i ALT-WATER FISH AND FISHING. 281 



In fishing with a hand-line, which is the usual mode of 

 taking him, the Sheepshead gives one or two slight premoni- 

 tory jerks, and then a steady pull, when the fisherman gathers 

 in his line as fast as possible, the fish coming along with a 

 heavy drag. When he approaches the boat, there is a desperate 

 contest ; there is much probability* of his breaking the hook, 

 or his quick downward lunges are apt to snap the line ; then 

 the fisher takes in slack, or lets the line run through his 

 fingers, as the action of the fish dictates, and, when a proper 

 opportunity offers, throws him into the boat, where he flounces 

 until the transfer to a new element deprives him of life. 



Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, they are frequently 

 taken with rod and line, as they are by New York anglers in 

 the vicinity of that city. About rocks and precipitous banks, 

 when there are no obstructions to a fair contest, a stout rod 

 of eleven or twelve feet, a strong hemp line on a good multi- 

 plying-reel, gimp snoods, and stout Virginia hooks, are used. 

 His pull is at first strolig and steady, but as he comes to the 

 surface, his lunges are quick and desperate ; still, by keeping 

 a steady strain on your opponent, and yielding to. his down- 

 ward plunges as he approaches the boat (which is done better 

 with the spring of a rod than with a hand-line), he at last 

 gives in ; and when he is lifted aboard, and in your basket, 

 he weighs something. 



An accomplished angler of New Orleans, whose hospitality 

 I have partaken of at his summer residence at Pass Christian, 

 on the Gulf coast, says he has taken Sheepshead frequently 

 at the mouth of Wolf River, in company with Black Bass, 

 with a float on his line, and that they lie about the thick 

 branches of trees that have fallen in. From this it would 

 appear that they habitually come into brackish water, in 

 search of crustaceous animals or molluscs, which fasten them- 

 selves to any stick or branch in the water along the southern 



