246 



BASSE FISHING ON THE SHORES OF LONG ISLAND. 



your success will depend much more on the reach of your cast, 

 than on the sort of squid you employ. 



In the like manner and place, but earlier in the season, Blue 

 fish are sometimes taken in large numbers, and afford to the 

 " lucky ones," for a few brief minutes, an exciting sport of the 

 tallest kind. The capture of " Mackerel"* from the shore 

 presents to even the most passive observer, a most animating 

 spectacle. When Blue fish are announced as in sight, all who 

 can, hurry to the beach and take stands upon some elevation 

 of rock or platform, with coats off and lines ready, eager to 

 receive them. Hovering over the approaching school career 

 clouds of Gulls, screaming, diving, and eddying around the 

 wounded Menhaden and fragments of fish that escape from the 

 jaws of their pursuers. Nearer they come, their green backs 

 darkening the broken water, and the still water within begins 

 to ripple and sparkle and foam, till the sea is alive with fish, 

 crowding upon the shore. A leap, a splash again another 

 and a hundred silver sides are glancing in the sun. A dozen 

 lines whiz glistening through the air, cleaving the waters in the 

 midst of the school, and a dozen fish are instantly struck, and 

 drawn hand over hand, swiftly and steadily to shore. Vigor- 

 ously the fishers ply their lines with various chances of fortune, 

 and so the battle rages until the mackerel, in diminished num- 

 bers, retire beyond the reach of their cunning enemies. 



* The name for the Blue fish In Suffolk County. 



