FISH AND FISHING. 



SOME FLORIDA FISH STORIES. 



BY BARNACLE. 



A Sea- Devil, or great ray {Manta 

 birostus), weighing over a ton, and meas- 

 uring twenty-five feet across the back, 

 was recently killed by some Spanish fish- 

 ermen off Anclote Harbor, Fla. This is 

 considered only a fair-sized "devil " in 

 the Gulf of Mexico. 



Not far from the same place a shark, 

 weighing half a ton, was harpooned by 

 another party of Cuban Masaniellos, 

 from the deck of their fishing craft. The 

 shark towed the smack up and down 

 the Gulf for an hour or more, but finally 

 succumbed to exhaustion and half a 

 dozen revolver balls in the head. It was 

 not unusual in size or strength, for a 

 Florida shark. 



Mr. John Mortimer Murphy cap- 

 tured a heron and a fish, with a rifle 

 ball in the Anclote river. The heron 

 was in the act of swallowing the fish 

 when the shooter fired at it from a dis- 

 tance of 140 yards, and put the bullet 

 through the bird's neck. The postmaster 

 retrieved the game. 



It is said that the tarpon found in- 

 shore, in Florida, are seemingly getting 

 larger every season. A man who has 

 recently returned from New River Inlet 

 is ready to swear that he saw a thousand 

 in one shoal, and that not a single mem- 

 ber of it weighed, apparently, less than 

 a hundred pounds, while some looked 

 as though they would weigh 250 pounds. 

 All of these were "blue backs," or deep 

 water fish, and their leaping abilities 

 were so astounding that the traveler 

 avers they gave him the St. Vitus dance, 

 and tEat he had a bad case of fish fever. 

 The man who made this statement still 

 lives and insists on its literal truth. 



Mullet gizzards are, according to 

 Chinese medical lore,good for dyspepsia. 



The fins of the marine catfish are 

 poisonous, owing to the slime that covers 

 them, and this fact makes fishermen ex- 

 ceedingly cautious in handling them. A 

 darkey was struck in the head by one of 



these maritime grimalkins, not long ago, 

 and wounded rather severely, but as it 

 did not prevent him from working, he 

 was happy, and in a spirit of exultation 

 exclaimed to one of his own color : 

 " Zeky, dey says dat a catfish 11 d kill a 

 white man wid a flip o' his back horn ; 

 but Zeke, lemme tell ye someting ; its 

 betteh noh a feddeh foh tickling a nig- 

 geh's cranium. Zeke, de Lawd knowed 

 what was good foh niggehs when he guv 

 'em catfish proof heads." 



The beautiful sailfish is very abundant 

 in the Straits of Florida, at certain sea- 

 sons, and a shoal presents a most inter- 

 esting spectacle as it plows through the 

 water with each sail set high above the 

 wavelets. The average weight of this 

 fish, found in the vicinity of Key West, 

 is about ten pounds. 



Swordfish are gradually working 

 their way southward, and are found in 

 considerable numbers, occasionally, in 

 the waters of Cuba. Fish change their 

 grounds, as man does, according to the 

 abundance or scarcitv of food. 



FISH NOTES. 

 Several Rochester Anglers have, 

 during the last few seasons, visited Clear 

 lake, Sandy lake, Stony lake and others 

 of the great chain in northeastern On- 

 tario, north of Peterboro. Most of these 

 have had grand sport, taking mus- 

 kalongeand both varieties of black bass. 

 Two of these gentlemen spent a few 

 days there in the latter part of Septem- 

 ber. One of them took 56 bass, weigh- 

 ing from one to five pounds each, and 

 two muskalonge, one of r5 pounds and 

 one smaller. The other gentleman took 

 103 bass and 4 muskalonge. 



R. G. Chandler, and F. T. Blake- 

 more, of Chicago, spent the month of 

 September at Trout lake, Michigan, and 

 enjoyed good sport. 



H. P. Wadhams, of Chicago, returned 

 in the early part of October, from the 

 north shore of Lake Superior, where he 

 had some fine trout fishing. 



