| Show TERRAPIN CATCHING taken most in cold weather became of their one habit no successful method of catching terrapin in large numbers has yet been devised A kind of set nei is sometimes used but with no remarkable success the general statement holds that terrapin are caught singly at no season of the year do the fishermen who make a side issue of terrapin know exactly where to look for them all their movements are aimless and their only habit which can be depended on is that of burying themselves in the mud at the bottom of the water during the continuance of cold weather in a vague and general way this enables the catcher to locate them says david bruce fitzgerald in lippincotts Lippin cotts magazine accordingly it is during the cold months that terrapin are taken most abundantly selecting some part of the bay where the water is shallo xv and which has a muddy bottom the catcher in his boat moves slowly across and across it continually thrusting his long pole into the mud when he chances thus to encounter a hibernating diamond back he seizes his prey with a pair of oyster tongs or some similar appliance and lifts him gently into the boat he rarely finds very many in a day and he does not need to find many in order to make good wages on occasions few and years between a lucky fisherman will discover some particular favored spot where the mad is full of terrapin enjoying their winters sleep this is almost equal to finding a small gold mine in the winter of 1893 a poor negro fisherman chanced upon euch a nest of diamond backs near tangier island he took out twelve hundred dollars worth in four hours and then gave up only because h wa exhausted |
