STRIPED BASS. 205 



beat tliem together and store it an earthen jar covered 

 with a bladder. Frank Forrester recommends that the 

 roe be well washed and thoroughly dried in the air, 

 salted with two ounces of rock salt and a quarter of an 

 ounce of saltpeter to a pound of spawn, dried gently and 

 potted d.own, covered with melted lard or suet in earthen 

 jars. This, either fresh or potted, is a most effective 

 bait for striped bass, but I confess for trout my experi- 

 ence is to the contrary. 



In streams that the shad do not frequent, striped 

 bass are taken early in the season with shrimp threaded 

 on longitudinally, by passing the point of the hook 

 under the back plates ; as the season advances, and 

 crabs shed their coats, with the shedder, or better, 

 soft crabs ; and in the Fall with shrimp, the bass, or 

 barred killey, and the spearing. In fishing with shrimp 

 — and it is a good bait all the season through, and must be 

 tried when others fail — use a float fastened about three 

 feet above a swivel sinker, to the lower swivel of which 

 are to be attached two distinct gut leaders, one of three 

 feet, the other of two. Single gut, if large, round, and 

 true, is decidedly preferable to double, and the hook 

 should nevei" be a coarse, clumsy Limerick, which has 

 such an undeserved reputation, but a delicate Carlisle, 

 with a broad, round bend. If very large fish are ex- 

 pected — and they rarely are — use No. ; but gener- 

 ally No. 3 is large enough. With crab the hook must 

 be larger. I prefer always to have the point of the hook 

 covered, and recommend that the shrimp should be 

 bunched on till they hide the hook entirely, and form a 

 round, attractive bait, composed of so many shrimp aa 

 no bass ever before saw together. 



