280 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



Jersey as early as the middle of May, and are frequently found 

 in large schools. As a general rule, they bite more freely at 

 a bait as the season advances. They are emigrants from 

 southern waters, and all adults, the average weight being six 

 or seven pounds, though sometimes they are taken even as 

 high as fifteen pounds. According to my theory, which is 

 founded on personal observation, those found in this latitude 

 are the surplus production of more southern waters ; for most 

 of the Sheepshead in the Mobile and New Orleans fish-mar- 

 kets are small, from a half to two pounds in weight, and sub- 

 jects for the gridiron rather than the pot. The restaurants 

 of New Orleans are famous for Sheepshead, where they are 

 broiled whole or split, and served up to a charm ; and with a 

 modicum of claret after his gumbo, a moderate eater is apt to 

 get no farther into the bill of fare than " fish." 



The food of this fish consists almost entirely of molluscs ; 

 the soft-shell clam is therefore the usual bait. It is said, by 

 the " 'longshore" men of New Jersey, that it can even crush 

 a hard clam ; this can hardly be doubted, when the immense 

 muscular power of its jaws, and the peculiar arrangement of 

 its incisors and crushing teeth, are considered. The teeth in 

 the throat are similar to those of the Drumfish. The sheep- 

 like teeth in front, from which it has received its name, are 

 well adapted to nipping off the barnacles and shell-fish that 

 adhere to sunken rocks and timbers. 



In fishing for Sheepshead, it is a common practice in lower 

 Virginia and other southern waters where they are found, to 

 drive down stout stakes, forming an enclosure; to these 

 different species of molluscs will attach themselves in a few 

 months, and attract the Sheepshead. When they have made 

 it a place of resort, the fisher ties his boat to a single stake 

 on either side, at a convenient distance, and throws his bait 

 towards the pen. 



