56 WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW TO CATCH FISH 



times the eye ; length of snout nearly equal to eye ; mouth nearly hori- 

 zontal ; maxillary reaching to vertical from middle of eye, its length 

 2^3 in head ; jaws without teeth in adult ; dorsal spines short and thick, 

 not connected by membrane in adult ; ventrals short, their tips scarcely 

 reaching halfway to anterior anal spine, 3 in head ; caudal widely 

 forked ; lobes about 2^ in length of body ; dorsal and anal fins 

 falcate ; anterior rays reaching almost to posterior end of fins ; in 

 adults, dorsal lobe 2fi, anal lobe A 1 /,, in length of body. Color 

 bluish above, silvery below ; lobes of dorsal black in young ; in adults 

 the fins are all bluish with lighter tips. The young differ from the 

 adult as above described in the following respects : The profile is 

 scarcely convex ; snout shorter and less vertical ; spines much longer 

 and connected by membranes ; lobes of vertical fins shorter ; dorsal 

 lobe with black ; fins all much darker ; jaws with bands of villiform 

 teeth ; eye larger. ' ' 



I presume the most of my readers who have visited Florida have 

 heard wonderful stories of Pompanos jumping into boats. I will tell 

 some true ones, and some others afterwards which have been told 

 to me. 



On my first visit to Lake Worth, before the Royal Poinciana and 

 the railroad were built, while I was on the little steamer "Lake 

 Worth " en route from Dimmick's Hotel to Juno, a Pompano jumped 

 into the engine room of the boat. 



On my cruise with Capt. Ward in 1885, while at Jupiter trolling 

 inside for Bluefish, etc., the Pompanos were jumping all over the 

 little bay, and two or three went over the small boat we were towing 

 behind the sailboat. I remarked to the captain: "I believe some 

 of those fellows will land in our boat "; and he replied, " Sure, they 

 often do, three jumped into boats yesterday afternoon." In a short 

 time, one did jump into our boat and we cooked him for dinner. 



At that time there was no market fishing at all on Indian River, 

 and it is no exaggeration to say that at Jupiter I frequently saw fifty, 

 or possibly a hundred, out of the water at one time. 



During the spring of 1900, while lying at same place, our mate was 

 in a small boat cleaning it out, when a Pompano jumped, hitting him 

 on the back and falling into the boat. The next morning he was 

 washing the deck of the yacht, when a Pompano jumped onto the 

 deck, the mate catching him. 



One of the other stories was told by Capt. Bravo, then of the 



