THE BLUBFISH AND STEIPED BASS 



the fish stopped biting, and the hooks were taken. ' Dog-fish,' 

 soliloquized the fisherman, and putting on new hooks with a wire 

 leader or snood, he began to catch dog-fish or sharks, about two 

 or three feet long, and in a short time nearly loaded the dory. 

 They filled the water, and were starving. They had just arrived, 

 and anything and everything was game. I saw them bite at oars, 

 tear the canvas of a sail, try to eat jellyfish, and if a man had 

 fallen overboard, and not been rescued at once, he would have 

 been torn to pieces in a few moments by this ravenous band of 

 sea-wolves. 



Just as vicious, but not so powerful and cannibalistic, are the 

 bluefishes. They leave a train of murder and sudden death in 

 their trail, and in the words of Professor Goode, can be compared 

 only to animated chopping machines. He estimates there were a 

 few years ago a thousand million of them alongshore ; and if each 

 bluefish ate ten small fish, a low estimate, the total consumption 

 in a season would be ten thousand million a day. A fish with 

 such an appetite could not fail to be a foeman weU deserving 

 the attention of the angler ; and possibly no fish of its size, on 

 the Atlantic coast, has given so many people so much sport. 

 The bluefish attains a weight of ten or fifteen pounds, and is a 

 cousin of the mackerels. As its name intimates, it has a rich 

 cerulean tint above and silver below — a dazzling combination. 

 It is generally taken from a fast sailing cat-boat by trolling with a 

 heavy hand-line, a strong hook and almost anything for bait, a 

 bone jig beiag effective. 



The bluefish swings along Uke a meteor and strikes the bait 

 side on, nearly jerking the tyro out of the boat. At the signal 

 the skipper pushes the helm hard-a-lee, and as the little craft 

 comes up into the wind the angler has an opportunity to play the 

 game, that always and invariably makes the fight of its life, and 

 never knows that it is defeated until too late. Bluefish parties, 

 a cat-boat filled with men, women and children, have been the 

 vogue south of Cape Cod near Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, 

 Wood's Hole, Nantucket and other localities from time im- 



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