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Striped Bass Fishing Began Over 300 Years Ago

The early inhabitants of Cape Cod fished for stripers as enthusiastically as the beach anglers of modern times. In William Wood’s “New England Prospect,” which came out in 1634, the chronicler had this to say of bass fishing:

... one of the best fishes in the country, for tho’ men are soon wearied with other fish, yet they are never with basse. It is a delicate, fine fat, fast fish, having a bone in his head which contains a saucerful of marrow sweet and good, pleasant to the palate and wholesome to the stomach.
“When there is -a great store of them we only eat the heads, and salt up the bodies for winter, which (the bodies) exceed ling or heberdine. Of these fishes, some be 3 & 4 feet long. “The fisherman, taking a great codline to which he fastens a piece of lobster, throws it into the sea, the fish biting at it he pulls her towards him, and knocks her on the head with a stick.”

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Posted by Cape Cod - (website) on 01/26/06
Categories: Fishing, History
Keywords: fish, fishing, striped bass, history, saltwater fishing

Comments:

That is an interesting story. I an not real sure about eating just the heads to conserve for the winter. But I guess the time frame people were more interested in conservation of life than gourmet eating

Posted by Will from New Mexico on 05/06/11 at 06:05 AM | #

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