And last, but not least, comes the jewfish, the Gargantua of the water, though clothed in a vesture of modest blackish gray. It is somewhat like a colossal black bass in contour and appearance, and in fact a closely allied species, the jewfish of the Pacific, is called black bass on the coast of southern California. The David who slays this Goliath of the deep should be proud of his achievement, if it is killed on the rod. From twenty to one hundred pounds is about the usual limit of rod-fishing for the jewfish, though a few have been killed on the rod upward of two hundred or three hundred pounds at Catalina Island on the California coast.
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.
Mangrove Snapper. (Lutianus griseus.)
A Good Food-Fish
At any deep inlet of the west coast of Florida, or about Key West, they may be found, but never in great numbers. Unlike the tarpon, the jewfish is an excellent fish for the table, and is greatly esteemed at Key West, where it is cut in steaks and fried in batter, when it is very toothsome. I helped capture one on a shark line at Jupiter Light on the east coast in 1878 that weighed three hundred and forty pounds on the light-house steelyard, and United States Senator Quay was a witness to the weighing. |Some Big Ones|I was also particeps criminis in taking on a shark line another that weighed three hundred pounds, at Little Gasparilla inlet, on the Gulf coast, in the same year. And farther up the coast, at Gordon's Pass, near Naples, I killed a number on the rod that weighed from twenty to sixty pounds. A decade ago the south shore of this inlet, under the palmetto trees which grew on the steep bank, was a noted place for jewfish, and much frequented by Col. Haldeman and other Kentucky gentlemen who had winter residences at Naples.
Another jewfish, a tropical species (Promicrops itaiara), growing even larger than the one named, is also found in Florida waters.
Catching Suckers
I do not mean the universal and ubiquitous sucker so well known from Maine to California, but the so-called shark-sucker, suckfish or remora. Perhaps every genuine American boy has exercised his proud privilege of catching suckers in the glad springtime, and some have doubtless continued the sport in later life in Wall Street and other similar fishing localities. But very few have ever caught the shark-sucker or remora. To be exact I never knew of any one but myself who ever took one with hook and line.
How It Happened