"Very much so indeed," answered Ned. "They are capital bait—the best we have, unless we want to catch sheephead; then we use fiddlers."
"What are fiddlers?"
"Little black crabs that run about by millions over the sand. They have hard shells that whiting and croakers can't crack, while the sheephead, having good teeth, crush them easily. So when we want to catch sheephead, and don't want to be bothered with other fish, we bait with fiddlers."
"Then I understand that fish are so plentiful here and so easily caught that they bother you when you want to catch particular kinds?" said Jack, incredulously.
"If you mean that for a question," answered Ned, "I'll let you answer it for yourself after you've had a little experience."
"Well, if we don't get any shrimps," said Charley, "we'll fish for sheephead with musicians."
"Musicians? oh, you mean fiddlers," said Ned. "But we'll get shrimps enough."
"Do they bother you, too, with their abundance?" asked Jack, still inclined to joke his friend.
"Come on and see," said Ned, who had now prepared himself for wading.
Taking the cast net in his hand, and giving a pail to Jack, he led the way to the sea. Wading into the mouth of a little inlet he cast the net, which was simply a circular piece of netting, with a string of leaden balls around the edge. From this lead line cords extended on the under side of the net to and through a ring in the centre where they were fastened to a long cord which was held in Ned's hand. A peculiar motion in casting caused the net to spread itself out flat and to fall in that way on the water. The leaden balls caused it to sink at once to the bottom, the edges reaching bottom first, of course, and imprisoning whatever happened to be under the net in its passage. After a moment's pause, to give time for the lead line to sink completely, Ned jerked the cord and began to draw in. Of course this drew the lead line along the bottom to the centre ring, and made a complete pocket of the net, securely holding whatever was caught in it.