The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-08-11

| cannot give q decided preference to any.
| Down at MOrehead l ate nothing but
fish. corn bread and coffee, and / cali that
| living like a lord. We hired a boat large
enough to carry a fisherman'- galley and
| had a man along to TAX the fish right out
OF the water, cook them, and serve them
| with hot coffee and crisp corn bread.
The salt air and the zest Of the sport
gave Us appetltcs that kings might envy,
and under those circumstances the fish
| you are eating at the moment are the
best.
If you insist upon it I viii make three
! selections, which appeal to me, but there
Is no best fish, where all are 20 good. For
| broiling about sunrise-mullets; for u
| baked dinner-sheepshead-lor pannlng-
Currituck white perch. l could 40 more
tell which I like best than | could say
which Of my sisters | love best. When a
man Is fish hungry the commonest thing
that sports fins Is best TO him.
The best fishermen | ever knew are
w. l.. Kennedy, of Lenoir county, and
! Tom Martin. of Durham. 1t is hard TO
saw which these fellows used TO like
| best, fish or fishing. They went early in
| the morning and staid all day, and did
iICiIiib5 OI1 u AI'iA- 'E"S 'As NiNJ
didn't have TO lie about the big fish that
got away"
Major Henry Harding, another of those
! young fellows of GO-65, says his choice
fish IS the mullet, though adding that the
majority of people hereabouts prefer the
fine white shad that come up the Tar in
the spring. But plain North Carolina
behring's are hard to beat" said the Ma
jor. Il remember one Spring | was rid
ing along a swampy road III Beaufort
county. Water had cut runs across the
| road and filled them with behring's. |
came to a run where an old man was actu-
ally dipping behring's out of the road. He
had a big pile beside him, and replied
to my inquiry that he had caught a thou
| sand. A little further down the road |
saw another fisher who was very much
engaged. A colored woman had tied
| her skirt up around her waist so as to
form a bag. She had bent a young ash
sappling to a circle and tied her under
skirt to it, making an useful II not ortho-
dOX dip-net, and with both skirts doing
valiant service she was raking 'eni in"
Spanish mackerel and Grindle Creek
pike" said Senator A l.. Blow, Colonel
Isaac A. Sugg and Captain j. j. Cherry
unanimously and simultaneously. "Grindle
. Creek pike" continued Senator Blow,
may be unknown to fame, but they de
serve as much as a. man with an easy
conscience. You catch hold OF the head
and pull out every bone. Then you have
! something rare-somethlng that Will heal
a family feud of forty years standing"
| Mayor Whedbee endorses Spanish
mackerel and recalls the fishing expert
ence OF his life many wears ago, with eX-
Congressman T. G.. Skinner and Wilson
Hollowell, Of Perquimans. Major Whed-
bee embarked upon a fishing expedition
in the vicinity of Mays Head. The party
fished one day, catching 1850 fishes of all
kinds. classes, colors and previous condi-
ton of servitude.
THE most popular fish in North Caro-
lima or anywhere else gravely announced
Colonel William A. B. Hearne, rs the
sucker. There is no best place for fishing.
That idea was simply a Waltonic magma
ton
d. J. Whichard, who has the patience
and perseverance OF the true fisherman,
acknowledges the supremacy of sleeps
head in his interior economy.
In conclusion. I wish to protest against
the use of the word '1isherman.'' have
used it in the preceding lines, but only
in submission to custom. FISHERMAN" Is
numbering, unsightly. untrue. All who fish
are not fishermen. 1t would be just as cor
rect and desirable to say, doctorman,
| lawyerman, sailorman or hunterman. For
the sake OF graceful phrasing let us say
fisher"
PAUL r. OUTLAW.
G~reenVilie. N. c., Aug. 8. 1903.