BLUEFISH ON FINE TACKLE 



"Although the bluefish is sufficiently plucky to take a 

 coarse troll, and few venture to angle for him with ordinary 

 tackle * * * capital sport is found at still-baiting for him 

 from a boat anchored along the edge of tideways in the estu- 

 aries and near the shores of bays." 



SCOTT'S "FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS," 1869- 



H E bluefish is commonly captured in a net by 

 the man who fishes for the market, and on a 

 coarse hand-line in trolling with an artificial 

 squid bait thrown from the stern of a sail 

 boat, by the amateur fisherman, but the 

 angler takes the bluefish by still-fishing with 

 fine tackle. 



All anglers are fishermen, but all fishermen 

 are not anglers, and as the angler's method 

 is always attacked by the mere fisherman and the unen- 

 lightened class that never indulge in piscatorial play of any 

 sort, it is necessary to set forth in a paper of this character 

 a few primary axioms of the craft as an explanatory 

 prologue to the main trend of what one means to say. 

 We fain would strike boldly out into the fancy of the 

 spirited play itself, and thus spare the practical angler a 

 repetition here of the laws he knows by heart, but it can 

 not be so. 



The prejudiced scoffer must be silenced and the tyro 

 instructed at the start, the same as these details would 

 receive attention at the beginning of an angling day, or 

 the story must surely suffer, just as the actual pursuit 

 would be ruined if agitated by an unruly or lethargic mind. 

 The angler is always perturbed in his story-telling by 

 the cry of the ungentle: "Oh, I can catch more fish with 

 a hand-line than you can with your fine tackle." 



And it cannot be that our present effort will escape this 

 scoffing; so, we beg brother anglers to here indulge in a 

 little patience a practice they are great masters of on 

 both land an 4 water while we subdue the scoffer and 

 post the honest tyro for the pleasant journey that is in 

 store for us. 



"Lucian, well skilled in scoffing, this hath writ: 

 Friend, that's your folly which you think your wit: 

 This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear, 

 Meaning another, when yourself you jier." 



To those who boast of being able to catch more fish with 

 a hand-line than the angler may take with his tackle, we 

 humbly confess that their boast is founded upon fact, and 

 that their ability is only excelled in power by a willingness 

 of spirit that affords them constant opportunity of proving 

 their greedy claim. 



