Bluefish

“ The fish were dipped out of the drawn purse net by smaller scoop, or dip, nets, and dumped, flapping and leaping, into the bottom of the boat on top of the shark.
Then, indeed, Ted was glad of the oilskin he had wrapped about him. For some of the fish flapped on him, slapping him with their tails, covering him with salt water and spray. There were some big bluefish in the catch, at the sight of which the eyes of the captain gleamed.
“I’ll get a good price for those,” he said. “Bluefish are scarce. Haven’t had any in a dog’s age. ”

“ Certain groups, like the Cyprinodontinæ, are distributed only along the shallow shore waters; others, like the sharks and bluefish, are pelagic, living on the high seas, and such usually have a wide distribution. The ocean depths have their peculiar fish fauna—species modified for these peculiar conditions, and unable to subsist at the surface. These species, living in darkness, often have no eyes, and many are phosphorescent. The coldest latitudes harbor their fishes. ”

“ While my companions were asleep, I went out with an old fisherman, and by breakfast time had captured 221 thirty bluefish, weighing about two pounds apiece. The manner of catching these is to tow for them with a long line, the bait being a piece of ivory attached to a strong hook. They are a very active and powerful fish, and when hooked make a great fuss, skipping and leaping out of the water.
At nine o’clock our party were at anchor on a reef about one mile off, and for the space of about two hours we hauled in the blackfish fast as possible, many of them weighing eight to ten pounds apiece. ”

“ A bluefish—a big fat six-pound bluefish. 'Name of grace!' sez Cap'n Peleg Mahoney, sez he; an' Willum Smitzer he sez, sez he, 'Donner und blitzen,' w'ich the same it are Dutch fur, 'Squalls to leeward.' Waal, them sailor-farmers they tuk us all over the farm an' showed us the mos' picooliar crops wot any one ever seed in this 'ere world, an' ye can see a good many queer things 'ere ef ye jess keep your weather eye a-liftin'. ”

“ The food of fishes includes all sorts of vegetable and animal matter and forms. Some are omnivorous. Others are exceedingly choice about their food, living almost exclusively upon certain species of Crustacea, for instance. Some, like the carp, are vegetarians, and the smaller fishes are the principal food of the larger, predaceous forms, like the trout and bluefish. Many species subsist entirely upon the minute organisms they can strain out of the water. ”

“ Trout abound in the mountain streams, and black bass in the rivers of the interior. The cat-fish grows to a large size in the sluggish rivers. On the coast, the striped bass, sea-bass, drum, sheepshead, weakfish, bluefish and Spanish mackerel are important as food fishes. ”

“ The Blue-fish is known in different localities as the "Horse-Mackerel," "Skipjack," "Green-fish." It is a widely distributed fish, but its favorite haunts in the summer are the waters of the middle Atlantic states. It feeds entirely upon other fish. Professor Baird says: "There is no parallel in point of destructiveness to the Blue-fish among the marine species on our coast, whatever may be the case among some of the carnivorous fish of the South American waters. ”

“ On the coasts of the United States it is well known by the name of “Blue-fish,” being highly esteemed as food, and furnishing excellent sport. It is one of the most rapacious fishes, destroying an immense number of other shore-fishes, and killing many more than they can devour. It grows to a length of 5 feet, but the majority of those brought to market are not half that length. ”

“ But if whales are getting scarce round about Nantucket, the blue-fish is still plenty. This gamest and most delicious of salt-water fish is noted for its strength, voracity, and grit. He is a very pirate among fish, making prey of all alike. Cod, haddock, mackerel, or tautog, are glad to get out of his way; the smaller fry he chases among the surf-waves of the shore, much as the fishermen pursue the blackfish. Where the blue-fish abounds you need not try for other sort: he is lord high admiral of the finny tribes. ”

“ When the day is advanced, and the game has grown wary, you may rest; and looking out to sea, perchance behold the blue-fish chase the menhaden and the porpoise devour the blue-fish, and the thresher shark plough his way through schools of lesser creatures, killing with blows of his powerful tail, and then devouring his prey at his leisure. ”

“ If we do this, we shall travel not many miles from the shore in summer, wending our way through shrimps and lobsters, gurnards, cod-fish, soles, and turbot, before we may chance to come across a great Blue shark, with his slaty-coloured back and fins, swimming heavily but strongly through the water, and turning sharply from time to time to seize a passing fish, his white belly gleaming like a flash of light as it comes uppermost, and then disappearing again in the dark water. ”

“ And when the bass seizes your bait, and you have fixed the hook by one sharp blow, you must be gentle and moderate, only using severe measures where they are absolutely necessary. If the blue-fish comes, and he does not carry away your hook at the first snatch, reel him in as quickly as his indomitable pluck and vigor will permit. He is not game when you are bass-fishing. If the ungainly flounder, exhibiting unexpected activity, shall chase and grasp your bait, lug him out by main force, treating him, though excellent to eat, like the vulgar commoner he is. ”

“ Blue-fish, pike, and other fish jump with head towards the point where a storm is frowning.
The approach of blue-fish to the Middle Atlantic coast is a true indication of a shift of wind to the north within twenty-four or thirty-six hours. The observer furnishing the above states that he has not known this saying to have failed once in the past twenty-five years, and assigns as a reason that in autumn all fish go south, and the blue-fish, it appears, is able to anticipate this change and approaches the coast, where it may strike the feed-fish on their way south. ”

“ But you will be surprised to see how different live prawns look from the dead ones which you may see in a fishmonger’s shop. The fact is that, like the lobster, they change colour when they are boiled. When they are alive, indeed, they hardly have any colour at all, and are nearly transparent. That is why it is so difficult to see them in the water. And if you keep them in an aquarium, all that you can see of them, very often, as they dart to and fro is just their glowing eyes, which gleam in the water like tiny balls of fire. ”

“ We sometimes spend a half day or so fishing for bottom-fish like scup, black-fish, or even flounders, for they bite freely and bring a fair price in the market; but if you’re fishing for sport, there is just one fish in these waters which fills the bill completely, and that is the blue-fish. Sometimes you fish for hours without getting a strike, and then all at once you run into a school of them. ”

“ The blueback, a lively and toothsome fish, about which rages an ichthyological argument as to whether he is a distant species of the salmon tribe or merely a half-grown coho, is the first to show in great schools. The spring salmon is always in the Gulf, but the spring is a finny mystery with no known rule for his comings and goings, nor his numbers. All the others, the blueback, the sockeye, the hump, the coho, and the dog salmon, run in the order named. They can be reckoned on as a man reckons on changes of the moon. ”

“ Blue sharks have pretty colours, especially when they are freshly caught, steel-grey and violet on their back, changing to green and white underneath. The long emerald-green eye in the grey skin is most effective—wicked-looking to a degree! Who has described the exquisite colour of the shark’s pilot fish, with its upright stripes blue and white, like the wings of a jay, and who can tell why they swim in front of his nose—is it to give the shark a squint? ”

“ For blue-fish and their young—the snapping mackerel, lead is the favorite, while for lake-trout and pickerel, ivory is preferable, although this rule is not invariable; and on dark days the light-colored material will be occasionally preferred by all these varieties. ”

“ Where the fish feels at its best the colors are the richest. There are some fishes, too, in which the male grows very brilliant in the breeding season through the deposition of red, white, black, [Pg 9] or blue pigments, or coloring matter, on its scales or on its head or fins, this pigment being absorbed when the mating season is over. This is not true of the sunfish, who remains just about the same at all seasons. The male and female are colored alike and are not to be distinguished without dissection. ”

“ When in pursuit of a shoal of small fish, it assembles in flocks, keeps up a constant yelping noise, dips every instant among the fry, and continues to feed until so gorged as to be unable to fly. Alighting in groups, they float with great buoyancy, and it is pleasant to see them rising and falling alternately on the waves of a moderately agitated sea, the snowy whiteness of their under parts contrasting with the deep green water, and their elongated wings extending beyond the tail, giving the appearance of lightness and agility to their form. ”

“ Blue-fish, white-fish, weak-fish, porgies, twisting eels, and soft clams strung on strings, lobsters alive and lobsters boiled, soft-shell crabs, packed in moss-lined boxes, hard-shell crabs, not packed at all—all are spread about outside of this singular building on the sidewalk in the gutter—yes, even in the very street itself, while the bawling of the fishermen as they cry the merits of their wares, the cackle of housewives, moving about here and there with giant market baskets on their arms, are all mingled in one unearthly clatter and din. ”

“ Some pelagic fishes, especially flying fishes and fishes allied to the mackerel, swim long distances to a region favorable for a deposition of spawn. Some species are known only in the waters they make their breeding homes, the individuals being scattered through the wide seas at other times. Many fresh-water fishes, as trout, suckers, etc., forsake the large streams in the spring, ascending the small brooks where they can rear their young in greater safety. Still others, known as anadromous fishes, feed and mature in the sea, but ascend the rivers as the impulse of reproduction grows strong. ”

“ With a six-ounce fly-rod, and any of the flies named for black bass, the fly-fisher will find this fish worthy of his steel, as it grows to two pounds in weight.
The Blue Sunfish (Lepomis pallidus) is a very common and widely-diffused species. In the South, it is known as the “Blue Bream,” and “Copper-nosed Bream.” Its mouth is quite small. In color it is olivaceous or bluish-green, with a distinct dusky spot on the last rays of dorsal and anal fins. The dorsal has ten spines, eleven rays; anal, three spines and ten soft rays. It is closely allied to the following species. ”

“ A high point of land covered with bushes shut off my view of a deep pool just around the corner, in which I had many times caught trout. As I came near this bend in the river a most extraordinary thing occurred. I distinctly saw a fish flying through the air over the top of the clump of bushes on the point. A flying fish is not an unheard of thing, indeed I have seen them several times, but not in the mountains, not in these woods, where there are fresh waters only. Flying fish of the kind I know about are met in the Sound and in bays near the ocean. ”

“ And now, as we rise again from the dark still depths up to warm layers of the tropical seas into which the sun is pouring his penetrating rays, it may51 happen that a large dark body moves between us and the surface, as the Great Blue Shark, or one of his smaller relations, ploughs his way through the water. But what are these little dark brown fish, with round gaping mouths, which are hanging by the top of their head and back from under the shark’s belly? ”

“ Nearly all the larger species, whether blue, green, or brown in colour, can be easily seen from a considerable distance, and the colours are not sufficiently bright or alarming to support the belief that they can serve the purpose of warning either fish or birds of the presence of a dangerous stinging animal. It is possible, however, that the brighter spots of colour that are often noticed on the tips of the tentacles and on the lips may act as a lure or bait in attracting small fish and Crustacea. ”

“ The blue shark is a horrible nuisance to the fishermen, but, fortunately, it is with us only in summer, when it makes itself known by hunting after the fish entangled in the nets, which it does by seizing both fish and net with its keen and serrated teeth, and swallowing fish and mesh together. ”

“ The fishes in these seas fight like hell, and be always a-lashing the surface with their fins and tails, seemingly. Can’t live and let live by the looks of it. A [137] flying-fish do put me in mind of myself, for he’s always moving on. If he bides in the sea, barracudas and other chaps go for him, and when he comes out for a sail in the air, the birds are after him. Then the swordfish go for the porpoises, and the sharks go for everything. ”

“ It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature, to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer. The Fresh-Water Sun-Fish, Bream, or Ruff, Pomotis vulgaris, as it were, without ancestry, without posterity, still represents the Fresh-Water Sun-Fish in nature. It is the most common of all, and seen on every urchin’s string; a simple and inoffensive fish, whose nests are visible all along the shore, hollowed in the sand, over which it is steadily poised through the summer hours on waving fin. ”