Bass, Pike, Perch, and Others

by James A. Henshall

The yellow-tail is well proportioned, compressed, and elliptical, being regularly curved from head to tail. Its head is as long as the depth of the body, with a pointed snout; the mouth is rather small, with the lower jaw projecting. The color above is olivaceous, or bluish, below violet; a broad, deep yellow stripe runs from the snout, through the eye, and along the middle of the body to the caudal fin; above this stripe there are a number of deep yellow blotches, as if made by the finger tips; below the broad yellow stripe are quite a number of narrow, parallel yellow stripes, with violet interspaces; the iris of the eye is scarlet; the very long caudal fin is entirely deep yellow, and the other fins are bordered with yellow.

The yellow-tail associates with the grunts and porgies about the coralline rocks in the channels, feeding on small fishes and crustaceans. Its average size is ten or twelve inches in length and nearly a pound in weight, though it sometimes is taken up to two feet, and three or four pounds. It is quite a good game-fish and very voracious, eagerly taking sea-crawfish, crab, conch, or small fish bait. Some of the large conchs, as Pyrula and Strombus, will furnish bait for an entire outing, the animal being as large as a child's forearm. Black-bass tackle, with hooks Nos. 1 to 1-0 on gut snells, will answer for the yellow-tail.

THE LANE SNAPPER

(Lutianus synagris)

The lane snapper is another beautiful fish common about the reefs and keys. It was named by Linnæus, in 1758, who called it synagris, as it resembled a related fish of Europe (Dentex dentex), whose old name was synagris. Catesby mentioned the lane snapper in his "History of Carolina," in 1743. It is abundant from the Florida Keys to South America, and not uncommon on the west coast of Florida, as far north as Tampa Bay, and west to Pensacola.

The lane snapper resembles very much the yellow-tail in the shape of its body, which is semi-elliptical in outline, compressed, with the back regularly curved from the snout to the tail; its depth is a little more than a third of its length. Its head is as long as the depth of the body; the mouth is large, and the snout pointed. It is rose color, tinged with silver below, with a narrow bluish or greenish border on the top of the back; the belly is white, tinged with yellow; there are deep yellow stripes along the sides, with indistinct, broad, rosy cross bars; the iris of the eye and the lips are scarlet; the cheeks and gill-covers are rosy, with blue above; the pectoral fins are pink, the lower fins yellow, the soft dorsal pink, the spiny dorsal translucent, with yellow border, and the caudal fin scarlet; there is a large and conspicuous dark blotch just below the front part of the soft dorsal fin. The lane snapper feeds on small fishes and crustaceans about the keys and reefs, in rather shallow water. It grows to a foot in length, though usually about eight or nine inches, and is a free biter at the same baits as the yellow-tail.

While it is freely conceded that the highest branch of angling is casting the artificial fly on inland waters, and that the fullest measure of enjoyment is found only in the pursuit of the salmon, black-bass, trout, or grayling, it must be admitted that salt-water angling likewise has joys and pleasures that are, as Walton says, "Worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man." And nowhere does salt-water angling offer more charms to the appreciative angler, or appeal to his sense of the curious and beautiful in nature, than along the keys off the southern extremity of the peninsula of Florida. The palm-crowned islets are laved by the waters of the Gulf Stream, as clear and bright and green as an emerald of the purest ray serene. Through their limpid depths are seen the lovely and varied tints of coral polyps, the graceful fronds of sea-feathers and sea-fans in gorgeous hues, and the curious and fantastic coralline caves, amid whose crannies and arches swim the most beautiful creations of the finny tribe, whose capture is at once a joy and a delight.

THE RED SNAPPER

(Lutianus aya)

The red snapper was named aya by Bloch, in 1790, that being the Portuguese name for it in Brazil, according to Marcgrave. It was described by Goode and Bean as a new species, in 1878, and named blackfordi, in honor of Eugene G. Blackford, of New York, in consideration of his eminent services and interest in fishculture. The red snapper, while not a game-fish, is one of the best known of Florida fishes, inasmuch as it is shipped all over the country as a good dinner fish, its fine, firm flesh bearing transportation well. It is especially abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, in water from ten to fifty fathoms deep, on the "snapper banks," from ten to fifty miles offshore, and thence south to Brazil, occasionally straying north on the Atlantic coast to Long Island.