318 Big Game Fishes 



excellent bait for channel-bass or drum. The 

 capture of a drum of seventy pounds' weight will 

 be remembered, if the fish is taken with the rod ; 

 and when the angler reaches that part of Florida 

 where the people try to sell him all kinds of 

 articles, from picture frames to impossible flowers, 

 all made of fish-scales, he may accept it as a 

 foregone conclusion that " drum " can be caught 

 in that vicinity, and later on he will witness the 

 extraordinary scene of a longshore Cracker, a 

 Conch, or a " reefer," scaling drum with a hatchet, 

 for the very good reason that the fish does not 

 relinquish its scales with ease. One black oars- 

 man I had, cleaned the large fish by nailing the 

 tail to a scantling and, standing off, scraped off 

 the scales with a sharp hoe. . 



One of the largest drums it was ever my good 

 luck to catch was far out on the Florida reef 

 and under peculiar conditions, circumstances 

 which demonstrated the fact that the big drum is 

 possessed of Joblike patience. I was lying prone 

 upon some staging beneath a pier, where I could 

 observe the coming and going of fishes beneath 

 me, unseen, and was intently watching the actions 

 of a number of grunts, which were engaged in 

 a game of some kind, when I saw a large, high- 



