THE PERCH FAMILY. 87 



Flies are not the natural food of this fish, though they may- 

 be of the Southern Bass or the Black Bass of the great lakes; 

 still it is not an uncommon thing to take Eockfish with a 

 large gaudy artificial fly, at the Falls of the Potomac ; though 

 a hook wrapped with a piece of yellow, or sometimes with 

 red flannel, will answer the purpose. This fish follows and 

 seizes the fly under rather than on the surface, and does not 

 start from the bottom with a spring, as the Trout or Salmon. 



Rock fish below twelve inches, are not good, the flesh ap- 

 pearing to be wilted and immature, bearing the same relation 

 to that of a four-pounder, as veal does to beef. When of two 

 or three pounds, they should be split and broiled, they are 

 then very good ; above this size, they are generally boiled. 

 They are better though, cut into steaks, — that is, in transverse 

 slices — and broiled, and served with melted butter and parsley. 

 The flesh of overgrown Eockfish is said to be coarse, and is 

 not esteemed. . , 



Most tidewater anglers have pleasant reminiscences of this 

 fish, but no recollection of Bass fishing comes back to me 

 with greater pleasure, than my first essay amongst the " big 

 ones." It was many years ago, in the month of June, 

 when on a visit 'to a relative — an ardent though not a scien- 

 tific angler — who lived on the banks of the broad Eappahan- 

 nock, near its mouth. On the morning after my arrival, my 

 host improvised a bout with the Eockfish ; and I saw from 

 my chamber window, a negro boy, with no other implement 

 than a four-pronged stick, capture as many soft crabs as 

 sufUced for bait and breakfast. Our canoes were staked out 

 some distance from the margin of the sandy beach, which 

 made it necessary to be carried to them. This task was 

 speedily accomplished by a sturdy little negro; who with 

 trousers rolled up on his sable drumsticks, dumped the 

 whole cargo — bait, rods and four anglers — into two "dug 



