118 
Ivlay 22 
STRAY LEAVES FR01I A XATFRALIST'S 
NOTE-BOOK. 
BLUE-FISHI NG AT BEAUFORT. 
BT COSMOPOLITAjr. 
Allusion has already been made in the columns of 
this paper to the merits of Beaufort, N. C., as a ‘‘Para- 
dise for sportsmen,” and incidentally, fishing for blue- 
fish at this point was mentioned, but no detailed ac- 
count was given; to supply this deficiency and perhaps 
afford’ some of my sporting friends an idea of this 
most exhilarating sport, the following account is given, 
compiled from my notebook: and here let me suggest 
to all sportsmen the great advantage to be derived 
from keeping such a book, in which should be entered 
incidents of hunting experiences, observations in natu- 
ral history, embracing the occurrence of different spe- 
cies at different times, their comparative frequency and 
rarity, and, in short, it should be a careful record of 
the observer’s entire liie so far as it has special reference 
to his investigations of nature while recreating with the 
Rod and Gun. The most trifling and seemingly unim- 
portant note frequently in after years becomes of great 
value, and often serves to elucidate certain points in 
zoological problems. Such a journal or note book I have 
kept ever since I was able to handle a gun or rod and now 
find that little matters I marked down yerrs since with 
no expectation of deriving anything more than mere 
amusement from them, are of great value in certain 
lines of study. 
Before telling the sportsman how to catch blue-fish, 
perhaps a short account of it may be deemed worthy of 
notice. The blue-fish, according to Prof. Gill, belongs 
to the order TeUocephali, sub order AcanthopUri, family 
Pomaiamidtu, genus Pomatomus, and the name at pres- 
ent used to designate the species is Pomatomus saltatrix, 
although until within a few years it was known as Tetn- 
nodon salUttor, a name given it by Cuvier and Valen- 
ciennes, j’ears since. In every day phraseology it is 
known at different points along our coast as “blue-fish,” 
“hoMe-mackerel,” “skip-jacks,” “green-fish,” “tailor’s 
■whiTC-fish,” “snapping mackerel.” With due deference 
to Prof. DeKay and Prof. Gill who both state it is called 
skip-jack in North Carolina, I must bi-g leave to differ, 
as the names mo-t in use are tailor- and blue-fish, snap- 
ping mackerel frequently, but never skip-jack, as far as 
I can learn. This species is one of the most abundant in 
our coast, and is found from Cape Cod to the coast of 
Brazil, and has also been seen on the coasts of New Hol- 
land, Madagascar, Amboyna, and in the Mediteranean 
along the coast of Egj'pt (fid. DeKay). It is hardly 
necessary to give here a technical discription of the 
fish as it is sufficiently well known everywhere, but a 
few points regarding its appearance on the southern 
coast may be of interest. At Beaufort and vicinity it 
first appears in March and April, the smaller individ- 
uals coming in fi*i, but at this time they will not take 
the hook and but a few are captured in nets; but the 
latter part of June and beginning of July they bite 
readily, but are not as numerous as in August and 
September, which two months are the best in the year 
for making good hauls. I find in my note book, under 
date of September 23, 1871, that four persons fishing 
four hours in Beaufort Inlet, took no less than 660 fish 
of large size with hooks alone, and it was not considered 
a very good day for trolling, either, the wind being 
from the westward, and light. It should be mentioned 
that owing to the position of the shoals at the mouth of 
Beaufort Inlet, a northeast wina is the most desirable, 
as it enables the boatmen to make backward and for- 
ward stretches with the wind on the quarter, in short, 
what is known as a “soldier’s breeze,” is considerably 
the be.st. The average length of the fish in July, Aug- 
ust and September is about eighteen inches, and during 
these months I have never seen them larger. Bj- the 
middle of October at Beaufort, fishing for the Pomato- 
mus ceases, and they disappear, not to be seen again un- 
til the succeeding year. This statement is made ad- 
visedly, notwithstanding the fact that blue-fish have 
been seen in December at the localilj' in question, but 
those observed were very small, only about three or four 
inches in length and were probablj’ spawned late in the 
season in the coast farther soutTi, and did not belong to 
the summer schools. The inlet fish coming in from the 
sea, do so in the flood tide, returning in the ebb and 
feed in water four or five feet in depth near shoals. 
As eaters they are the most voracious of any fisb, not 
excepting the pickerel, and their favorite food at Beau- 
fort, ia the “red billed jrar.” so-called by the fishermen. 
Hemiramphu* vnifasciatus of Ichthyologists. I have 
taken blue-fish with their stomachs containing fifteen 
or twenty of these fish, and still they were eager to have 
more, as shown by their eagerness in following the bait. 
The smmmer fishing at Beaufort, as already stated, 
ends in October, but in December and January for the 
sportsman of iron nerves, there is still sport to be found 
in taking the fish on the coast of North Carolina from 
Nag’s Head to Cape Lookout. These fish, regular 
monsters of the sea, weigh from 18 to 20 pounds, and 
happy the man who has fingers sufficiently tough to 
stand the fearful strain one of the fellows produces 
when hooked. They appear off the coast about the 
middle of November, and are generally fished for by 
means of large nets run out and drifted from surf boats. 
It is a curious fact that notwithstanding the existence 
of the Nag’s Head fisheries for years and that great 
numbers of large blue fish have been taken there the 
fact of their occurrence had never been noticed by any 
of our ichthyological writers. The occurrence of these 
large fish is by no means regular and certain, year after 
year, as they sometimes allow quite a lengthened period 
to elapse before they again put in appearance, which 
leads me to refer the reader to a passage to be found in 
Dr. DeKay’s valuable report on the Fishes of New 
Tork, in which he states as follows: “ he appearance 
and disappearance of the blue fish at irregular intervals 
on our coast, appears to be a well established fact. 
Previous to the year 1764, a large, fat fish called blue 
fish, twenty of which would fill a barrel, had been taken 
in great quantities on the coast of .Massachusetts. In 
the year above mentioned, they all disappeared and up 
to the year 1792 they bad not again made their appear- 
ance. This is the substance of a statement in the Mass. 
Hist. Collec. edited by Dr. Storer.” Dr. DeKay goes 
on to state that it has been questioned whether the fish 
above cited were really “blu -fish” or not, and quaintly 
remirks that “Either the barrels previous to 1764 were 
much smaller than at the present day, or the fish then 
were of a larger average size than we find them now; 
or some other species which is no longer found on our 
coast must have been intended. Old fishermen assure 
me that previous to the arrival of the blue-fish on our 
coast, there were great numbers of a fisb very different 
in appearance, much larger, exceedingly voracious, and 
from his general color also called the ‘blue-fish.’ None 
of these they sa}‘ are now seen on the coast. Schoepff, 
who wrote a memoir on the fishes of North America, 
and more especially of the New York waters in 1788, 
states (p. 166): ‘The blue fish of Rhode Island belongs 
to the genus of perches, if indeed il is not in leality ihe 
above described black fish.’ This above described fish 
is our sea bass or CentropriAes gricans which, it will 
be recollected, is also called blue-fish.”' From this it 
would appear that Dr. DeKay did not believe that the 
large fish (twenty to the barrel) were Pomatomus, but 
rather the bass, but I am inclined to believe from what 
I have heard of the occasional appearance of these big 
fish on our coast that they and the North Carolina fish 
are one and the same species. It is a fact worthy of 
note that these large fish are nearly of a size, no very 
small ones being found in the company, and that they 
come in direct from the sea returning by Ihe same road, 
and are never found inside the inlets or sounds. To 
give some idea of the abundance of Ihe fi.sh, I may state 
that in the year 1871 it was estimated that 3.000.000 lbs. 
were taken on the North Carolina coast, representing 
a money value of ^15<',000. With these sea-demons no 
other fish are able to swim except the largest drum 
(Pogonias chromis) whose scales are hard enough to defy 
their attacks; even sharks who devour great numbers 
of the smaller blue-fish, do not dare to intrude upon 
their feeding grounds, and I have been informed by 
fishermen that they have found dead sharks on th'e 
beach, terribly mangled, after a school of the big blue 
fish have passed by. 
I have certainly digres.sed very much from my sub- 
ject, but trust the few notes given will not impair the 
subsequent part of the article. 
Let us suppose that living in New Tork we want to 
have some good fishing on the Southern coast. "Where 
shall we go and how slnll we get llipre? According to 
my judgment .no better place exists than Beaufort, 
which may be reached in 48 hours from New York. 
We should choose the following route and purchase 
tickets accordingly. From New York to Baltimore, 
thence to Portsmouth, Va., on the Old Bay line of 
steamers, which trip down Chesapeake Bay is most de- 
lightful, from Portsmouth to Goldsboro, thence to 
Morehead City, from which.p'*^" t.| an 
hour will land us at the Beaufort wharf. Arrived at 
Beaufort we put up at the Ocean House kept by Mr. 
Street, who will be found to be a person who really 
knows how to keep a hotel, and if we do not revel in 
fish, fowl and oysters, it will not be his fault, as his table 
is spread always with the best the market affords. 
Before settling away for the night we stroll down to the 
wharf and talk witli the fishermen as to the prospects 
for sport in the morning. “Well, Uncle Stephen, what 
are the chances for a good lot of Tailors to-morrow?” 
The old fellow scratches his wool, looks around at every 
point of the compass, shifts his cud from one cheek to 
the other, and like the oracular Bunsby gives mouth: 
“Well, gemmen, if de wind comes out from de norrard 
and east, and toward mornin’ and dere is a good rip of 
a tide I sees no reason to doubt we mought ketch some 
fish, four or six hundred mebbe. ” “Oh! pshaw, that’s 
coming it a little strong, is it not.” “No sah, me and 
Alfred Boyd was out day before yesterday, and I reckon 
we caught a right smart lot, didn’t w* Alf ?” “Sure 
nuff, we did Uncle Steve, about 400 by count.” We 
are satisfied and engage a boat to take us to the ground 
the next day. It is not necessary to procure lines for 
every boat is well supplied, so we go back to the hotel, 
take refreshments, and turn in. 
The next morning we are up betimes, and after a 
good breakfast we don eur old clothes and putting n 
pair of stout buck-skiu gloves in our pocket, start for 
the wharf, where our boat is waiting for us. The 
boats us«d in the vicinity of Beaufort are generally 
open ones, clinker built, of light wood, with a 
centre board, twenty-two feet in length and 
rigged with jib, main sail and top-sail. The 
main-sail has no boom but is what is known as a 
“lug ;” the peak is kept up by a sprii, and the 
top-sail goes above them all. The main sheet, or 
rather the main sheets, for there are two, are fastened 
in the usual position on the sail, but instead of 
working on a traveler they are fastened to cleats on 
each side of the gunnel aft In going about one is 
loosened and the other set taut, with a half bitch, the 
jib sheets run aft through thimbles, and are similarly 
.fastened, the top sail sheet is attached to a cleat in the 
thwart through w hich the mast is stepped. All of these 
boa's have a considerable sheer aft which enables them 
to ride comparatively heavy seas with ease. Such a 
boat is waiting for us and we sti p in, inviting you, Mr. 
Editor, to take the tilUr and sending Boyd forward to 
look out for sand banks, the fastenings are thrown off, 
the main sail hauled aft, am' away we go down the 
Beaufort Channel, the “Ann Eliza” with a good sized 
bone in her teeth. “Hole yei bretf a leetle, Mr. Par- 
ker, ef you please, and w e’ll skim past the p’ii t of Bu- 
forl Island and then hev a clear stretch towards Shackle- 
ford,” says Boyd, our colored pilot, and this mai oeuvre 
being executed in a most nautical manner, we lift our 
sheets and away we go towards the inlets. In the 
meantime Uncle Steve is getting ready the lines which 
ar^ hauled out from some mysterious receptacle undei 
the boom. The hooks merit a description, but don’t 
suppose for a moii ent that they are li e ihe elaborate 
affairs manufactured by our esteemed friend G — ^ — of 
Fort Hamilton, N. Y. harbor, nothing of the sort; they 
are made as follows. A piece of alder six inches long is 
whittled down at each end, the pith punched out the 
line (a good stout one) passed through and the hook 
fastened on the shark being well drawn up through the 
hole in the wood and wedged fast. I think I see the 
I isgust expressed in your face at the sight o) these 
homely appliances but wait until we get among the fish 
and your bran new lead squid will ^e dismounted by 
Uncle Steve's tackle or you may call me a Dutchman. 
AVe are now rapidly approaching the inlet and the 
flock of gulls hovering over the broken water of the 
shoals indicate that fish are about. 
“Git out your lines, gemmen; thars no knowin’ how 
soon we may strike a school.” Perhaps you had better 
relinquish Ihe helm to Uncle Steve, Mr. Editor, and 
post yourself up here in the gunnel opposite me. It 
is done, and taking in our topsail, for we do rot w'ant 
to go too fast, away we stretch across the harbor chan 
nel, lines out and everyone keen for a strike. “I be- 
lieve I have the king of all blue fish,” says P., “but for 
goodness sake somebod 3 ’'help me haul him in or he will 
haul me overboard.” Sheets are slackened off, and as 
the boat loses way, willing hands assist in getting in the 
game which proves to be an enorm« us drum {Pcigonias 
chromis) good for no. hing but chowder or to manure a 
potatoe field. “Ki yi,” laughed Uncle Steve, “dat old 
feller’ll make agood supper for my hogs.” 
