[Sidenote: The Remora (_Remora remora_)]
[Sidenote: A Convenient Device]
The remora is one of the most interesting fishes known to science. Its
first dorsal fin is developed as a sucking disk of an oval shape on the
top of the head and nape. It is formed of a series of thin plates, or
laminæ, overlapping like the slats of a Venetian blind, and by which it
can firmly attach itself to a comparatively smooth surface. I have
seldom caught a shark or a ray that did not have one or more attached to
its skin. When a shark seizes his prey, and is cutting it up with his
terrible teeth, the remora is quick to discover any fragments of the
feast and profits by it, when it again returns to its anchorage. It does
no harm to the shark, for it is not truly parasitic, like the lamprey,
but uses its host as a means for transportation and profit, like the
politician in the band wagon.
[Sidenote: As a Fishing Device]
The remora is easily removed from its attachment by a quick, sliding
motion, but resists a direct pull to a remarkable degree. Owing to this
fact the natives of tropical countries are said to utilize it for
catching fish, by fastening a ring and line to its caudal peduncle and
casting it into the water to become attached to other fish, when both
are hauled in. I had often read of this, and once I tried it, but caught
only a loggerhead turtle of twenty pounds. The strain on the remora,
however, was so demoralizing to its physical economy that I was fain to
kill it.
[Sidenote: Phosphate Fishing]
And while on the subject of queer fishing I recall another instance.
Commander Robert Platt, formerly of the U. S. Fish Commission steamer
_Fish Hawk_, and I were once seining in Peace Creek, above Punta Gorda,
Florida. The crew hauling the long seine were much bothered and hindered
by quantities of ragged rock getting entangled in the seine. This
afterward proved to be phosphate rock of a valuable grade, which was
mined from the creek, the land on each shore having been purchased for a
song by some enterprising party. When in Washington a year or two later
I met Captain Platt, who, holding up his hands, exclaimed:
"Do you know what that ragged rock in Peace Creek was?"
"Yes, phosphate rock of a high quality."
[Sidenote: A Missed Opportunity]
"Well, do you know what precious chumps we were not to have purchased
the land on each side of the creek?"
"Yes, Captain 'Bob'; and I met a gentleman on the train yesterday who
was the party who bought it. He was on his way to Washington to have
Boca Grande made a port of entry for shipping the stuff to Europe. He
also informed me that he had sold a third of his interest for sixty
thousand dollars!"
"Well, I'm d--lighted to hear it. Just our luck!"
"Yes, Captain Bob," I returned, "it was another missed opportunity. But
we were not looking for phosphate rock or goldfish; we were simply
looking for ripe mullet. It all depends on the viewpoint."
[Sidenote: Spearing the Jumbos]
I was once cruising in Barnes Sound and had for a pilot Captain Bill
Pent, of Key West, who was fully acquainted with the numerous shoals and
mud flats of those shallow waters. Our experiences, as might be
imagined, were both novel and varied. After seining the coves and shores
for specimens of the smaller fishes, we would give our attention to
those of larger growth, including such jumbos as barracuda, tarpon,
jewfish, sharks and sawfish.
[Sidenote: Florida "Grains"]
Some of these were taken with rod and line, but other means were
resorted to for the largest ones. Pent was an expert in the use of the
"grains," a two-pronged spear much employed in Florida. It has a long
and strong line attached to the spear, with a handle for throwing which
becomes detached when a fish is struck. Standing in the bow of the dory,
which I would paddle cautiously up to the fringe of bushes along the
shore, Pent would hurl the grains twenty, thirty or even forty feet, and
seldom failed to plant the barbs firmly in the back of a huge fish as it
lay sunning itself under the mangroves--then there was something doing
for ten or fifteen minutes.
[Illustration: Snook; Rovallia. (_Centropomus undecimalis._)]
[Sidenote: Some Big Fish]
The largest barracuda we captured measured six and one-half feet, the
largest tarpon seven and one-quarter, an immense sawfish nineteen, and a
man-eating shark fifteen feet. But the liveliest tussle we had was with
a devil-fish of moderate dimensions, eight feet across the pectoral
fins--I have seen them of twenty. Following the lead of Victor Hugo, the
octopus is often called "devil-fish," but the name rightly belongs to
this fish, the largest of the rays (_Manta birostris_).
[Sidenote: Strenuous Fishing]
The floundering and struggling of one of these aquatic giants, in
shallow water, was something to be remembered, while the erratic
pitching and lunging of the dory as it followed the lead of the finny
motor was, to say the least, exciting. These large fishes were towed
ashore, killed outright and dissected, in order to ascertain something
in relation to their diet and time of spawning.
[Sidenote: Porpoise Calves]
One day we saw a porpoise in very shallow water playing with her two
calves, which were about three feet long. The water scarcely covered
them. Being somewhat curious as to the result, I took the rifle and sent
a bullet ricocheting across the water just behind her. In great alarm
she gathered a calf under each flipper, and the way she made the water
fly with her fluked tail propeller in her eagerness to reach deeper
water was amusing, but not the less remarkable. I could observe her
plainly for a hundred yards, and when she at last disappeared in deep
water she was still hugging her calves.
[Sidenote: A Pretty Baby]
Once at Mullet Key, in Tampa Bay, a man at the quarantine station shot a
porpoise that was floundering in the water. I saw that it was about
dead, and procuring a boat I towed it ashore. It was a female and seemed
to be gravid. I performed the cæsarian operation and found a single baby
porpoise nearly two feet long. It was a beautiful animal, the upper half
being slate color and the lower half a fine rosy pink. It was sent with
other specimens to Washington and a cast made of it.
[Illustration: Jewfish. (_Garrupa nigrita._)]
[Sidenote: A Manatee or Sea Cow (_Trichechus latirostris_)]
Another day while sailing in Barnes Sound we ran across three manatees
feeding on a plant resembling eel grass. As we kept very quiet we were
almost upon them before they discovered the boat--then they stood not on
the order of going, but went at once, and went in a hurry. The wake they
left in the shallow water was equal to that of a large steam tug. For
such ungainly looking creatures--the body nearly as large as that of a
horse--they were remarkably active in escaping, but made a fearful fuss
in doing so. I had several times seen manatees in the St. Lucie River, a
tributary of Indian River, but nowhere else, and was much surprised to
find them in Barnes Sound.
[Sidenote: Angling Along the Florida Keys]
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Shark Sucker. (_Remora remora._)