232 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Fish and Fishing. 
Horace Greeley was always going a-fishing, but 
he never went, and a busy life abruptly terminated. 
The tensioned cords which received no relaxation, 
suddenly snapped asunder. There is no other di¬ 
version, perhaps, which affords so much relaxation 
for men of all nations, classes, and ages of people 
as fishing in all its various ways and methods. 
Some idea may be derived of the large attention 
which fishing has received, from the fact that the 
“Bibliotheca Piscatoria,” just published, gives the 
names of 2,496 different volumes on fishing. Per¬ 
haps the most interesting of all of these, next to 
Izaak Walton, is the volume soon to be brought out 
in this country, written by the late David Foster, 
of Burton-on-Trent, England, whose vivid descrip- 
whip: we refer to the famous Royal coachman,Tom 
Bosworth : Old Tom had, in the early part of his 
life,driven three British Sovereigns, viz.—the Fourth 
George, the Fourth William, and finally,- for a 
lengthened period, Her Majesty Queen Victoria. As 
a successful fisherman, Old Tom was unsurpassed. 
He would often fish in the wake of several rodsters, 
whose energy would exceed their skill, and would 
extract not infrequently three times their weight of 
fish, by skillfully and carefully casting over the 
awkward and most unlikely looking spots, which 
the majority of anglers would rarely dream of 
trying. A favorite freak of his with the whip was 
to take the pipe from the teeth of a passing pedes¬ 
trian by a carefully calculated whirl of the lash, and 
this aptitude was as remarkably exemplified, for a 
limited distance, in his use of the rod. Bosworth 
Salmon fishing is yearly becoming more of a 
favorite pastime with Americans. There is one 
Salmon Club here in New York, with seventy 
members, a capital stock of forty thousand dol¬ 
lars, and a club house and extensive fishing 
grounds on the Ristigouche River, Canada. Presi¬ 
dent Arthur and other well-known gentlemen are 
members of the organization. 
Spinning for Pike. 
There is scarcely any limit to the expedients 
adopted for killing pike. Frogs, mice, worms, etc., 
in fact, bait of every conceivable description meets 
with due appreciation when these fish are on the 
run ; toads, it would appear, are the only creatures 
they reject, but a dab of yellow paint will make 
even these presentable. The spinning art, when 
tions of salmon, trout and pike fishing extracts 
below give some idea. They are vivacious reading. 
Our artist, on the following page, presents some 
life-like fishing scenes. 
Fly-Fishing for Trout. 
The superiority of the art of fly-fishing over all 
other systems of angling is universally acknowl¬ 
edged. The ever-exciting nature of surface fish¬ 
ing adds a zest to the sport, unknown to the other 
branches of the art piscatorial. The high pitch of 
expectation experienced as the rising fish daintily 
“plop” off the insects around, extends a highly 
exhilarating influence over both mind and body. 
The whole of the faculties are thus concentrated 
in one focus, ever stimulating to still greater ear¬ 
nestness and efficiency. It is owing to these char¬ 
acteristics, this scope for science and skill, that 
this sport is and has been the chosen recreation of 
men of the greatest celebrity and the highest attain¬ 
ments of modern times. Since the time of Walton 
the angler’s skill has advanced wondrously, while 
keenness of perception and wariness have devel¬ 
oped amongst the denizens of the liquid element 
in a degree quite proportionate. 
The adept at flying for trout, when at work in 
real earnest upon the banks of a well-stocked 
stream, is a striking figure, exemplary of the true 
fisherman. The gracefully erect, though expectant 
attitude, the latter assumed upon the delivery of 
the fly, the slender pliable rod, the long floating 
line and gossamer gut, combine to constitute an 
ideal rodster. 
A thorough command of the rod and line is as es¬ 
sential and important as the wielding of the whip 
in the case of a tandem or four-in-hand drive. The 
most skillful cast known in Europe wielded the 
originated the Coachman Fly, so much appreciated 
for night-fishing. 
Salmon Fishing. 
Upon salmon fishing as a sport much might be 
written : the salmon fisher is a sportsman of an al¬ 
most distinct species from ordinary anglers. The 
superiority of this game fascinates its followers, 
and prompts them to ignore, not only all other and 
inferior branches of the gentle craft, but by no 
means infrequently other field sports and national 
diversions for the pursuit of the salmon when in 
season. The true sportsman, however, pursues 
his peculiar vocation arduously, zealously, and 
spiritedly, and whether it be Nimrod, ramrod, or 
fishrod, for the time being his whole soul is thrown 
into the pursuit. Salmon fishers now wander far-a- 
field for pastures new ; 6ome enthusiastic sports¬ 
men make the pursuit of the salmon their one ob¬ 
ject in life, roaming over the vast area of the Eu¬ 
ropean and American continents, and of late years 
the boundaries of these have been overstepped, 
since the virgin waters of the antipodes have 
proved so fertile. The popularity of salmon fish¬ 
ing has increased something like a hundred per 
cent, during the last half-century. A part of the 
brief vacation of the most eminent statesmen and 
professional men and others, forming the brain pow¬ 
er and intellect of England, is spent annually in the 
Scotch Highlands,the royal emporium for the sports¬ 
man. Here the roving disciple of the rod wanders 
up to the head of the river, into the heart of the 
mountains, sometimes cheered by the pleasant con¬ 
verse of a few true men and honest anglers like 
himself, often alone with nature in her fairest or 
wildest loveliness. 
skillfully practised is, beyond all dispute, the most 
successful system for extracting these fish ; we say 
practised skillfully, not because skill is actually 
requisite to success, but merely to point out the 
difference between the ancient and rude-hand 
trolling, and really scientific spinning, with rightly 
adapted tools and tackle. 
The Blue Fish. 
This fish affords more sport with the troll than any 
other. It visits our bays and estuaries periodically, 
and seems to be growing larger and more plenty 
year by year. In 1850 a ten-pound blue fish was a 
greater curiosity than one of twenty-five or thirty 
pounds now. Then shoals of blue fish were rare, 
now they are to be met with all along the Atlantic 
coast. The smaller ones are readily caught in nets 
and seines, but the larger ones, with their strong, 
closely set sharp teeth, can readily liberate them¬ 
selves, and in trolling, gloves of buckskin or dog¬ 
skin are necessarily worn, and much care, on the 
part of the amateur, is necessary in extricating a 
hook from the powerful jaws. 
The Mackerel. 
It would be difficult, the late Genio C. Scott 
observed, to find a fish more exquisite in form 
or more important in a commercial point of 
view than the common Mackerel. It is one of 
the most important food fishes of the seas, as well 
as one of the most prolific ; they are fished for 
with the hook, and the more sure means of a 
drift-net twenty feet deep by one hundred and 
fifty feet in length, well corked at the top, but with 
no leads at the bottom, for when mackerel are in a 
biting mood they rise to the surface. 
