The Drum Family 225 



should not be forgotten when the rod is a light 

 one. 



The fishing is done from a boat anchored near 

 the edge of the channels or in the vicinity of hard 

 shoals of sand, ledges of rocks, or near oyster bars, 

 in water of pretty good depth. The bait may be 

 shedder-crab, clam, blood-worm, or shrimp. All 

 are good, but crab is, perhaps, the best, and should 

 be kept in motion. 



The northern kingfish must not be confounded 

 with the kingfish of the Florida Keys, which is a 

 fish of the mackerel tribe, akin to the Spanish 

 mackerel, a game-fish of high order, growing to 

 a weight of forty pounds. I was amused several 

 years ago when a correspondent applied to the 

 angling editor of one of the sportsman's jour- 

 nals for information concerning the kingfish of 

 Florida. The editor, not knowing any better, 

 confounded it with the northern kingfish, and 

 recommended the usual means of capture for 

 that fish. I wondered, at the time, how the 

 inquiring angler succeeded with the nimble acro- 

 bat of the coral reefs, still-fishing, with such tackle. 



There are two closely allied species — the Caro- 

 lina whiting {Menticirrhus americanus) and the 

 surf or silver whiting {Menticirrhus liiioralis), — 



