The Bluefisb 153 



bluefish was the skip-jack, and in all these locali- 

 ties it was the same hard-fighting, bluff, line- 

 breaking, hook-taking, devastating bluefish, not 

 travelling under an incognito, but having alias 

 upon alias forced upon it by the fishermen and 

 beach-combers alongshore from Maine to Florida. 

 Even the most rigid adherents of the school 

 of rod fishermen, who look upon the hand- 

 line as a contrivance of the pot-hunter, will have 

 to cry peccavi, when the bluefish is mentioned, as 

 the largest number of these gamy creatures are 

 taken with a hand-line, and find the ruthless 

 slaughter which they carry on among the small 

 fry turned upon themselves. No one can deny 

 the fascination of the sport ; the fresh wind, the 

 rushing boat, the skipper sitting on the edge of 

 nothing to windward, to hold her down, the angler 

 from the city perchance lying in the lee scuppers 

 holding on for dear life, his arms wrenched and 

 chafed by the gamy fish which seems to be in 

 league with the " old man " at the helm to com- 

 plete his demoralization. But when the same 

 ancient mariner has had his joke, and luffs at the 

 strike, then there is sport for the hand-liner, who, 

 seized with the lust for killing, plays and is 

 played, with shout and laughter. 



