30 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



SPARIDJE. 

 GENUS SARGUS: 



THE SHEEP'S-HEAD, Sargus Ovis. 

 GENUS PAGRUS: 



THE PORGEE, Pagrus Argyrops. 



SCOMBRID^:. 

 GENUS TEMNODON : 



THE BLUE-FISH Skip-Jack Temnodon Saltator. 



LABRID.E. 

 GENUS TAUTOGA : 



THE TAUTOG Black Fisli Tautoga Americana. 

 These complete the list of those salt-water fish which are of any 

 repute as affording sport to the angler in shoal water ; they may all 

 be taken with the rod and reel, in the bays, mouths of rivers, and 

 shallow inlets along the greater portion of our coast, especially in the 

 vicinity of reefs, the piles of old docks, or the hulls of sunken vessels, 

 around which they are often found in so large shoals, and bite so freely 

 and rapidly, as to afford a very high degree of amusement. Many 

 persons are extremely fond of this kind of fishing, though it cannot 

 sustain a moment's comparison with Trouting, much less with Salmon 

 fishing, or indeed with trolling or spinning for the Pike and the Black 

 Bass. 



Several of the above-mentioned fishes are of rare excellence ; the 

 Weak Fish and Blue Fish', when quite fresh out of the water, are not 

 easily surpassed ; but the King Fish and the Sheep's-head, the latter 

 a migratory fish, visiting us during the summer months only, are in 

 far greater esteem, being regarded by epicures as inferior to none 

 which are taken in our waters. 



The most extraordinary day's sport I have seen recorded in this 

 line, fell to the lot of a gentleman of New York, well known as an 

 enthusiastical amateur and a most skilful proficient in the gentle art, 

 and was thus recorded at the time in the Commercial Advertiser of 

 1827. I note the circumstance, and quote the following lines from a 

 very useful, unpretending, and not therefore less agreeable compen- 

 dium, " The American Angler's Guide," published, I believe, by Mr. 

 Brown, well known as the proprietor of the Angler's depot, where he 

 keeps an excellent assortment of tackle of all kinds, in Fulton street 



