PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 25 



I watch tbe buds, and when the buds are swelled full, then our traps 

 go iu. When the dandelion goes out of bloom and goes to seed, the 

 scup are gone ; that is true one year with another, though they vary 

 with the season. I am guided by the blossoms of other kinds of plants 

 for other fish. When high blackberries are in bloom, we catch striped 

 bass that weigh from twelve to twenty pounds ; when the blue violets 

 are in blossom — they come early — you can catch the small scoot-bass. 

 That has always been my rule, that has been handed down by my fore- 

 fathers. 



Question. When scup were plenty, and they first had traps, did they 

 keep them down all summer ! 



Answer. One season I kept them down till the 12th of June ; that 

 was the latest I ever kept a trap down. In the latter i^art of the time I 

 got from fifteen to twenty barrels a day ; but in the early part of the 

 season I got a thousand or fifteen hundred barrels a day. That was ten 

 years ago. 



Question. You think if a trap were kept down all summer, some scup 

 and other fish would be taken all the time ! 



Answer. Yes. The fish are changing ground for food; to-day I may 

 go to such a place and catch scup, and to-morrow I do not get them 

 there; they have worked up the food there. It is just the same as in 

 the case of herds in a pasture. We find out by one anotlier where the 

 fish are ; we are all along, and we signal each other when we find good 

 fishing. That is the way we used to fish ; but now they are so scarce, 

 we don't tell when we fiod a good i^lace. It makes the people selfish as 

 the pigs. That is the tendency. 



Question. How long have you known Spanish mackerel ? 



xlnswer. About eleven years. I don't know that I ever saw one but 

 once before I was fishing at Gooseberry Island. I think they miglit 

 have been here before, and they would have been taken if they had been 

 fished tor in the same way, in the summer season. The hotter the 

 weather, the more Spanish mackerel we get. Last year we had the 

 hottest season for some time and the most Spanish mackerel. They 

 are a southern fish. I have caught them with a drail on a hook. They 

 are not a native of our waters. I never knew any caught thirty or forty 

 years ago. They are not as plenty yet this year as they were last. I 

 caught fifty last year in my gill-net. We get all our fish over at the 

 pier in gill-nets — tautog, shad, menhaden, sea-bass, squeteague, and 

 Spanish mackerel. We use the menhaden as bait for sea-bass. We 

 get cod-fish, pollock, and hake in the traps. I never knew any torpedo- 

 fish here. 



We cannot get any scup now. I have not seen one since the trapping 

 season was over. I have five men now fishing for me, but none of them 

 get any scup. I think the blue-fish are about as abundant as last year. 

 They come in schools at different times. Scop first come in from the 

 lotli to the 25th of April, and will not bite when they first come in; 

 they are not caught with the hook until the last of May or first of June. 

 Fish do not generally bite when spawning, so that any amount of line- 

 fishing will not destroy the fish. I have seen many a handsome fish 

 that I wanted, but could not tempt to bite ; they would turn aside and 

 leave the most tempting bait. At other times the most inferior bait 

 will be taken greedil3\ Tbe hook and line will not make any inroads 

 on the fish so that there will not always be a supply. 



I never knew a blue-fish to feed on scup. In all my catch of blue-fish 

 for three years I have not been able to find one. I find squid, lances, 

 herring, menhaden, and the tail of the robin, bitten ofi' just back of the 



