196 Big Game Fishes 



Surf fishing for channel-bass is an exciting 

 sport. One morning in riding down the long 

 and beautiful beach of Amelia Island, Florida, 

 which was seemingly covered with snipe and 

 plover which rose into the air in silvery clouds as 

 I galloped along, I came upon a group of anglers 

 who had a tent in the brush and were fishing for 

 channel-bass. The wind was offshore, the surf 

 low at the point they had selected, and they 

 waded out from shore at low tide, and with heavy 

 cast-lines and sinker tossed their bait far out into 

 what appeared to be a school of channel-bass, 

 which made so gamy a struggle that more than 

 once two men seized a line and with shouts of 

 victory ran plunging over the waves up the sands. 

 Doubtless the heavy normal surf here would not 

 permit it, but if an iron pier could be run out 

 over the breakers, the rod fisherman would have 

 some remarkable sport. The admirer of this fish 

 will find it almost everywhere along the Indian 

 River, but I never saw it on the reef in the vicin- 

 ity of Key West, or farther west. It is reported 

 as abundant on the west coast of Florida and in 

 the Gulf states. Mr. Silas Stearns states that 

 they appear in this locality in March and April. 

 They seem to congregate about the mouth of 



