From the 'Amazing History' Files -
I've been re-reading Genio Scott's
Fishing in American Waters published in 1869 and thought I'd post the following excerpt.
I don't know if this qualifies as ice-fishing or not - and it seems like there was more work than sport in it, but I think it gives you an idea of the abundance of striped bass we once had in our area. It has always made me think, too about a native spawning population of bass in our area back in The Long Ago.
" In November the bass shoal and congregate in brackish water-ponds or back-waters of tidal rivers, or in the bays and bayous of rivers which have an outlet to the sea, after which time it will not take bait until the following spring, after having spawned and returned to native waters."
" The ponds formed by the back-waters of the Seconnet River were, a few winters since, so full of striped bass that the fish were discovered by their dorsal fins sticking out of the ice, where they had been frozen by too close packing."
" The ice was cut and hundreds of cart-loads were pitched out with forks and taken to market."
Oh, yeah, by the way....some of you will recognize the spot he's describing, but we'll keep that to ourselves
Threaded Mode