CHAPTEE VI. 

 The Rock Bass: Eed Eye. 



The red eye, or rock bass, is the gamest fish 

 I have ever taken in North Carolina. I really 

 am not sure what is the proper name for it. It 

 is commonly known here as the red eye, hut if 

 the eye of any other fish looks red the angler 

 is sure he has caught a red eye. However, I 

 believe it is the genuine rock bass described in 

 the TJ. S. Directory, 1907, as rock bass, or red 

 eye. It is very scarce in our waters. I have 

 never caught more than three of them, which I 

 took while fishing with minnow for bass, at Mil- 

 burnie, in 1893. I was wading among the falls 

 when I struck something that I took to be a bass, 

 and it gave me an unusually long, strong fight. 

 I brought it to my surcingle, unhitched and took 

 him to the bank, where my friend, John Pugh 

 Haywood, an ex-member of Worth's fish hatch- 

 ery, was piddling with catfish. I said nothing 

 about the fish, nor noted any peculiarity, but 

 baited quickly and again waded to my hole in 



