358 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
the heavier fish generally being captured late in the season; 
and woe betide the angler if unprepared he should strike 
his hook into one of the leviathans, for all his fishing para- 
phernalia will certainly receive so severe a shock as to ren- 
der it for after-use completely worthless—that is, the por- 
tion that is left with him. After spawning, this fish does 
not lose its condition like the salmon, therefore his capture 
immediately subsequent is not nearly so reprehensible, the 
propagation of his species not injuring him to a noticeable 
extent; therefore, if he be fished for in the rivers after that 
duty is performed, nothing is so attractive for his capture 
as a gaudy sea-trout fly; but the striped bass is not dainty, 
and many persons of experience persistently use with the 
greatest success a piece of white or scarlet rag tied over 
their hook instead of the more complicated and expensive 
imitation. Fishing in the sea, however, the shrimp is the 
most popular and gentlemanly bait, trolled along the sur- 
face after the manner of the fly, at which the fish break, 
similar to trout or salmon; still, there are days when you 
can not thus allure them; and soft-shell crab, spearing (a 
small transparent fish about the size of a minnow), or squid, 
have to be resorted to; even the spoon-bait has been known 
to be successful when all other attractions have failed. 
Although this fish annually chooses a change from salt 
to fresh water, still it is not necessary for his existence, 
numbers having been experimented on by detaining them 
for years in fresh, where, instead of losing flesh, they were 
pronounced to have improved much both in size and con- 
dition. So exceedingly popular is the striped bass in 
America, that those watering-places in whose vicinity he 
is known to abound receive annually an immense influx of 
visitors, attracted chiefly by the prospect of enjoying this 
fishing. At Kittihunk even a club-house has been built, 
and a very large association formed of the principal gentle- 
