BASS FISHING. 139 



To improve the day to the uttermost in this sport, 

 the fisherman must drop, on the morning high 

 water, at the Bay Point rocks (for the fish bite best 

 on these rocks at slack tide). "When the ebb runs 

 too hard to allow of his fishing longer on that 

 ground, he must drop down to Joyner's Bank (the 

 bass bite best there on the high ebb). On the early 

 flood, he may take a few more by crossing the bank 

 and dropping on the seaward side of the ridge; 

 and then, on his way back, by anchoring on the 

 flats of Egg Bank, as near to the breakers as he 

 safely can, and tossing his line into the surf, he may 

 complete the round of his success. 



The mention of Egg Bank reminds me that there 

 is another mode of taking bass, which, to say the 

 truth, I have not pursued much of late. This bank 

 lies, or, more properly speaking, did lie, south of 

 the public lot at Bay Point distant half a mile. 

 Covering several acres in extent, and lifting its 

 head a few feet above high-water mark, it served 

 as the secure roosting-place of the curlews, sea- 

 gulls, and other aquatic birds ; and here, too, in 

 the spring, they deposited their eggs. But the hurri- 

 canes which periodically sweep along our coasts 

 have so obliterated it, that its existence as an egg 

 bank will become, in a few years, a matter of tradi- 

 tion. It is now covered at half flood and its site 



