1B8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 25, 1905. 
The Log of a Sea Angler. 
5Y CHARLES F. HOLDER, AUTHOR OF "aNGLING/' ''bIG GAME 
FISHES," ETC. 
VI.— Ki ling a Devil Fish— Big Rays— Saffoucded by 
Water Spo^its, 
One of the interesting diversions in fishing on the 
reef was watching the ways and habits of the various 
fishes. The clear sandy bottom of the reef ofiE Middle 
Key was the feeding ground of various -ra.ys, called 
stingarees, whiparees and other names derived from 
the long, slender whip or lash, with which they were 
armed. 
They appeared like birds as they moved along the 
white bottoni, their black shapes silhouetted against it, 
the side wing-like fins moving up and down. One spotted 
like a leopard was famous for its leaps, clearing the water 
four or more feet, falling prone with a loud resonant 
crash. Several times I hooked one of these rays with 
a fairly light line on my rod, and it dragged me up 
and down the beach and always carried away the line 
when it made an ofif-shore run. Then I grained them, 
and they towed the dinghy about for a long time, 
proving a gamy fish. I secured the "brush" of one, 
and just above it were three sharp serrated spines — 
weapons to be dreaded as I found later when a com- 
panion was struck by one, the blow nearly severing 
the tendons of the foot. 
Especially in the evening, the leaps of the rays could 
be heard and seen, and I believe they were partly in 
play and partly to escape from the sharks, as at night 
the shallow reef was the feeding ground for a vast 
horde of fishes that came up at this time out of the 
adjacent channels to feed. Fishes never seen at other 
times, now disported in the shallows; the waters were 
churned into vivid phosphorescence by this hungry 
throng. Even the crayfishes left their nests beneath 
the coral and ranged over the seaweed-covered flats, 
in such numbers that I could have filled my boat half 
an hour before sunrise almost any morning by using 
the grains. 
One morning, when the heat was ranging up into 
high thermometric latitudes, I laid on the sands beneath 
a sail awning Chief had rigged up, when directly op- 
posite a ray, which must have been nearly twenty feet 
across and quite as long, sprang into the air. It was 
a marvelous spectacle, and suggested the restorations 
of the giant Pteranodon of early days. When the 
ray struck the water, it shot away with the tips of its 
wings out of water, and then we saw half a dozen on the 
surface, which appeared to be swimming in a circle. 
Chief said they were playing, and it being an op- 
portunity that evidently would not occur every day, I 
decided to try and take one. All the men advised 
against it, having had various experiences, ' while John 
declared that one towed a three-masted schooner out 
of Garden Key Harbor and so demoralized the crew 
that they jumped overboard and left her, preferring to 
risk the sharks in a swim ashore to the devil fish. 
All this had its natural effect and made me more 
desirous of taking a ray. There was a very light breeze 
and we hoisted the mainsail of the sloop, while I rigged 
up a rest on the bowsprit and made my grains fast 
to all^, the available rope, mustering about 500 feet; then 
all being ready, I took my place in the bow in the 
fashion of swordfish harpooners, and told Chief to 
steer for the rays that had moved down the beach a 
way, and were still swimming in a circle. 
As we crept up under the gentle sculling movement 
of Chief's oar, the wind failing in the lee, we saw, for 
a moment, unobserved, the great game of the devil fish, 
as game it must have been. They were swimming one 
behind the other at intervals of ten or twenty feet; the 
sloop stopped, drifting near enough to the outer edge 
of the magic circle for us to see every movement. Their 
motion was a most graceful lifting of the side or 
pectoral fins, a virtual flight in the water; but most 
wonderful was the series of evolutions these sub- 
marine fishes went through. Suddenly one would turn 
a complete somersault, showing its pure white under 
surface like a flash, assuming the original position with- 
out losing its headway; or another would make a 
swooping plunge down to the sandy bottom and rise 
with a rebound that made the water boil like a . caldron. 
Again I saw the devil fish tilt to one side with a 
peculiar motion, displaying a flash of black and white, 
again falling into line in this strange swinging around 
the circle. I could have watched the scene for hours, 
but we were drifting nearer and nearer, so, selecting 
a ray that tipped its back invitingly toward me, I 
hurled the grain into it. 
None of us were quite prepared for what followed, as 
the gigantic fish rose from the water as though blown 
up from below, and appeared like a huge bird flapping 
its wings and swinging its whif)-like tail. But this 
was only for a second; it fell with a crash that sent 
a wave seething back over the bow of the Bull Pup, 
and dashed away, tearing the rope from the coil in an 
ominous fashion. 
There was nothing to do but wait until the end 
came — a few seconds — then the line came taut with a 
thud and the old sloop plunged her sturdy bow into 
the sea. The ray towed us over the reef and showed 
us what would have happened, assuming that we had 
used the small boat. I believe that it could have been 
hauled under water; as it was, when the fish reached 
deeper water it hauled the bow of the blunt-bowed 
sloop down ominously near the deck line, and its course 
took us directly across the end of Sand Key and into 
shallow water. But the devil fish was too demoralized 
to hmt de'ep wWteT o'r tb pfpJ? c-i^t any partfailar tr4\l ■ 
over which to escape. It swam across country at the 
top .of its speed, and, as it happened to be half low 
tide, it dashed ' or slid upon a ragged branch coral 
patch, a deadly cheveaux de frise, and with back ex- 
posed, beat and pounded the water like some huge and 
uncanny dragon, trying to fly, yet unable to rise. 
The dinghy was to^ying behind the sloop, so tossing 
in a lance with which John speared conchs, I jumped 
aboard and Chief pulled me to the scene of the wreck, 
as wreck it was, and no more extraordinary spectacle 
was ever witnessed than this gigantic bat-like creature 
pounding the sea, beating it with resonant blows and 
tossing the spray and spume in air, rolling from side 
to side in its efforts to escape, which only served to 
push it further on to the sharp branch coral. I hesi- 
tated to strike so helpless a prey, but evidently it was 
a question of putting the animal out of its misery; so 
we ran behind and I sent the lance into it several 
times. Up in great convulsive folds the animal rose, 
presenting an appalling spectacle, altogether uncanny 
and menacing; its extraordinary mouth organs . or 
feelers adding to the horror that it might well inspire 
in some. For fifteen minutes it struggled and fought 
against the inevitable after being lanced repeatedly, 
then gave up, and hung inert in the foot or more of 
water that covered this natural trap. 
The tide was falling, and in an hour the great fish 
was high and dry, and we went ashore and waited until 
the flood, when we floated it off and hauled it on to the 
beach, making it fast to the brush by a rope. At the 
next low tide in the morning the devil fish was spread 
out for inspection. 
It has been my good fortune to take nearly all the 
large sea game of American waters, but this fiish was 
the climax in size, fighting qualities and extreme ugli- 
ness, and though I later took one in a more sportsman- 
like manner, following it in a dinghy, the tow we had 
in the sloop was quite strenuous enough for average 
nerves. 
I have seen men rattled by an octopus not three 
feet in width; but the octopus was not a circumstance 
to this manta or devil fish, this diabolical creature with 
its claspers, wings and all-absorbing mouth. It looked 
more bat-li'ke still when stretched on the white bleached 
coral sands. 
It was nearly seventeen feet across (paced) and eigh- 
teen feet or more long by the same measurement. It 
had the general shape of a flat ray, but its swimming 
fins formed wing-shaped organs on the side, which were 
used as wings to enable it to fly through the water. 
The upper surface of the animal was black, the lower 
pure white. Here were the enormous gills. The mouth 
was large enough to have stored two men, though the 
quarters would have been snug. Extending from the 
mouth were two fleshy arms, feelers or claspers, about 
three feet in length, that are used to toss or waft 
food into the capacious mouth; and that they can hold 
or grasp like arms, is well known. Bob told of an 
instance where one had seized the arm of a sailor and 
held it like a vise, and various instances could be cited 
to illustrate the use of the strange "fins." The tail 
was five feet in length and had lost its tip, and bore 
the appearance of a "bull whip." As to the weight of 
our capture, I estimated it at a ton. John guessed two 
tons, and Chief three, which shows the power of pro- 
gricssive imagination. 
Few fishes have the faculty of conveying fear as this 
huge sea bat, dreaded and hated by all seafarers; and as 
specimens thirty feet across have been seen there is 
good reason for assuming that such a fish is to be 
dreaded and avoided unless one has a craving for sport 
of the most strenuous nature. 
The weather was so trying and the heat so pitiless, 
I sailed over to Sand Key, the third key to the west 
from East Key, to find the same conditions — sand, 
brush, cactus, no gulls, but wrecks of old buildings used 
in the Civil War, and graves tunneled by crabs. Chief 
pointed to a spot on the horizon as Northwest Key — 
the smallest of the group. 
After noon a wind came up and we started for Middle 
Key, making a reach out into the main channel. When 
about in the middle I saw a black squall cloud, about 
the size of a man's head, rising over the edge of the 
world to the north. It came on with remarkable speed, 
and in twenty minutes the sky was overcast and the 
sun shut out by a curious copper-hued cloud of ominous 
appearance and import. 
We stood ready to lower the sail, but instead of wind, 
there came a series of waterspouts. First a small 
pendulous finger appeared, dropping from a lead-colored 
cloud not far distant. Down it fell, growing larger 
and larger until halfway to the ocean, when a respond- 
ing tip was seen reaching up to, meet it. The two 
soon joined. The spout had begun in the heavens — a 
whirling column of cloud that extended downward, the 
witid proceeding the cloud body, reaching the sea and 
whirling it about with such inconceivable velocity, that 
it quickly took the shape o fa solid pillar of water that 
appeared to be a pillar supporting the sky. Almost 
before it was complete, another and another formed on 
all sides, and in a short time we were surrounded by 
five of the tallest waterspouts it was ever my privilege 
to Took upon, and I have seen many. 
No more appalling spectacle can be imagined than 
this. How high they were it was impossible to con- 
jecture; they appeared a mile in height, at least, that 
would have been the guess of a cool, disinterested party 
from a safe position; but they may have been but 500 
feet in height. 
As soon as -they were complete, they bent before the 
breeze, which now came up, and began to move to the 
east. I do not know what Were the sensations of my 
companions; I kept ray pwj] to my'self, but Chief ej?-, 
pressed his opinion that if I had let the devil fish alone 
we would at this precise time have been eating fried 
grunt on Middle Key, instead of looking at our own 
funeral. It was a modern miracle that we escaped all 
these swaying giants. John and Bob got the dinghy 
ahead and made fast the line, and stood ready to try 
and tow the Bull Pup out of range at the psycho- 
logical moment; but Chief kicked off his heavy shoes 
and lighted his pipe, and doubtless made other prepara- 
tions for immediate and violent dissolution. 
But he was disappointed; the spouts went careening 
by us, so near that I had to bend my head far back to 
see the top of the nearest, and passed on, like stalk- 
ing giants, with ominous roar and a mass of foam at 
the base, the middle bent like a bow, the top lost in 
the coppery vault of the heavens. 
What would have been the result of. a collision with 
one of these giants it was easy to conjecture. The Bull 
Pup would have been twisted and torn into fragments 
and her parts tossed high into the air by the whirling 
waters. I have been within thirty feet of a large water- 
spout, near enough to be drenched by its spray, deafened 
by its roar, and feel confident to express an opinion; 
yet I saw a large schooner struck by one that came 
out of the coUision with little or no damage. I be- 
lieve, however, that this- was an exception, and the 
vessel was hauled on the reef at the time. 
With the passing of the waterspouts came the wind, 
fresh and sparking; the air was clear, the sun shone 
again on the blue waters, the spouts were a blur on the 
horizon and had doubtless gone to pieces, while we were 
bearing away under press of sail for the Middle Key. 
I had always been skeptical as to the ferocity of 
sharks as regards human beings, but this afternoon, 
when the sun was getting low, I was driven in from 
the reef by a large shark that persistently followed us. 
I was trying to catch some mullets with a cast-net, and 
had waded out into water waist-deep when I saw the 
fin of a large shark. I was partly dragging the net 
in the water, and had left a trail of mullet on the 
smooth water which the wandering shark readily picked 
up; and his peculiar motion in coming on rapidly, beat- 
ing like a boat in short tacks from side to side, was 
so suggestive that I turned inshore, then, reaching the 
shallows, pelted the brutish fish with dead coral rock, 
but did not succeed in driving it off. It swam in until 
it grounded, then thrashed the water into foam in, its 
attempts to escape, while I ran alongside. It was over 
eight feet long, and bulky enough to have played havoc 
with a swimmer; yet I still had my doubts as to 
whether it would have attacked me. It is my ex- 
perience that the average shark is a coward, but I also 
think there are certain sharks that, like tigers and 
elephants, are man-killers and eaters. I have known 
such sharks, and doubtless tropical hot waters aid in 
debasing their appetites. 
Fish Chat. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
The Jocfc-Scott Fly. 
The next two or three pages are filled with a hetero- 
geneous collection, which, to any . eyes but my own, 
is a group of that incomparable fly, the beautiful "Jock- 
Scott." I have always wondered at the killing qualities 
of this fly, for it seems to have a strange charm for 
the salmon, notwithstanding the brilliancy of its colors. 
I suppose that in the books of anglers, generally, there 
is as large a proportion of these flies as there is of the 
other highly successful creation, silver-doctor, which 
fly_ I consider is, for all waters and almost all con- 
ditions of water, the most seductive lure that ever was 
cast. 
_ Like_ many other salmon flies, there is a vast dis- 
similarity in . both the Jock-Scott and silver-doctor of 
different tyers; the brilliancy of both soon fades if dyed 
feathers and imitation tinsel are used, and a visit to 
the tackle stores will show the extent to which the 
cheaper grade of feathers are used in these, and, in 
fact, many others of the more expensive flies. 
Among the feathers which are used in their make- 
up by the more responsible tyers, are some of those 
delicate and beautiful plumes in the crest of the Chinese 
golden pheasant; the lustre of these is always brilliant 
in the water, and, although I have handled a great 
variety of feathers which were dyed in the most skill- 
ful manner possible, I have never yet seen one that 
began tO' approach those I have named in brilliancy 
and every other desirable quality in a salmon fly as 
it passes through the water. In the silver-doctor and 
a number of other kinds a considerable tinsel is used, 
ana it is of the utmost importance that only the pure 
suver tinsel shall be wound. 
In the ordinary run of store flies a poor imitation 
is employed, on account of the greater expense of the 
pure article, just as cheap dyed feathers are used as 
a substitute 'for those^ of the pheasant; and many 
anglers find it necessary in ordering flies to stipulate 
that all the material used shall be of the best quality. 
My torn and faded Jock-Scotts have, like the others, 
filled their mission, each having landed at least one 
salmon, and, as I gaze upon them individually, I re- 
call to memory all the incidents of the struggle and 
locate the very pool in which the salmon was taken. 
Men may smile at one bestowing much sentiment on 
a lot of old and ruined flies, but when each of them tells 
a thrilling story of the grand old rivers among the 
mountains; of the delicious aroma of the forest; of the 
dark, deep, foam-flecked pools; of the delicate lure upon 
the water; of the rise of the argent-clad king of game 
fishes; of the stru^le, and of the final victory — I hold 
that such sentiment is not misplaced. 
