196 Big Game Fishes 
Surf fishing for channel-bass is an exciting 
sport. One morning in riding down the long 
and beautiful beach of Amelia Island, Florida, 
which was seemingly covered with snipe and 
plover which rose into the air in silvery clouds as 
I galloped along, I came upon a group of anglers 
who had a tent in the brush and were fishing for 
channel-bass. The wind was offshore, the surf 
low at the point they had selected, and they 
waded out from shore at low tide, and with heavy 
cast-lines and sinker tossed their bait far out into 
what appeared to be a school of channel-bass, 
which made so gamy a struggle that more than 
once two men seized a line and with shouts of 
victory ran plunging over the waves up the sands. 
Doubtless the heavy normal surf here would not 
permit it, but if an iron pier could be run out 
over the breakers, the rod fisherman would have 
some remarkable sport. The admirer of this fish 
will find it almost everywhere along the Indian 
River, but I never saw it on the reef in the vicin- 
ity of Key West, or farther west. It is reported 
as abundant on the west coast of Florida and in 
the Gulf states. Mr. Silas Stearns states that 
they appear in this locality in March and April. 
They seem to congregate about the mouth of 
