Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1888-03-01
Angling in the Potomac.

Angling ln the Potomac.
In a !etter 10 the New York Forest and
Stream Mr.. j H. Connelly.a former resident
of this city, says
There is excellent fishing in the Poto
mac aud there is no fishing in the Potomac,
just according to where you go and what
you fish with. Up ct the falls and above
there is fine black bass fishing. You can
get there those game beauties weighing
four, five, or event. ig said-six pounds.
You will not get enough of them, however,
to make the sport seem monotonous and
tiresome. There may be places in the land
where there are more black bass than here,
but few that are prettier. They catch many
very large and deliciously favored Potomac
shad in the spring and early summer. 1
have eaten the famous Delaware shad and
the North River shad and the Connecticut
River shad, each Of which has its enthu-
sisstic encomiasts and I cannot help think
iilg that the Potomac shad is better than
either Of those others. 1t is so good that 1
actually imagine it has fewer bones than
they. But wild horses shall not drag from
me even modified commendation Of the
greasy, bony abomination that they call the
Potomac herring. A good many sturgeon
too are caught in the Potomac during the
summer, but they are rank, oily, coarse
grained fishes, only acceptable as an
alternative from starvation. AS for the
bass, I wish that George Washington
had been little more explicit in specifying
the sort of bass he meant. If black bass
were in his minds eye, am quite satisfied
that the disturbance occasloned by the revo.
utionary war caused them al to retreat up
to the falls, and no member OF their family
has ventured below since that time-volun.
tari;y and when in his right mind. Striped
bass. for which tho local name is 'rockfsh,
do come up occasionally from the Chesa-
Deske Bay es far as Alexandria. That this
is 60 there is one living witness, the Rev.
Mr. Dnwidde-a Presbyterian minister
lormorly located in that town-who is an
angler of such phenomenal skill, or luck.
that the colored people suspected him Of
'cori'rin' de fish, and are shy of him.
He mas repeatedly caught off the end Of
Agnew's wharf, 'rockfsh' that weighed two
or two and half pounds each, while scores
and perhaps hundreds of able bodied and
experienced fishermen, using corresponding
tack e and like bait, fishing at exactly the
-ame depth and equally careful TO abstain
from swearing, have not oven mad a nibDle.
Doubtless there was Dinwiddie in George
Washington's day-for the family, as un.
dersland, is quite an old one in Virginia
who WAS also a mighty fisher before the
Lord, and caught striped bass enough to On
courage G. ". in making that statement.
Aud perhaps those caught by the Dinwiddie
OF to-day are but the astral bodies of
those taken by his ancestors, materialized to
keep up the family reputation for veracty.
There are white and yellow perch, OF which
specimens are occasionally caught weighing
as much as seven or eight ounces each, but
generally running from half an ounce to an
ounce and quarter. There are sand
emeits, minnows, "cats" and "pizen cats"-
the former cats white and the latter yell
low and no more poinonous than the others,
though not such good eating-snd the
"cats'' seldom weigh more than pound,
generally only about half 30 nuch. In the
Dound nets red muiet-a kind OF discolored
sucker, even more bony than the pseudo
herring, and unfit to eat-are caught occa.
sionaily. In g couple OF creeks entering the
river not far from the Mount Vernon estate
trolling with 8 spoon will sometimes yield
few rather nice pickerel. Thirty or forty
miles down the river one can catch Spots
'tay,ors' and 'tobacco.boyes,' all very email
but tolerabe panGsh, in the taking of which
no real angler can find any sport. There
yoa have the list. All but the eels. They
must rot be forgotten. decline accepting
the eel as fish, or in any other way 30 far
as am personally concerned, out rs no is
The most multitudinous and abundant thing
in the Potomac it will hardly do to pass him
by uumentioned Only the man who has
caught an eel and seen the restless, writh.
ing. ceiling, slippery, unseizsble devil tang.
ling IN bis best line into thousand hard
knots, daubing his tackle with it's gluey
slime and swallowing his nook far beyond
the reach of the largest 'disgorger, knows
how 10 adequately hate an eel. I am told
that some of the Potomac eels are quite
large. bnt haveseen none thicker than small
Cigar and from twelve inches to fourteen
inches long. Mr.. Lambert, deputy collec-
tor of the port at Alexandra, wakes elo'
oueut when he talks of the numbers, size
and ferocity of the Potomac eels. The fall
ing off of the shad fishing in late years he
ascribes to the cells. he says that they at
tack the shad caught in the gill nets, bore
into their bodies to get the toothsome roes,
and eat them out 80 that heads and empty
skins are lefG hanging in the meshes OF the
nets Gunners who pursue the nefarious
practice of shooting birds on their roosts, or
while sleeping on the water st night in the
swamp opposite Alexandria, complain that
the esls completely destroy the dead bodies
before they can see to pick them up in the
morning, It's affirmed that Schneider, who
keeps wet goods store near the Alexsn
dria ferry, one evening sank q barrel eel
tran in the dock before his place and the
next morning found it so full of eels that he
inst nailed board ever the hole Ia the top
and shipped the whole thing OF to the Phil
adel hia market. That mention of Phila-
delphia reminds me that the Quaker City
has for years past drawn large quantities of