130 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



ing for striped bass ; for if the cast be made beyond a certain 

 range, the angler is sure of a bluefish, if any thing. 



I have here roughly sketched a part of a shoal of Spanish 

 mackerel feeding. To troll with hope of success for these 



SPANISH MACKEREL FEEDING. 



delicacies, employ a light, swift-sailing craft, and rig it with 

 a long outrigger on each side ; for a heavy vessel cleaving a 

 shoal disperses the live bait on which they are feeding, and 

 the fright causes the shoal to settle without biting. Fre- 

 quently have I trolled through a shoal of thousands, with 

 hundreds in sight all the time, and as the craft passed through 

 and got far enough from the shoal to tell, I have felt the bite, 

 and, while drawing the fish in, have commented upon the ease 

 of detecting the difference between the Spanish mackerel on 

 my troll from the hard-mouthed bluefish, only to be laughed 

 at a moment afterward as I landed a bluefish in the boat. 

 Said I, " This is, of course, a Spanish mackerel ; any novice 

 might distinguish him by his bite ; and then he comes in so 

 gently, but swims low." I can detect by the .bite, when still- 

 baiting, almost any kind of estuary fish ; but in trolling any 

 angler is liable to be deceived. 

 From the limited experience thus far gained by using 



