Evening star., 1941-09-19
Championship Regatta Closes Big Year Of Sailing Chesapeake Bay
With BILL Acxsa~'
Black Boss Fishing Here Best in Years
Guide, Boot Make Big g-Gome Angler

Many anglers like saltwater fish
ing as well as stream fishing. Max
ing a decision between the two Is
sometimes difficult. 1t shouldn't be.
Stream fishing should be the choice,
two to one, for there are few seasons
when the river and its tributaries
are clear for so long a period as
they have been this year, and one
always can fish in salt water.
We can't remember summer
when black bass were so numerous
or so large; when SO many anglers
have fish, or creeled such consist
emily fine catches. Therefore, fish
the Potomac so long as it is possible.
From indications now there is
another week end of crystal-clear
waters ahead. The muddy Streaks
in many areas early this week are
gone. The water temperatures are
many degrees lower, which not only
clears the river quicker, but brings
the big ones out of the deep holes.
There appears to be little choice
between bait and lures. River runts
still continue to raise the most fish,
but some anglers claim they have
tried everything in their tackle boxes
and found them all equally produc-
tive. However, surface or near
surface plugs probably will be best
now that the bass are feeding in the
shadows.
Perch Still Running Small.
In the bay and the Potomac perch
still are running small and un-
doubtedly will continue so until sew
eral days of sharp weather moves
the larger fish down from head
waters. A school of these little fish
leaves but one choice for fisher
men. That is to move.
Norfolk spot are more numerous
than ever and as large as anglers
can remember. From Blackstone
Island in the Potomac down to
Point Lookout and up the bay as
far as Gibson Island catches are
just what the individual cares to
make them.
With cotton thread or tournament
line and a light bass rod and reel
spot are as much fun as any
species in the bay, but the uncer-
tainty as to size, now that larger
trout are in both river and bay,
makes this fishing more desirable to
most fishermen. The procedure,
therefore, is to catch a few spot
and bait at least one hook with them
so there always are two chances.
Hardheads, with the exception of
few yearlings here and there, are
gone to the lower bay and beaches
where they will stay until time to
go South and off into deep waters.
We have heard fabulous stories,
second and third hand, of catches
OF Stripers on the Eastern Shore,
but none which we would accept as
authentic. Shadyside and Deale
shippers are continuing to find a
few trolling in the evening along
the Kent Island shore. The schools
of small fish continue on in the
Point Lookout area and at Cedar
Point in the mouth of the Patuxent.
There seems to be little hope that
anglers will get the kind of striper
fishing this fall they enjoyed in
1889 for the large schools of big
fish have failed to show this sum-
mer anywhere and they do have to
be in bay waters before they can
school.
Bluefin Tuna Come Big.
Bluefin tuna have averaged large,
about 500 pounds, off the Maine
coast this season, and the total
catch is near 400. Stories of hard
fights and tough going have been
numerous, but the best story to
come from Bailey Island was that
of the angler who thought he had
one on-only it had a strange way
of battling. Brought to boat it
proved to be. not a tuna. but a
halibut, inches short of 6 feet long
and 80 inches wide, weighing 14l
pounds. And that, if you ask, is
something of flat-fish.
We always have believed the
guide and the boat accounted for
about 80 per cent of the anglers
success in big-game fishing. Capt.
Tom Clifford, one of the foremost
guides in the world, has been con-
sistent equally in his denial that this
was true
On Sunday another Miamian
fishing with Tommy on Mrs. Marion
Hassler's Stormy Petrol at Wedge
port, Nova Scotia, caught a blue