In the lower end of Barnegat Bay, south of the inlet, there are numbers of pound and gill seines set, and quantities of fine fish are caught in them ; but that mode of fishing is not permitted above the inlet. Except in the two channels, where the water varies from 9 to 14 feet in depth, the bay generally is shallow, say from 18 inches to 7 feet at high water, and at low water wide expanses of sedge and eel-grass are exposed. From the 1st of July until well on in September each incoming tide brings from the ocean great schools of Weak-fish, big, yellow-finned, tide-runners. They dart over the flats where the water is only three or four feet deep and scour the sloughs and along the edges of the channels, snapping up shrimp, small fishes, soft crabs, and any other edibles that come in their way. Here and there, where there are patches of coral, Sheeps-head abound, some of them ranging as high in weight as 17 to 18 pounds. King-fish and Blue-fish seldom more than two pounds in weight are numerous ; but the most abundant is the Weak-fish. It is not at all an uncommon thing for an expert angler to take from 200 to 300 on a single tide, if he goes simply for numbers and is satisfied with small fish; but even of the big ones, ranging from two to three pounds, he may easily get from 50 to 75 on a tide if he goes out with a skipper. When the Weak-fish season is drawing to a close, on such days as the weather permits and there are few exceptions to that condition the cat-rigged sloops used in the bay go outside, over the bar, and there is grand sport fishing for Blue-fish and croakers the latter a white fish, very good to eat, weighing from five to eight pounds. When the frost comes the Bass appear all along this coast in myriads and penetrate the bay, where they are caught until so late in the year that they have to be dragged out through holes cut in the ice. That there are, in season, Flounders galore in the bay goes without saying, and now and then one pulls up a skate ; but this body of water is comparatively singularly free from those common nuisances and curses to anglers in salt waters near New York the Sculpins, Gurnards, Sea-spiders, Begalls, Dog-fish, Hammer-headed Sharks, and other pertinacious bait thieves.

The hotels of Ocean County charge $2 a day ; that includes the ample lunch aboard the boat, free transportation to the landing-place and back as often as desired, cold storage for the catch of fish, etc. The hire of the boats cat-rigged sloops, 20 to 24 feet in length is $4 per diem, for which the captain not only sails the boat as long as desired, but cleans the fish, gathers the fresh cedar swamp moss to pack them in, packs them in boxes or baskets, and stows them away in the ice-house ready for shipment next day. Shrimps, for bait, cost seventy-five cents per quart, and are exceedingly small. It takes three to make a decent bait. Shedder-crabs are uncertain of supply, and when found are small; those who want that sort of bait had better bring it from New York. The Weak-fish here are not so dainty in their tastes as they seem to become by the time they get to Prince's Bay, and Shedder-crab is by no means a necessity for catching them. Not infrequently when they are running in on a flood tide they will snap eagerly at a chunk of fresh Blue-fish or even a piece of a Weak-fish. It is not advisable to send fish back to the city by the express company if it can be avoided. Delivery is too much delayed and uncertain.