CATFISH AS SCAVENGERS
With the exception of the sharks, which, vermin as they are, give a
measure of sport under favourable conditions, I have now disposed of
most of the really big game of the Florida coast waters, and it remains
to draw the reader’s and intending visitor’s attention to the number of
other sea-fish that on occasion give excellent sport in those latitudes.
I have often thought that in the all-absorbing ambition for the record
tarpon some of these humbler fish, which would themselves create a
sensation in English waters, are too consistently neglected. The sharks
shall receive notice where their low standing as vermin relegates them,
at the end of the book.
It may be complained, particularly by those who have never been on the
spot, that I have passed too lightly over the real art of tarpon
fishing, made too little of its difficulties, laid too much stress on
the simplicity of success. Well, these are matters of opinion. I never,
in my own tarpon experiences, found a single instance where real skill
and expert knowledge were nearly so important as brute strength and
endurance, and I write only of what I know. Those who like detailed
instructions in the art of tarpon fishing should consult the back files
of _Forest and Stream_, the great American fishing paper, and in these
they will find innumerable excellent articles and letters on the
subject. In a quite recent volume, for instance, I find an admirable
series of tarpon papers from the pen of Mr. J. A. L. Waddell, and I
append, as a specimen of the detail with which some of these writers
lovingly handle their subject, Mr. Waddell’s twelve ways in which a
tarpon may be lost by the careless or ill-starred.
1. By failure of the hook to penetrate a soft place.
2. By the cutting of a hole in the mouth, from which the hook drops
when the line is slackened.
3. By breaking or corkscrewing the hook.
4. By breaking the line, owing to:--
(_a_) its deterioration.
(_b_) fouling of line by overrunning of the reel.
(_c_) tangling of something by the reel handle.
(_d_) too severe application of the brake or reel handle in order
to stop the fish.
[Illustration: DEAD GROUPER BEING DEVOURED BY CATFISH AND BREAM.]
5. By breaking of the snell.
6. By breaking of the rod, generally in the tip, but sometimes in
the butt.
7. By carelessness of boatman in gaffing.
8. By attack of a shark.
It remains to put before the intending visitor to Florida some of the
commoner but yet interesting sea-fish, less game than the tarpon, less
immense than the jewfish, that will under a variety of conditions, and
on days when the tarpon itself is out of reach, afford excellent sport.
These notes are not, of course, addressed to the expert naturalist;
indeed, they are for the most part very brief, and serve chiefly to
introduce my photographs, which may, perhaps, claim to be the most
characteristic series of the kind yet published.
THE COMMON CATFISH (_Galeichthys felis_)
As the turkey buzzards on land, so the catfish in the sea act as
scavengers that we could ill dispense with. The sharks, on the other
hand, with their fiercer and more predatory instincts, may rather be
compared with the eagles among birds. These catfish are, as may be seen
from the photograph, not beautiful to the eye. Neither, for the matter
of that, is the condor, yet it is, perhaps, of more use to South America
than the humming bird.
We here see a trio of catfish busy on the carcase of a monster grouper
that floats dead on the surface; and what would become of such
polluting offal but for services such as are rendered by these useful
scavengers, one shudders to think. These catfish have no scales, their
bodies being shiny, and sleek to the touch, but the fisherman must
beware of insidious spikes hidden behind the fins. Any one familiar with
the salmon will not fail to notice a similar adipose fin on the back of
the catfish, in front of the tail, and the other distinctive feature is
the growth of whiskers, in reality sensitive feelers, on the head. Many
catfish are found only in the rivers of the warmer regions of the globe,
and German and Austrian anglers have their own siluroid in the giant
wels of so many continental rivers and lakes.
In the picture will be seen a couple of sea-bream, apparently hovering
around to pick up the leavings of the larger fish, and, for this or some
other reason, sea-bream are very often caught in company with catfish.
Catfish and buzzards are not the only scavengers of that coast. No
tarpon that is wanted again should be left on the shore, for no sooner
are you out of sight than every hole and cranny in the sand above
high-water mark gives up its ghostly crabs, elfish little body-snatchers
that creep stealthily, and quickly eat their way into the soft parts of
the fish. Ghost-crabs they call them thereabouts, and phantom-like they
look when disturbed and tearing seawards with their attenuated white
legs held on high.
[Illustration: GAFF TOPSAIL CATFISH SO CALLED FROM THEIR FLYAWAY FINS,
AND YOUNG HAMMER HEAD SHARK.]
THE GAFF TOPSAIL CATFISH (_Ælurichthys marinus_)
In the gaff topsail catfish there is not merely an extraordinary
development in the “whiskers,” but the back fin also carries a long
threadlike growth not unlike that in the tarpon. All these catfish
frequent sandy grounds, and are rarely found in the clearer coral
waters. The present species runs to greater weights than the last, and
it is as a rule found both farther from land, and in deeper levels. As
they are all inoffensive scavengers, and by no means the fierce
creatures they look, it is difficult to account for their being so often
hooked by tarpon fishers, except by the probability of their
endeavouring to suck the baits off, and getting foul hooked.
All catfish are active at night, which might be thought to account for
their popular name, only that they are on the feed all day as well. It
is nevertheless a pretty sight on hot nights when the sea is highly
phosphorescent to throw morsels of fish or meat into the water, and
watch the balls of fire darting in all directions as the catfish and
others dash to their repast.
In the picture will be seen a baby hammerhead shark (_Sphyrna zygæna_),
a rather interesting personality, for it had not long been born when
photographed, and had not in fact developed the singular “hammer” of a
later stage, its eyes being still flush with the sides of the head, and
its only distinction from the more typical sharks lying in the
extraordinarily prolonged snout. I give a photograph of an adult
hammerhead later on.
THE SHEEPSHEAD (_Archosargus probatocephalus_)
I mentioned the sea-bream in writing of catfish, and one of the
commonest of the group on that coast is the sheepshead, so-called, I
imagine, from the solid, sheeplike teeth that can even crunch the
mangrove oysters, in the neighbourhood of which these fish are so fond
of foregathering. These growths of oysters on the red mangrove always
attract the notice of visitors unused to the spectacle. The best bait
for these bream is a fiddler crab, a crustacean found in every lagoon
thereabouts, and owing its name to a singular habit of waving its large
claw (only the male has this disproportionate limb) exactly as if it
were drawing a bow across a fiddle. As the sea-bream are fond of
company, playing one is generally the prelude to a good bag of them.
They bear little resemblance to their namesakes of rivers and ponds, for
they are not so slimy or sluggish, but on the contrary more spiny, and
have the dark band markings and game fighting manner of perch. They feed
not far from the bottom, and must be struck sharply the moment they
bite, and for their size they play very well. They can be taken in
immense quantities.
[Illustration: SHEEPSHEAD IN APPEARANCE SOMEWHAT LIKE ENGLISH PERCH,
THEIR FRONT TEETH RESEMBLE THOSE OF A CHILD.]