THE GAME FISHES OP THE WOELD 



Highly" appreciated as a game fish is the channel-bass, found 

 up and down the Atlantic coast for long distances. I have had 

 fine sport with this fish in the mouth of the St. John's Eiver, 

 Florida, in the St. Mary's between the States of Georgia and 

 Florida, and in the pools or holes of the great lagoon within Aransas 

 Pass, near Port Aransas, Texas. Here I fished with a light rod 

 with shrimp bait, and it was often taken in such shallow water as 

 to seem impossible. The channel-bass has a clever iand alluring 

 set of names, as the red drum, spot, red-fish, pescado, Colorado, 

 bull red-fish, sea-trout. I have fished for it from 'Sew York to 

 Mexico, and it changes its name as you go south. There is but 

 one species, the eyed-bass {8ciaenops ocellatus), a very attractive 

 fish with a black oval spot, a domino spot at the base of the upper 

 lobe of its tail, by which you may always know it. It combines 

 aU the qualifications of a game fish ; is a hard desperate fighter 

 on the rod, and a most abundant and excellent table fish when 

 young. It is an attractive fish, Uke the striped-bass, which is 

 white with vivid black longitudinal stripes, and has a grayish 

 silver tint with a wash of rich coppery-red. It is taken in various 

 ways, one of the most interesting of which is to cast into and 

 beyond the surf, using clam or fish bait on the bottom. But I 

 have had excellent sport in exactly the reverse; fishing with 

 mullet bait at low tide in the mouth of the St. John's Eiver, 

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