Bl&ckfish in Long Island Sound. 
New York City, Aug. 31 .—.Editor Forest and 
Stream: Someone has said, somewhere, that 
blackfishing cannot be considered a true angler’s 
sport, but if the angler lives who without en¬ 
joyment can haul half a dozen of the mottled 
fighters into the boat on a light rod, then I know 
nothing of what sportsmen love. But the catch 
is only a small part of the day’s pleasure. There 
is joy in the mere fact of living when one gets 
out into the keen salt sea breeze. The blue 
water dancing in the sunshine, the rugged rocks, 
the white sails gliding by and the waving shore 
line, the woods gorgeous in their autumn rai¬ 
ment—all blend into a perfect color scheme. 
I speak of autumn raiment because the best 
blackfishing is had in the fall. The fish bite 
only at certain seasons, although they are in¬ 
digenous to the localities they are caught in and 
do not migrate. They hibernate during the win¬ 
ter. About April they come to life again and 
then bite well until the excessive heat of sum¬ 
mer, when they again refuse to take the bait 
until the cooler days of September. Then they 
become suddenly voracious and excellent sport 
is had until November. 
People’s views on what constitutes the most 
desirable tackle for blackfish vary greatly. Those 
who consider only the size of the catch swear 
by a heavy hand line anchored with an enormous 
sinker, but the good sportsman will use a short, 
stiff rod with a light line and a sinker suffi¬ 
ciently heavy to hold bottom, yet not heavy 
enough to interfere with the playing of the fish. 
Some skill is needed in hooking. The blackfish, 
while taking the bait boldly, does not swallow 
it at once, and will spit it out at the first indica¬ 
tion of trouble. Jerk hard, then, as soon as you 
feel the bite and then keep good tension on the 
line. The blackfish will pull and fight with grim 
determination until you get him to the surface, 
and it is not for nothing that he has been termed 
the bulldog of the ocean. Give him half a 
chance and he will break your line. 
Ihe best and most easily obtained baits for 
blackfish are the soft shell clam and the fiddler 
crab, but some experts pin their faith to sand- 
worms, shrimp, hard clams and shedder lobsters. 
Some of the oldest fishermen on Long Island 
Sound claim that a blackfish will bite at the tail 
piece of a shedder lobster when no other bait 
will tempt him. The truth is that these fish are 
most erratic in their choice of food and will 
devour clams to the exclusion of all else one 
day, while the next they will refuse the clams 
and swallow voraciously something new. The 
generally adopted plan is to use two hooks, one 
baited with clam, the other with crab; then the 
day’s preference is soon discovered. 
In going blackfishing the angler will find it 
GOOD ONE. 
to his advantage to gather his own bait on the. 
piemises. Soft clams can be found on almost 
any shore that uncovers soft mud at falling tide, 
and one has but to dig a few inches below the 
surface to find them. Fiddlers are harder to 
get, but fewer are needed, for the bergalls will 
not touch them while they will take most of 
your clams. Fiddlers inhabit beaches where are 
rocks, reeds or seaweed. 
d he art of baiting the hook requires study. 
The bergalls are gluttons about clams and un¬ 
less you bait properly they will nibble the clam 
off in a jiffy. There are two ways to prevent 
this: one is to open the clam as if to be served 
on half shell and run the hook through the in¬ 
side ; the other is to use the clam whole, shell 
and all, passing the hook through the protrud¬ 
ing neck and then cracking the shell enough for 
the hook’s point to come out and secure the fish 
when you jerk on the line. 
The question of size of hook is one that each 
man decides for himself. A special blackfish 
hook is sold by sporting good stores and it fills 
the bill nicely, but many believe they do better 
with smaller or larger ones. I have seen such 
a variety used by men of long experience that 
I have concluded that anything from a 2/0 to 
a 10/0 will do. Personally I have found a 4/0 
sproat most satisfactory. 
1 wo methods of rigging the tackle are in 
vogue on the Sound. In the first two gut snells, 
eight and twelve inches long, are tied to a very 
small brass ring and this is fastened to the end 
of a thirty-foot line on which is a sliding sinker; 
in the other the sinker is made fast to the end 
of the line and the two leaders are placed above 
it, about one foot apart. As blackfish swim 
around the bottom, either method will bring the 
bait into their territory. 
I have spoken of blackfish in Long Island 
Sound because a good day’s sport can be had 
there on the spur of the moment without prepa¬ 
ration, trouble or loss of time and money. At 
the same time they are found elsewhere and 
good catches are made along the shores of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island as well as off 
the Jersey coast, Jamaica Bay, Seabright, Sandy 
Hook, etc., but trips to these localities are not 
so easy to make. 
Having become interested in blackfish, I tried 
to learn something of their habits and sought 
the experiences of many a devotee of ^od and 
reel. My investigation resulted in the belief 
that these habits vary according to location and 
season without any consistency. I was told by 
some that they had made their best catches on 
the flood tide, others said on the ebb. Few 
agreed on the best weather for fishing, either. 
I was variously assured that gales, dull weather 
with wind from the east, dead calms with a 
slight roll running, pouring rain and no wind 
were all conditions warranted to kill the sport. 
My own experience has been that such things 
influence the biting very little, and my book of 
records shows the lucky days to have been 
marked by a bewildering variety of weather. 
As to probable or possible catches it may be 
said with assurance that one seldom returns 
empty handed. A few fish can always be 
counted on and often a really good catch is 
made. One to two dozen good sized fish is an 
average catch. 
By good sized fish is meant anything above a 
quarter of a pound. Average blackfish run from 
about this size to three pounds in the Sound 
and four and five-pounders are not rare. Some 
have been caught weighing eleven and twelve 
pounds and tales of larger ones are often heard, 
but these have never been authenticated. 
The best feature of blackfishing is that it 
needs no long journeys, lengthy preparations or 
large expenditures. When the spirit moves one 
has but to throw an old suit of clothes into a 
suit case for it is not wise to go out unpre¬ 
pared for a drenching from above or below— 
pack the necessary tackle and make tracks. In 
little more than an hour one can reach some 
of the best fishing grounds on the Sound and 
boats for hire can be found almost anywhere. 
Then comes the hunt for bait and in a couple 
PLAYING A 
