80 Fisuing 1x AMERICAN WATERS. 
a pair a minute for some time; but the fish would not scale 
over half a pound each. Shoals of them rise to the surface 
like mackerel, at full tide, and take bait as fast as it can be 
cast to them; but after they sink it is useless to angle longer 
for them. Then you will generally hear a croaking sound in 
the water all round your boat, which indicates their presence ; 
but while croaking they will seldom bite. They generally 
croak for half a minute after being landed. 
At full tide slack I once rowed out from the Bath Hotel, 
where I was passing the summer, nearly to the mouth of Co- 
ney Island Creek, where I took eighty-four squeteague within 
forty minutes. They averaged about three quarters of a 
pound. This was in July. At every cast I hooked a pair, 
and fished as expertly as possible until a shoal of porpoises 
approached, when the squeteague settled, or sank, and quit 
biting. 
This is a white-meated fish, the meat rather mealy when 
small; but after it scales ten pounds it becomes as flaky as 
a salmon, and resembles one very much, except in its being 
a square-tail. It is an excellent pan-fish if cooked when first 
caught, being free from the flavor of any foreign substance ; 
but it soon deteriorates, and its juices become absorhed. In 
point of delicacy of flavor, many epicures prefer it to either 
the striped bass or bluefish. Its eyes being oval, it is sup- 
posed to possess the strongest sight of any estuary fish. Al- 
though it has no teeth on the tongue or in the throat, its jaws 
are armed with pretty strong and sharp ones, which are set 
so far apart as to prevent it from biting offa gut snell. Its 
mouth is very bony, and the meat being tender, it is there- 
fore liable to unhook easily by the hook tearing a large ori- 
fice, or not taking sufficient depth of hold. I therefore rec- 
ommend a hook of fine wire, well tempered, and of large bend. 
The rushing bite of a squeteague is precisely like that of a 
brook trout, but its play is of shorter duration, and it sooner 
yields to fatigue. 
The shape of the squeteague is represented by the engray- 
