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White Perch
"Nor let the Muse, in her award of fame,
Illustrious Perch, unnoticed pass thy claim,
Prince of the prickly cohort, bred in lakes,
To feast our boards, what sapid boneless flakes
Thy solid flesh supplies! though overfed,
No daintier fish in ocean's pastures bred
Swims thy compeer."
--Ausonius.
This well-known fish is common on the Atlantic coast of America from the Carolinas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It thrives in fresh, brackish, and salt water, but is somewhat anadromous, ascending freshwater streams. It is frequently landlocked in coastal ponds, where it becomes purely a freshwater fish. It is found in the lower portions of nearly all the streams from Maine to the Carolinas, and is one of the most popular of game-fishes. It takes the fly readily, though it will not leave the water to do so, and angleworms, grasshoppers, and small minnows are irresistible. As a game-fish it should hold, as it does in some places, a very high rank. It bites vigorously, and as a mad rusher, it is not surpassed. And as a pan-fish many regard it as the best among all our fishes. The only exception we feel disposed to make is the yellow perch.
Colour, olivaceous, varying to dark green; sides silvery or olivaceous, usually with faint paler longitudinal streaks.
GENUS STEREOLEPIS AYRES
The Jewfishes
This genus, characterized by the short, soft dorsal, the absence of spiny ridges on the head, and the continuous but deeply notched dorsal fin, contains one American species, the California jewfish or black sea-bass,
Stereolepis gigas
This huge fish is found on the coast of southern California and north to the Farallones. It is most abundant about Santa Catalina, where it is one of the really great game-fishes taken at that most famous anglers' resort, and Professor Chas. F. Holder has written entertainingly of this wonderful fish. He says the "jewfish is a bottom feeder, and is fished for on the edge of the kelp in 30 or 40 feet of water. The strike comes as a nibble, but when hooked the fish is away with a rush that has been known to demoralize experienced anglers. My largest fish, weighing 276 pounds, was taken in a boat or skiff which weighed 125 pounds, and I was repeatedly almost jerked overboard by the struggles of the bass. When it was gaffed it jerked the gaff from my hands a score of times. It was impossible to take it aboard, so we towed it five miles to port, well illustrating how delightful the most arduous labour becomes when dignified by the term sport. I have seen a 200-pound fish snap the largest shark-line like a thread, and large specimens straighten out an iron shark-hook; yet the skilled wielders of the rod catch these giants of the tribe with a line that is not larger than some eye-glass cords."
Professor Holder's experience with his first California jewfish is worth repeating:
"The anchor was tossed over, the rope ran merrily out, and the hook, baited with a 6-pound whitefish, went hissing down to the big submerged rock.
" 'Sometimes he bite, sometimes he don't,' remarked Joe; 'but whether he do or not, we have the fishin' all the same.' And he looked at me inquiringly, to see if I was of that variety of fishermen who are never satisfied unless the fish are always on the line. It so happened that I found pleasure in the mere anticipation; and we sat silent for half an hour, I holding the throbbing line that the ebbing tide played upon as the string of a musical instrument...I glanced at my companion, and was wondering if in his veins ran the blood of the Aztecs or of the Indians whom Cabrillo and others found here centuries ago when Santa Catalina was an empire in itself and owned by them, when suddenly I became aware that the tension of the line I held had increased to a steady pull; then came a jerk that carried my hand into the water.
" 'Jewfish, sure!' whispered Joe, awakened from his reverie by my exclamation, 'Slack!'
"I paid out the line, while he seized the anchor-line and made ready to haul up.
" 'Give him 10 feet, and then hook!' were my orders.
"I was an old shark fisherman, having caught many of these monsters in the Mexican Gulf, and had taken a Florida jewfish and a tarpon; and I saw that work of a similar kind was before me in this fishing. The line jerked heavily in my hand, then began to run out steadily. When about 6 feet had gone over the gunwale I stopped, gave a glance at the coil to see that all was clear, and when the line came taut jerked the hook into my first jewfish.