458 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec, 25, 1890. 



FISHING IN THE LOWER POTOMAC. 



THE last thirty miles of the course of the Potomac are 

 to the angler the most interesting portion of that 

 noble stream. Below Blakiston's Island it averages five 

 or six miles in width, gradually increasing hi size until 

 at its mouth it is over twelve miles from. Point Lookout, 

 on the Maryland shore, to Smith's Point, on the Virginia 

 side. The river is quite deep and so saline that almost 

 all the desirable marine fish which enter Chesapeake 

 Bay find congenial haunts in the lower Potomac and its 

 tributary creeks, coves and bays. There is scarcely an 

 acre included within the 250 square miles of water just 

 defined that does not at one season or another afford fine 

 sport to those who take enjoyment in enticing with the 

 baited hook the scaly denizens of the deep. 



Among the more important species that abound suit- 

 able for capture with the rod and hand line may be 

 mentioned the spotted sea trout, sheepshead, Spanish 

 mackerel, bluefish and striped bass, and such minor fish 

 as croakers and spots. 



The region is visited annually by hundreds of persons 

 from Washington, Baltimore and other places for a few 

 days' or weeks' outing; but is not so well known or so 

 highly appreciated as the case would seem to warrant. 

 It is easy of access from the cities mentioned, and hotel 

 accommodations can be had at various p»mts, among 

 them Blakiston's Island, Cotton's, Kinsale. Piney Point. 

 St. Georges Island, Cornfield Harbor and Coan River; 

 Boatmen are numerous and can be secured at rates that 

 are only nominal, 



Hand-lining is the method most usually followed: but 

 of late years the use of the rod has been growing in favor 

 among the native boatmen, who are here, as elsewhere, 

 averse to new forms of tackle, and a larger number of the 

 adherents of Walton have annually been enabled to enjoy 

 their wonted sport in a more sportsmanlike way. There 

 are times and circumstances, however, in which the 

 hand line will probably always yield better results, nota- 

 bly in deep-water fislung for sea trout. 



The preeminent bait throughout this entire section is 

 the blue crab, which, either as a peeler, softshell or hard- 

 shell, is a never-failing article. The crab in the two first- 

 named conditions is preferable in that almost the entire 

 animal can be employed; but it is much more difficult to 

 obtain, and is, therefore, commonly supplemented with 

 the hardshell variety, which can always be taken on the 

 fishing grounds when required. For special fisheries 

 other forms of bait may be employed, as fiddler crabs and 

 manninoses for sheepshead: but for all-round fishing the 

 blue crab is the standard bait. 



One of the most highly esteemed and popular fish fre- 

 quenting this region is the spotted weakfish, known uni- 

 versally among the native fishermen as 1 'trout. " It occurs 

 throughout the summer in greater or less abundance. 

 Early in the season most of the specimens captured are 

 under *lb, in weight; but toward the middle of August 

 there appears to be an advent of much larger fish, rang- 

 ing from 1 to 31bs., and it frequently happens that after 

 their arrival no smaller individuals are taken during the 

 remainder of the season, except a straggler now and then. 

 The larger fish are present in great numbers well into 

 October. 



The "trout" go in scattered schools, and when they once 

 appear in the vicinity of your boat and begin to take the 

 hook they bite with great avidity. Every member of a 

 large party will frequently be pulling in at the same time, 

 and this may continue for hours, until weariness over- 

 takes the angler or the school moves off. 



Fishing is done with band-lines in water from 10 to 30ft. 

 in depth, on various kinds of bottom. A smooth sandy 

 or gravelly bottom will often yield fish when a trial on 

 an adjacent oyster bed or grassy area was barren of 

 results. Whether this is anything more than accidental 

 is not known; but it does appear that the idiosyncrasies 

 of the fish at times cause it to frequent particular places 

 to the exclusion of all others. The success of a boatman 

 sometimes depends entirely on his knowledge of this 

 point, and there is a strong incentive to him to keep well 

 informed in fish lore, so far at least as "trout" are con- 

 cerned. 



The sea trout is not what I should consider a very hard 

 biter; but it makes up in promptness and energy what it 

 lacks in strength. Very often your hook is taken before 

 it reaches the bottom, and you may find your line running 

 off in a direction at right angles to that in which you 

 dropped it, sometimes in front of you, as often under 

 your boat. 



The mouth of the trout is apparently quite tender, and 

 a sudden jerk of the line by the interested individual at 

 either end will sometimes cause the hook to tear out and 

 the fish is lost. Your boatman will no doubt lay consider- 

 able stress on this point, and will tell you that the trout 

 should be landed with the greatest deliberation. The 

 novice at first will certainly lose many of his fish on this 

 account. 



Some very creditable and exciting work has been done 

 on numerous occasions by parties of which the writer was 

 a member. Catches of over SOOlhs. of large trout, as the 

 result of three or four hours' work of three persons, have 

 not been infrequent, to say nothing of greater or less 

 quantities of striped bass, bluefish, spots, etc. 



Under the name of tailor or salt-water tailor, the 

 Potomac boatmen recognize that incarnation of gami- 

 ness, restless activity, and insatiable gluttony, the blue- 

 fish. Proverbially erratic in movements and abundance, 

 of late the species appears to have had a special fondness 

 for the broad, expanse of water in the region under con- 

 sideration, and during the past few years larger bodies of 

 fish have been observed by the writer than were ever be- 

 fore known to appear. At times the entire river has 

 been over-run with them, and there have been few days 

 during the summer months when they could not be seen 

 playing havoc with the luckless menhaden, or when their 

 thunder ings could not be heard as a school rushed into 

 the shallow waters near the shore. 



The near presence of large schools of bluefish, how- 

 ever, offers no encouragement to the angler, for the fish 

 are difficult to approach and do not readily take the hook 

 under such conditions. But the schools are continually 

 breaking up and the fish are widely disseminated, and 

 herein does the sportsmen have his opportunity. As often 

 as not they are caught without previous intimation of 

 their presence. Sometimes a small scattered school will 

 be seen cutting the water near by and possibly approach- 

 ing your boat, when the judicious use of scraps of crabs 

 —"chumming' 5 appears to be the proper word— will draw j 



them around you and lead to lively work for a while; but 

 usually such sport lasts only during a brief period , for the 

 school moves off almost as rapidly as it came, and you 

 have to content yourself with the less exciting, but more 

 enduring, pastime of enticing the stragglers and the 

 gleaners following in the wake of the main body. 



The name "tailor" is not an inapt designation. An in- 

 teresting habit of the fish will be repeatedly observed , 

 which bears out the vernacular. You feel a prodigious 

 tug at your line; you pull hard, and are disappointed to 

 find no resistance, and you think you have lost your fish; 

 but look! there he is, 30ft, away from your boat on the 

 surface, head toward you, biting' at your line in a thor- 

 oughly businesslike way, and if you* do not soon put an 

 end to his sartorial exploits you will lose him. 



The bluefish which ascend the Potomac are similar in 

 size to those which frequent the Chesapeake; that is, they 

 normally range from 1 to Bibs in weight, Sometimes a 

 large body of six or eight-pounders will make their ap- 

 pearance (as they did in 1888); but fish of this size rarely 

 fall to the lot of the sportsman. 



Provided with a stout line, armed with a well-tempered 

 hook and a supply of fiddler crabs, manninoses and crabs 

 you are ready for a day with the sheepshead. Sheepshead 

 are anything but scarce; but owing to the difficulties in- 

 cident to finding their feeding grounds on any particular 

 morning the fishery is more uncertain, than that for any 



THE SPOT OR GOODV. 



other species. Djy after day may find you returning in 

 the evening empty -handed, without even the reward of a 

 bite; but when the latter does come he must have a stony 

 heart who does not feel well rewarded for his patience', 

 unless of course he mistakes the few characteristic pre- 

 liminary nibbles for a bite and pulls too soon. 



Your boatman may take you to his hurdles, around 

 which the fish will often be very plentiful, provided a 

 good growth of barnacles has formed on the stakes; but 

 most likely he will lead you to a "sheepshead rock," 

 which being interpreted is an isolated bank in deep water 

 overgrown with oysters. Likely as not you will find the 

 fish in goodly numbers, and you will return home with 

 three or five 6-pound beauties' as the result of half a day's 

 work. If it is your initial experience with the fish, you 

 will probably never be able to completely eradicate from 

 your mind the idea which you formed of a thresher shark 

 on your line as you were landing your first sheepshead. 



Striped bass are found sparingly throughout the 

 summer, but are quite common in the spring and fall, 

 when they afford genuine sport. A favorite haunt of the 

 fish is a shallow creek, with sandy or gravelly bottom 

 overgrown with the long curls of the alga, Ulva lactuca 

 intestinalis. At times, when you have drawn up quietly 

 in your boat, the best fishing can be had in waters so 

 shallow that you could easily see the fish were it not for 

 the vegetable growth which gives the desired protection 



THE CKOAKEH. 



to the bass. Experience has demonstrated the greater 

 efficacy of the rod under such circumstances. The striped 

 bass is always gamy, and the excitement is intense when 

 a lively three-pounder insists on making away with your 

 hook at a rapid rate of speed, darting here and there 

 among the algee and taxing your rod and line and hook 

 to the utmost. 



Toward the end of August a run of large-sized spots and 

 croakers appears in this region, and while the capture of 

 these fish is not attended with any excitement, they make 

 up in numbers what they lack in gaminess. They bite with 

 promptness, and give more sport with the rod than with 

 the more prosaic hand-line, to which your boatman will 

 be strongly attached, and will not personally discard. 

 There is scarcely any limit to the size of your string of 

 spots and coakers under favorable conditions. Over 400 

 are known to have been taken by one man in a day. In 

 the early summer, when other more desirable species are 

 scarce, these fish add to one's enjoyment; at times, how- 

 ever, when larger game is sought, they become nuisances 

 on account of their abundance. 



Spanish mackerel are not rare, but are very seldom 

 taken. Strangely enough trolling is never followed in 

 this region for any species. It is thought that the method 

 would be productive of satisfactory results, both in the 

 capture of the Spanish mackerel, which is usually averse 

 to taking the baited hook, and of the bluefish. The rap- 

 idly moving canoes, which are almost exclusively used in 

 the fisheries, are admirably adapted to this method, and 

 there seems no reason why, when the lower river is full 

 of bluefish and Spanish mackerel, as it very commonly is, 

 the very best of fishing could not thus be had. Magnifi- 

 cent examples of this species, that were taken in nets in 

 this section, have been seen by the writer, some speci- 

 mens weighing as much as 91bs. Hugh M. Smith, 



WASflXNGIOJS. D. C 9 



ROD, LINE AND HOOK IN JAMAICA. 



WITHIN a few weeks Jamaica, the island of woods 

 and streams, will throw open the portals of her 

 first exhibition to admit, with a right hearty welcome, 

 the tread of the visitor who may travel to her beautiful 

 shores. Of the many that will go to the Pearl of the 

 Antilles— and may their name be legion— not a few will 

 be disciples of old Izaak Walton, of revered memory to 

 those who like him of old incline to the gentle craft with 

 its agreeable associations and loving memories. For 

 these, and the lovers of the trigger, I write that their 

 sojourn may be pleasant and their homing thoughts a 

 happy remembrance. 



A trip to Jamaica must be productive of unbounded 

 pleasure to a stranger, especially at this season of the 

 year, when the cool zephyrs from sea and land carry 

 with them a pleasant temperature and invigorating ozone. 

 In no quarters of the round world is to be found a more 

 beautiful and healthier country, and yet it would be dif- 

 ficult to name a spot— for after all it is but a spot— that 

 has in the past been more traduced. With an exhilara- 

 ting climate and beautiful conformation, with mountains 

 and plains, rivers and ravines, Jamaica long since should 

 have been recognized as one of the principal health re- 

 sorts of northern America and Europe. But her time 

 will come; it is even now nigh at hand. 



In the first month of 1891 she holds a carnival— her 

 first— to inaugurate a joyous future, and to wish peace 

 and prosperity to her sister colonies and the peoples of 

 the earth, a jubilant and fitting wish wherewith to induct 

 her New Year's jubilee, and attract a few, perhaps a 

 many, from lands afar off. Among these there will be 

 some who love the rod, the hook, the line and the gun, 

 and to these I say leave not your sporting impedimenta 

 behind, or at least not all, for if you have the will you 

 will be able to make some use of it and enjoy many a 

 pleasant day. 



To offer a few brief hints is the aim in view, in the hope 

 that they may be of service to those of the sporting 

 brotherhood who may steer to Jamaica during her fes- 

 tivities. 



By all means take rod and reel, hook and line, and the 

 el. ceteras that go to make up a moderate fishing kit, for 

 you will be unable to procure either or any of the ar- 

 ticles on the spot for money — love may help you a little, 

 but infinitesimally. It would not be advisable to take a 

 quantity of any particular article, a superabundance 

 would be unnecessary. A few artificials — spoons, phan- 

 toms, sand eels, et hoc genus omne, if you like— will be 

 found useful and at times handy when the natural bait 

 fails, an occurrence not altogether isolated in a fisher- 

 man's experience. 



The sea around Jamaica abounds in fish life of every 

 tropical and some northern varieties, and with hardly an 

 exception they are not proof against a shiny tempting 

 morsel even through adorned with tempered wire and 

 holdfast barbs. They are as fond of taking as the fisher 

 is of offering a bait, au naturel, or of the deft work of 

 skillful hands, at bottom, midwater, and surface, accord- 

 ing to their various varieties and habits. They may be 

 had, too, from the size of a sprat almost to that of a 

 whale — a small one — with moutns big and mouths little, 

 great fins and small fins, tails convex and concave. Of 

 course they are, like animals ashore, noble man included, 

 predacious more or less, the more predominating; some 

 are cannibals and cruel, others vegetarians with mild and 

 even tempers— a natural result. Some are fast of move- 

 ment, others slow, mental and physical; pugnacity and a 

 dogged obstinacy to the gentle and insinuating attentions 

 of hook and bait, must be looked for in the many, others, 

 again, the few, give in with a gentle submission indicative 

 of an assuring and lovable confidence in the society of 

 man (irrespective of his color), that suggests indifference 

 to the terrors of gaff and landing-net so Jong as they may 

 escape their ever anxious and uncertain life in their na- 

 tive element. And as to their color? Well! 



There are fishes of every color known, 



Fishes of gold, blue, and brown; 



Fishes of red, gray and "black 



With stripes of purple down their back. 



Fishes spotted, pink and green 



With various hues in between. 



Fishes blotched, blurred and barred 



As if the scales had just been tarred. 



There isn't a tint in the heavenly bow 



That can't be licked by a fish below. 



In that Carib sea the fish, for color, 



Just pass the cake from one to the other. 

 As edibles they will run the gauntlet with those of 

 northern and other waters, and more than hold their own 

 at an epicurean feast of ichthyologists. 



The harbor of Kingston holds a great variety and num- 

 ber of fish, and there is room for thousands of fishers with- 

 out interference with each other. At times the waters of 

 the harbor are fairly alive with fin-life, at others there is 

 somewhat of a scarcity, and the ebb and flow are caused 

 by the outside conditions of wind and waves. Of the fish 

 to be found the lover of variety may be satiated, except 

 his love of change be unlimited,' I have watched, bask- 

 ing in the sun's vertical rays, the devil — not he of Satanic 

 fame, but the great sea monster — and seen gamboling 

 and sporting in mirth and jollity the porpoise, the dolphin, 

 the bonito, the baracouta, the king, the tarpon, the 

 mackerel, the calipever, the mullet and a round or square 

 dozen of others. There are sharks, too, in the water, but 

 they are also found on land — as a rule the worst type — 

 and it will be advisable to be cautious when either are in 

 your vicinity. Occasionally, by way of variety, an alli- 

 gator shows his hideous self ; he is not a lovable sort of 

 creature, an animal one likes to caress and play with for 

 instance, but then opinions and tastes differ. 



I am not going to recommend any particular kind of 

 tackle; it would be invidious, The gear that will take 

 fish in the American waters and around the coasts of 

 Britain will be equally successful in the tropical brine, at 

 least such is the result of my experience. Of rods — did 

 ever any two men agree upon that point? Every man's 

 particular angler or maker is the ideal — take what you 

 have or can lay hands on, honestly of course, for bottom 

 fishing and spinning. For king fishing on the off-shore 

 banks, of which more anon, the new typical tarpon (per- 

 haps a trifle longer) will answer admirably. If you are 

 going to indulge in the fly, suit your own ideas as to the 

 length, weight and make, then you will ba happy and 

 your catch none the less, Let your lines be 1 of the 



