[Sidenote: Groupers and Snappers]
[Sidenote: Rag-Time Dude]
All of the groupers, the red and black, the scamp and gag, are
game-fishes worthy of the steel of the angler, and grow to goodly size,
twenty to forty pounds. They inhabit comparatively deep water about the
inlets, or along the outer shores and keys, especially in rocky
situations. Being bottom feeders they must be taken with natural bait,
though the trolling-spoon has its attractions. Those named are rather
sober in their garb, which is more or less marbled or spotted with
black, but some of the groupers about Key West are remarkably handsome
fishes, and are much given to very gay and bizarre attire; their coats,
like Joseph's, being of many colors. They also bear more aristocratic
names, as witness: John Paw, Nassau, Hamlet, Cabrilla, etc. But the dude
of the family is the niggerfish, which is a rag-time dandy, always in
full dress for a cake walk.
The snappers are worthy members of the finny race. The red snapper is
the most widely known, commercially, being shipped from Pensacola and
Tampa to all Northern cities. It is a large, handsome fish, dressed,
like Mephistopheles, from snout to tail in scarlet. As it is taken only
in deep water, on the snapper banks, by hand lines, it is of no
importance to the angler. But the gray, or mangrove snapper, is a wary,
active fish and good game. It lurks under the mangroves and must be
fished for cautiously, when it will rise eagerly to the fly, and on
light tackle is no mean adversary. Its usual weight is from one to
three pounds.
[Sidenote: The Gay Snappers]
The lane snapper, dog snapper, yellowtail and schoolmaster, are fine pan
fishes, clothed in royal raiment, and frequent the channels amid the
coral reefs near Key West, where they are readily taken with sea
crawfish bait. The muttonfish is larger and an esteemed table fish, and
with the other snappers is like the lilies, of which we are told,
"Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." It is a
genuine pleasure to the observant angler to capture one of these fish,
if only to gaze upon its beauties, and watch the play of prismatic
colors as reflected in its gorgeous attire. Fishing with light tackle
for these lovely denizens of the coral banks, with one's boat rising and
falling on the rhythmic swell of the pure emerald green sea, is both a
joy and a delight.
[Sidenote: The Ladyfish (_Albula vulpes_)]
The highflyers, or finny acrobats, are the tarpon, kingfish, ladyfish
and ten-pounder. The first-named is so well known that further mention
here is unnecessary, and moreover I have accorded it a special article,
for it trots alone in its class; but while the ladyfish and ten-pounder
are only a couple of feet in length, they are still worthy to be named
in connection with his silver majesty. They are built for aërial as well
as for submarine navigation, and dart so quickly from one element to the
other that it is somewhat bewildering to watch one at the end of a line.
Twenty-five years ago I compared the ladyfish to a "silver shuttle," for
such it appeared in its efforts to escape when hooked.
[Sidenote: The Ten-Pounder (_Elops saurus_)]
The angler visiting the region of Biscayne Bay will find considerable
confusion existing, not only among Northern tourists, but among the
residents, concerning the proper identification of the ladyfish and
ten-pounder. They are two silvery, spindle-shaped fishes that resemble
each other very closely in size, general outline and appearance, and are
known as the ladyfish or bonefish, and the ten-pounder or bony-fish; the
latter is also sometimes called Jack Marrigle in Bermuda, and both
fishes are not infrequently alluded to as "skip-jack." They are
game-fishes of a high order and of equal degree.
The confusion alluded to has been aired in our angling papers for
several years, sometimes with photo-illustrations of the fishes
concerned, which, however, only served to make confusion worse
confounded. For instance, I remember one communication with an
illustration of the ladyfish, but which was stated in the text to be
the bonefish and _not_ the ladyfish.
[Sidenote: Confusion of Names]
This confusion of names arose originally from the fact that the names
bone-fish and bony-fish were applied indiscriminately by native
fishermen to both ladyfish and ten-pounder; indeed, the names ladyfish,
ten-pounder, and their synonyms bonefish and bony-fish date back to our
earliest history. In Natal it is called "springer."
[Illustration: Redfish; Channel Bass. (_Sciænops ocellatus._)]
[Sidenote: Of Ancient Age and Lineage]
Their scientific names were both bestowed by Linnæus more than two
hundred years ago. Catesby, in 1737, called the ladyfish of the Bahamas
"bonefish," while Captain William Dampier, one of the early explorers,
called the bony-fish of the Bahamas "ten-pounder." While the two fishes
are both allied to the herring tribe, they belong to different families,
though the young of both species undergo a metamorphosis, or pass
through a larval stage, in which they appear as ribbon-shaped,
transparent bodies, totally unlike their parents.
[Sidenote: Nomenclature]
As just stated, they belong to entirely different families. The ladyfish
(_Albula vulpes_), or bonefish, as it may be called, is the only fish in
its family (_Albulidæ_), while the ten-pounder (_Elops saurus_), or
bony-fish, belongs to the tarpon family (_Elopidæ_), and like the tarpon
has a bony plate between the branches of the lower jaw (hence
bony-fish), which bone does not exist in the ladyfish. The proper
identification of the two fishes is really easier than to distinguish
between the two species of black bass, or to differentiate a pike from a
pickerel.
[Sidenote: Differentiation]
The most pronounced difference is in the conformation of the mouth. The
ladyfish has an overhanging, pig-like snout, the mouth being somewhat
underneath, while the ten-pounder has a terminal mouth, that is, with
the upper and lower lips meeting in front, the same as in most fishes.
The scales of the ladyfish are nearly twice as large as those of the
ten-pounder, otherwise, as to the general contour, silvery appearance,
and shape and disposition of fins the two species are much alike to the
ordinary observer. So, if they are called ladyfish and ten-pounder,
their proper names, and not bonefish or bony-fish, the confusion at once
disappears.
[Illustration: Red Grouper. (_Epinephelus morio._)]
[Sidenote: Tools and Tackle]
Black bass tackle, the rod not less than eight ounces, is sufficient for
either ladyfish or ten-pounder. Sproat hooks, Nos. 1 to 3, on long gut
snells if no leader is used, are large enough, for both fishes have
rather small mouths. Usually no sinker, beyond a small box-swivel, is
required when fishing on the flood tide at inlets, unless the tidal
current is very strong, when it may become necessary to use one of
suitable weight. The best fishing is at the mouths of inlets during the
flood tide, when the fish are feeding on beach fleas, pompano shells,
shrimps and other crustaceans which roll in on every wave, and are the
best baits to use. A small fish, an inch or two long, also makes a good
bait. The smallest casting-spoon, with a single hook, or a small shell
squid, may often be employed with advantage, as well as a small, bright
artificial fly.
The fishing may be practiced from a boat anchored just within the
inlet, or from the sand-spits at its mouth. At other stages of the
tide, especially at high water slack, good fishing may be had in the
shallow water of grassy flats and sandy shoals, by making long casts,
for in such situations these fishes are quite shy.
[Sidenote: The Snook (_Centropomus undecimalis_)]
The snook is a good game-fish, strong and active, rises to the fly in
shallow water, and will take any kind of fish or crab bait, or the
trolling-spoon. It is shaped somewhat like the pike-perch, with the
flattened head and jaws of the pike minus its sharp teeth. It is attired
in a silvery mantle with a broad, black stripe running along the side
from head to tail. It is a fair food-fish if skinned instead of scaled.
It is known as snook on the east coast, and as rovallia on the west
coast, a corruption of its Cuban name, robalo. It grows to two or three
feet and twenty to thirty pounds. Heavy black bass, or light striped
bass, tackle is necessary to withstand its fierce rushes when hooked.
[Sidenote: The Jewfish (_Garrupa nigrita_)]
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.
[Illustration: Mangrove Snapper. (_Lutianus griseus._)]
[Sidenote: A Good Food-Fish]
[Sidenote: Some Big Ones]
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. 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: How It Happened]
It happened in this way. My boat was anchored in Sarasota Bay, Florida,
when one day I was examining the pintles and rudder hinges before
sailing, when I noticed several remoras attached to the stern of the
vessel. With a hook and hand-line and venison for bait I caught them
all, four of them, in less than four minutes, for they were exceedingly
voracious. When the bait was dangled near one he immediately left his
anchorage and seized it.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Ten Pounder. (_Elops saurus._)