138 BASS FISHING. 



enough to the surface to be seized in their beaks ! 

 You anchor your boat on the tideward side of the 

 ridge, so as to let your line lead into the ripple ; 

 and there you may enjoy memorable sport. 

 Nothing, indeed, can exceed it, when the bass are 

 assembled in force. Once or twice, I have found 

 them in such numbers that the bottom seemed paved 

 with them. It was thus at my first visit to Joyner's 

 Bank. It was sufficient to get your line overboard 

 to insure a bite ; but, in fifteen minutes, the boat was 

 in a state of " most admired disorder "the bottom 

 covered with these fish, all alive, and floundering 

 about with an energy now quite misplaced the 

 boatmen leaping up on the thwarts, to escape a lick 

 upon their sensitive shins the bait-basket knocked 

 overboard the hooks snapped off and lost and 

 the lines of all the sportsmen tangled and knotted 

 together in one web of inextricable confusion ! 



WQ retired from the ground, after having taken 

 five sharks and thirty-five bass ; and we reproached 

 ourselves for not having doubled our success ! but 

 the truth was, we did not use our opportunities to 

 the best advantage the sport was so exciting, that 

 we forgot our skill in our enjoyment. The best 

 fishing I have known on this ground, comprised 

 one hundred and twenty bass, taken in one day, by 

 three boats fishing in company. 



