332 Big Game Fishes 
satisfaction in taking a fifteen-pound fish with 
a single gut snood and a small hook than 
with a wire leader designed for sharks, or 
for large and powerful fishes which play so 
long that their fine teeth are very likely to saw 
and sever the more delicate equipment. An in- 
teresting fish sometimes found with the sheeps- 
head is the triple-tail, Lodotes surinamensis. It is 
a large and powerful fish, reaching a weight of 
forty or fifty pounds. It has a remarkably wide 
geographical range, from China to America, and 
at many intermediate localities. I took a speci- 
men at the “ Rip-raps,” Old Point Comfort, which 
weighed about twenty-five pounds, the fish mak- 
ing a very gamy fight, and later I saw speci- 
mens which had been taken on the St. Johns. In 
color it is silvery gray, very attractive when 
taken, and resembling the common “blue perch” 
of Santa Catalina waters. It is high, short, and 
“thick-set,” the dorsal and anal fins extending 
so far backward as to give it the appearance of 
having three tails, hence the common name. It 
is taken all alongshore, from New York to 
Florida, but in such limited numbers that it has 
never been a factor in the catch of the anglers 
of any locality. 
