~ ，， ": hat is the lure of saltwater fishing? For every<br > .; ~! angler there may well be a different answer， but<br > there s never been any question in my mind as m<br > .，~. - why 1 vastly prefer the call of the sea. Basically， it s<br > the variety a size of the species plus the uncertainty provided by<br > < n I~ ~r r I Fb~t liqhl tm<br > boundless waters.<br > Any freshwater body of water， no matter how large， is severely s t~g u.，g Reef at M，mt~mk，<br > New Y.rk - a per[e~ t cimc t~，<br > restricted. Most have physical boundaries， and even rivers are restricted tr，，Uf，，，I，，eampedb，t~s<br > by their fresh waters that fl~rm a barrier to most of the world s fish life. u，he. Ihe de i， r，ghl.<br > AI too often these days there is a senSeworld.OfThereartificialitYseemsabOUtto befreshwatera certain I~ii<br > fishing; in many cases the freshwater angler seeks hatchery-raised fish<br > not very wise in the ways of the!<br > I<br > important element of sport fishing lost when we no longer seek that<br > which nature alone provides. However， that is not to say that great !<br > freshwater fishin~ does not exist， i .<br > My own angnng adventures started as a youngster growing up in I<br > Merrick， a village on Long Island only about 20 miles from the border I<br >:， of New York City. Merrick was still quite mini in those days. A 10- [<br > year-old could be trusted to ride his bike to a pond where the g c r es of<br >，~ fishing awaited in the form of a stunted population of sunfish that<br > rarely exceeded four inches. Those sunnies were tempted to worms<br >-. which we dug ourselves， and the tackle was even more basic - a<br > bamboo pole with a few feet of string， a float and a tiny hook. The<br > capture of a "huge" 7V2-inch sunfish one day sent my buddy and I<br > b<br > scurrymg back to his house in order to throw it on the bathroom scale，<br > where， alas， mv monster did not register at all!<br > That was probably one ot the factors which expanded my horizons<br > to the tidal creek into which Camman s Pond flowed through a pipe.<br > White perch and alewives were lured to the fresh water for spawning<br > purposes in the spring， and those fish appeared absolutely gigantic in i<br > comparison to the sunfish. Then again， there were eels in that tidal [~_ -<br > creek that could weigh well over a pound! From there we went to local ...ovL The audtor， AI<br > docks that provided a variety of young-of-the-year species during the Rislori， with a verx la~;qe<br >" summer that fascinated us. In addition to the targeted "snapper" blues， h.rse-eye jack， a re.~ldent ，，f<br > there were also baby weakfish and even such tropical species as grunts rhe reefs and i，t~h，rre<br > channels of blor~/，1， and<br > - plus the occasional eel or ugly toadfish. . ，*re o，mm，，nly d~c<br > Eventually we graduated to primitive and very inexpensive rew~lv- f3aM.~as.<br > . mg spool reels that backlashed on every cast， but Bill and 1 would<br >~，~.. spend the family days at Jones Beach by wading into the surf as far as<br >~;" we could go before attempting to cast over the first breaker vaith a<br > ~，hort boat rod. Then we d have to pick out the backlash be!ore a<br > ~k~wfish would strip our precious bait from the hook.<br > ~.~] ..~It wasn t until I was an eighth-grader that I was presented with a<br > ~.~ollxe-made bamboo surf rod by a kindly neighbor. Another neighbor<br > q~ ~0uld take me along on Saturday morning surf-fishing trips， but it was<br > ~{~t:ill all small fish until 1 landed a lO-pound skate - a trash fish to<br > .!~&nyone else， but the greatest treasure of nay life to that point. There<br > was surely nothing to compare in the freshwaters of Long I.qand[<br > ~" My boat fishing started before that catch， though it was just a<br >