AT the yuletide, or during the Christmas holidays, the lakes and streams of the North and West are locked fast in the icy chains of winter. The waters are then a sealed book to the angler, who, unless he indulges in the questionable sport of fishing through the ice, is consoled only by retrospective pleasures when overhauling his rods and flybooks. Not so, however, in the sunny waters of Florida, where fishing is, on the whole, at its best at the time of the Christmas festivities, if such a season can be realized by the Northern angler amid the profusion of fruits, flowers, and foliage.

To one accustomed to the merry jingle of sleigh bells and to coursing swiftly, steel shod, over the frozen pools he loves so well, it is really a marvelous, but pleasing, transition to be able to cast his bait or flies during the season of the yuletide.

Florida has one of the finest and most genial continental winter climates in the world. One can live in the open air the winter through, without discomfort, as it seldom rains during that season, and therein lies the great and lasting benefit to the invalid who requires an open-air life and nature's great restorers, fresh air, warm sunshine, moderate exercise and sound, refreshing sleep. He will be told that Florida has a damp climate by his physician who has never been in the state, and will be advised to go to a dry climate. But the dampness of Florida is not an exhalation from the soil, which is dry sand, but is the humid, salt air from the sea, which with the balsamic fragrance of the pines, conduces to the health and well-being of the invalid, and to the pleasure and enjoyment of the angler and sportsman.

Better than the Mediterranean

I have suffered more from raw, chilly weather in the much-lauded winter climates of southern France, Italy, and even Morocco, than in southern Florida. And while the shooting along the Mediterranean in winter is very fair for the red-legged partridge, migratory quail and snipe, it is not to be compared with the shooting to be had in Florida, either for abundance or variety of game. In fact, Florida is hardly excelled by any state in the Union in its possibilities of fishing and shooting. "Good Shooting"And then these sports can be practiced at a time when the streams and lakes of the North are bound in icy fetters, and the woods and fields buried beneath the hibernal mantle of snow.

The angler can hardly go amiss in any section of Florida for his favorite sport. Wherever there is reasonably pure or uncontaminated water he will find some species of the finny tribe. And the true angler, he who loves the sport for its own sake, can be satisfied so long as his tackle is commensurate with his quarry. With his stout tools and tackle he enjoys the phenomenal leaps of the tarpon, or the leviathan struggles of the jewfish. With his delicate split-bamboo wand, silken line, gossamer leader and fairy flies, he enjoys equally well, perhaps more, the wary bream or crappie of the fresh waters. Better still, with suitable tackle the acknowledged game fish, par excellence, of America, the black bass, will yield him sport galore.

The Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus)

The lover of sheepsheading will find his quarry about the piling of old wharves or about the oyster reefs, while his bait—fiddler crabs—abound in myriads on the beaches. I once saw the catch of a man who took three hundred on a single tide from Summerlin's cattle wharf at Puntarassa. He should have been indicted, tried and convicted by a jury of honest anglers and sentenced to a term of imprisonment by a judge of fair sport. The sheepshead, with its human-like incisors, is very adroit at nibbling the bait from the hook, and must be circumvented by a quick, sharp turn of the wrist upon the least provocation or intimation of its intentions; this will drive the hook into its well-paved jaw six times in ten. When hooked, the sheepshead makes strenuous efforts to reach the bottom, which is very trying to a light rod. The fish should be kept near the surface until the spring of the rod compels it to give up the contest. A school of sheepshead, in their striped suits, reminds one of a gang of prison convicts, begging their pardon for the comparison; of course all comparisons are odious. The same rod and tackle hereafter recommended for cavalli, etc., answers for sheepshead.

The cavalli, or jack, with its second cousins, the runner, the horse-eye jack, the leather jack, amber jack and the pompanos, are closely allied to the mackerels, and all are game-fishes. The cavalli can be taken with the fly, bait, or trolling-spoon, and when hooked puts up a vigorous fight. It is a handsome silvery fish, bound in blue and yellow, and can be found about the inlets and tideways. In rare instances it reaches twenty pounds in weight, but is usually taken from two to ten pounds. Ordinary black bass tackle is suitable for the cavalli, with a sinker adapted to the strength of the tide. For baits, any small fish, as anchovy and pilchard, will answer, while shrimp and cut bait can also be used. Gaudy and attractive flies are the best for fly-fishing, which can be practiced from piers, a boat, or from the points of inlets. The most popular way of fishing is by trolling in the channels, when a spoon with but a single hook should be used.

The sea-trout is a surface-feeding fish, and a game one. It is not a trout, of course, but is akin to the Northern weakfish, and is called a trout, by courtesy, because of its black spots. It takes the fly because it cannot help it, and will give the angler ample exercise with a light rod before it is landed. Being more high-minded than the sheepshead, it does its fighting on the surface. The sea-trout is not a bushwhacker nor yet a guerilla. It sometimes runs up the streams to fresh water.

The Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus)

The Spanish mackerel is not a whit behind the sea-trout in gameness, or in its aptitude or fancy for the feathers and tinsel of an artificial fly. It is the trimmest built fish that swims, and always reminds me of a beautiful racing yacht. It feeds and fights on the surface and in the open, displaying its silver and blue tunic with gold buttons to good advantage. They move in battalions along the outer shores during winter, but in March and April enter the inlets in companies, and then afford fine sport to the angler.

When the Spanish mackerel is running into the bays and inlets, it is often accompanied by the sea-trout (spotted weakfish). Both fishes are surface feeders and take bait or the artificial fly eagerly, as stated. They run in schools at this season, and are readily seen as they plow along the surface, creating quite a ripple.

The fishing at this time is practical from wharves or the points of inlets and passes.

The long piers at Port Tampa and St. Petersburg on the west coast are favorite places. The fishing is done on the flood tide, mostly, but often at the last of the ebb. No special directions are needed when the fish are running in schools, except to keep the bait or fly in constant motion on the surface—the fish will do the rest.Both are game-fishes of high degree, and the angler will have all he can attend to after hooking one on light tackle. As food fishes they are excellent. I prefer to fish from the sand-spits at the mouths of inlets, or if near a pier to fish from a boat moored alongside, as the fish are not so likely to see one, and they are more easily landed.

Ordinary black bass tackle is quite suitable for either fish, with fly or bait. Braided linen lines are preferable, however, to silk ones, as the latter soon rot in salt water. A gut leader about four feet long and snelled hooks, Nos. 1 to 3, are all right for bait-fishing. The best bait is a small sardine, anchovy or mullet, though the casting spoon, with a single hook, or a pearl squid of small size may be used if kept in constant motion on the surface.

For fly-fishing a single fly is sufficient, of any bright pattern, with some gilt or silver tinsel on the body, as the silver doctor, tied on No. 3 hooks. A long-handled landing-net is indispensable.

The Kingfish (Scomberomorus cavalla)

The kingfish—not the fish known by that name in Northern waters, but a second cousin to the Spanish mackerel—is found along the reefs from Cape Florida to Boca Chica. It is one of the principal food fishes of Key West, and is taken by the fishermen trolling with a strip of bacon rind, which is something in the nature of an indignity, for it is a grand game-fish on the rod, and will take fly or bait on long casts. It grows much larger than the Spanish mackerel, often to twenty pounds or more, and is of a more somber hue. Its cousin, the cero, is very similar in size and appearance, but has dark spots along its graceful sides. All of this genus are among the best for the table, as all real game-fishes are.

The best member of the drum family is the redfish, or channel bass. It is one of the common game-fishes of the brackish water bays on either coast. It is a handsome fish with a coat of old red gold and a vest of silver and pearl. It is characterized by a large black spot near the tail; sometimes there will be two spots, and occasionally these are split up into a half dozen. While the redfish is very susceptible to bait it often rises to the fly, if a large and gaudy one. In either event it offers a stubborn resistance when hooked, and when of large size—from twenty to forty pounds—a good strong rod is a sine qua non, though I once killed one on a Henshall rod of eight ounces, which was fully thirty-five pounds in weight. Most of the fish-scale jewelry and artificial flowers are made from the scales of redfish.

Groupers and Snappers

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:"Rag-Time Dude" 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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Remora (Remora remora)

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. "A Convenient Device"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.

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.

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."

"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."

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

"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."

"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."

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:

"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.

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.)

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.

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.

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:

"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.

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.

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.

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