Daily Republican., 1879-08-18
LETTER FROM CAPE MAY.
Successful Fishing and sho0Slag
Tho CITY by Gas Light-A Dance
Amid the Waves Of Electricity.

Amid the Waves Of Electricity. +
Special Correspondence of the Republican.
CAPE MAY, N. j., Aug. IA, '79.
Fishing at sea is very successful now,
the schooners going daily to the Light
ship and fishing banks catching plenty.
We saw sailor tonight with snap
ping mackerel nearly 3 feet long and
weighing II pounds, being ono Of a
number canght to-day. Two others
weighing Is pounds to the pair, were
bought by Mr.. Chas. Williams for his
restaurant and Col. Lansing's dining
saloon took this heavy one. Mr.. Fred
Miller, of Phila., and five other gentle-
men from Stockton House and Miller's
cottage, caught GO on Monday from the
schooner Ridgsway, Capt. Uriah Cresse
the harponeer Of our big turtle and her.
ring hog, the latter, a beautiful and
rare specimen of the porpoise family,
both lately exhibited on Denizot's pier.
Mr.. Miller informed US that for two
hours the fish bit ravenously and the
whole party we're busy pulling them
in over the sides and end of the vessel
as she dashed over the sea with fine
breeze, and as the fish were large, fully
5 to 10 pounds each, they had all they
could do. the darting fish cutting the
flesh of their fingers with the line.
They use no bate, the large hook being
imbedded in piece Of white bone or q
long piece of shining lead, which the
voracious fish mistake for minnows or
little fish and dart after and swallow.
A piece of white rag answers as we'll,
as the bait bounds from billow to billow
on the surface, and the fish 60 in schools
or large shoals, thousands together,
churning up the SEA as they swim rap
idly about in search of their food,
mainly the countless myriads of bony-
fish or moss bonker (Alosa Menhaden,
Mitch.) Sharks of various sizes follow
both these description of fish and prey
on them. The swapping mackerel pur-
sue the bony fish and frighten them so
badly that they dash through the
breakers and come ashore sometimes.
One October about six years ago so
many were driven ON the beach that
wagons drove along and gathered them,
mainly to put on the land, but as they
were very fat they were eaten too, but
they are so bony they are little use for
food.
Vessels 60 out from fish factories and
catch them in deep purse nets, bring
them on shore, press out the oil that
abounds in their bodies for painting,
lubricating, &C., and barrel up the
meat for fertilizer. 1t has a name in
commerce which we believe is fish fer
tilizer or fish guano. Quite ninety
thousand of these bony fish were taken
in one haul of seine on the shore in
front Of Congress Hall, and where the
Windsor now stands. The large net
was SO full that they could not draw it
out on shore, but staked it and made
hauls within it with small seine and
threw the fish in great piles beyond
the reach of the tide, until carted away
by the farmers, who bought them fol
their corn ground. They counted tht
number to bushel and the bushels tt
a two horse wagon load, and thus ar
rived at the number caught, which wa;
from ninety to one hundred thousand
They were SO thick in the sea and
surf that two of our residents, one o.
them former Wilmingtonian, pulled
off in one of Mr.. Thos. Drein's build O.
skiffs and could not dip the oars fol
fish in solid masses and they took mack
erel hooks in their hands and dragging
them IN among the fish, dashed them
off the hook to the bottom of the boat
and reached tor more. In the creeks
about Long Beach and Mannahawkin,
they are driven in so thickly by theil
enemies, the swapping mackeral ano
shark, that the farmers actually diI
them up in buckets and toss them il
, boats and scows for their land. These
sound like untrue stories but the state
ments are strictly true and any resi-
dent of our coast can verify them.
| Capt. George Hildreth and his crew
made the mammoth haul above, o
bony fish, and We witnessed it; We wer'
present also about four years ago whel
he and crew towed off shore quar-
ter mile, opposite the hotels, and drop
ped their gill net around a school o
swapping mackeral and secured l,O0'
large fish from seven to twelve pounc
each, averaging about ten pound apiece
or five ton to the haul. The tisf
were caught by the gills as the,
tried to dash through the meshes of thu
net and were taken out by the crew
and brought ashore, the boat making
tour trips through the surf, loaded
down. This last enormous catch wa
of no great profit or utility, as the
fishermen refused to sell them to ouI
townsmen for 25 cents each, but askec
10 cts. per tb., making y fish come tt
Is cents. They were taken to Millvillt
and other towns, but only a portion
were sold and the rest spoiled. Since
then very few have been taken here
and one Autumn since, none made
their appearance at this point, very
unusual experience.
This wholesale destruction is believ
ed to have percsptible effect in thin
ming them out, although the sea seems
to te EN- with them. This swapping
mackeral is called blue fish elsewher'
on the coast, and in fishing for then
from sailing vessels the Spanish mack
eral (Cybium Macultum, cuv. ant
vol. } is caught, taking the hook ant
"squid" as the make believe bait ii
called, in the same manner. 1t is
beautiful fish and of very superio
flavor. 1t is rather scarce and rar
here, but the "Bonita" closely resemb
ling it is more frequently taken ane
often palmcd off as the real Spanisl
mackeral. The principal difference il
, few dark spots near the gills ane
shoulders which are not on tn
: "bonita."
. U,,vo of o,r hast pnunarg and marks