Lobster which is also used as a bait in this style of fishing is deficient in tenacity, and has to be tied on like menhaden, and probably the natural squid would be an effective and manageable bait, could it be provided in sufficient quanities. Hooks are manufactured expressly for this fishing with a round head, they are fastened to the line with two half hitches, the end again hitched above so as to take the friction; and as they are carried off by the first big blue fish or in the Yankee vernacular horse-mackerel, that takes a fancy to the bait the angler must be well supplied.

The friction is so great in casting, that the thumb must be protected by a thumb stall or "cot," as fishermen call it, or better yet, one for each thumb, so that you can cast from either side, and snub the fish with either hand. They are made of chamois, leather, india rubber, or some equivalent material, and in casting by hand, a similar protection is required for the forefinger. A shoemaker's knife is admirably adapted to cutting bait, and the best tool is desirable, as cutting up menhaden bait is about as dirty, disagreeable and tedious an operation as can be imagined. The angler should always have an assistant for the purpose, or he will get his hands, his rod, and his clothes in a condition of oil, blood and fish scales, that no cleaning will wholly remove, and his person will smell "ancient and fish-like" for weeks.

Bass fishermen will boast that they never allow their lines to over run, but listeners should make allowances for sportsmen's stories. We all like to believe that we can shoot and fish as well as the best or a little better, and ambition to excel is laudable. The truth is, there never was a fisherman yet whose line did not sometimes overrun and foul. This occurrence is the drawback to the sport, and there seems to be no way of preventing it. The pressure to be applied to the reel depends upon so many considerations, the force and direction of the wind, the power applied to the cast, the speed of the bait which diminishes as it progresses, and the quality of the line and perfect working of the reel, whereby the restraining tension is so difficult to apply perfectly, so hard to regulate exactly to the occasion - that no angler, however skillful or experienced can always be sure that his line will go out clean and clear, without bagging or catching, while at the same time his bait reaches the utmost limit of distance to which he can drive it.

So much for bass fishing in the surf, a sport that compares favorably with and is only surpassed by salmon fishing; but we must not neglect the smaller run of these fish which are taken by rod and reel, from the weight of eight ounces to that of sixty pounds. The large fish are diminishing at so rapid a rate that there is danger that before many years have passed surf fishing will have ceased to be practiced, and Cutty hunk, Pasque and West Island will be deserted, as Point Judith is already. Far more persons are interested in the milder sport, and there is hope that it will last until the time comes when bass will be bred artificially as trout and salmon now are, and when a stop shall be put to the decrease of these fish.

The prettiest mode of taking striped bass must be admitted to be with the fly, which, unfortunately can only be done in the brackish or fresh water. Like salmon, they will not take the fly generally in the salt creeks and bays, and then only when it is trolled. Thus though the sport of fly fishing for striped bass is excellent, it is confined to few localities, and those often difficult of access. Fly fishing may be done either with the ordinary salmon rod, or in a strong current with a common bass rod, by working your fly on the top of the water and giving a considerable length of line. The best fly is that with the scarlet ibis and white feathers mixed, the same as used for black bass; but bass may be taken with any large fly, especially those of the Blue Jay color. Excellent sport is occasionally had in this way from off some open bridge, where the falling tide mixed with the fresh water rushes furiously between the piers. In other streams striped bass are taken early in the season with shrimp threaded on the hook, by passing the point under the back plates ; as the season advances and crabs shed their coats, with the shedder crabs, and in the fall with shrimp, the barred killey and the spearing.

In fishing with shrimp - and it is a good bait all the season through and must be tried when others fail - use a float fastened about three feet above a swivel sinker, to the lower swivel of which are to be attached two distinct gut leaders, one of three feet, the other of two. Single gut, if large, round and true, is decidedly preferable, and the hook should have a broad, round bend. If very large fish are expected - and they rarely are - use No. 0, but generally No, 3 is large enough. With crab the hook must be larger. We prefer always to have the point of the hook covered, and recommend that the shrimp should be bunched on till they hide the hook entirely, and form a round, attractive bait. In June, and throughout the summer the crab is a better bait ordinarily than the shrimp.

There is no unbending rule for fishing; the only way is to try all plans, and if the fish will not notice your crab suspended in mid-water, take off your float and swivel sinker, put on a running sinker, as it is called, made like a piece of lead pipe, with a small hole in the center, tie a knot in the line to prevent its going down on the hooks; use a single bait of a good sized piece of crab, and cast well out from you, and let the bait lie still till you feel a bite. The line being free, though the lead lies on the bottom, you can feel the first touch of a fish and can strike at once, whereas if the sinker were the old-fashioned deep sea lead, he would have to drag its weight some distance before you were aware of his proceedings. The angler, by fishing on the bottom, although justified by a philosophy which establishes the fact that bass ought to look for crabs there, and not dangling about in mid-water, will surely catch three eels to one bass. The bait except when on the bottom, should be kept in continual motion; this is the first law of all bait fishing. It is done by twitching the rod, and induces the fish to seize the prey, which they imagine is about to escape. Every angler has seen the fish time and again dart at a bait when in motion, that they smelt round contemptuously when still. Crab is generally regarded as the pre-eminent bass bait in summer, although some anglers prefer that wonderful product of the sea, the squid.

As the days grow colder, and the crab re-assumes his impenetrable coat and dangerous pincers, shrimp again come into play, and on many occasions the belly of the white soft clam will attract the bass even earlier in the season. But in August excellent sport is had casting, if we may use the word, for him with the spearing. Early in the summer, a delicate little fish, an inch or two long, pearly white and semi-transparent, with a black eye and a white band along the lateral line, makes its appearance on the shores of Long Island and elsewhere, and has come to be called the spearing. It is a beautiful fish, and properly dressed might rival in delicacy the English white-bait, but it is never brought to market till later in the season, when it has grown several inches long and is comparatively tasteless. Being too small in the early summer to take a hook, they are difficult to catch; but a good working net, both for these and killey-fish, can be made of mosquito netting stretched double between two hoop poles, with a stout cord run along the top and bottom to receive the leads and floats respectively. The netting being wide can be doubled together with the lead line laid in the bag, or, as sailors would say of a rope, in the "bight"; and the leads being small bits of pipe, fastened at short intervals, will keep the net close to the bottom - an important particular. It should be five to six yards long, and two men taking each a handle, can sweep a considerable part of the shore, and often fill a pail with minnows or spearing at one haul. The killey-fish, so called by our ancestors from being caught in the "kills" or creeks, and of which there are at least three common kinds, will rush about and try to creep under the net, but spearing go in shoals, and when once in the net do not seem to be able to escape, but will stay there as long as it is kept in motion. If spearing cannot be had, though that is rare, the barred killey, vulgarly called the bass killey, is the next in beauty and attractiveness, and if it cannot be had the ugly green killey-fish may be used, or the shrimp itself.

To cast with spearing in the manner here suggested, successfully, a stout, long salmon rod will be requisite. A small hook is run through the spearing's mouth, and out at his side, for he dies quickly and cannot be used alive, and a cast is made into the foaming torrent of a mill-tail or rushing tide. The bait is drawn irregularly over the surface of the water, and again cast and played like the fly. The bass strike it as trout or salmon take the latter, and there is much the same skill and uncertainty in the pursuit. In fishing with the killey, it is usual to keep him alive by merely running the hook under his skin alongside of the back fin. He will live for hours under such treatment.