CAPTAIN IRA WOOD. 105 



Wilson, the ship carpenter, and John Ruyter, the tanner, 

 were the only ones who practised it about Albany. It 

 was an art. The fly-fisher may curl his lip if he pleases, 

 but I am a fly-fisher to-day, and will say that to take small 

 striped bass by this mode is more difficult than to take a 

 trout on an artificial fly, after the novice has learned the 

 trick of casting. 



In order to explain this mode of fishing I will tell it as 

 I probably did to Ira, premising that the mode is obsolete 

 because the sturgeon in the Hudson are nearly obsolete; 

 or, if not, their eggs, instead of being thrown away, as in 

 the "good old days," are now made into caviare, which 

 men otherwise truthful have said was a delicacy, and the 

 Albany angler no longer fishes in this way. Perhaps the 

 young striped bass, which only ascended the river to feed 

 on the spawn of the shad and the sturgeon, may also be 

 obsolete in these waters. 



"Now, Ira," said I, in obedience to instructions under 

 Harleigh, "hold your line taut. When you feel the light- 

 est touch give a twitch as though you didn't want a fish 

 to have a taste of your bait. A bass will quickly follow 

 the hook and you will feel it again. Keep this up, hand 

 under hand, until you either feel them wiggle on the hook 

 or they abandon it. In either case haul in, for the bait is 

 gone or the fish is hooked. Don't allow a bit of nibbling 

 or the bait is lost. Snatch it from them as if you did not 

 want them to have it, until in despair they make a rush 

 and take hook and all. Allow no sampling and sifting of 

 the eggs through the netting." 



After a while he got the hang of it, losing much bait in 

 the meantime, and we took quite a number of small 

 striped bass in the only mode of taking this fish near Al- 

 bany, where they were rarely found outside the channel 

 of the river, that I knew. Fish of half a pound were con- 



