# The New International Encyclopædia/Fishing

Edition of 1905. See also Fishing on Wikipedia; and the disclaimer.
​ FISHING. Primeval man hooked and caught fish by the aid of numerous devices, the most important of which were gorges, made of bronze or stone, the latter consisting of pieces of shaped stone about an inch in length with a groove in the middle for the line. One of these gorges, a relic of the Stone Age, has been discovered in France and is about eight thousand years old. The bait completely covered the gorge, which, when swallowed by the fish, turned across the fish's gullet and held it secure. After stone, bronze was used, and then bone. The early Californian Indians used shell hooks, while the Piute Indians used the spine of a cactus.
Fishing-Tackle may be defined as consisting of rod, line, hook, reel, nets, etc. Rods are made of elastic wood, and sometimes of steel. Split bamboo is especially adapted for fly-fishing, ​and lancewood, hickory, or ash for any other kind. Double-handed rods for salmon-fishing are sometimes over 20 feet in length, and weigh nearly three pounds. Most rods are made in sections or joints, so that they can be taken apart and the more easily carried. Fish-lines may be of hair, silk, linen, hemp, or cotton, according to the purpose for which they are required. There is a wide variety of hooks, not only for the different fish, but variations in design for the same fish, the choice depending on the skill and preference of the fisherman. The straight hook, or one in which the point is in line with the shaft and not bent to one side, is generally regarded as the most profitable to use, although the great majority of hooks are made with flatted, ringed, knobbed, or plain ends. A particularly effective hook is the barbless hook, which has a sharp piece of wire fixed across the opening of the hook, making it almost impossible for the victim to get away after it has once impaled itself; such hooks, however, are little used. The spoon hook is a piece of polished metal shaped somewhat similar to the domestic tablespoon, which when drawn through the water twirls and glitters in a manner designed to attract the fish, which, if it snaps at it, is inevitably caught by the hook. This tackle is used in trolling for bluefish, pickerel, and lake trout, although in pickerel-fishing artificial flies, together with a number of hooks, are usually attached to the spoon. The snell is a piece of silkworm-gut connecting the hook and the line. Sinkers are generally small pieces of lead, or bullets cut in half, and fastened to the line; floats, which are made as a rule of cork and fastened to the line at both ends, serving to indicate to the fisherman the location of his hook. There are many kinds of reels, including the automatic, which winds the line when a spring is pressed. The best tackle in the market and the most experienced fishermen are practically powerless without an attractive and consequently effective bait, which ought to consist of some item from the known diet of the fish sought for; or, where that is not obtainable, of something closely resembling it. Beginning with the angleworm, or common earthworm—the larvæ of insects, grubs, artificial flies, grasshoppers, etc., the list of available bait may be extended to various kinds of animal and fish flesh, as well as the numerous pastes common with the fishermen of Europe. To be effective, the hook must be concealed by the bait as far as possible. The only net used by the genuine sportsman is the landing net, by which the fish is taken out of the water after it has been brought to shore or boat by the hook and line.
PRIMEVAL, STONE AND BRONZE GORGES.
ANCIENT FISH-HOOKS (BONE).
ANCIENT BRONZE FISH-HOOKS, DOUBLE AND SINGLE.
Fresh-Water Fish. The fish most common to amateur fishermen are the various minnows, in many places spoken of as shiners or chubs, of which the most generally known, the dace or roach, is found in New England and the Middle States, and demands but an ordinary light rod, with worm or artificial fly for bait. The sunfish or pumpkinseed, pond-perch, bream, or roach, may be found in running brooks throughout the United States, and sometimes in tidal rivers, and are caught with small hooks, with worms as bait, although they frequently take the artificial fly. In the Southern States good sport may be obtained with artificial flies in the catching of bluefish, blue bream, and copper-nosed bream. A peculiar, though uncertain, method of fishing for the common bream in these waters is to use bait made of brown bread and honey. For all-around sport through most of the year, the yellow perch is most popular in the Eastern States. In summer it may be caught with a worm or minnow bait; and in winter holes are cut in the ice, and the white grub, usually found in decayed wood, is used as bait. In springtime the fly is most attractive. The wall-eyed pike, as the pike-perch is sometimes called, is found usually in the Southern States, western New York, the Great Lakes, and Canada, in which latter country it is known as the doree, another fish of the small species being known as the sandre. It is an exceptionally gluttonous fish, easily caught with a hook, and in Lake Champlain is occasionally caught by trolling. The pickerel, or common pickerel, which may be found in all the ponds and streams of the North, East, and Central States, together with the white pickerel of the Ohio and the black pickerel of Pennsylvania, are all distinguished by length of body. The pike seldom grows to be over three feet in length, although the maskinonge (like the pike, a member of the pickerel family) has been known in the Michigan lakes and the upper waters of the Mississippi River to be at least seven feet. The fisherman usually trolls for them with a spoon. The common pickerel weighs on an average about five pounds. Closely related are the catfish, bullhead, bull-pout, and horned pout, which are all found in North ​American waters. The largest catfish have been known to weigh over 150 pounds, although the flesh of the smaller kinds is the most rich, and more generally considered a delicacy. They are greedy biters and will jump at most anything. For instance, the ordinary bullheads of New England are caught on muddy bottoms with worms as bait. The premier game fish, however, is the black bass, which is plentiful in the lakes and streams east of the Rocky Mountains. It may be caught with minnows, frogs, grasshoppers, etc., or by trolling with a spoon hook. The fishing-rods required for this fish are usually about ten feet long and considerably stouter than those used for trout. The sucker is a fish found in all the fresh waters of the Northern States, it is usually caught with angleworm bait, and in the winter, fishing through the ice, it is more easily caught than any other. The carp is a comparatively recent importation from Europe, and is now found in most of the Eastern waters, as well as in California and Oregon. It haunts muddy waters. The chub, honeyhead, or river-chub is widely distributed in fresh waters, and may easily be caught by means of the same rod and tackle that is used for black bass. The grayling affords exceptionally fine sport. It is generally caught with the fly, but will also bite at worms and insects, and is found along the northern border of the United States. The true salmon is caught chiefly in Canadian rivers, as well as in the Penobscot River of Maine. The best time for sport ranges from about the middle of May to the end of July, covering a period when the fish is on its annual pilgrimage from the sea to deposit its spawn or eggs in fresh water. The newly hatched fish are known as pinks, and in their second year as smolts, and in their third year as grilse. Artificial flies are the bait commonly used. Trout, second only to salmon in their gameness, are also sea emigrants, whenever it is possible for them to be so. They are usually found to best advantage in clear streams and lakes, and angleworms, artificial flies, and minnows are used for their capture. In the rivers and lakes of Maine and Canada speckled trout of from four to six pounds are frequently seen, and specimens have been caught weighing nearly ten pounds. The lake trout is easily caught by trolling, using a minnow or spoon as bait. Whitefish is one of the best food-fishes, and is usually caught in ‘pound-nets’ from 500 to 1000 feet long. Eels are best caught at night, along muddy bottoms, the salt-water variety being frequently captured in eel-pot traps.
Salt-Water Fish. The blue perch, nibbler, chogset, salt-water perch, or burgall, names frequently applied to the cunner, is found in great abundance along the coast. It is easily caught with but light, tackle and almost any kind of bait, although clam bait seems to have a special attraction for them. Precedence must be given to the striped bass, or, as it is sometimes called, rock bass, which may be counted the best game fish in the United States. It is a sea-fish, but spawns in tidal rivers, and will often make its way up fresh-water streams in its search for food. Its weight ranges from 8 to 75 pounds, and the bait required may consist of anything from a piece of cotton to a small fish. (See Bass.) It is sometimes caught with the artificial fly, and again a line baited with small fish thrown into the surf as in fly-casting will be successful. The minnow is the best bait for trolling. The strength of the fish, together with its weight, demands an exceptionally expert fisherman for its capture. It is very strong, very cunning, and very game, making long and fierce runs, severely taxing the skill and strength of the fisherman before it is finally subdued and captured. The blackfish, or sea bass, is found some little distance from the shore along the coast of the Northern States. It is caught with a special tackle similar to that used for cunners, although the former is also frequently caught with lobster bait, or in sea nets. Both these varieties are good food-fishes. One of the most common fishes in the South is the sea-chub, frequently called the Lafayette, owing to the fact that it was found in special abundance in 1824, the year of General Lafayette's visit to this country. The fish most common to all the coasts of the United States in the last half of the year is the weakfish, which, in the South, is occasionally mistaken for the trout, owing to the similarity in flavor of the two fishes. With this fish, also, the clam is the most attractive bait, and the best time for catching is usually during flood tide. It varies in weight from six ounces to over seven pounds, occasional specimens having been caught weighing over 26 pounds. The fish has a large mouth and very soft jaws, and is caught with much the same tackle as is used for black bass, the principal feature being a large hook made of fine steel. Its peculiarity as a food-fish lies in the fact that it must of necessity be eaten almost immediately after capture or its flesh will become soft. The sheepshead, a Southern fish weighing about eight pounds, is an exceptionally hard fish to secure, but is of correspondingly rare delicacy as a food-fish, and is one much valued by epicures. The scup, known in some parts as the porgie, or paugie, is found more particularly along the Atlantic coast. An- other gamy fish is the bluefish (q.v.), also known as the skopjack, horse-mackerel, or snapper. Snappers are found in this part of the world anywhere on the American coast between Massachusetts and Brazil. They are best caught with a squid trolled from a sailboat, and occasionally from a line thrown out from shore. If they are running in ‘schools,’ the fishermen take them in great abundance with their trolling-lines. A peculiarity about them is that they keep near the surface and will snap at any living thing in sight. Like the weakfish, they suffer in value for eating purposes if kept very long before cooking. A smaller kind of bluefish is caught along the New England shore with a light tackle and a minnow bait. Along the north coast of New Jersey the smelt is caught in large seines; they spawn under much the same conditions as the salmon. The umbrella tackle used in the State of Maine is a very peculiar as well as effective method of catching the smelt. The umbrella frame is attached to the end of a fish-pole and hanging from the end of each rib is a short line and hook. Mackerel afford excellent sport, and may be fished for with hooks baited with small pieces of mackerel flesh or skin, although they are more generally taken in seines. The herring is the most common victim of commercial fishing, but it may also be caught by the individual fisherman in the springtime of the year with an ​artificial fly as bait. Its near relative, the shad, will also give very excellent sport when fished for with the fly. The king of the herring is the tarpon, which frequents the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida. They vary in weight, but often exceed 150 pounds. They are caught on rod and line, as also are the leaping tunas of the Pacific Coast, gigantic mackerel, equaling in size and weight the tarpon. Blackfish weighing from two to nine or ten pounds, and caught by a bait of soft clams, or bits of lobster, with either hand lines or rods, may be found between South Carolina and Massachusetts Bay. In some parts it is known as the tautog (q.v.). Its favorite running places are near sunken wrecks, deserted docks, or where the coast is of rocky formation. The fish above mentioned are the ones which may legitimately be classed as game fish; most of the others, usually deep salt-water fish, as cod, haddock, whiting, and halibut, being caught principally for the market and as a means of livelihood. (See Fisheries.) Sharking (q.v.) is occasionally indulged in off the eastern coast, and sometimes near Nantucket Island. Every State in the Union has its separate fish laws, which, however, are constantly changing in a matter of detail, although their general principles remain the same. Some fish are protected by law from capture by netting, spearing, or any other method except hook and line; and then only during certain months, known as the ‘open season.’ In some States it is unlawful to take fish under a regulation size or weight, and fines and imprisonments are penalties imposed for the transgression of such laws. In brief, the general trend of the law throughout the United States is to prevent the employment of any method which will destroy the supply. The reader is further referred to Angling; Bait-Fishing; Fly-Casting; Game Laws; Graining; Salmon-Fishing; Sharking; Sword-Fishing; Tarpon-Fishing; Trolling; Trout-Fishing.