56 Hisninc In AMERICAN WATERS. 
Those who employ a man to row and gaff the fish would 
do well to direct him to squid half a dozen hooks before start, 
ing, and lay them aside in the boat under some wet rock-weed 
before leaving shore. If you have ever been trolling—as I 
have—when large bass were biting generously, you will real- 
ize the force of this advice. It is unpleasant to be trolling 
in rough waters, and, when a bass strikes the back of your 
hook and takes your bait without fastening, to be obliged to 
stop and squid a hook before proceeding. 
Now for the fray! Our boats are made by Hughes, fellow- 
apprentice of George Steers; and with Sile Wright and Sandy 
Gibson as guides and gafters, we shall be sculled over all the 
favorite trolling grounds from the ferry below to the Drowned 
Marsh above Ward’s Island. Our first move will be toward 
Tide Rock, swinging Big and Little Mill Rocks on the way; 
then we shall glide over the Hen and Chickens, swing Holt’s 
Rock on the Hog’s Back, round Nigger Point, and, stopping at 
John Hilliker’s to rest, enjoy a piece of incomparable apple- 
pie and a giass of milk served by two charming ladies. While 
indulging these ruminations one day, as my friend was swing- 
ing* Holt’s Rock, he hooked a large bass and played it all the 
way round the east end of Ward’s Island to Chowder Eddy, 
where, on landing, it weighed twenty pounds. 
The sketch on the opposite page represents my friend as 
the bass first rose and laid its course. 
I was not so fortunate as my friend; for, as my squid was 
struck by a large bass, Sile said he heard the rod crack; but 
the fish made such a long, vigorous run, that I scarcely real- 
ized what he said, and, after turning the fish and reeling him 
in gradually, he broke water with a leap, clearing the surface, 
and revealing a forty-pounder. While turning and bringing 
him toward the boat for the third time, he darted down and 
* Swinging a rock is done by the oarsman holding the boat sixty feet from 
the rock and swinging it so that the troll will move about the rock on all 
sides and play as if alive. This art is possessed in great perfection by Hell 
Gate oarsmen. . 
