Last week marked the biggest appearance of Red bass at Oregon Inlet in a number of years. The crew of A.W. Midgett Packing Company taking 500 fish at a set. The average weight of these fish was 30 pounds apiece. Within a few hours after being caught, they had been steamed and sinned at the Midgett plant on Roanoke Island and were sealed and cooked in cans.
The red bass is commonly known as the drumfish and is found usually along the North Carolina coast from early Spring until late in the Fall. They are beautifully colored in red and brown and the meat is probably the most tasty of any large fish on the coast. In olden times, native fishermen kept a barrel salted away in their smokehouses. Later it was found more convenient to buy Boston codfish flakes and tins of Alaskan salmon. The red bass is a greater delicacy than either.
As the value of these fish for food has never been demonstrated very effectively to the public, they bring low prices and are comparatively little sought for. The 15,000 pound catch made at Roanoke Island last week netted the fishermen something less than $200.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, June 9, 1922
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