Fish and Fishing 



is evidence of the immense amount of food they 

 must consume. A fish of five pounds in the 

 . spring will have increased to fifteen 



pounds in the autumn. They have been 

 known to attain a weight of twenty-five pounds, 

 the average being from eight to twelve. A blue- 

 fish weighing one pound measures about fourteen 

 inches; two pounds, seventeen inches; three pounds 

 twenty-one inches, and eight pounds, twenty- 

 nine inches. 



Two methods are employed in angling for this 

 fish; the favorite mode is by trolling or squidding, 

 the other by heaving and hauling in the surf; 

 both have plenty of excitement as well as consider- 

 able hard work, especially with large fish. 



In trolling at the surface a squid of bone or 



metal is used, or live bait, menhaden, or any 



silvery fish, or an eel skin drawn inside out. It 



is necessary that the boat or launch should go at 



^ ... a lively gait, and the blue-fish will 

 Trollincr 



follow after to bite. The fish will not 



bite unless the bait is speeding along through 

 the water. Trolling is now done mostly from a 

 gasoline launch; the old style sailboat hardly 

 suffices, and can be used only under certain con- 

 ditions; and the difficulty of luffing at the right 

 moment makes it not nearly so easy as the ready 

 launch that is stopped and reversed almost im- 

 mediately. From such a craft, from one to a 

 dozen lines are let out at varying distances, 

 though the fewer lines out the better and safer the 

 chances are of landing fish. No one can deny the 

 GG 



