358 Bass, Pike, and Percb 



surface, though a small brass box-swivel may be 

 used to connect the snell and line, as in black- 

 bass fishing. A leader is not necessary, but it 

 may be used if thought best. 



The bait may be a beach-flea, or a very small, 

 silvery fish, as a sardine, pilchard, or mullet, 

 though a small shell squid, or a trolling-spoon 

 of the size of a nickel, with a single hook, may 

 be employed in lieu of live bait, and is quite 

 successful if kept in constant motion. The min- 

 now is to be hooked through the lips and cast 

 as in black-bass fishing, reeling it in slowly on 

 or near the surface. 



The fishing may be done from any convenient 

 place near a pass or inlet on the flood tide. A 

 sand-spit at the entrance, or a boat anchored just 

 within the inlet, are desirable places, though good 

 fishing is sometimes available from the end of 

 a pier in a tideway. Fine fishing may also be 

 had at other stages of the tide about offshore 

 reefs and shoals. I have taken the lady-fish, with 

 both fly and bait, in Biscayne Bay, in Cards and 

 Barnes sounds, along the keys to Key West, and 

 at nearly ever}- inlet on the Gulf coast, as far 

 north as Pass-a-Grille, above Tampa Bay, and 

 usually found it associated with the ten-pounden 



