STRIPED BASS. 209 



in a deep pool, occasionally leaping out or sluggishly 

 showing their hack fins on the surface and refusing all 

 allurements, let him try scollops, and he will think of 

 me in his dying hour. 



As the days grow colder and the crab reassumes his 

 impenetrable coat and dangerous pincers, shrimp again 

 come into play, and on many occasions the belly of the 

 white soft clam will attract the bass even earlier in the 

 season. But in August I have had excellent sport cast- 

 ing, if I may use the word, for him with the spearing. 

 Early in Summer a delicate little fish an inch or two 

 long, pearly white and semi-transparent, with a black 

 eye and a white band along the lateral line, makes its 

 appearance on the shores of Long Island Sound and else- 

 where, and has come to be called the spearing. It is 

 a beautiful fish, and properly dressed might rival in 

 delicacy the far-famed English white-bait ; but it is never 

 brought to market till later in the season, when it has 

 grown several inches long and is comparatively tasteless. 

 Being too small in the early summer to take a hook, 

 they are difficult to catch ; but an excellent net, both for 

 them and killey-fish, can be made of mosquito netting 

 stretched double between two hoop-poles, with a stout 

 cord run along the top and bottom to receive the leads 

 and floats respectively. The netting being of extra 

 width, can be doubled together with the lead line laid in 

 the bag, or, as sailors would say of a rope, in the bight, 

 and the leads being small pipe, fastened at short intervals, 

 will keep the net close to the bottom — an important par- 

 ticular. It should be five to .six yards long; and two 

 men, taking each a handle, can sweep a considerable part 



