Rockfish

“ In this type no spines are present anywhere, no hard bone, no trace of scales, of first dorsal, or of ventral fins, and in the soft, limp structure covered with a fragile, scarf-like skin we find little suggestion of affinity with the strong rockfish or the rough-mailed Agonus. ”

“ In this fish the head is weakly armed, covered with ordinary scales. A slight suggestion of cranial ridges and a slight prolongation of the third suborbital constitute the chief suggestions of its close affinity with the mailed-cheek fishes. In other rockfishes the cranial ridges grow higher and sharper. The third suborbital extends itself farther and wider. It becomes itself spinous in still others. Finally it covers the whole cheek in a coat of mail. The head above becomes rough and horny and at last the whole body also is enclosed in a bony box. ”

“ The rock-fish is a very safe fish for the aquarium, as it does not breathe the water, but rises to the surface, and stores away a supply of air, with which it descends to the bottom, remaining for half an hour before it rises for a new supply.
All fresh-water fish (excepting the trout family) can be kept in a fresh-water aquarium. Select the very smallest specimens; have all of an equal size, to prevent their quarrelling; feed on shreds of raw beef, or earth-worms that have been freed of all earthy matter by placing them in damp moss or grass overnight. Look out for food not eaten. ”

“ They are caught at low water, when the waves are just keeping the holes under the rocks full. You must find a rock with a free passage under it to the sea, and with a dark hole. Thrust in a withy-stick with a crab-baited hook, and you may catch a succession of these fish, who catch hold of the worsted round the bait, and if they drop off before you get your basket under them, will come again with a greedy rush to get before the small fry, which nibble the bait, such as gobies and blennies, and what they call there the toad-fish. ”

“ The Striped Bass in the South is known as the Rock Fish, or the Rock. This fish is particularly common in the open stretches of large rivers. It is a popular food fish and it is estimated that over 200,000 pounds of Striped Bass are eaten each year in the United States. They are voracious feeders and when in the rivers they prey upon small fishes. They frequent the surf of ocean beaches and rocky shores. The fisherman holds this fish in deservedly high esteem. They are caught in creeks, using shrimps or clams for bait. When fishing for these in the swift [156] tideways, menhaden bait is used. ”

“ And because fish-life in the rivers is comparatively uneventful and little varied, we find much fewer peculiarities in river-fish. Many of them are very near relations of sea forms. There is the salmon, a true sea-fish, which wanders up the river to spawn in the pebbly shallows; and there are the trout, his near relations, which have learned to live entirely in the rivers. There are the sea-perches, large strong fish, and the smaller river perch, which have made their homes very successfully in the rivers, for their spines are so sharp that even the greedy pike hesitates to swallow them. ”

“ Other sun-fish, seeing their fellow have all to himself a fine, fat worm which he seems unable to master, collect [221] round him, and by their numbers attract the bass, who dashes in among them, and while the rest make off, swallows the one with the worm, and of course himself falls a prey to the ingenious young fisherman. This like the use of cray-fish, mice, swallows, and many other baits, may be excellent, but I have never tried it or them; so long as the fish will take a fly, I fish with nothing else; it is infinitely more exciting to kill one fish on the fly than ten with bait. ”

“ In addition to this natural ruse, or, rather, as a supplement to it, the angler-fish is said purposely to stir up the sand, so as to dislodge the marine worms or other creatures which dwell there, which then float about in the water, so that they play the same part that ground-bait does when thrown in around the float. The discoloured water, full of living creatures or inorganic particles, brings numbers of fish there, to feed on them, whilst the silvery filament swaying and dancing in the middle of the cloud, becomes to each one the more particular attraction. ”

“ For sunfish, cat-fish, and small perch, worms are very fair bait; but for pickerel, bass, and large perch, live bait is best. Under such trying circumstances, I have learned to get up at short notice and at small expense many make-shifts and aids that may be of great assistance and consolation to other young anglers when placed in a similar position.
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 is an end section of a mosquito-net seine for taking live bait. The length of the seine is thirty-eight feet; depth, five feet. The "cork line" (A A) consists of a small-sized clothes-line. ”

“ The Gudgeon, Ruff, and Bleak, take the smallest red worms, cad-bait, gentles, and wasps. The Bleak takes the natural or artificial fly, especially in the evening.
8. The Ruff taketh the same baits as the Pearch, save that you must have lesser worms, he being a smaller fish.
9. For Roach and Dace take small worms, cad-bait, flies, bobs, sheep’s blood, small white snails, all sorts of worms bred on herbs or trees, paste, wasps, and gnats.
The Bleak is an eager fish, and takes the same baits as the Roach, only they must be less. ”

“ At other times all is washed away together. In the second place, the gravel of brooks swarms with water-lice (shrimps) and the larvae of aquatic insects, as well as bull-heads and loaches, all of which prey upon the spawn of the Trout and Salmon. In the third place, if you put your spawning-boxes in a brook, you will find it difficult to prevent the escape of the fry when hatched, and you are left in doubt as to the success of your experiment. ”

“ The Frog-fish, Lophius piscatorius—Linn. (Fig. 394) , which attains the length of five or six feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the mud, leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is furnished to float in the water; the shreds which terminate them act as natural bait when they float about in different directions, from their resemblance to worms and other living creatures. The fishes which swim above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of their two eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by these deceitful decoys. ”

“ Nor do these Olympian editors, who sit beside their proof-sheets, and whose notes are ever hurled far below them in the valley, condescend to explain to us poor gropers after light how moss to a sea-fish like the Scarus can be of value as food.
Most fishermen will tell you that fresh-water fish do eat moss; that they themselves have seen them in the act of eating such moss on the Thames; that roach in especial are particularly fond of this moss, which is used in summer months as a bait with great success ”

“ There are little nooks, little rockeries in which strange toads and reptiles hide in the fresh moss and darkened crannies, coming out occasionally, sometimes to slip unawares or through ungainliness into miniature lakes—toy ponds—frightening the lazy gold-fish and making the water-lily buds and blossoms nod and curtsey in the ripples caused by their immersion. ”

“ Supposing every fish escaping the Indians,100 otters, and the various enemies that it meets with in ascending the rivers, succeeded in depositing its ova, where or how they find room to spawn, or what becomes of the offspring, is more than I know.
Round-fish are cured by splitting and sun-drying, precisely in the same manner as salmon. I have had very good sport angling for round-fish, by using a rough gaudy fly. They rise readily, and struggle obstinately, when hooked, but soon give up ”

“ There are few better examples of predaceous, fish-eating fishes than the common gar-pike of our rivers, fishes with a slender body covered with very smooth scales, a strong tail, a short neck, and long jaws armed with numerous slender and sharp teeth. Such a fish, darting into a school of smaller fishes, by quick, sudden changes of movement, actively opening and closing its jaws, is sure to seize some of its sought-for prey. In a direct trial of speed with its victims it would most likely be worsted. ”

“ The haunts of the blackfish are rocky reefs, those of the bass and bluefish in the vicinity of sandy shoals or tide rips, and those of the remainder in about fifteen fathoms water. These are the varieties they capture by way of business, but when in a frolicsome mood, they frequently attack a sword-fish, a shark, or black whale; soul-thrilling, indeed, and laughable withal, are the yarns they spin concerning these exploits. ”

“ As far as our observations go this primitive mode of fishing is usually anything but successful, the receding of the tide generally revealing a long row of clean hooks, with, perhaps, one or two dead or half-dead fish; and it is probable that most of the bait is devoured by crabs and other crustaceans before the water becomes sufficiently deep to allow the desired fishes to reach it. ”

“ The greatest ignorance, too, prevails as to the edible qualities of the many varieties of excellent rock-fish, except the well-known schnapper. The generality of the coast settlers look upon most coloured fish as 'bad to eat,' if not 'poisonous,' and particularly so in the case of the delicious blue groper or blue-fish, the 'leather jacket,' and the scaleless bonito, which latter occasionally visit the shores of the colony in large 'schools,' and take a bait eagerly. ”

“ They proceeded along fine sand, covered with a variety of shells, for at least a mile, when they came to some rocks covered with beautiful anemones.
Innumerable fish sported around them; long, writhing eels, of a prodigious size, with ugly, flat snake-like heads, glided away at their approach, and thousands of jelly fish danced about their heads. ”

“ The little Stickleback of our ponds wears sharp spines, and knows well how to use them. Even the terrible Pike will not swallow such a dangerous mouthful unless driven by hunger.
Sea-fish are the most hunted of all living things. From the day they leave the egg, enemies lurk on all sides to gobble them up. The weak ones are eaten, and none of them has the chance to die of old age! So we find a defence of spines and prickles worn by many sea-fish. Spines on the fins are the commonest, and no doubt help to keep away enemies ”

“ The earliest of the true bony fishes or teleosts appear in Mesozoic times, the most primitive forms being soft-rayed fishes with the vertebræ all similar in form, allied more or less remotely to the herring of to-day, but connected in an almost unbroken series with the earliest ganoid forms. In these and other soft-rayed fishes the pelvis still retains its posterior insertion, the ventral fins being said to be abdominal. The next great stage in evolution brings the pelvis forward, attaching it to the shoulder-girdle so that the ventral fins are now thoracic as in the perch and bass. ”

“ The fish sometimes came along in shoals, principally the spotted rock-fish, which seemed to be painted by nature to resemble the colours of the surrounding rocks, stones, and sea-weed. Sometimes they would appear singly, swimming hurriedly, just giving the leaves a pat with their tails, as if closing the door behind them. ”

“ The pools left by the falling tide have many an interesting thing to show us. There are living creatures in plenty, besides the pretty weeds, shells, and other objects. Shrimps, Prawns and Crabs abound in the rock-pools and shallows, with anemones and shellfish of all kinds. In the rock-pools we shall also find the interesting little fish whose story we glance at in this lesson. Of course there are baby flat-fish, and large fish too, along the shore. But these are only visitors. The real rock-pool fish are those which live their lives there. ”

“ There is no doubt that the Fishing-frog, like many other fish provided with similar appendages, plays with this filament as with a bait, attracting fishes, which, when sufficiently near, are ingulfed by the simple act of the Fishing-frog opening its gape. Its stomach is distensible in an extraordinary degree, and not rarely fishes have been taken out of it quite as large and heavy as their destroyer. ”

“ Jelly-fish, cuttle-fish, and real fish of all kinds, together with any dead creatures he may find afloat,—all is food to him, and his powerful beak will cut through the toughest morsel. For days and days he will fly on, never tiring, and feeding as he goes; and if he alights for a time upon the water he rises with difficulty, unless the waves are high and bear him up on their crests; and when he comes to rest it is on some island in mid-ocean, where he seeks a mate, and brings up his nestlings either on the low ground or on the top of a high mountain, in a hollow lined with grass and moss. ”

“ There are but few natural orders of fishes—and they divide themselves for the purposes of our enquiry chiefly into the Acanthopterygii, or those that possess bony skeletons, with prickly, spinous processes on the dorsal fins, such as the perch, the mullet, and the gurnard; the Malacopterygii, or soft-finned fishes, including the carp, the salmon, &c.; and the Chondropterygii, with cartilaginous spines and bones, embracing such fish as the sturgeon, shark, and skate. ”

“ The crabs have the advantage over the human species, insomuch that they can reproduce a lost limb.
Finding I could catch a large quantity of fish of all kinds, especially rock fish, which, being new to me, I greatly admired, I set about constructing a fish pond near the house.
These rock fish are a curiosity in the way of fish. They run from about six inches to two feet in length; weigh from a few ounces to a dozen pounds, and no two that I have ever caught are alike, either in colour or disposition of spots. They are spotty and speckly all over. ”