Though he controlled a small fishing industry, operated by his enslaved workers off the banks of the Potomac, George Washington also fished with his brothers and friends purely for sport, which he sometimes did with nets, but also with tackle and live bait, including blood worms.
George Washington wrote to a friend that his waters were, "well supplied with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year; and in the Spring with the greatest profusion of Shad, Herring, Bass, Carp, Perch, Sturgeon &ca."
From his diaries and tackle kits that Mount Vernon possesses, it is clear George Washington also enjoyed fishing for sport with his younger brothers, John Augustine (Jack), Charles, and Samuel. On September 3, 1770, for example, he remarked: "Went in the Evening a fishing with my Brothers Samuel and Charles," or five days later near Mount Vernon, he, "Went a fishing towards Sheridine Point. Dined upon the Point."
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