S8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 2, 
of his legs fer home, perpetual. Slosh — 0! I sez, an' 
struck thet frawg like a musskylunge." 
"Did y' get the frog?" asked Redeye, eagerly. 
"Did I git th' frawg ! Yes, yes ! I git th' frawg, I did, 
an' a heap more t' boot! I struck thet frawg, head fust, 
an' run thirty foot t' swaller him, an' all t' wunst some- 
thin' hit me a jab in the jaw an' sock me tew good foot 
offen bottom," 
"Did y' spit him out?" ■ 
"I couldn't spit nawthin' out, I tell y' ! Thet air frawg 
were tied tew a string, he were, an' Jawhn Smith were at 
t'other end on it." 
"Snells alive! How'd y' pull out, Stumpy?" 
"Waai, I med fer the stump an' got snarled 'raound it, 
kind o', an' busted the gut near the line — it were some 
frayed, I reckon — an' thet were the same snelled hook I 
drap t'other day !" 
Before Stumpy finished relating his thrilling adventure 
a small sunfish had stolen to the edge of the lilj'pads. 
When Stumpy got his eye on the intruder, he swung his 
helm hard aport instanter, headed for him, and opened 
with his usual interrogative broadside: 
"Say, Sunny, what air yew a-doin' here? This hain't 
no plaace fer the likes o' yew. I guess y' sort o' like the 
sun, but yew'U find this here summer resort a leetle tew 
hot ! Me an' Redeye is a-havin' a quiet talkee, an' we 
don't want no disruption !" He waved his tail threaten- 
ingly. 
"You'd better take Stumpy's advice," admonished Red- 
eye. "Paddle along now, Sunny — swimmin's good !" 
The sunfish did not wait for a third invitation. 
"Say," said Stumpy, weaving himself again into the pat^ 
tern of the lily stems, with the important manner in which 
an obiter dictum is usually delivered, "say, them sunnies 
is cu'r'us little cusses." 
"Yeh," assented Redeye, just tickling the old fellow's 
side with his tail tip, "they think themsel's some punkin 
seed." 
"Waal," continued Stumpy, "ez I were a-sayin' when 
thet little tadpole disrupted me, Jawhn's ez slick ez a 
mother eel, an' y' don't ketch this here 'specimen o' the 
CASTING FOR BLACK BASS. ^ 
Photo by Miss B. 
finny tribe* ez yew say, a-f oiler in' of his boat no more. 
But, say, hain't yew had no hair-bread escapes, Redeye?" 
"Only one. Stumpy, when I took a scarlet-ibis off a fly- 
fisherman last year; but I shook'm out on the second 
jump." 
"I hain't much on th' jump m'self. Gimme a stump, or 
a lawg, or a bunch o' weeds, an' I'll tear loose tew outen 
three times, ev'ry sqush. But talkin' o' flies, yew wuz 
on to the beds when y' took thet air red-headed fly, I 
reckon?" 
"I was that — early in June, in fly time, before the law 
was changed." , , , ^ , 
' "Flies don't bawther me much, but on the beds 1 11 fight 
'any ole thing,' ez them Npo York still-fishers sez. Our 
beds hev got-tew-be-purtected, Redeye— sot thet down 
oncet fer all. I tell y', I hain't skeered uv a wooden spin- 
ner an' thirteen hooks on to it, in spawnin' time." 
"The law allows only three hooks on 'em now, an' they 
don't ketch to yer outsides so offen ; but I don't want one 
of the flyin' devils stuck into my gullet, anyhow!" said 
Dolomieu, with a tremor. "I like mine soft, thank y' ! 
What are you takin' now, Stumpy? What grub are y' 
livin' off?" 
"Waal, a little of anythin' I kin git, but mostly mmmes 
an' daubsons. I'm a great favoryte o' daubsons, I am— I 
like daubsons, special." 
"Dobsons? I call 'em hellgrammites," corrected Red- 
eye, unable to keep from showing off his "book learnin'." 
Stumpy resented this display of pedantry. His caudal 
twitched angrily. "Yew do, naow?" he drawled. ^ "Waal, 
say, I don't keer what the cuss word yew call 'em, I'll 
call 'em daubsons. They taste jest as good, an' they air 
good tew, I'll tell y'." He snapped his jaws together, half 
in warning, half in appreciation. "I wish I hed a nice 
bunch o' daubsons or nightwalkers, right naow !" 
"How would a plump young frog go ?" 
"Naow, say, thet hits me tew a tender spawt! This here 
pouch o' mine's a-gittin' terrible slack. Ef I see a frawg 
naow, I'd show y' what a riz looks like— I kin make the 
water bile ! I heerd a fisherman say oncet thet yew fellers 
fit like one o' these here salmon when y' wuz hooked, but 
y' don't rise tew a frawg good." 
"Let's throw 'em a live frog," said John, "and see who 
gets it." 
He took one from the frog box and threw it on the lily- 
Immediately the water began to "bile' wickedly enough 
to cook the amphibian while they waited. Stumpy's curved 
bronze shot out of the lake, and he jumped clear over the 
frog, to take it head first, but missed it. Redeye came up 
beneath his rival, in the twinkling of an eye, sucked in 
deftly, rather than pounced on, the frightened victim, and 
made a run out to deeper water with his prey, while the 
old man sulked in the pads, poising his bulk between two 
roots. When Redeye had pouched the frog, he returned 
T,varily, feeling his way. He knew he had committed the 
unpardonable sin. 
"Yum, yum, Stumpy!" said he, playing with fire, "that 
frog goes good, an' there ain't no string tied to him 
neither." 
"I knowed I'd miss him," said Stumpy, keeping his eye 
on the victor. "I'm all upsot sence I lose thet snelled 
hook o' Jawhn's, I tell y'." 
"Sour minners !" retorted Redeye. "You always was 
thick, ole greeny, but how did you miss him — ^with — that — 
big " 
Redeye had the last word, but it was lost in the mad 
race for life to the depths beyond, where, we are glad 
to say, "strikes" are sometimes arbitrated. 
Split Bamboo. 
Random Notes of an Angler. 
The Tatttog as a Sportsman's Fish. 
Among my friends is a gentleman who devotes most 
c.f the time that can be spared from his business to hunt- 
ing and fishing. He is an expert with rod and gun, and 
is an enthusiastic and thorough sportsman in every way, 
except that he prefers to catch tautog with a hand line 
rather than with rod and reel. 
This trait in his character — I call it crankiness — I have 
never been able to change. In vain have I quoted from 
angling books and sporting papers and given him my own 
experience and that of others who enjoy fishing for this 
species with rod and rather light tackle ; he simply shrugs 
his shoulders, or laughs good naturedly at my argu- 
ments, declares that the way he fishes is the only fit way to 
catch tautog, and goes out in his boat early in the morn- 
ing, anchors over his favorite ledges, and pulls up his 
two or three pounders hand over hand, like so many cod 
or haddock. Well, I suppose "a willfu man mun gang his 
ain gait," and if my friend will not be convinced, it is 
nobody's business but his own, but it is a great pity that 
he loses such a lot of capital sport as he does every 
season. 
Now I do not claim that the tautog is pre-eminently a 
game fish when compared with the salmon, bass and 
squeteague, but that it is capable of affording most ex- 
cellent sport with rod and reel there are hosts of anglers 
who will testify. 
On a rather stifiish bait rod a four or five pound tautog 
will, if hooked in rough water, give an angler all he 
wants to attend to before it is landed. While the tautog 
is as a rule a bottom fish, it does not always restrict it- 
self thus, for I have repeatedly taken them in breakers in 
which even the striped bass would have to "hustle" to 
keep in safe water. 
Time and again have I fished from ledges and rocky 
shores for these fish when breakers six or eight feet high 
were dashing all around me, and the tautog found no 
difficulty in "stemming the tide" and in seizing my baited 
hook as it moved about in the foaming water. And then 
what a battle ensued! The tautog does not make such 
wild runs as does the striped bass, but it is an immensely 
muscular fish — examine one and note how broad and 
thick it is — and when it starts to go it generally goes, and 
the angler needs to handle his captive with good judg- 
ment or it will break away. 
Frequently have I had my line taken out twenty or 
more yards at a run, and have had this repeated before 
my fish was landed. 
The gait was not a fierce one, but there was a dogged 
determined pull, such as no ordinary line, if not running 
from a reel, could withstand. 
The worst trick that this fish has is to carry the hook 
(the second one) beneath shelving rocks or in holes be- 
tween jagged points of ledges, in which it becomes 
fastened and the fish escapes. 
As to Tackle. 
For tautog fishing my favorite rod is a split bamboo 
ten feet in length and weighing about eight ounces; the 
tip is stiff enough to be available for bait-casting and 
pliable enough to afford a proper degree of sportsmanlike 
play in handling a good fish. 
For reel I have found that a substantial click reel, such 
as I have described in a previous article as a salmon reel, 
but smaller, is better than a multiplier. I know very 
well that there are anglers who will not agree with me in 
this, men who believe that a multiplier is the reel for surf 
fishing, for the reason that it permits one to take up line 
more quickly than an ordinary reel does, but I have seen 
so many accidents from the use of the former, have seen 
tangled lines, and dogged reels and lost fish, and "lan- 
guage" that I will "hae none o' them." 
For a line I have settled down to using one of linen 
rather than one of braided silk, such as is used by many 
other anglers. 
For hooks, the kind sold in the tackle stores under 
the name of blackfish or tautog hooks are undoubtedly 
the best; care should be taken to have them well tied on 
strong, doubly twisted gut, and when two hooks are 
used one should be set at least six inches above the other. 
It is well to have a variety of sizes along and a supply of 
Nos. 3 to 10 will suffice to meet any and all emergencies. 
A swivel sinker is preferable to any other in surf or 
breakers, but if bottom still-fishing is followed the tracing 
sinker through which the line moves freely is the better 
one. I am inclined to believe that the tracing sinker is 
not valued as it should be by most bait-fishermen. With 
the ordinary sinker which often rests on the bottom the 
fisherman does not feel the bite unless the sinker is 
dragged along; but with the tracing sinker the weakest 
bite is felt, for the reason that the line moves in response 
Vvithout any check whatever from the sinker. 
While the tautog usually prefers a rocky bottom and 
loves to lurk among reefs and ledges and about sunken 
wrecks, it does not limit itself to such surroundings, for 
it is taken on great stretches of sandy bottom in Long 
Island Sound. 
In former days it grew to a considerably larger size 
than is taken now, fish weighing ten or twelve pounds 
then being common, while in recent years a five-pounder 
is a rarity. 
Scott in his "Fishing in American Waters" says that 
"The blackfish, or tautog, is not to be disdained by the 
disciple of rod and reel. Though he is eminently a con 
mercial fish, yet a tide-runner of his family which weigh 
from eight to twelve pounds makes such dips and runs as 
try both the angler and his tackle. A somewhat cele- 
brated Senator of Rhode Island (Burlingame) used an- 
nually to spend several summer weeks in fishing for 
tautog with an artistically rigged hand hne. He sculledi 
his boat to the edge of the tide, on the bank between a 
rapid current and nearly slack water, and near an islet or 
reef of rocks in the Seconnet River, where the water is 
about fifteen feet deep, anchored his punt firmly, stand- 
ing up in the stern, and cast some seventy-five feet of 
line, armed with two hooks about two feet from the 
sinker, and baited with clam. In this way I have known 
him to take one hundred pounds of tautog in one hour." 
The tautog has not only diminished in size, but it has 
decreased in numbers very considerably also. In Prof.', 
Baird's report of the Rhode Island hearing which 
alluded to in my last article, I find quite voluminous evi- 
dence from fishermen relating to the diminishing supply 
of these fish. 
One witness stated that compared with the fishing twen- 
ty years ago, under the same conditions, the number oi 
tautog caught now (1871) would not be more than one-' 
eighth as many. He said that he used to go outside for 
his fishing -principally, his car holding from 100 to 15c 
pounds. In the ordinary condition of weather he could 
fill it and be home by 9 o'clock in the morning, but now 
twenty years later, fishing the same time, under the samt 
conditions and on the same ground, if he got twenty-fivt 
pounds of fish, he considered he was doing well. 
Another witness said that when he was a boy he used 
to see men who followed tautog fishing go off early ir 
the morning, and come back with as many as they coulc 
sell by 7 or 8 o'clock in the forenoon; now one cannor 
get any to sell by going all day. 
Among more recent data I find in the report of the 
Massachusetts Commissioners of Inland Fisheries anc 
Game for 1900 that the total catch in that State of tautog 
in all pounds, weirs and seines in 1900, was only 12,473 
while the average annual catch for the nineteen years 
1882 to igoo, inclusive, was 63,802. 
The catch for 1895 was entirely phenomenal, it being 
recorded as 436,090. If we omit this and strike an aver- 
age for the other eighteen years, we find that it is 43,119 
or considerably more than three times the entire catct 
for 1900. 
The food of the tautog is varied and consequently thi 
angler is not confined to only one or two kinds of bait ; i' 
is fond of small mussels, which it strips from the rocks 
and sea clams, crustaceans, such as fiddler crabs, hermi 
and sand crabs, and small lobsters are greedily eaten by it 
To small lobsters it is very destructive, as the following 
example will show; 
"A fisherman put a tautog which weighed half a pounc 
in a lobster car in which there Were three hundred pound; 
of living lobsters. It was kept in the car from the firs 
of May to the end of October, six months, when it hac 
destroyed all the lobsters and weighed three-quarters 0 
a pound,"* 
The bait which I use in preference to all others is 
small crab such as is found hiding in the shale or beneatl 
the rocks on the shore, and which may readily be obtaine* 
by turning over the rocks when the tide has gone out 
I have found them so abundant at times that one hundrec 
or more could be obtained on a stretch of shore not ove 
ten rods in length. Little fellows they are, about an inc) 
in diameter, but they make a most capital lure. The hoo! 
is passed through them from belly to back, care bein| 
taken not to crush them more than is absolutely neces 
sary. If a number of these are captured, they may be kep 
in damp sea weed, in which they will live a long time. 
The tautog is pretty abundant in most of the watel 
which surrounds Long Island, and is taken in many lo 
calities in Long Island Sound and Fisher's Islant 
Sound. It is a favorite market fish in New England, an< 
is found along the New Jersey shore as far south as Dela 
ware Bay, and although it is generally a near-shore fish, i' 
is often captured on the ocean banks off Sandy Hook. 
It is not a free-swimming, wide-ranging fish like thi 
bluefish, bass and squeteague, but makes its summer hom.' 
in a given locality, from which it moves only on the ap 
proach of very cold weather, when it goes out into deepe 
water, where, like the striped bass, it hibernates in th 
mud or beneath shelving rocks until spring returns. 
One of the interesting peculiarities of the tautog is it 
inability to endure very cold weather, there being mam 
instances on record of its having frozen to death unde" 
the water, the inside of the fish becoming a lump of icei 
Although in New England the tautog is most abundan 
south of Cape Cod, it is found in many localities along 
the shore from Provincetown to Cape Ann. 
I have had good tautog fishing from the rocky shore a' 
Eastern Point, Gloucester; have taken quite a number a' 
Nahant, and have known of many being caught at Cohas' 
set and from the bridge that crosses the river betweei' 
Quincy Point and East Weymouth. At the first-nameci 
locality the fishing is done from the rocks, a strong, heavAj 
rod being used, and the bait cast out into the surf anc 
allowed to sink near the bottom. But at Weymoutf 
bridge, unless one fishes from a boat, a hand line is neces- 
sary, it being almost impossible to save one of the heavj 
fish by lifting it with a rod. On one occasion, at Easti 
ern Point, while fishing with two baits, I hooked a heav} 
fish, which darted at once beneath a rock and fastened tht 
other hook securely. For several minutes it remainec 
firmly fixed, and the prospect seemed good for losing botll 
fish and tackle, when it suddenly became released, and the 
discover}^ was then made that another large. fish had taken 
the disengaged bait and was hooked. 
For a quarter of an hour they gave me all I could at 
tend to, but the steady strain of the rod proved too 'mucl 
for them, and they' were finally led into a quiet cove 
where the landing net soon secured them. 
They were very dark-colored fish, almost a deep bluf 
black; they weighed four and one-half and five pound; 
respectively, and wre as handsome a pair as one wil 
now find in a season's fishing. 
Edward A. Samuels. 
[10 BE OOKTimTlB.] 
• Report of V. S. Com. of Fiiherics, I871-JS78. 
