TOSL CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 08 074 027 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University THE GIFT OF WILLARD A. KIGGINS, JR. in memory of his father The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924081074027 PREFACE: It "^^^ the introduction of large, comfortable, swift and safe sea-going power-vessels that first made the ofif-shore grounds available to the large army of New York City's fishermen. Before that they were limited to a few steamboats which could carry only a tiny percentage of people as compared with the surprising numbers who now go out regularly, ^ The only other party-boats were sloops and schooners and these could not often reach distant grounds. Even in attempt- ing to go to places comparatively near shore, they often had uncomfortable adventures ; and on the whole a trip in their days furnished more cruising (or drifting) than fishing. ^ Until the power-boats came in, the off-shore grounds were ■jknown to comparatively few men. But the power-boats develop- -ea a little navy of excellent fishing-pilots. The result is that to-day the old grounds are better known than they ever have been, and many excellent new ones have been discovered. ^ This book is the first and only publication to describe the fish- ing spots and fishing wrecks off shore. It represents more than a year of patient and careful work. The fishing captains of New York have given valuable and enthusiastic assistance, and all the facts presented in the book have been elaborately checked back, ^ In addition, deep-sea experts, hydrographic authorities and ocean pilots have been consulted; and exceedingly valuable, and hitherto little known, facts have been thus gained and are here published for the first time. ^ We call attention to the description and histories of the famous wrecks. The story of many of these was practically unknown to the present generation, and it seemed impossible for a long time to get any facts about them, as there were practically no records. It was only after many months of labori- dus investigation that the editors succeeded in gathering the data here presented. In order to get some of the details it was necessary to go through old files and shipping documents for years back. ^ The distances given here are nautical miles. (A nautical mile is about IVi land miles.) The compass bearings are magnetic. The depths given are mean low water. ^ No person is permitted to use any part of this book without our specific permission. INDEX Acara Wreck 36 Ajace Wreck 31, 32 Angler Banks 26, 27 Ambrose Channel LightsUp 18, 46 Asbury Park Wreck 18 Aspinwall Wreck 40 Babcock Wreck 40 Banigan Wreck 40 Bank 17 Barnegat to Fire Island Map 24 Baxter Wreck 40 Bay Queen Wreck 40 Bench 17 Big Rock 18 Black Warrior Wreck 10, 30, 31 Boyle Wreck 33 Oedars 13 Channel Wreck 33 Cholera Banks 21, 22, 23 Chute Wreck 40 Circassian Wreck 38 Coney Island Bell Buoy 9 Coney Island Mussel Beds 9 Connor Wreck 40 Copia Wreck 33 Dilberry Grounds 10 Drumelzier Wreck 34 Duck Grounds 16 East Rockaway Whistling Buoy 5 East Wreck 33 Elberon Grounds 17 Elbow . 14 Elizabeth Wreck 37 England Banks 17 Kquator Wreck 40 Eugenie Wreck 40 Evelyn Wreck 33 Evolution Grounds 20 False Hook 12, 18 Farms 27, 28 Fire Island to Barnegat Map 24 Fire Island Light House 9 Fire Island I^ht Ship 9 Fire Island Wnistling Buoy 9 Fire Island Wreck 34, 40 Flat Eock 18 Flynns Knoll 12 Preeport Section Map 41 Garwood Wreck 40 Gazelle Wreck 40 Glenola Wreck 40 Governor Wreck 33 Granite Wreck 33 Grant Wreck 40 Great South Bay 46-48 Great South Bay Maps 39, 41, 43, 45, 47 Hanna Wreck 40 Harbor Entrance Map 19 Harding Wreck 40 Hargraves Wreck 42 Hempstead Bay Map 39 Hennessy Wreck 40 Highland Grounds 13 Highlands Navesink 13 Holcomb Wreck 40 Holway Wreck 40 Howard Wreck 36 Iberia Wreck 34 Inshore Grounds Maps 11-19 Italian Wreck 31, 32 Jones Inlet 36, 37, 40, 48 Jordan, E. B 18 Julia Wreck 40 Keene Wreck 40 Kenyon Wreck 33 Kirk Wreck 40 Klondike Banks 18 Knoll, The 16 Lawrence Wreck Sa Libby Wreck 40 Lindsay Wreck 33 Page Little Eock 18 Long Beach Bass Grounds 6 Long Beach Grounds 5 Long Beach Ground Maps 7, 24 Long Beach Stone Pile 8 Long Beach Whistling Buoy 5, 6, 27 Long Beach Wrecks 40 Long Branch Ground 17 Long Island Coast Map 7, 24 Lotus Wreck 40 Low Wreck 40 Manhattan Beach Stone File 9 McFarland Wreck 40 Melchior Wreck 40 Middle Grounds 8, 13, 16, 26 Monmouth Beach Life Saving Station, 14 Navesink Highlands ; . . . 13 Never-fail 17 New England Bank 17 ^ew Jersey Coast Map 15, 24 New Jersey Eeef 27 New Middle Ground 8, 27 Nigger Grounds 16 Nor' East Grounds 6 Nor' West Grounds 8 Off-shore Wrecks 42 Oil Spot 13 Oil Wreck 35 Ossoli, Margaret Fuller 37 Outer Middle Ground 13, 46 Peter Eickmers Wreck 35 Pliny Wreck 40 Eattle-Snake 14 Bhoda Wreck 37 Eickmers Wreck 35 Eockaway Buoys 10 Eockaway Mussel Beds 9 Eocky Ground 27, 28 Rocky Hill 14 Eomer Shoals 10 Eusland Wreck , 40 Sabao Wreck 40 Saddle Eock 21 Sandy Hook Bay Map 29 Sandy Hook Grounds 12 Sandy Hook Light-ship 46 Schuyler, J. B 17 Scotland Light-ship 44, 46 Scotland Wreck 46 Scow Wreck 33, 36, 37 Seabright Grounds 14 Seagull Banks 20 Seventeen Fathbm Bank 28, 30 Shark Biver Grounds 18 Shark's Ledge 18 Short Beach Wrecks 40 Shrewsbury Eiver Map 29 Shrewsbury Eocks 14 Silsby Wreck 40 Snow Wreck 33 Soule Wreck 33 Spermaceti Oove 12, 40 Sou' East Grounds 6, 8 Sou' West Spit M. South Oyster Bay Map 48 Stairs Wreck 42 Btaten Island Banks 16 Tea Wreck 36 Tolck, David H. Wreck 42 Tucker Wreck 40 Turner Wreck 33 Umbria 34 Vieksburgh Wreck 38 Vizcaya Wreck 42 Warden, J. S 20 Washington Wreck 42 Weaver Wreck 42 West End Ground 17 West End Pier Bell Buoy 9 Willey Wreck 33 Yates Wreck 40 Where The Fish Feed ^ There is no city in the world that has as many citizens who fish regularly for sport in the open sea as New York. Few large cities have such good fishing grounds so near to them. From its coasts, to a line drawn through the ocean from Fire Island to Barnegat, there is a truly extraordinary range of fishing places. 5[ Although they have been fished for more than a century, they are apparently as good as ever. They cannot be fished out, because they are natural feeding grounds to which the fish come in hordes from the deep ocean every season. 5[ The fish may not always be in a particular spot, because the schools move around for reasons which even the best fisher- man has not yet studied out. It happens, also, that they may be on a ground in great numbers, but refuse to bite for a time. But the fishermen who go out regularly, are pretty sure to make good catches in the aggregate. «|[ Although the various grounds and wrecks have been known so long, there never has been a successful effort to describe them authoritatively until now. ^ In the following pages the grounds are described beginning with the Long Island grounds from Fire Island westward along Long Beach, then the Rockaway and Coney Island grounds, the New Jersey grounds, and finally the off-shore banks furth- est out. After these come the wrecks. Their stories are told here for the first time. LONG BEACH GROUNDS. The fishing places known under this general name lie fairly close to the Long Island shore, in an area of sea between Rockaway Inlet and Fire Island Inlet, a stretch 28% miles long. Many small inlets open into the Atlantic Ocean between these two big inlets, the most important being Jones Inlet. The waters inside are part of Great South Bay but have local names. 5[ The area behind Long Beach is officially designated Hemp- stead Bay, but as it is less a bay than a collection of intricate channels, the various parts of it are better known by specific names such as Hewletts, 'Wreck Lead, Queenswater, Inner Beach, Middle Bay, East Bay, etc. East of this section, and lying behind Jones Beach, the bay is called South Oyster Bay. (It must not be confounded with Oyster Bay on the north shore.) It has more open water than Hempstead Bay, and widens out at its eastern end into Great South Bay proper. ^ The sea fishing grounds lie from 2i/^ miles to 4 miles off shore, most of them being grouped in the area from Long Beach on the west to Jones Beach on the east. They form an extra- ordinary range of fishing spots, full of mussel beds and other feeding places that attract fish in great schools. The various places are much alike in character. The water has fairly uni- form depths, from 40 to 55 feet deep, with comparatively few parts that are very much shoaler or deeper. ^ Three large red whistling buoys are anchored on the grounds. They lie about 3% miles off the beaches, and about 314 miles apart, in a line almost due east and west. BUOY No. 6 officially designated as East Rockaway Whist- ~~^~~~~^~'~~ ling Buoy, is moored in 53 feet mean low water, and is the farthest westward of the three. It is the first of the buoys to be sighted by fishing boats bound from New York Harbor and Sheepshead Bay to the Long Beach grounds, and is picked up soon after passing Far Rockaway. BUOY No. 4 is moored due south of about the central point of the Long Beach shore. It is in 52 feet of water, mean low water measurement, and is known officially as the Long Beach Whistling Buoy. It has a great number of favorite fishing spots grouped around it, near and distant. BUOY No. 2. This buoy is the farthest eastward of the three. It lies 31/^ miles due south of Jones Inlet in 54 feet of water. These buoys serve as guides to the various inlets on the Long Island shore, but their chief purpose is to warn ocean and coasting shipping bound toward New York Harbor against approaching the Long Island coast too closely after passing Fire Island Lightship. LONG BEACH BASS GROUNDS. These are not by any means the only sea bass grounds of this region, but are so designated here for lack of a more distinctive name. The particular grounds to which this title refers are grouped around buoy No. 4. The best of them lie within a triangle that would be formed by running a line 1 mile long due south-west from the buoy and another line the same length due south-east. Within this area there are about twenty choice "spots." On all of them in the sea bass season large fish are exceedingly plentiful. The large sea porgies also love these grounds and are caught sometimes in surprising numbers and of quite remarkable weight. 5[ About 2 miles due north-east from the buoy are 5 or 6 ex- cellent spots, where the bottom is full of mussels clinging to pebbles and rocks so as to make large mussel-patches. Sea bass and porgies of fine size often are so thick over these clumps that they are caught as quickly as the fishermen can bring them in and re-bait their lines. SOU'-EAST & NOR'-EAST GROUNDS. The Sou-East ~~~" ground is 3 miles east of buoy No. 2, and is celebrated for hump-backed sea bass. It is somewhat deeper than many of the other grounds, having depths of 58 feet. About 1 mile north-east is Nor'-East ground, considered equally good at times. ^ About 1 mile north from buoy No. 2 begins a series of hummocks that extends for 1 mile further north, making an irregular bottom, whose depths vary greatly owing to the very varying sizes of the hummocks, some being large and some lim- ited in height. Therefore the depths range from 30 to 51 feet according to the hummocks on which anchor is cast. As a rule, according to the experience of pilots, the sea bass do not run large there, but they make up for it by being very plentiful at most times. These grounds are subject to sanding up. ^ For about 2,000 feet in all directions around buoys No. 2 and 4 there are great patches of mussels where sea bass and porgies feed. 6 m o o a o o O NOR'-WEST GROUNDS. One and a half miles north- west from buoy No. 2 is another spot famous for large sea bass and porgies. Its bottom is hard sand and broken shells with mussel beds, and the depths range from 42 to 50 feet at mean low tide, ^ When going to these grounds, the boats often encounter great schools of very large weakfish and bluefish, which are taken on the surface by trolling. Fluke find the bottom most attractive and at most times very large ones can be taken over the whole area. In 1913 particularly good catches of these fish were made on the rich hummock bottom about % miles oflf shore between the Long Beach Hotel and Jones Inlet. Blackfish are found throughout the Long Beach grounds wherever there is a wreck or such a large collection of rock as LONG BEACH STONE PILE. This is not artificial like I the famous Stone Pile of Manhattan Beach, but is a natural rock deposit on a bro- ken bottom of fair extent, well covered with barnacles, coral, sponges, small crustaceans and particularly mussels. It is closer in-shore than other grounds, being only I14 miles off the shore. It lies 21/^ miles north-east from whistling buoy No. 6. OLD SOU' EAST GROUNDS lie 1 mile east of the Stone Pile. There are about 48 feet of water with a fair gravel and mussel bottom. Good catches have been made here, but they have not been fished much in recent years. ^ Between buoy No. 4 and the Angler Banks is a newly found ground that has been named the New Middle Ground. It is further described in connection with the Cholera and Angler Banks in the pages that follow, as it belongs properly to their group of fishing places. ^ There is not much tidal current on the Long Beach grounds except near the inlets where the current, particularly at flood tide, often runs li^ to 2 miles an hour. The flood current is more noticeable generally than the ebb over the entire grounds. These tides do not set directly on or off the shore, as a rule. Ebb currents have a tendency to flow south-eastward, while the flood tides incline to swing north-westward. 5[ Great catches of large blackfish are made at the various wrecks that lie in these waters, some close in shore, and some, like the Iberia wreck, out at sea. The wrecks are described fully elsewhere in this book. 8 FIRE ISLAND LIGHT-SHIP lies 18 miles south-east from buoy No. 2. The mammoth red Fire Island Whistling Buoy is moored between the light-ship and Fire Island Light, a tower on the Fire Island Beach, easily recognized because it is painted with black and white bands. CONEY ISLAND MUSSEL BEDS . These beds lie as close as 14 ™ile to the shore off the Steeplechase and other piers, and they widen out and also sheer seaward steadily toward their eastern end. In length they cover all the area from Steeplechase Pier to the Rockaway Shoals Gas Buoy. They make a broad and roomy fishing ground, although not all parts of it are equally good. On the best spots it is not difficult, usually, to make good catch- es of fluke, sea bass, porgies and blackflsh. The season is long as a rule, lasting from May to October in normal years. The grounds are usually full of ling. A spot not strictly forming part of the mussel beds is the MANHATTAN BEACH STONE PILE, it is the debris of an old stone breakwater that extended from the Manhattan Beach Hotel years ago before the sea had made in, when Manhattan Beach ran much farther out than it does now. The stones lie in a bro- ken mass about 1,200 feet long and only 20 to 30 feet wide. The wreckage lies east and west, from a point west of the old Man- hattan Beach Hotel to the Oriental Hotel. It runs almost paral- lel with the bulkheads of the hotel, and is only about 350 feet off shore. It is easy to find, as it is necessary merely to drag a line and sinker outward from the bulkhead. The place is shoal, having only 14 feet at high tide over the deepest parts, while some of the piles of stone and old timbers have as little as 10 feet over them. Despite this small depth of water, the black- fish taken here sometimes run as large as far off-shore. CONEY ISLAND BELL BUOY is another spot that sometimes furnishes excellent blackfish, and almost always offers fair fluke fishing. This is not the large gas and bell buoy that marks Coney Island Point, but the old West End Pier Bell Buoy between Steeple- chase Pier and Norton's Point. It is red and unlighted, and is anchored off shore in 21 feet. Originally it marked the sunken end of a long wooden pier which ran out here many years ago and was a most popular fishing place. 9 ROCKAWAY SHOALS GAS BUOY. This is on a great ling ground ■which stretches for a considerable distance eastward and south- ward. There are two gas buoys off Rockaway Inlet, one mark- ing Rockaway Point and the other marking the shoals. The latter is referred to here. It is a red buoy, No. 4, and is named officially Rockaway Shoal South-West Point Gas Buoy. It shows an occulting light ten feet above the sea, exhibiting a 50 candle-power light-beam for 5 seconds followed by 5 seconds of darkness. The depth of water is 30 feet. From this point eastward to the Rockaway Bell Buoy the ling fishing generally is very reliable. ROCKAWAY BELL BUOY is anchored in 42 feet of water, H^ miles south-east of the gas buoy. The bottom in quite an area around this stretch is partly hard gray sand, partly black sand with yellow specks and many broken shells, and partly broken shells mixed with ashes which are the remnants of dumpings. Mus- sels occur plentifully throughout the area. The depths average 30 feet, with a number of spots sinking to 35. ^ In shore of this locality lies the famous Black Warrior wreck, which is described in the article on wrecks. DILBERRY GROUNDS. This name was applied to the ground about the Black Warrior Wreck when Rockaway Inlet was much further east. They were much used in bad weather by the professional fishing smacks, because they had a certain amount of shelter. Al- though they were so close in shore, the cod-fish were large and almost as plentiful as on the far off-shore grounds. They main- tained their excellence even after the Inlet had been shifted. ^ West-south-west 3 miles from Rockaway Shoals Gas Buoy is the beginning of the ROMER SHOALS one of the best-known places of New York Harbor. It lies between Ambrose and Swash Channels,, and extends S^ miles in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction. Near the middle of the shoal, on the Swash Channel side, stands Romer Shoal Light-house. The black Ambrose Channel buoys mark its northerly side, and red Swash Channiel buoys indicate its southerly limit. The depths vary extremely on the shoal, there being places with only 3 feet 10 of water at mean low tide, while others have 18. The shoalest spot is about % mile south-east from the light. Fluke are plen- tiful as a rule over the whole extent of the East and West Ro- mer. In fact, they are to be found from there all the way to the SANDY HOOK GROUNDS. These grounds, so far as fluke fishing is concerned, extend from the point of Sandy Hook toward Gedney Channel 4 miles east, and all along the seaward edge of Sandy Hook in front of the Government property, as well as around the Hook into the Lower Bay and Sandy Hook Bay. The fluke, however, are wandering fish whose habit is to follow the movements of the smaller creatures on which they feed. Therefore they may be found close in shore one day, and the next day, or even the next tide, they may be well out. Inside of the Lower Bay the fluke grounds extend well beyond FLYNNS KNOLL "which is a shoal about % mile long ~ IT r~ a, i " northwest of Sandy Hook Beacon (on the point of the Hook.) The Main Ship Channel flows between it and the Hook. It has from lOji^ to 17 feet of water over it, and its bottom is hard sand. At its western end, a spur about y2 mile long runs west by south to a red gas and bell buoy 12 feet above water, which is the Southwest Spit Gas and Bell Buoy No. 12. It lies in 30 feet, and marks the westerly end of the spur, which is called SOUTHWEST SPIT. Besides being a good fluke ground, it is noted for bluefisb. These gen- erally are not the very large fish taken farther out, but range up to two pounds with occasionally schools running up to 6 and more. The smaller fish, however, are more numerous. FALSE HOOK. This is a curious, very large shoal just east of Sandy Hook, running about parallel with the beach and being somewhat of the same shape as the Hook. It extends from a point below the Spermaceti Cove Life Saving Station to a point north where it almost touches the Hook, with only a very narrow channel, 21 feet deep, between. The water averages 21 feet deep. There are, however, four smaller shoals on this large shoal. The most northern makes out for % mile from North Hook Beacon, has 11 to 17 feet, and is marked by a black bell buoy. Farther south is False Hook Shoal, east by south from the point of the Hook. 12 THE OIL SPOT. This is the next shoal south. It is % mile ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~" south by east from False Hook Shoal, 800 yards east from the beach, and its widest part extends near- ly 1,500 yards seaward. The greater part of it is only 800 yards long and about as wide. It has from 10 to 19 feet, but near the middle has a spot with only 10. Its western edge is marked by a red spar, (Oil Spot Buoy No. 4) in 18 feet. OUTER MIDDLE GROUND. This is the most southerly of the shoals. It is 1,500 yards east by north from Spermaceti Cove Life Saving Station and consists of broken lumps with 18 to 21 feet over them. THE CEDARS is a rather noted ground for ling inside these shoals. A favorite anchorage is inside of the Oil Spot Buoy on grounds that deepen from 18 to 30 feet. In a general way the fishing is good all the way along be- tween the False Hook and Sandy Hook beach. November and December are considered the best months in this vicinity. The bottom is hard, consisting largely of coarse yellow sand with broken shells and some pebbles. There are a few sticky spots of small area. The various United States Government struc- tures on the Hook are guides to this fishing area. FALSE HOOK CHANNEL runs between the shoals and the Hook, sometimes swing- ing to within 200 yards of the beach. It has as much as 35 feet in it, with 19 feet as its shoalest, and can be used by large vessels whose pilot knows the course. It is buoyed, and leads into the ship channels. HIGHLAND GROUNDS lie close in to the New Jersey shore below the southern end of the Highlands of Navesink. There are about fifteen more or less large patches of rock which attract sea bass from June to October and blackfish from summer to December. The black- fish do not remain on these grounds through the winter. This is partly because the water is only from 18 to 30 feet deep, whereas blackfish desire much deeper water for the cold months. Another reason is that cold weather brings enormous schools of sea-sculpins or hackleheads into these feeding grounds, and the spined invaders drive other fish out. 13 SEABRIGHT GROUNDS. This is the general name ap- plied to more or less scattered groups of rock masses that lie south and east from Seabright, New Jersey, which is south of Navesink Highlands. They begin rather close in shore, and do not in any case lie very far out at sea. This makes them favorite fishing banks for the surfmen of New Jersey from Sandy Hook to Manasquan. Those nearest to the shore are the SHREWSBURY ROCKS a broken, very irregular sub- marine reef of large and small rocks making out from the shore directly in front of the beach between Monmouth Life Saving Station and Galilee. They ex- tend seaward east-north-east li^ miles and are marked at the outer end by a black buoy, the Shrewsbury Rocks Bell Buoy, anchored in 36 feet. The depths along this reef are very irregular. The irregularity in soundings is caused by the many lumps and ledges of rock that thrust themselves up in isolated spots from the surrounding reef. Such lumps are splendid for sea bass and blackfish, and when these fish are plentiful, sea bass often can be taken along the whole ledge, from within 300 yards of the beach to the distance of 3 miles out. THE RATTLESNAKE is one of the noted spots. It lies al- most at the seaward end of the Shrewsbury Rocks proper, is full of lumps with about 54 feet of water and offers excellent feeding grounds. It is a very solid rock-mass and is named because of its shape, which is said to be like that of a rattle-snake coiled for striking. ROCKY HILL. Leading out to sea from the end of ~^^~~—^^'^~~" the Shrewsbury Rock ledge, lie broken masses of rock, separated by sand gullies bare of stones. Be- yond these gullies, the soundings suddenly strike a large rocky area in about 60 feet. This place, about i/^ mile square, is Rocky Hill. Like the other spots, it is a good place for sea bass, and porgies sometimes appear there in large schools. Fluke can be found almost always. THE ELBOW is another well-known rock deposit. It is about 1,500 feet north-north-west from the bell buoy and makes a decided shoal with less than 20 feet over it at low water. Its name was given to it by divers who describ- ed it as being shaped like a man's arm bent back to strike. It is a conglomeration of massive rock with coral clumps. 14 DUCK GROUNDS. These are called "Middle Grounds" oc- casionally, but it is a mis-leading name because there are very many spots that bear this name. Thus there are "Middle Grounds" off Sandy Hook, near the Cholera Banks, off Long Beach, in Raritan Bay and in Jamaica Bay, The Duck Grounds lie % miles north-east of the Shrews- bury Rock Bell Buoy. They have about 24 feet over their shoalest part and are a general fishing ground, being fairly reli- able for all the various fish in their seasons. Sea bass, fluke and porgies are found there through the summer, and in the autumn and spring there is good blackfishing, with cod early and late in the season. The origin of the name, according to tradition, is that immense flocks of duck were seen there by the men who discovered the grounds. NIGGER GROUND. A small spot about 1,000 feet north- east from Duck Grounds, and slightly less than a mile from the bell buoy. The water deepens here to 24 and 30 feet and the fishing conditions are the same as on Duck Grounds. Nobody knows why it was named, but the guess is that its discoverers were negroes. THE KNOLL. This ground lies 1 mile south-east by east from the Nigger Ground. It was so named because it sticks up from the surrounding bottom like a pin- nacle, having only 27 feet of water over it while all around it the depths are 42 and 48 feet. Sea bass, porgies and fluke fre- quent it in the summer, and black-fishing is good from October to the end of November, as a rule, and again early in spring. STATEN ISLAND BANKS. South-east by south from The Knoll, and 1% miles distant, lie the Staten Island Banks. These grounds are 2% miles off the nearest part of the New Jersey beach, and have 50 to 60 feet of water on them. Sea bass often appear here in great quan- tities and bite voraciously. They are said to run larger than farther in-shore. Sea porgies are found often in big schools and of excellent size. The Staten Island Banks offer blackfish and cod about the same as the other places of the Seabright group. The name is supposed to have been given them because the first fishermen to try the spot were men from Staten Island. Some fishing pilots apply the name Rattlesnake Bank to a part of these grounds. 16 LONG BRANCH GROUND, in front of Long Branch. N. J., about 14 ™il^