting. Well, my friend Gilsten called at my 

 office one evening late last October, and left me two squids, 

 with notice that the bluefish were biting generously in the 

 Lower Bay, and that he would be obliged if I would try his 

 newly-designed models, of which the foregoing samples were 

 copies. I therefore acted promptly upon his generous advice, 

 and called on my angling friend Charles Gaylor and several 

 others, all of whom agreed to meet me promptly next morn- 

 ing at seven o'clock at the yacht moored in Jamaica Bay. 

 Of course none of them came to time ; and as Captain Morri- 

 son brought the yacht alongside the dock, a haze, perceptible 

 on the waters, was just lifting at the rise of the sun. A gen- 

 erous breeze flapped the sails of the trolling crafts lying-to 



