202 WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW TO CATCH FISH 



mounted it, and sold it the next season. He also saw it weighed. 

 We laid one of the smaller fish on the pavement beside the large one, 

 and critically compared the shape, the head, the fins, and the color- 

 ing of the two, and could detect no difference. Mr. Allen and the 

 taxidermist joined in the examination, and we all agreed, to the best 

 of our judgment, the two fishes were identical in species, that the 

 large one was a true Pompano or what is called the "Common" 

 Pompano. The day before we made our catch the market fishers 

 there had caught 500 Pompano at one haul, as we were informed by 

 several parties. We saw hundreds of them in schools along the 

 beach for half a mile or so south of the pier. 



Mr. Edward P. Borden of Philadelphia has several times fished 

 for Amber Jack with rod and reel, Tarpon rig, from rowboat, near 

 the pier, and we here give his method of catching them, as follows, 

 viz : 



" For Amber Jack fishing off the ' Breakers ' at Palm Beach, use the 

 usual Tarpon rod, reel, and line, with a No. 10$ hook with gimp or 

 wire snood, and live bait. Go with your boat two or three hundred 

 yards south of the pier, and anchor over the rocky bottom ; you will 

 catch Sheepshead and perhaps ' Spot ' ; the latter makes fine bait and 

 is what you want for the Amber Jack. If you cannot get 'Spot,' 

 small Mullet will answer, but will not attract like the ' Spot. ' Then 

 anchor about 100 yards off the pier. Let your bait run out with the 

 current fifty feet, more or less, and when you get a strike let the fish 

 run ten or fifteen feet before snubbing. You will probably hook him ; 

 play him as you would any large fish." 



Barracuda and Kingfish are caught by same method, but a quiet 

 day must be selected. 



In former times Pompano were caught with rod and reel in the 

 lake, some two miles or more south of the Royal Poinciana, at what 

 is called Rock Island, but none have been caught there within the 

 past few years. They are caught at night in gill nets in different 

 parts of the lake, nearly all near the inlet. I assisted in one haul at 

 night, catching fourteen, six years ago, near the Riviera Hotel. 



Almost every season there is very fair trolling for Bluefish with 

 launches or sailboats, the best ground being from one to two miles 

 south of the inlet north, by the inlet, to Pitts Island, a distance of 

 three miles or so. One season I saw as high as fifty to 100 caught 

 per day, for market, by a party residing at Lake Worth P. O., who 



