Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-12

with teeth of razor sharpness and whetted by
an appetite that seems Unsuitable. They con-
tinue their fight after being landed safely in
the bottom of the boat, and many angler
has had his finger bitten to the bone when not
careful in removing the hook from his mouth
The rockfsh and trout are harder to dis
tinguish when the strike occurs. The rockfsh
perhaps is the fastest swimmer, although there is
nothing particularly slow about the movements
of the trout. The rockfsh may be said to strike
harder than the trout When still fishing, that
is, with the boat anchored, the angler with a
rockf1sh on his line will see his line straighten
out, rising slowly through the water but swiftly
from one side to the other of the place where
the strike occurred Occasionally the rockfish
will break water, but not nearly as often as the
bIuefsh. The rock or striped bass, as they are
sometimes called, are also voraciouS fish,
preying largely upon smaller fish, such as shad
and river herring. Its meat is firm, flaky and
OF excellent flavor. The largest rockflsh on
record weighed 125 pounds, but the record
caught on rod and reel tipped the scales at 70
pounds.
At this time of the year, when the trout are
caught still-fshing. the angler hardly knows
when he gets his strike. These fish sort of suck
the bait into their large and soft mouths The
angler will notice little movement at the end
of his line and if he moves his bait in all
likelihood will lose his fish. The best way is
to give him plenty of time to take the bait.
When he gets it into his mouth he will start to
run; then is the time to hook him. Later in
the season the trout bite quite differently, and
take the bait with vicious lunge. A four
or five pound trout puts up good fight, and
IS delicious when placed in the frying pan
or stuffed and baked
Chesapeake Bay offers the angler two kind
of trout, the gray trout and the spotted
sea trout. While the gray trout is said to
reach weight of 80 pounds, the largest ever
taken by rod and reel weighed 16 pounds 8
ounces and was captured off New York in 1924.
The spotted trout, or salmon trout as
it is called in Chesapeake Bay, is, unfortu-
nately, not so abundant in the bay the gray
trout. This fish is more highly priced than
the gray trout and is more active, wary and
more difficult to catch. The largest spotted
sea trout recorded weighed 16 pounds and was
captured off Ocean View, Va, in April, 1922
The channel bass, or red drum" is perhaps
the most priced game fish along the Virginia,
Maryland and New Jersey coasts. It Is essen
TALLY a fish of the sandy beaches and is US
ually caught by surf fishing. Needless to say,
its reputation among anglers is high. But
unfortunately, few, if any, of these game fish
actually caught in the waters of Chesa-
peake Bay. Anglers not knowing the difference
between a channel bass and black drum often
say after landing a drum that they have
caught channel bass. The largest channel
bass caught on rod and reel weighed IS
pounds and was landed off the New Jersey
coast in 1919.
The black drum is a frequent visitor to
Chesapeake Bay waters, occurring with vary
ing abundance. Several years ago large
schools of this species visited the waters
around Solomons Island doing great damage
to the oyster beds. The black drum as food
fish does not hold a high rank, as the flesh
OF larger specimens is apt to be coarse and I'M
Ielatable. The drum often reaches weight
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