168 With Rod and Gun in New England 



persistency with which it is trapped, the size of this species decreases 

 every year. Formerly fish weighing from eight to ten pounds were com- 

 mon, but now those sizes are rare, and the average weight in the season's 

 catch probably does not exceed two and a half pounds. As a table fish it 

 is not regarded as highly by epicures as are some other species ; but if 

 cooked soon after being taken from the water it is far from unpalatable. 

 The smaller specimens are excellent pan-fish, while the large ones are best 

 when boiled, the meat being as firm as that of a salmon. 



" The bluefish also sometimes furnishes pretty exciting sport," said the 

 Doctor. " I used to be an enthusiastic follower of that voracious fish." 



" Yes," I replied, " it is a voracious butcher." 



The bluefish is, perhaps, one of the most widely distributed of all the 

 migratory species that visit our shores. It has been found on the coast of 

 Brazil and British Guiana, at the Canary islands, in the Mediterranean 

 sea, and is a common market fish in Australia, and even at the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



^^■^r^^^^" 



The Bluefish. 



On our coast it is a well-known species from Maine to Georgia, but 

 north of Cape Cod it is less abundant than in more southern waters. It is 

 a wandering fish, and one so capricious in its migrations that it will visit a 

 given locality by myriads in one year, and perhaps not return to it for 

 several succeeding seasons. In its spring migration it appears on the 

 South Carolina coast in March, or early in April, and moves steadily north- 

 ward, making its arrival in Vineyard sound at about the middle or last of 

 May. Until the middle of June it is a bottom-feeding fish, but after that 

 period and until it leaves in the fall for the south it is a higher moving 

 species, and takes the troll or other bait near or at the surface. 



Bluefishing then becomes one of the most attractive of recreations, and 

 when the fish are abundant there is hardly any sport afforded by our waters 

 that can compare in intensity of excitement with that found in the pursuit 

 of this species. 



The favorite method is to troll for the fish in a yacht or other sail-boat, 

 using an imitation squid made of metal, bone, ivory, or mother-of-pearl, 



