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WEAKFISH AND CATCHING THEM Big Fellows Haunt the Narrow CTASS Bordered Channels of the Bay Writing of weakfish and weakfishiug in the New York Sim W H Ballon of Forked River Xew Jersey one of the headquarters of the sport has this to say sayI I admit that I was a kid once that I went bare ¬ footed in summer used a bush for a pole cut and trimmed in the swamp a piece of string for a line and a bent book for a fisli hook that I crawled to the bank of a little stream so as not to shake the soil deftly swung the hook under the bank baited with an angleworm and yanked out fine large brook trout galore galoreSurely Surely in those good days I was an unconscious member of the Cotton Thread Fishing Club of America unborn though it was since it was much later before I ever saw a real fish line real fish hook or i real fish pole or a reel reelHence Hence being an unconscious member it is to regret to note an interesting story in The Sun Sep ¬ tember 20 by one of its members that the clubs high officials arrived here recently to have me act as guide to the hauntis of big ocean tackle smashing weakfisb At the time I was pleasantly engaged at Green ¬ wich Conn catching little flounders the size of your hand and snappers still smaller All society was doing it and in Rome you know etc etcI I may say in passing that if big weakfish are difficult to land little flounders are more difficult in a way so I invented a method for my hosts and feel myself the author of a novel form of food conservation and the provider of not a few of the choicest pan fish courses in the homes of the higherups higherupsIt It occurs to me the cotton threaders got stung all around In the first place no captain is guide for me so neither the boat they secured nor its captain is other than one of my good friends and I suspect a joker since all Forked Silverites love the joke jokePersonally Personally I go fishing ever alone in a rowboat and know Barnegat Bay so well that I make its storms carry my craft home while I take a nap sprawled out on scats or bottom A rowboat is a mere cork to one who knows how to use it and will weather the biggest seas if headed or tailed diagonally on the waves In the worst storm the past siimmer I only lost two oarlocks by pyramid waves smisliing the marlin attaching them to the gunwale gunwaleOur Our friends of the club did not get big ocean weakfish on their cotton thread Weakfish weigh ¬ ing only two and onehalf to four pounds are in the second or third year from the schoolfish class classI I stated in niy article that tackle smashing weak fish run from six to ten pounds in weight and are not to be found in the open bay except possible stragglers I admit that 1 once saw a farmer yank out a ninepounder where only schoolfish are ever caught lie did it with whiskers with a rat ¬ tan pole and a line resembling a small rope ropeHOMES HOMES OF OCEAN WEAKFISH WEAKFISHThe The kind of small weakfish which our cotton threaders caught the barefooted boy yanks in with his line of string and a bent hook Sometimes they the fish jump in your boat when crossing the bay A four pound weakfish is good eating but not much of an exciter I dont deliberately fish for them and so dont know In catching them our friends got their second sting stingThe The worst sting our friends got was in failing to find a locality where large ocean weakfish only o These are narrow grass bordered channels where neither motor nor cat lx at can anchor One must anchor such boats in a safe place and go after the fish in a rowboat It is a rare event when a large boat can drop anchor in the midst of the big fellows fellowsIf If possible anywhere it would IKS along the grass borders occasionally of the big channels such as Oyster Creek or Double Creek channel To find the big fisli I move swiftly around in the row boat often rowing ten or twelve miles before locating them sometimes not finding them in an all day hunt huntFrankly Frankly I dont know where the big fellows hide in low water For that matter all fish seem to take their siesta at low tide many species retiring under the slime on the floor of the bay The food they seek also settles at low tide and all fish naturally seek it when there is movement movementFish Fish not only move in the direction of the tide but most of them take the opportunity to follow the tide out through the inlet into deeper water I noticed this especially at Greenwich The little flounders pan fish came in the harbor and re ¬ mained all through flood tide When the water fell to a certain point all followed the retreat out into the deep water of the Sound SoundI I regret again that our cotton thread friends failed to go in the marine meadows and have a try at the big fellows feeding in the grass Just one big ocean weakfish would have taught them to re ¬ spect his prowess He would have snapped their thread lines on the grass stalks as fast as they could hand down the bait to him himFurther Further they should have used shedder crabs for bait In grassless waters as I stated in the tackle smashing weakfish article I say again that pos ¬ sibly a big weakfish might be landed in grassless water if given thread enough to run until he was tired say one whole forenoon or afternoon A farmer did it and a barefoot boy with a string and bent pin can do it occasionally
