12:3 Fishing in North Carolina. 



blue-fish, which support special market fisheries 

 and also afi^ord excellent sport to many hun- 

 dreds of persons annually. It sometimes reaches 

 a weight of 30 pounds, and is one of the most 

 highly esteemed and economically important of 

 food fishes, and always fat. 



The blue-fish is one of the most ravenous and 

 destructive of fishes, and amongst the strictly 

 salt water fishes of ISTorth Carolina it is ex- 

 ceeded in value only by the mullets and sea 

 trout, ^'arrow has left the following note on 

 the fish during 1871 : 



"This species appears in Beaufort Inlet in 

 early spring, but is taken only in nets. In June 

 it commeuces to take the hook, but the months 

 of August an<l September are the best for troll- 

 ing. At this time enormous numbers may be 

 found in schools swimming alongside shoals in 

 tolerably rough Avater. On the 23d day of Sep- 

 tember, 1871, four persons, in four hours, took 

 by trolling G60 blue-fish. During the latter 

 part of this month, in the same year, enormous 

 schools wcvp noticed in and near the ship chan- 

 nel, feeding upon the red-billed gar, socalled. 



