I have seen more pompano about the beaches of Big and Little Gasparilla Keys of Charlotte Harbor, on the Gulf coast, than elsewhere in Florida. On their outside beaches, during the flood tide, the beach-fleas and pompano-shells come rolling in on every wave. The little mollusks disappear beneath the sand in the twinkling of an eye, but the crustaceans are again carried out by the receding wave. And this continues during the first half of the flood tide, during which time schools of pompano are feeding on them. On one such occasion myself and a friend were "flea-fishing" for pompano; that is, we were using fly-rods and very small hooks baited with beach-fleas, which we cast in the same manner as artificial flies. My friend, fishing at the water's edge, often forgot in his eagerness to step back to avoid each "ninth wave," which would wet him to his knees. However, in that warm, sunny clime the involuntary bath did him no harm, and he had his compensation in a basket of fine pompano, which were duly planked for dinner and eaten, bones and all,—for their bones are very soft and semi-cartilaginous. The head of a broiled or planked pompano is a bonne-bouche that once eaten will ever be held in grateful and gratified remembrance.
CHAPTER XVII
THE CHANNEL FISHES
The channels among the reefs and keys from Cape Florida to Key West and vicinity abound with a number of percoid, or perchlike, fishes, belonging to several families. They are mostly of small size, comparatively, but afford good bottom fishing. They are all good food-fishes and find a ready sale in the markets of Key West. Most of them are remarkable for their gay and brilliant coloration.
The coralline formation of the keys and reefs renders the use of seines and nets impossible, so that all of the fishing for market is done with hook and line,—usually with sea-crawfish bait, though a few are taken in traps formed of heavy wire. The fishes consist of grunts, snappers, groupers, porgies, etc., and are carried to market alive in the wells of the small vessels known as "smackees."
A fleet of larger vessels, mostly schooner-rigged, troll along the keys and reefs for the larger surface-feeding fishes, as kingfish, cero, Spanish mackerel, bonitos, large groupers and snappers, etc. The troll is usually a piece of bacon-skin cut of an elliptical shape to simulate a fish, and is impaled on a codfish hook with a snell of copper wire, and a laid cotton codfish line of a size nearly as large as a lead-pencil. The hooking and hauling aboard of the fish, while under sail, so disables it that it is killed by a blow on the head and carried to market on ice.
As all of the grunts, snappers, porgies, and other channel fishes grow only to a foot or two in length, the same tackle may answer for all. The fishing is done in water of varying depth, from a few feet to twenty or more, from an anchored boat. The best plan for the angler who is visiting Key West for the first time is to go out with a market fisherman in his boat and learn by ocular evidence the modus operandi of channel fishing. After that he will be prepared to follow his own devices and fish in the same or an improved way.
A stiffish black-bass rod, or the Little Giant rod of seven and one-half feet and eight ounces, a modification of the Henshall black-bass rod, are quite suitable, though the market fishermen use hand-lines altogether. The rest of the tackle needed is a multiplying reel, a braided linen line, size E or F, Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hooks of various sizes, from Nos. 1 to 3-0, according to the size of the mouths of the different fishes, though No. 1-0 will be found to be a good average size. Sinkers of different weights, from one to six ounces, to meet the strength of the tide, and a strong landing-net must be added. The hooks should be tied on single, strong silkworm fibre.
The best bait is the sea-crawfish (Palinurus), or spiny lobster, which grows to the size of the common lobster, and is found in the crevices of the coral reefs or among the rocks and shells at the bottom, from whence it is taken by the fish spear called "grains." The flesh is taken from the shell and cut up for bait, and the shell itself is tied to a line and sunk near the bottom to attract the fish. Shrimps are also good bait, as are any of the small fishes, or conchs cut into suitable sizes. Any of the various crabs can also be utilized. The large conchs Strombus and Pyrula are good, and a large one will furnish bait for a whole day.