MITCH ILL ON THE SHEEPSHEAD. :',*;{ 



When tin- lino or hook gives way, the svccident makes a serious impression on the company. As 

 the possession of the Sheepsbead is a grand prize, so bis escape is felt as a distressing loss. I 

 know an ancient fisherman who used to record in a book the time, place, and circumstances of 

 very Shecpshead he had caught. This fish is sometimes speared by torchlight in the wide and 

 shallow bays of Queens County and Suffolk." Dr. Mitcbill concludes bis naive remarks by the 

 mournful words: "It is to be regretted that tbe Sbeepshead too often corrupt for want of ice." 



Schoepf, writing of the same region forty years before, states that during the period of the 

 Revolutionary war the Sbeepshead was very abundant in the summer months and was a very 

 highly prized species. Some unknown writer contributed to Brown's "American Angler," in 

 I* Hi, the following memorandum: 



"These noble fish have become quite scarce in our harbor. The writer has taken them 

 repeatedly near Governor's Island, opposite tbe Battery, but this was in days long since gone by. 

 Still, they are still taken, occasionally, at Caving Point and at the Signal Poles, at the Narrows, 

 :I!.M) at Pelham Bridge and Little Hell Gate." 1 



Scott gives the following advice to the Sheepsbead angler: "If a resident of New York, you 

 will find Cauarsie on tbe Old Mill, near East New York, the most convenient place from which to 

 take a sail-boat; a boat is generally at baud at eitber place. Sail down tbe channel above the 

 inli-t toward Near Kockaway, about a mile below Remson's Hotel; feel by sounding for a mussel- 

 bed (they are numerous for a mile along shore), about two hundred yards from which, when found, 

 cast anchor far euough away so that, when the boat toles round from the tide toward the feeding- 

 ground, tbe cast required for dropping your anchor will be about fifty feet. The water should be 

 about seven feet deep at low tide, and it rises there from four to six feet. The best time is duriHg 

 tbe period between high and low tides when the water is slack, and until it runs at the rate of five 

 miles an hour, or one hour after it begins to run; for when the tide runs out it is then considered 

 that Sbeepshead seek some still- water ground and wait for a moderate motion of the waters. At 

 the right times of tide the location of the mussel-beds is plainly indicated by a fleet of fifteen to 

 twenty sail-boats or hand-line fishermen. Many of them are farmers, who, residing near the shore 

 of Jamaica Bay, employ the interregnum between bay and grass, uniting their profits, and earning 

 from $3 to $10 a day, by fishing for Sheepshead. 



"There are many places along our shores better than Jamaica Bay. The Hand-line Coin- 

 mitU'c makes it pay at Fire Island, and there are many superior feeding places in the South Bay; 

 about the wreck of the ' Black Warrior,' near tbe Narrows, is celebrated for great numbers of them ; 

 in truth, our whole coast south of Long Island is rendered inviting by this delicious fish." 



Norris wrote: "In fishing for Sheepsbead it is a common practice in Lower Virginia and 

 other waters to drive down stout stakes forming an iuclosure; to these different species of mol- 

 lusks will attach themselves in a few mouths and entice the Sbeepsbead; when they have made 

 it a place of resort the fisherman ties his boat to a single stake on eitber side at a convenient dis- 

 tance and throws his bait towards the pen." 



Holbrook wrote, in 1860: "At present the best fishing-grounds for tbe Sheepshead in South 

 Carolina is the breakwater at Sullivan's Island, or the Foundation Rocks at Fort Sumter, at the 

 entrance to Charleston Harbor. 



Tbe Hon. William Elliott, in his "Carolina Sports," gives tbe following account of the 

 peculiar methods employed in catching Shcepslirud in I'ort Royal Sound, South Carolina: 



"They are exceedingly choice in their feeding, taking no other bait but shell-fish. Their 

 favorite food is the young oyster, which, under the form of barnacle, they crush with their strong 



'American Angler's Guide, lil'th edition, p. 198. 



