64 Fisnmne 1x AMERICAN WATERS. 
which you have experienced in the immediate vicinity of 
New York, but that it will prove a foretaste of a whole sea- 
son to be hereafter enjoyed in angling and trolling for the 
game fishes of our coast and estuaries. 
SECTION FIFTH. 
CASTING BAIT FOR STRIPED BASS. 
Casting menhaden bait for striped bass from the rocky 
shores of the bays, estuaries, and islands along the Atlantic 
coast constitutes the highest branch of American angling. 
It is indeed questionable—when considering all the elements 
which contribute toward the sum total of sport in angling— 
whether this method of striped bass fishing is not superior 
to fly-fishing for salmon, and if so, it outranks any angling 
in the world. The method is eminently American, and char- 
acteristic of the modern angler by its energy of style, and 
the exercise and activity necessary to success. 
Reets for this kind of fishing have taxed the ingenuity of 
the best fishing-tackle makers in the Union. The balance 
crank should be designed with the greatest nicety of propor- 
tions, to prevent a momentum hard to check with the thumb, 
and still the crank should not be so short as to be difficult in 
reeling. The crank should also be placed so far back and 
low on the end of the reel as not to endanger the fingers of 
the angler by a sudden strike of a heavy fish, for a bass does 
10t, like the salmon, stop to study the cause of a pain in the 
jaw, but straightway makes a run without hesitation. The 
best materials for reels are supposed to be German silver, 
brass, or bell-metal. The wheels should run on jewels, and 
be so covered with an inner case as to protect them from 
salt water. The reel should not be too long; the one repre- 
sented on the plate of bassing implements indicates the shape. 
It should be a triple multiplier, without check or drag, and 
large enough to carry from two to three hundred yards of 
fine linen line. 
Lines should either be of linen or hemp, hawser-laid, or of 
