THE SALT-WATEE JACKS 



conchs, the beautiful big pink-lipped shell, a famous bait for 

 red snapper, grouper, grunt and many more, and a bonne houche 

 to many Bahamians who ate it in the olden days, and so were 

 oaUed Conchs. Conch au naturel mil hardly appeal to one, 

 but conch, well pounded, as with abalone, makes a chowder not 

 to be despised. 



The most esthetic bait catching is with the cast-net. An 

 old negro servant, or boat caretaker, of my father's, in the army, 

 made me a small cast-net suitable for a boy of twelve or thirteen. 

 I became skilful with it in a short time, and spent many an hour 

 stealing upon mullets and casting for them. There is something 

 very graceful in this, especially to see some of the tall negroes 

 step along with the cast-net between their teeth and held to 

 the left, creeping upon a school of mullets, so intent in burrowing 

 in the mud, so concealed by it, that they cannot see the impend- 

 ing danger. AU at once the fisherman stops, moves his body to 

 the left, to get a swing if the net is heavy, whirls it to the right, 

 and then from the left, swings it so that it opens out six or eight 

 or more feet, and drops like an umbrella upon the unsuspecting 

 fish that are effectually caged. 



At the Tarpon Club, Port Aransas, Texas, my young bait 

 catcher had a duplicate of my small cast-net. It was not over 

 four feet across, and the weights were light. When I proposed 

 to go for Spanish mackerel or channel bass, he would run down 

 to the beach, dash into the water and cast his net as he went, so 

 catching the shrimp bait necessary for this game. In CaUfornia 

 the crayfish are too deep to grain, so are taken in traps, while the 

 abalone is prised from the rocks by the aid of a glass box and a 

 long-handled gouge. The Japanese go down in armour, walk 

 along the bottom and filch them. 



Among the jacks, though only a distant cousin to them, is the 

 amber-jack of Florida, one of the finest of the Atlantic coast 

 fishes. It resembles the CaHfornia yellowtail, but is longer, 

 thicker or more bulky, attaining a weight of over eighty pounds. 

 The average fish weighs about twenty-five pounds. This is 



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