EASTEKN COAST FISHES. 241 



spines are very sharp, inflicting painful wounds to the hands if 

 caution is not used. Color, bluish green on baclc, belly whitish. 



THE SCOMBRID^. 

 Mackerel. — Scotnier scomhrus. — Linn. 



This favorite fish of commerce which is taken in such vast 

 quantities along the northern coast, from Cape Cod to Labrador, 

 affords most excellent sport to the rod and reel. Bass tackle of 

 the lightest description, with wire gimp snood is required. Caplin, 

 porgy, and clams are used for bait. No float is necessary, since, 

 when the fish are biting sharply, the bait will be taken the instant 

 it touches the water. We have known mackerel to afford fine sport 

 to the large white fly or spinner, known as " Brook's silver laurel." 



Fishing is done from boats or the decks of vessels. Those 

 regularly engaged in the business use a jig or hook loaded with 

 lead or block tin, and the fish when biting well, take the line with 

 equal avidity, whether baited or not. They are generally caught at 

 from five to eight feet below the surface. The mackerel business 

 commences in the latter part of March, when the mackerel first re- 

 turn to our coasts from their winter's absence in more southern 

 waters, and lasts until the end of November. In December, when the 

 fish strike Cape Cod on their way south, they take a slant out into the 

 deep ocean, and do not continue to follow the coast line ; hence 

 all efforts to take them after the period named have thus far proved 

 futile. Like all pelagic fish, which make their advent in northern 

 waters in spring, they are lean and extremely ravenous at that 

 season. They seem to reverse the peculiarities of anadromous fish, 

 which come to their fresh water and spawning grounds in fine 

 condition, and return lean and impoverished, to gather fresh food 

 and fresh strength for their next period of reproduction ; and, 

 reasoning by analogy, we may infer that these pelagi go to great 

 depths to spawn, where no food is obtainable, and the minnow and 

 spiat never go. 



Mackerel generally swim in immense schools, sufficient in 

 number and quantity, if all were caught, to fill a hundred fishing 

 vessels, and biting generally the best in dull cloudy weather. 

 II 



