SALT-WATER FISH AND FISHING. 293 



KEDFISH OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. 



Corvina ocellata. 



Holbrook, in his Ichthyology of South Carolina, says, of 

 this fish, "it is of a beautiful silvery color and iridiscent 

 when taken from the water." In the gulf it is invariably 

 red, and retains that color until it is cooked ; but, from the 

 above, appears to assume an entirely different tint in the 

 neighborhood of Charleston. 



These fish are exceedingly numerous in the waters of the 

 gulf; at Charlotte harbor, they come into shallow water in 

 such numbers that they are easily speared. 



Although many persons esteem it a good fish for boiling 

 or baking, or in a " cubrion" or chowder, I have always found 

 its flesh stringy and lacking flavor, and in no way comparable 

 to its little kinsman of frying-pan celebrity, the Croaker. 

 They are angled for with the same tackle, and much in the 

 same way, as for Barb or Weakfish ; they generally take the 

 bait near the bottom. As those taken with the hook and line 

 are usually large sometimes as long as twenty -four and even 

 thirty inches they afford fine sport. They strike boldly, 

 and run off thirty or forty feet of line at the first dash ; as the 

 mouth is fleshy, they are seldom lost when fairly hooked. 



A rod of fourteen feet, fifty yards of good silk or hemp 

 line, No. 00 Kirby hook, and a large float, are generally used. 



