Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-30
FLORIDA FISHING,
Dr. Prfme's Catches on the Pier an
 on the River.

| on the River.
 | Letter to the Journal of Commerce1
 l Meantime the weather here at Magnolia was dslightful, the wind off shore and the water in the St. Johns, which had been mud l dled by easterly winds and continual swash l on shore when was here before, had now l become comparatively clear and fshable. q 1 make that word, for anglers need it, and | defy all purists who shall say it is construct ] ed on wrong principles I walked down to l the row boat pier from time to time and saw 1 an occasional bass in the shoal water among 1 the grass. But my rods were at Palatka. Finally on Saturday morning the whirl of a ! large fish near the head of the dock some what startled me. I looked around and found a six-foot ash pole which some boy l had used for bait fishing. I cut three-foot twig from 8 live oak and spliced it on the ash. This made a flexible rod, with which I found I could get out fair cast, but of course could not use a reel. I tied stout ! line to the tip with about twenty feet of cast, l including the leader, and amused myself on ] the end of the pier with sending two large bass flies over the water in various directions. Nothing rose and tried sinking the tall fly and drawing it, scarlet ibis, under water. At the second or third draw I saw two large | fish. I tried it again, had heavy strike and the rush of 8 strong fish well hooked. An glers will appreciate the situation, with nine foot rod, twenty feet of line and reel. This fish made 8 long and strong fight. To my great satisfaction he yielded always to the persuasive influence of the spring in my ! patent ash and oak rod, and went around in swift and graceful half circles. It was ten ! minutes before I saw him. You may imag inc my astonishment then when found that it was catfish. Taking catfish with fly; or rather the fact of 8 catfish taking the fly, was wholly new in my experience. How long he would have fought I, don't know, for I now determined to risk my leader and flies, and making straight pull brought him to the side of the pier and lifted him, expect ing the leader to part, for ke weighed eight to ten pounds. But the tackle stood the strain and 1 laid him on the dock. Then I found that he was of the variety known as channel cat, which some writers on Florida fish describe as greatly superior to ordinary catfsh> This was evidently the fish I had seen last week making fierce rushes into shoal water after small fish. His habits re- minded of the shilbieh, which I have taken in the Nile, the only catfish I have known personally which took live bait trolling spoon. Baker described great sport with what suppose to be the fish in the waters of the Atbara, above Berber. I
 took many in the Nile and once, while one
 of my servants was washing his hands in the
 river over the side of a small boat, shilbich
 struck at his fingers and cut them badly.
 The family is large one and there are many
 species in various parts of the world I did
 not care to fish for catfish, but it was inter
 esting to study the habits of this variety.
 So made few more casts, sinking the fly
 and drawing with short, swift jerks. In five
 minutes I struck another, larger than the
 first, landed him in the same way and took q
 third equally large immediately afterward.
 The three fish lying on the pier were evidence
 that the channel cat will take moving troll. 1
 Of course they took the fly not fly, but l
 as fish or other animal swimming.
 My case of rods arrived in the afternoon,
 and took boat and went mile down the !
 river, casting along the edge of the grass.
 As I crossed the deeper water off the cove I ! saw, but did not feel, the strike of fish l
 which puzzled me. A bright streak of silver I flashed across close to the fly again and 1 again without touching it. This was re- peated dozen times within a half mile, and then struck, foul, one of the fish that | had been thus bothering me. I landed him l with some little trouble. My acquaintance ! with Florida coast fish is not extensive. I Probably this fish is well known, but he was l new to and to everyone at Magnolia. He l was salt water fish, somewhat resembling | gar, but not a gar He was more slender l than an eel, with a beautiful skin, no scales, ! a long, sharp bill armed with fine teeth and l notably very large yellow, beautiful eye. 1 He measured nine and one half inches long, l only one and one-tourth inches thick; mouth or bill four and one half inches long, ex ceedingly small, sharp pointed and delicate; l no dorsal fin, tail broad; fins in general as on pike: color on the back dark blue
 black, on the sides and belly silvery and al- 1 most white; from the tip of his bill to the gill-plate, six and one-half inches; top of head, between the eyes, fattened and slight ly indented. Afterward probably dozen more of these fish struck at the fly, but none touched it,
 I found some men drawing seine on the shallow below the cove. It's contents were catfish, stringrays, channel bass {only two, not large) bream, gar, perch (so called), and many briggt, silvery fish which they threw away as worthless, but which seemed to me to be herring of some sort. It is marvel that the vast quantities of uneatable fish, such as cats and gar, which throng the St. John's river are not utilized for manure. Hundreds of immense garfsh may be seen any day in the cove and Governors creek
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