Part 8

About Biscayne Bay the angler will find fishing for large-mouth black bass, bream, etc., on Miami River, and at Arch Creek above, and Snapper Creek below. For salt-water fishing he will have all he can attend to at almost any of the inlets and passes between the keys from Cape Florida to Bahia Honda. Among the best are Bear Cut, Cæsar's Creek, Angelfish Creek, and the channels between Rodriguez, Tavenier, Long, Indian, Mattecumbe, Vaccas and other keys. He will find the various channel fishes, and groupers, snappers, cavalli, kingfish, cero, etc., in addition to ladyfish, ten-pounders and a host of others. If he visits Cocoanut Grove, my old friend, Charles Peacock, will put him on to the best fishing grounds.

[Sidenote: Angling on the East Coast]

The best salt-water fishing on the east coast is at the various inlets, though good fishing is found also in the lagoons and in the fresh water streams emptying into them. My own experience begins with Mayport at the mouth of St. John's River. Here and at most of the inlets to the south can be found redfish, spotted weakfish or sea-trout, sheepshead, drum, snooks, together with such smaller species as pinfish, pigfish, croakers, flounders, etc.

[Sidenote: In the Lagoons]

At St. Augustine there is fair fishing at the inlet and in Matanzas River. Near Ormond and Daytona on Halifax River, and below at Mosquito Inlet, the angler will be well rewarded. Fair fishing may also be found on Hillsboro River near New Smyrna and Oak Hill. Some sport is still to be had in the neighborhood of Titusville, on Banana River and Banana Creek.

Back of Rockledge are lakes Poinsett and Wilder, abounding in black bass. Several places on Indian River furnish excellent fishing, as Sebastian River, Indian River Inlet, Gilbert's Bar, and the waters around Jupiter Light. Farther south, on Lake Worth, Hillsboro' and New River inlets, the fishing is still better, and the fishes larger.

[Sidenote: Angling on the West Coast]

St. Andrew's Bay and neighborhood at the northern end of the peninsula will not disappoint the angler. Farther south, in the vicinity of Cedar Key, and at the several rivers below--Withlacoochee, Crystal, Homosassa, Anclote, etc., and at the passes on Clearwater Harbor, the smaller species abound, with occasional big ones. Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, Lemon Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Marco and other bays, with their numerous inlets and passes and tributaries are not excelled in the world for the variety and excellence of their game-fishes, large and small.

[Sidenote: Tools and Tackle]

Tarpon and jewfish require special rods and reels. The largest groupers, barracudas, amber jacks, bonitos, etc., require striped bass rods, reels and lines, while most of the other fishes mentioned may be easily handled with a good ash and lancewood black bass rod of seven or eight ounces, multiplying reel and corresponding tackle. Sproat hooks of various and suitable sizes cannot be excelled for any kind of Florida fishing, if of the best quality. Almost any kind of bait, natural or artificial comes in play--mullet, pilchard or anchovy for surface-feeding fishes; crabs, fiddlers, beach fleas and cut bait for bottom feeders. Trolling or casting-spoons or spinners can often be substituted for other baits.

[Sidenote: With the U. S. Fish Commission]

During the winter of 1889-90 I had charge of a scientific expedition to the Gulf of Mexico with the schooner _Grampus_, of the U. S. Fish Commission. I did the shore work of collecting fishes and fish food along the west coast of Florida, from Biscayne Bay around Cape Sable and northward to Tampa Bay, and secured nearly three hundred species of fishes and many crustaceans. For this work I had a mackerel seine boat, thirty-four feet long, rigged with foresail and mainsail. At night I fastened a sprit as a ridge pole between the two masts, and with an awning from the _Grampus_ I housed the boat in completely.

[Sidenote: Sport with Jewfish]

One sunny morning I sailed from John's Pass and entered Gordon's Pass, a few miles south of Naples, about noon. While the men were preparing dinner and getting the seines and collecting outfit in readiness, I had some fine sport with jewfish, running from fifteen to forty pounds, on a ten-ounce rod. A few hundred yards from the mouth of the pass, on the south shore, where the bank is very steep and crowned with palmettos, the water is quite deep, and was a favorite resort for jewfish, as heretofore mentioned.

[Sidenote: A Good Haul]

After dinner we proceeded to haul the long seine, and just as it was landed, filled with all manner of fishes, four negroes came driving up the beach in a mule cart, two men and two women, to where the seine was being hauled ashore. They leaped out of the cart at once, consumed with curiosity as to the contents of the seine. The oldest woman was an immense specimen, weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds, and with a beam as broad as the cart. The other woman was a comely mulatto girl, her daughter. I had just gaffed a small horned ray, a devil-fish, about four feet across its wing-like pectoral fins.

The fat and dusky gargantuan female came waddling down the beach as fast as her short legs could carry her. On seeing the rather formidable and frightful looking ray, she recoiled in horror and exclaimed:

[Sidenote: The Darkeys and the Devil-fish]

"Good Lawd! Wat is dat ting, mistah?"

"That's a devil-fish, Auntie," I replied.

"Fo' de lan's sake! It sho' luks lak de debble! Luk, Rastus; luk at his ho'ns and tail!"

Then turning to her daughter, she said: "Go 'way, honey; don't come anigh dat ugly varmint; he sho' swallow yo' or prod yo' wid his ho'ns."

I assured her and the other terror-stricken darkies that no harm would befall them provided they did not approach too near. Turning to the fat woman, I asked: "When did you leave Kentucky, Auntie?"

"Good Lawd, mistah! How'd yo' know I fum Kaintucky? You must be cunjah man."

[Sidenote: Old Kentucky]

"Why, Auntie, as soon as you opened your mouth I knew you were from Kentucky; I'm from Kentucky myself," I answered.

"'Deed, honey, I'm pow'ful glad to see yo'," she said. "Why, dar's lots o' people fum Kaintucky up to Naples. Kurnel Haldeman and Gen'l Sarah Gordon Williams is bofe dar; and Miss Rose, Pres'dent Grove Cleveland's sistah, she dar, too, at de hotel." Then she added, "I'm de cook for Miss Lizzie M'Laughlin; she keeps de hotel."

[Sidenote: A Good Catch]

It seemed that the cook and her party had come down to the pass to fish, but as I gave them more fish than they really needed, they concluded to return at once to Naples, especially as the jolly cook declared that, "Dat debblefish dun spile my appetite fo' fishin'."

I handed my card to her, with the request that she take it to Colonel Haldeman, or General "Cerro Gordo" Williams. They departed in great glee, but with furtive glances at the devil-fish on the beach. As they started off, the corpulent cook shouted:

[Sidenote: A True Angler]

"Good-by, mistah; hopes to see you soon. Say, mistah, we all's gwine to 'tend lak we cotch all dese fish wid we all's fish lines."

"All right, Auntie, I will not give you away," I replied.

She evidently had one of the qualifications of the true angler.

[Sidenote: The Founder of Naples]

Late in the afternoon I saw a lady and a gentleman coming down the beach in a handsome carriage, drawn by a pair of trim-looking mules. I soon recognized Col. W. N. Haldeman, of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, and his good wife. Col. Haldeman was the founder of Naples, where he had a charming winter home. (His sad death through a trolley-car accident will long be regretted and mourned by his many friends.)

[Sidenote: A Kentucky Welcome]

The Colonel and his lady insisted on my dining with them that evening. I pleaded that I had nothing to wear but outing clothes, and was not presentable. They would not be refused, however, the Colonel saying that it was their first drive in the carriage, which had been on its way six weeks from Louisville, and that Mrs. Haldeman had honored me by coming herself to invite me. Of course, I had to accept their kind invitation, as I could proffer no more excuses, and especially as the Colonel promised me a real Kentucky dinner; that settled it. We had a delightful drive up the beach on the hard sand at low tide, and the dinner was to the queen's taste: Oyster soup, baked redfish, venison steak, and the Kentucky feature, a roast 'possum with a lemon in its mouth.

[Sidenote: Moonlight Ride by the Sea]

After a most enjoyable evening with a happy company, myself and one of my darkey acquaintances of the morning mounted two saddle mules for a moonlight midnight ride down the beach to the pass. It was a high, spring tide, compelling us to occasionally abandon the beach where covered with water, and take to the scrub, much to the evident fear of the negro, who, I soon discovered, was very timid and superstitious. He started at every sound in the still night--the puffing of a porpoise in the water or a 'coon or 'possum scurrying through the thick scrub or the weird cry of a night bird caused him to blench with evident fear and trembling. At the leap of a large fish, a tarpon or jewfish, that struck the water with a resounding splash, he whispered:

"Doctah, was dat a debblefish?"

"It might have been," I replied.

[Sidenote: Voices of the Night]

Just then a bull alligator in the bayou back of the beach emitted a terrible roar, followed by the discordant cries of all sorts of waterfowl; and, as it happened, some large animal, a horse or cow, or perhaps a deer, fled at our approach and crashed through the scrub. Altogether the various sounds were somewhat appalling, and calculated to alarm and distress a more courageous person. At last we reached the pass, and my boat, with its white canvas roof glaring in the light of the full moon, broke on the gaze of the astonished darkey through the trees, and as it moved this way and that, responsive to a slight breeze, it seemed an uncanny thing to the thoroughly frightened man as he moaned:

[Sidenote: Spooks and Devils]

"O Lawd; O Lawd; dar's a spook! De debble will sho' cotch me. I wish I was back in ole Kaintuck. Oh, doctah, I sho' am 'fraid to go back to-night. I sho' saw de debble's eye shinin' in de bresh, and heard de splash of his tail in de watah, all de way down. Please, sah, let me stay in de camp till de mawnin'."

I saw that he was really terrified, and that it would never do to let him attempt to return to Naples alone that night. Accordingly we hobbled the mules, and I made him a bed in the boat, where he soon was snoring and making as loud and uncouth noises as any "debble" was capable of. In the morning I gave him a good breakfast and started him home with the mules, the happiest coon in Florida.

[Sidenote: Florida Up to Date]

I have not been in Florida since the winter of 1896-7, but even then it had greatly changed from the old Florida I knew as far back as 1878. At the present day my old cruising and camping grounds near Rockledge, Lake Worth and Miami are famous winter resorts, with large and commodious hotels whose luxurious appointments and service are unsurpassed in the world.

Both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as the interior of the State, are now well-populated by Northern people, mostly engaged in raising sub-tropical fruits and early vegetables. Marshy lands, once the resort of innumerable water-fowl, have been drained and cultivated. The pine forests and flat woods where once the cowboy reigned supreme, and where the deer and wild turkey roamed at will, have been decimated or destroyed by sawmills and turpentine stills. The rookeries of the cypress swamps and wooded keys have been laid waste by the plume hunter, so that the flamingo, pink curlew and egret are now but empty sounding names.

But while the greed and improvidence of commercial fishermen have greatly reduced the numbers of not only mullet, but redfish, sheepshead, sea-trout and other bay fishes, there still remains the best and most varied fishing in the world for the angler who cares more for real sport than a big creel.

[Sidenote: Fishing Galore]

In the brackish bays the channel bass, cavalla, snook, sea-trout, croaker, sailor's choice, etc., will furnish all the sport, either with bait or fly, that the reasonable angler can desire. So, also, at the inlets and passes he may enjoy the matchless sport afforded by the ladyfish and ten-pounder. Along the reefs and keys at the end of the peninsula he may troll or cast his lure for the kingfish, Spanish mackerel, amber jack and bonito. Along the rocky shores the groupers and large snappers will freely respond to his baited hook, while in the channels about the keys those beautiful pan-fish, the grunts, porgies, snappers and other fishes of the coral banks, may be taken _ad libitum_.

INDEX

INDEX

Absurd names for brown trout, 111. Abundance of trout, 81. Ambition, youthful, 7. Angler's recital, 8. Angler's view-point of flies, 76. Angling along east coast of Florida, 168. along Florida Keys, 167. along west coast of Florida, 169. charm of, 12. enthusiasm for, 5. in the lagoons of Florida, 168. love of, 6. parlous times in, 3. Arctic grayling, 45. Artificial baits, 25. flies, dark or light, 78. flies, for black bass, 24. flies, for grayling, 44, 56, 57. flies, for trout, 72. flies, in their season, 77. flies, management of, 24, 54, 83. flies, philosophy of, 74. At the yule-tide, 141.

Baby porpoise, 166. Back-log reveries, 66. Bait fishing, for black bass, 25. for brook trout, 90. for Florida fishes, 144, 148, 150, 156. for grayling, 57. for tarpon, 122. Baits, artificial, 25. Barracuda, the, 164. Batiscan Falls, 99. river, 95. Black bass, the, 3. appearance and habits, 10. bait fishing, 25. breeding habits, 18. fishing, 5. fly-fishing, 24. in new waters, 6. in olden time, 9. leap of, 13. pond culture, 23. propagation of, 22. season for fishing, 10. size and weight, 19. skittering for, 37. still-fishing, 38. tools and tackle, 26, 27, 30, 31. Blue norther, 136. Bozeman fisheries station, 51. Breeding grounds of tarpon, 129. Brown trout, 110. absurd names for, 111. as a game fish, 111. fly-fishing for, 112. in Yellowstone Park, 112.

Casting baits, 28. overhead, 29. the minnow, 26. Catching suckers, 159. Cavalla, the, 145. fly-fishing for, 145. tools and tackle for, 145. Channel bass, the, 149. Charms of angling, 12. Chief function of reels, 32. of rods, 71. Climate of Florida, 142. Condition _vs._ theory about flies, 79. Cut-throat trout, 102.

Dame Juliana Berners, 43. Darkey and devil-fish, 170. Devil-fish, the, 164. Distribution of black bass, 20. of grayling, 49. Dolly Varden trout, 109. Dry-fly fishing, 86, 87.

Eggs of black bass, 22. of grayling, 52. Ethics of sport, 4. Eye of grayling, 48.

Fair specimen, a, 138 Fishing reels, 31. rods, 26. Fish story, 91. Fishes, leap of, 13. way with a bait, 17. Fishing galore, 179. Fishing on the verge, 100. Florida climate, 142. fish and fishing, 141. grains, 164. up to date, 178. Flower of fishes, 43. Fly-fishing for black bass, 24. for cavalla, 146. for grayling, 54. for sea-trout, 148. for tarpon, 123. trout, 82, 86. Founder of Naples, 174. Frightened darkeys, 172.

Gameness of grayling, 45. Gay snappers, 151. Gilead, balm in, 68. Golden trout of Kern River, 114. of Sunapee Lake, 116. of Volcano Creek, 114. of Sierras, 113. Good haul, a, 171. Grayling, the, 43. Arctic, 45. as a game-fish, 52. distribution, 51. fishing, 53. food and haunts, 49. Michigan, 46. Montana, 46. Propagation, 52. tools and tackle, 56. Groupers and snappers, 150.

Habits of black bass, 18. of grayling, 49. of tarpon, 129. His Majesty, the silver king, 121.

In olden time, 9. In old Quebec, 96.

Jack Marrigle, 153. Jewfish, the, 158. some big ones, 159. sport with, 171.

Kentucky welcome, 175. Kingfish, the, 149.

Lacs du Rognon, 97. Ladyfish, the, 152. confusion of name, 154. differentiation, 155. fishing for, 157. tools and tackle for, 156. Leaping of fishes, 13. Leviathan fishing, 3. Love of angling, 6. Lowering the tip, 84. origin of the rule for, 85.

Manatee, the, 166. Mangrove snapper, 151. Michigan grayling, 46. Millions saved, 23. Minnow, casting the, 26. Missed opportunity, 163. Monasteries and grayling, 60. Montana grayling, 46. Moonlight ride by sea, 175. Mother Nature's sanitarium, 68.

Non-rising of trout, 79.

Old Kaintuck, 173. Origin of short casting rod, 27. Overhead casting, 29.

Parlous times in angling, 3. Passing of brook trout, 65. Michigan grayling, 47, 61. Peculiar eye of grayling, 48. Phosphate fishing, 162. Philosophy of artificial flies, 74. Pipe dreams, 67. Pleasant transition, a, 141. Porpoise baby, 166. calves, 165. Position of reel on rod, 33. Practical hints for trout fishing, 82. Pride after a fall, 67. Propagation of black bass, 22. grayling, 51. Pumping tarpon, 127.

Rag-time dude, 151. Rainbow trout, 107. in new waters, 108. Recital, the angler's, 8. Redfish, the, 149. Red snapper, the, 151. Red-throat trout, 102. Reels, chief function of, 32. Reel fishing, 31. for tarpon, 127. for trout, 72. on top or underneath, 34. position on rod, 33. something more about, 32. Remora, the, 160. Restigouche River, 94. Riband in cap of youth, 8. Rocky Mountain species, 101. Rods, fishing, 26, 56, 70, 120, 156, 170. short bait-casting, 27. Rovallia, the, 157.

Sanitarium, Nature's, 68. Scared darkey, 135. Sea-cow, 166. Sea-trout (brook), 92. Sea-trout (Florida), 146. Sheepshead, the, 144. Silver king, the, 121. Silver shuttle, 153. Skip-jack, 153. Snappers and groupers, 150. Snook, the, 157. Something more about reels, 32. Sorry plight of captain, 136. Spanish mackerel, the, 146. fly-fishing for, 148. Spanish mackerel, shore-fishing for, 147. Spearing the jumbos, 163. Spooks and devils, 177. Sport, ethics of, 4. St. Ambrose and the grayling, 43. Steelhead trout, 105. Stingaree, a, 135. Strenuous fishing, 165. Suckers, catching, 159. Sunapee trout, 116. trolling for, 117. Sure thing, a, 137.

Tarpon, the, 121. enthusiast, 128. fishing for, 122. habits of, 129. in Florida waters, 121. records, 125. the first on a rod, 124. tussle with a, 130. Ten-pounder, the, 153. confusion of name, 154. differentiation, 155. fishing for, 157. Tic douloureux, 137. Tools and tackle for black bass, 30. for brook trout, 70, 91. for Florida fishing, 169. Tools and tackle for grayling, 56. for red-throat trout, 105. for tarpon, 126. Trout, the angler's pride, 65. fishing for, 82, 86, 89. non-rising of to fly, 79. tools and tackle, 71. why it takes the fly, 75. Trout's view-point of flies, 76. True angler, a, 174. Tussle with a tarpon, 129. Twin evils, 29.

Vaulting ambition, 14. Virgin trout stream, 94. Voices of the night, 176.

Wet-fly fishing, 89. Whipparee, a, 134. Winninish, the, 93.

Yellowstone Lake trout, 104. Youthful ambition, 7.

_Set up, Electrotyped and Printed at_

THE OUTING PRESS

DEPOSIT, NEW YORK

Transcriber's note:

Everything (including inconsistent hyphenation) has been retained as printed, unless stated below:

p. 46: "mentioned by Lewis and Clarke" Clarke changed to Clark;

p. 52 (Sidenote): "Game and" inserted hyphen after Game;

p. 77 (Sidenote): "Flies in their Season" their changed to Their;

p. 114: "Salmo rooseveldti" rooseveldti changed to roosevelti;

p. 158 (Sidenote): "Garrupa nigritis" nigritis changed to nigrita;

Sidenotes and illustrations were moved to paragraph breaks. Duplicate chapter headings and the copyright information for the images have been omitted in the text version.