CHAPTER XV. 



WEAK FISH OR BARB ANGLING ON LONG ISLAND 



SOUND. 

 By T. D. L. 



INTO the Peconic Bay that most noble and beautiful har- 

 bor flow a number of small streams, brooks deep at the 

 mouth, but short, shoaling into a grassy bottom, full of crabs 

 and other food for fish. Up into these, for food or shelter, run 

 at night, tide permitting, Weak Fish (or Cheecouf), and Barb or 

 King Fish ( Tom Cod they are there called) . Across these creeks 

 nets are sometimes set, which yield in a tide perhaps a hundred 

 weight of " yellow fins," from two to five pounds each. 



The south shore of the Great Peconic is famous ground, and 

 parties often take boat at James Port or Canoe Place, for a 

 day's fishing there. Let the angler anchor off any of the 

 larger inlets to the Shinnecock Hills, and amuse himself, if he 

 please, catching pound Porgies, until the tide is well up. Then 

 draw in towards the mouth of the creek, and he will probably 

 have lively sport for an hour, catching King or Weak Fish, 

 enough to astonish the natives, as your thorough-bred angler 

 generally contrives to do. When the Toad Fish begins to at- 

 tack you, the game is up, and the fish gone. For Barb use a 

 Kirb hook, about No. 5 Salmon, short in the shank. More 

 good fish of all kinds have been lost by using a long shanked 

 hook (which has become the fashion), than by any want of 

 skill in the angler. The wire outside the mouth. often acts as 

 a lever, and enables the fish to throw himself off in the strug- 

 gle. For Weak Fish crab is undoubtedly the best bait, but I 

 liuve caught more Barb with shrimp so despised in those parts 

 than with any other bait. King Fish average over a pound, 



