242 WHERE, WHEN, AXD HOW TO CATCH FISH 



CHAPTER XXI. 



As I have heretofore said, the market fishing at Key West is with 

 hand lines and wire fish traps. The latter appliance is made of 

 ^6 -inch iron wire and usually is about three feet long, one and one- 

 half broad, and one and one-half high. The fisherman takes it out 

 in his boat and puts into it the shells, antennae and some of the meat 

 of crawfishes, sinking it alongside his boat. The fish enter it by a 

 circuitous route, nearly all not being able to find their way out ; the 

 catch with it will average about the same as with the hand line, 

 possibly somewhat more, so the fisherman has two strings to his bow. 

 My especial wary friends of the Snapper and Pompano families are 

 not often inveigled into the contrivance, one or two to the "drop" 

 being a fair average. The " drop" is a term by which the fishermen 

 here designate each anchorage. 



Messrs. Walter and Jefferson Griffin make a specialty of Pompano 

 fishing. During my visit of sixteen days, in December, 1901, they 

 brought in eighty-five one day and seventy-five the next day ; as that 

 fish sells at a higher price than any other, they are not much called for 

 and, consequently, not many are caught ; none are shipped. On 

 December 26th I went out with Walter after Pompano, a party of 

 four catching forty in about three hours — twenty with rod and reel 

 and twenty with hand line. 



The Griffins are also very expert in catching all the bottom and 

 other fishes, having caught on several separate occasions thirty-one 

 different varieties during a morning's fishing of two to four hours, 

 and three or four "drops." Several times I knew of Jefferson 

 catching 250 fishes, leaving home about 5 A. M. and returning about 

 12 M. He often stopped at my boat to show me his rare specimens. 

 They do not bring in the foul fishes, such as Sharks, Rays, Sawfish, 

 Catfish, Toadfish, etc., etc. These are much less troublesome here, 

 and among the near-by Keys, than at any other place I have visited 

 in the State of Florida. Nearly all the highly colored species are 

 quite plenty, such as Angel-fish, Parrot-fish, Groupers, Mangroves, 

 Schoolmasters, Lane and Yellowtail Snappers, Porkfish, Hogfish, 

 Spanish Mackerel, etc. 



