BIG GAME

FISHES

OF THE

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AMERICM SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY

Edited by Caspar Whitney

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

BIOLOGY Class

LIBRARY
6

THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN^ LIBRARY

EDITED BY
CASPAR WHITNEY

THE BIG GAME FISHES

OF THE UNITED STATES

THE BIG GAME FISHES

OF THE UNITED STATES

BY

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER

AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF CHARLES DARWIN," "ALONG THE FLORIDA

REEF," "THE ADVENTURES OF TORQUA," "THE TREASURE

DIVERS," " LIFE OF LOUIS AGASSIZ," ETC.

gork
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

reserved

aifcff

i7 ;l

COPYRIGHT, 1903,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped January, 1903.

Nortooott

J. S. Cughing & Co. - Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

• *

PREFACE

ANGLING for the great oceanic game fishes, so
far as it relates to the tarpon, tuna, black sea-
bass, and others, is a modern pastime. The time
was when the definition of game fish included the
reservation that it must be edible, like the salmon
or trout; but with the coming of the tarpon or
the silver king, and the leaping tuna, precon-
ceived notions were revolutionized. What tiger
and lion hunting is to the sportsman, the taking
of these ocean giants is to the sea-angler, who
often takes his life in his hands, as with all the
chances on the side of the fish he plays the great
game in the open sea from one to fourteen hours.
It is wild and strenuous sport, essentially manly,
and nowhere is the true sportsmanlike spirit
better exemplified than among its votaries who
follow the largest fishes with tackle so light that
the layman will often doubt the evidence of his
eyes. In all the famous localities where gentle-
men fish and sea-angling holds, the highest stand-
ard of sport prevails. In California alone there

V

236466

vi Preface

are over forty state associations devoted to the
protection of fish and game, with a membership
of over forty-two hundred. Besides these there
are a number of clubs like the Tarpon Club of
Aransas Pass, Texas, the Tuna Club of Santa
Catalina, the Striped Bass Club of San Fran-
cisco, and others, which have so shaped public
opinion that unsportsmanlike methods are rapidly
becoming things of the past.

Every sea-angler has his peculiar methods, his
rods, knots, lines, and hooks, and I may be par-
doned for giving my own experiences among the
great game fishes referred to in this volume, all
of which I have taken many times in years spent,
winter and summer, on the Florida Reef, among
the Californian islands, and along the seaboard
of nearly every state where fishes can be caught.
These personal experiences are supplemented by
the prevailing methods of the various localities
so far as known.

While the volume is addressed to anglers from
the sportsman's standpoint, data has been added
relating to the structure, habits, measurements,
geographical distribution, nomenclature, economic
value of the fishes, and such other matter as
would interest the sportsman-naturalist. The

Preface vii

question of tackle and methods is of paramount
importance to anglers, and as my own interest
has been along the line of experiments with the
lightest tackle, lines, and rods for the largest
fishes, in the interests of fair play for the splen-
did game, I have included the reference to this
feature in each chapter where the description
of the capture of each fish and its peculiarities
occurs.

The fishes represent an important and interest-
ing branch of the animal kingdom. They are di-
vided into about two hundred families and twelve
thousand species, America alone claiming thirty-
three hundred, which have been made the subject
of untiring investigation, especially during recent
years, by many distinguished specialists, among
whom in this country have been Louis Agassiz,
Charles L. McKay, Spencer F. Baird, James Car-
son Brevoort, William O. Ayres, David H. Storer,
David Starr Jordan, Theodore Gill, George Brown
Goode, Tarleton H. Bean, Samuel Garman, Bar-
ton W. Evermann, and many more whose works
are found in the United States Government Re-
ports and those of the various institutions of sci-
ence in this and other countries. Among these
may be mentioned the works of Louis and Alex-

viii Preface

ander Agassiz; " The Fishes," by Garman, in the
Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
at Harvard College, vol. xxiv, a most valuable
and sumptuous series ; " The Fishes of North and
Middle America," exhaustive and valuable vol-
umes issued by the Smithsonian, representing a
part of the life work of David Starr Jordan and
Barton W. Evermann; "Oceanic Ichthyology,"
a monument — if any was needed — to the splen-
did abilities of the late Dr. G. Brown Goode and
his colleague, Tarleton H. Bean ; Jordan and Gil-
bert's " Synopsis of the Fishes of North Amer-
ica " ; " The Aquatic Resources and Fisheries of
Porto Rico," by Barton W. Evermann ; " The
Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the United
States," by Dr. G. Brown Goode, and many more ;
and to them, sportsmen and anglers — always
naturalists in the broadest sense, lovers of nature
— owe a lasting debt of gratitude for making
available technical information regarding the game
in which they are particularly interested. Then
comes the literature of the gentle art of angling
and the angler, the lover of fishes, dating from the
time of Athenaeus, Oppian, >Elian, Rondeletius,
Dubravius, Pliny, Plutarch, Aldrovandus, the im-
mortal Du Bartas, and many others, the memoirs

Preface ix

of the men who have founded a philosophy of
their own, and lived by it, under the sign of the
fish. It is impossible even to mention all the
worthies who have aided in making life happier,
brighter, longer for themselves, and shorter for
the fishes. There is Walton of blessed memory,
with his discourse on fish and fishing; Richard
Franck ; John Dennys and his " Secrets of An-
gling," 1613; " Salmonia," by Sir John Davy;
" Chalk Stream Studies," by Charles Kingsley ;
Penn's "Miseries of Fishing"; Robert Boyle's
" Angling " ; and a hundred more, down through
the names of Andrew Lang, R. D. Blackmore,
Thaddeus N orris, Frank Forrester, Robert B.
Roosevelt, Dr. Yale, William C. Prime, Henry
P. Wells, William Black, Henry Van Dyke,
Dr. Henshall, Dr. Kenworthy, Fred Mather,
and many more. The literature of the sub-
ject is endless. Dr. Goode, in the prologue to
his " Game Fishes," says : " My own library of
works on fish and fishing is far from complete,
yet it includes over two thousand volumes and
pamphlets, and my Bibliography of American
Ichthyology, which I hope to publish within the
next two years, comprises nearly ten thousand titles
of books and papers. A large number of these

x Preface

works relate to the scientific investigations of ex-
perts and specialists, but it is not too much to say
that an equal number are devoted to the art of
angling and the capture of fishes." I am in-
debted to the United States Fish Commission
for the outline drawings of fishes in this volume,
which have been taken from the originals in the
late Dr. G. Brown Goode's Government Report,
entitled " The Fisheries and Fishing Industries
of the United States."

C. F. H.

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA,
January I, 1903.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE STRUCTURE OF GAME FISHES i

II. THE WHITE SEA-BASS * . . . . .14

III. THE GRAY SNAPPER 33

IV. THE LEAPING TUNA 51

V. THE BARRACUDA OF FLORIDA .... 88

VI. THE CALIFORNIA BARRACUDA . . . . 99

VII. THE BLACK SEA-BASS 105

VIII. THE HOGFISH. -. . 118

IX. THE YELLOWTAIL 133

X. THE BLUEFISH 152

XI. THE JACK , . , 163

XII. THE CALIFORNIA SHEEPSHEAD . . . . 175

XIII. THE CHANNEL-BASS 187

XIV. THE ALBACORE 200

XV. THE GROUPERS 211

XVI. THE TARPON 223

XVII. THE BLACKFISH 274

XVIII. THE KINGFISH 281

XIX. THE FLORIDA JEWISH 298

XX. THE DRUM . „ . . . . . . 309

XXI. THE SHEEPSHEAD 324

xii Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

XXII. THE PARROT-FISHES . . . . . -333

XXIII. THE DOLPHIN . ^ . . . .342

XXIV. THE MARIPOSAS . . . . . 350
XXV. THE HALIBUT 359

XXVI. THE LEAPING SHARKS 371

XXVII. THE CHINOOK OF MONTEREY . . . .383

XXVIII. GAME FISHES OF THE COLONIES . . -397

XXIX. BAIT AND GROUNDS ... . . *; . 408

INDEX «u • • 425

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE BATTLE ROYAL {In color) . . v . • Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

SKELETON OF A FISH . >V • * . . . . . 2

DIAGRAM OF EXTERNAL STRUCTURAL FEATURES . . 3

SECTION OF A FISH . . . .. v , . . . . 6

CATCH OF WHITE SEA-BASS . «>'. 24

THE GRAY SNAPPER AND ITS FRIENDS . . . . -37

THE LEAPING TUNA (In color} . . ,/ , . . 54

THE LEAPING TUNA, SANTA CATALINA ]*••;. . . 58

FIGURES SHOWING TUNA AND TARPON REELS ... 59
A ROD — EXACT SIZE OF STANDARD IRISH LINEN LINES

FOR ANGLING . 61

ANGLER'S KNOTS . .... , ;'••;•/..-• 62

HOOKS FOR YELLOWTAIL, TUNA, OR BLACK SEA-BASS

FISHING . . ... .>. .= 63

METHODS OF BAITING TUNA HOOKS 64

FIGURE SHOWING THE SIZE OF REEL — FIGURE SHOWING

POSITION OF HANDS 74

PLAYING THE LEAPING TUNA 76

C. F. HOLDER AND HIS RECORD TUNA .... 78

THE WORLD'S RECORD TUNA .*, , 80

THE BARRACUDA (In color) 94

LARGEST FISH EVER TAKEN WITH A ROD BY A WOMAN . 106

RECORD BLACK SEA-BASS . 116

SNOOK ; SERGEANT-FISH — YELLOWTAIL OR WHITE SEA-
BASS AND BLUEFISH HOOKS . . . * . .132

xiv List of Illustrations

FACING PAGE

SEA-LIONS IN WATER WHERE is THE BEST YELLOWTAIL

FISHING IN CALIFORNIA . , ... . . .138

YELLOWTAIL OR AMBER-FISH — HOOK WITH WIRE TO CLOSE
THE MOUTH OF FISH BAIT — SARDINE OR HERRING

BAIT FOR YELLOWTAIL 140

HARD-TAIL, " RUNNER " — CREVALLE, " CAVALLY," "JACK "

— BLUEFISH , . . 154

SURF-CASTING FOR BLUEFISH (In color} . '- . . . 157
RED DRUM, " RED-FISH," " CHANNEL-BASS " — RIG FOR

GROUPER, RED SNAPPER, ETC. . ..: i V •. 188

THE CHANNEL-BASS (In color} . . . r-:~ /^, - _ l^Q

THE LARGEST TARPON EVER CAUGHT WITH ROD AND REEL 224

TARPON FEEDING (In color) . . . . . . 226

RED GROUPER — THE LITTLE JOKER ..... 228

TARPON; TARPUM — COMMON MULLET; STRIPED MULLET 232
EDWIN VOM HOFE'S TARPON, WHICH WAS THE WORLD'S

RECORD FOR A TIME . . . "*£*•* / . . 234

THE FLORIDA JEWFISH (In color) . . . ; . 302

SPANISH MACKEREL — DRUM; GRAY DRUM . . . 314

SHEEPSHEAD — TRIPLE-TAIL FLASHER . . . . . 332

HALIBUT — CHINOOK, KING OR QUINNAT SALMON . . 360

THE KINGFISH (In color) 386

CALIFORNIA HERRING — SURF SMELT . . . . . 412

BAITED HOOKS . 416

CALIFORNIA SMELT — BULL'S EYE OR CHUB MACKEREL . 420

CASTING FROM THE BEACH FOR BONITO . . . . 422

THE BIG GAME FISHES

OF THE UNITED STATES

BIG GAME FISHES

CHAPTER I

THE STRUCTURE OF GAME FISHES

A FISH may be termed a cold-blooded, gill-
breathing, backboned animal, adapted to life in
the water, through which it moves by the aid
of fins, which correspond to the limbs of other
animals. The true fishes are represented by the
types treated in this volume, and a glance at
the skeleton, divested of skin and flesh, affords
the angler an idea of its structure, and the rela-
tion of its parts one to another. The skeleton
of a typical bony fish like the perch appears to
have two backbones, but the central one (68) is
the vertebra, made up of sometimes two hundred
sections. Each vertebra is hollow on the ends,
the space so formed being filled with a glutinous
substance, the edges of the bones being connected
by ligaments, which allow more or less lateral
motion — a vast amount in the eel, very little in

DIAGRAM OF EXTERNAL STRUCTURAL FEATURES

1. Snout
1-4. Profile

2. Cheek-bone (preoperde)

3. Gill-cover (opercle)

4. Nape

5. Shoulder
5-6-7. Lateral line

7. Base of caudal fin

8. Ventral line

9. Dorsal line

10. First dorsal fin

1 1 . Second dorsal fin

12. Ventral fin

13. Anal fin

14. Caudal fin

15. Pectoral fin

The Structure of Game Fishes 3

The large bone (28) is the cover, or door, to the
gill chamber, which opens and closes convulsively
when a fish is landed. The fish smells but does
not breathe by its nostrils, the nasal aperture
being shown at (15).

In the skeleton the arrangement and use of the
limbs, or fins, is readily seen. The top or dorsal
fins (75) are balancers, upper centre-boards,
capable in some fishes of a decided screwlike
movement, enabling them to move. It also is an
expressive organ, erect when the fish is excited,
low or folded at other times, and incapable of
movement in certain forms. In the tuna it fits
into a scabbard, or notch. The tail, caudal fin
(71), is the most useful locomotive organ, con-
trolled by powerful muscles and lashed about by
the entire sweep of the body; it is readily seen
that by it the salmon makes its tremendous leaps
and the tuna literally whirls itself into the air,
nearly all fishes using it as a screw. The peculiar
motions are readily observed in a soft-tailed fish,
like the perch, in confinement.

Directly below the second dorsal fin, near the
tail, is the anal fin (86) and its bones, held in
place by spines (79), which are placed firmly in
the muscular tissue. It is these interspinous and

4 Big Game Fishes

rib-bones which make fishes so " bony," as in
some species, like the shad, they are very long
and slender, giving the impression that this popu-
lar fish must be very uncomfortable. This anal
fin is not a locomotive organ, being merely a
balancer to aid in preserving the equilibrium of the
fish, a sort of centre-board and a rest when the fish
is reclining on the bottom. The limbs which
correspond to the locomotive organs of other
animals are the pectoral (50) and ventral (81) fins.
The former are the most important next to the
tail as locomotive organs. Fishes, as the Califor-
nia sheepshead, the parrot-fishes, tautog, and
others, rely upon them to a decided extent, the
flapping or waving motion being readily ob-
served; but when rapid and sudden motion is
desired, the tail is brought into play, finding its
most remarkable development, at least in my
estimation, in the California flying-fish, where it
twists violently about, hurling the fish into the
air with such force that, supported by the broad
pectorals and ventrals, the fish becomes an ani-
mate aeroplane and soars over the sea, never flying,
for over an eighth of a mile. The pectoral fins
(50) are modified into forearms, paddles; and
many of the corresponding bones among higher

The Structure of Game Fishes 5

animals are seen, as a pectoral arch, scapula,
clavicle, ulna, and radius. These fins are found in
the greatest variety from the long, slender, sabre-
like fin of the albacore, to the enormous webbed,
winglike organ of the flying-fishes, resembling a
true fore limb in the peculiar fish, the perioph-
thalmus, which uses its pectoral fins as feet to
hop along the muddy shores out of water, in
search of food. Below the pectorals we find
the ventral fins (81), rays, attached to the pelvic
bone (80), representing the hind legs of higher
animals, though all the bones of the limbs are not
present. These fins are of little if any use as
swimming organs, but the fish rests upon them
when on the bottom, and they are balancers, aid-
ing, as do the others, in preserving the perfect
equilibrium of the body while the fish poises.
The angler who makes a diversified catch, as is
often the case in Florida, will be highly edified by
a comparison of these fins in the different fishes,
suggestive of their habits and game qualities.

We have taken a superficial glance at the
framework of the game fish. It is a marvellous
machine, built, framed, fitted, joined, provided
with paddles and screws to give it speed, endur-
ance, resisting power ; in a word, perfectly adapted

6 Big Game Fishes

by nature to its environment. Now to look at
its internal economy, not thoroughly, as text-
books are at hand, but merely to afford the angler
between strikes a general idea of how his game
eats, breathes, and makes so determined and gal-
lant a fight. A section of the fish is shown in
Fig. 2. Lifting the gill-covers (dr) near where the
fish should be gaffed, we see the gills, blood-red
membraneous leaflets supported by cartilaginous
arches, separated by slits. These are situated in
branchial chambers or breathing rooms on each
side of the head, and are the lungs or breathing
organs of the fishes, though in some forms the air-
bladder assumes this function when the fish leaves
the water. The fish obtains its oxygen at second
hand, using minute particles of air which are held
in the water. Storms and winds raise a sea which
forces air-bubbles down below the surface, aerat-
ing the water in sufficient quantities to support
life. To demonstrate this it is but necessary to
place a fish in an aquarium and allow the water
to run in from below; the fish in a short time
languishes and rises to the surface and dies. In-
troduce the water from above, imitating the action
of a wave so that it falls upon the surface with
force, carrying down air, which is seen permeating

SECTION OF A FISH

8 Big Game Fishes

medium ; hence the fishes are said to be cold-
blooded. But in the tuna, bonito, and others the
movements are so energetic that the temperature
is higher than that of the water. When a fish
is taken out of the water, it gasps and opens its
gills, and doubtless is killed in part by too much
oxygen, the reverse of the drowning process.

The digestive organs of fishes are simple. The
prey is not chewed, the teeth being intended to
hold the victim, which is swallowed entire at one
or two gulps, though the tuna often crushes its
prey. Food is quickly digested, and the capacity
of some fishes, as the tuna, bluefish, and others, is
remarkable. The mouth and teeth are modified
or adapted to the requirements of the fishes.
Those which live on oysters, as the sheepshead,
have crushing organs. The shark, not a true fish,
cuts its food or tears it. The fish is enabled to
hold its position at various levels without effort
by the aid of its air or swimming bladder (vn\
possessed by most individuals. This is a silvery
air sac or balloon lying directly beneath the verte-
bra, longer or shorter according to species, absent
in some. It contains gas, principally nitrogen,
and by it the fish is enabled to retain a certain
specific gravity.

The Structure of Game Fishes 9

The brain of the fish is very small, and the lat-
ter has limited intelligence. Its powers of smell
are fairly well developed, and the hearing is more
or less acute ; the organs of hearing being small
cavities on each side of the head, containing a
liquid in which float two ear-stones or otoliths.
In some fishes, as the California "groupers," the
stones are an inch in length, pearl tinted and
flinty, — attractive objects in demand as " head-
stones " and " good luck stones."

The fish is enveloped in scales, which in the
game fishes described overlap each other like
shingles. They grow out of the little pockets in
the skin and are moistened or lubricated by a
secretion or slime, always noticed in a fish, which
exudes beneath them, and particularly along the
median line, an undulating line extending from
the head to the base of the tail. The game fishes
mentioned in this volume all increase by deposit-
ing eggs or spawn, the eggs — minute spherical
objects — often forming enormous masses. The
caviare of commerce is the roe of the sturgeon.
The number of eggs is inconceivable. In the cod
it is estimated at five millions. This is a wise
provision of nature, as fishes feed upon their own
kind. Sardines, herrings, and many birds devour

io Big Game Fishes

spawn, and out of every million eggs deposited, a
very small percentage, certainly not ten, attain the
adult stage. There are great concerted move-
ments at the spawning period. Some fishes pair.
The female, as a rule, pays no attention to the
eggs or young, and in nearly all instances where
nests are constructed, as in the case of the
stickleback, the sunfish, Semotilus, lamprey, and
many more, it is the male which builds the nest.
The Acara carries the eggs and later the young in
its mouth.

The spawn is deposited in the open sea, in
the case of the tuna, albacore, bonito, and other
pelagic fishes ; at the surface in bays, as in the
case of the flying-fish. Some fishes, as certain
California sculpins, attach eggs in great clusters
to rocks ; others again, as the rock-bass, form a
simple nest, while others, as the salmon, deposit
the eggs on sandy or gravelly bottom ; some, as
the blackfish, among weeds or grass. Over the
eggs the male distributes the milt which impreg-
nates them, and in a greater or less time the
young appear, immediately becoming the prey
to a thousand enemies. Some fishes possess the
schooling instinct, as the herring, sardine, Cali-
fornia barracuda, mullet, and others ; the ma-

The Structure of Game Fishes n

jority separate. Many young of pelagic fishes
attach themselves to large jellyfishes; others to
the physalia, and some adults enter the intestinal
tube of holothurians.

There are two other methods of reproduction
among fishes and the fishlike animals. In some,
as the surf-fishes and certain sharks, the young
are born alive. The young of twenty or thirty
or more surf-fishes school and swim together.
Other fishes are ovoviviparous, the eggs being
retained in the body until the young are hatched.

In the vast concourse of fishes of the world
every possible habit is seen. Originally all were
doubtless salt-water forms, but they have entered
rivers and streams, and in time have become
adapted to their environment. Some fishes,
like the salmon, enter fresh water to spawn.
Others, like the eel, seem to reverse this. Cer-
tain fishes hibernate when water disappears.
Others cross overland to reach water, while
the strange periophthalmus and another genus
leave the water and wander along the shore in
search of food.

The fishes are found at various depths of
the ocean, some at a depth of several miles
being blind. Those living in these abysmal

12 Big Game Fishes

regions are adapted by nature to the peculiar
conditions. The pressure where they live is
sufficient to powder glass; at the surface it is
fifteen pounds per square inch, but increases
rapidly, so that at a mile below the surface it
is almost beyond comprehension.

To overcome this the skeleton of deep-sea
forms is cavernous, porous, and the water ap-
pears to circulate through them as through a
sponge, and although fierce and carnivorous
creatures, they are so fragile out of water that
when taken from the nets they almost drop in
pieces. The most remarkable feature of these
fishes and many surface forms is their phos-
phorescence, many having illuminating organs
— torches — of one or more colors, which con-
stitute a part of the illumination of the deep sea,
and serve possibly as a signal language by
which the sexes are attracted, or predaceous
forms lure their prey. I have seen a tuna come
up at night, having a train of light several feet
in length, but this was due to the luminous ani-
mals in the water — the peridinium, salpa, and
others.

The game fishes available to the rod fisher-
man constitute a small proportion of the fishes,

The Structure of Game Fishes 13

due to the fact that many are deep-water forms,
or so essentially pelagic, like the dolphin — a
splendid game fish — that it is beyond the reach
of the angler who cannot spend his time in
the forechains of some ship. This is exempli-
fied by the statement that nearly all the avail-
able large oceanic game fishes of America, except
the striped bass, are included in this volume ;
but as each is a game fish of several sizes, in
the course of its career the angler finds end-
less variety. He can begin with a fly-rod on
a two-pound bluefish, and will need his stiff
rod on the adult. There are in California and
Florida an infinite variety of small fishes, usu-
ally neglected, which, if approached with a rod,
afford profitable sport.

CHAPTER II

THE WHITE SEA-BASS
"If I can but hold him." — IZAAK WALTON.

THERE is an element of chance in sea-angling
found in no other sport. I remember that my
old boatman on the St. Lawrence knew every
rock and shoal in a thirty-mile row around
Grenadier Island and would often indicate a
strike in advance. So with trout-fishing, every
frequenter of certain streams has the picture of
favorite pools photographed on his memory.
With the sea-angler the reverse holds. He
" grasps the skirt of happy chance " and boldly
sails out upon the unknown sea of Fortunatus
without pointer or tip, with absolutely nothing
except his inherent luck, upon which he stakes
his all on this happy day.

The sea-angler is often superstitious. He
has his whims and fancies. He assumes that a
lost fish tells its companions; that it is worse
than useless to fish on the ebb tide, and doubts

The Wbite Sea-bass 15

not that certain people, usually poor gaffers,
literally hoodoo the sport. Of all things, he is
a believer in signs and omens and especially in
luck. A strange fetich, this luck, which every
angler woos with more or less success. " What
luck ? " shouts a friend from a passing boat ; and
if you have bagged your game, it is, "Joe, hold it
up." And Joe holds forth a sixty-pounder, dis-
playing every angle, that the iron may enter the
heart of the rival boatman in the other craft,
who has not gaffed even a gudgeon that day.
But if there is no luck, no sixty-pounder, the
angler merely pretends not to hear, and his boat-
man raises his hands aloft, opening and closing
his fingers in a mystic signal which can be inter-
preted from six to ten or anywhere along the
line. Not St. Peter, but Ananias, is his patron
saint. What is luck ? I have fished for hours by
the side of a friend, where rod and bait seemed
identical, and either he or I caught all the fish
and had all the strikes. The luck was all on
one side.

I have seen a lady, fishing with two anglers
whose fame had reached halfway around the
world, catch all the fish, five splendid white sea-
bass, all over fifty pounds, despite the fact that

1 6 Big Game Fishes

she had never held a rod before. She used the
same tackle, the same bait. Her ungallant com-
panions changed the rod, insisted upon exchang-
ing seats, but they failed to change her luck.
From the time Deucalion

" Did first the art invent
Of angling, and his people taught the same,"

the uncertainty of fisherman's luck has been
proverbial; but perhaps this ephemeral luck, so
potent to make or unmake a fishing day, has
more in it than appears on the surface. You as
well as I have perhaps often noticed that the
lucky fisherman is a person of method. If a
fisherman becomes possessed with the idea that a
two-dollar reel is as potent to take tarpon and
tuna as one costing fifteen or twenty dollars, that
man is more than likely to attain a reputation as
having poor luck. The man who never changes
the line from the lower to the upper guides, who
uses a line one hundred times, who has a theory
that the ebb tide and the afternoon are best for
fishing, is more than likely to be unlucky. This
old man of the sea, " hard luck," will surely fasten
upon such an one. You perhaps have observed
that the angler who soon becomes weary of the

The White Sea-bass 17

constant waiting that is sometimes the feature of
the day's luck, and thrusts his rod beneath his
knee to read or drop asleep, is always a victim to
poor luck, as by some occult eighth or ninth sense
the fish invariably selects this exact moment to
strike the bait, and it is always the largest fish
which have this artful discernment. This is so
infallible a rule, so well known among sea-
anglers, that I have often changed my luck and
forced a record fish to bite by merely dropping
my rod into the oarlock, pretending to be engaged
in some minor distraction. The moment I was
thoroughly involved, my face deep in the folds of
a coat, hoping to form a conjunction between
cigar and match, the fish would strike; but it
was a subterfuge, and before the fish had taken
ten feet of line, I was ready for the play. I
deduce from this that good luck means good and
careful equipment, a good gaffer and boatman,
good reels, lines, hooks, and the right kind of bait
all the time ; in a word, the application to fishing
of the same rules which make one famous or suc-
cessful in any phase of life.

It is worth crossing the continent in June from
New York to Avalon to sit on the veranda of
the hotels and listen to the tuna anglers, at the

1 8 Big Game Fishes

end of an exciting day, explain why and how the
fish got away. It is always ascribed to bad luck.
One man played his fish three hours, when his
heart gave out on account of a recent attack of
grippe. The handle of a cheap reel came off.
Ananias, the veteran gaffer, who perchance had
never gaffed before, forgot to change the worn
line. Another angler caught his line about a
button at the end of four hours; and so on.
Anglers "smiling at grief," yet heaping agony
upon the back of patient luck which brings them
all their joys.

I esteem myself a lucky fisherman because of
one catch, a white sea-bass which I took one rosy
morning at Santa Catalina with very light tackle
and in very good company. It came about, as
such things do, unexpectedly. We were lying on
the sands of a little cove under the shadow of a
ridge of Mount Black Jack; the launch was
anchored near shore, the boat hauled up on the
beach. The little bay was, that rare thing at this
island, shallow, the bottom sinking gradually
away five, ten, fifteen feet, until sixty or seventy
feet from the shore it dropped into the channel.
The water was as clear as crystal, the surface as
smooth as a disk -of steel. Not a breath came

The White Sea- bass 19

from the high rocky ridge, and all nature seemed
asleep. As my eyes rested on the picture, an
ideal place to play a fish, the unexpected
happened. Two, three, four, five fins came into
view from behind a rocky point just as I had
been figuring them, as though some one had
given the cue and the finny actors had stepped
out from the wings on to the scene, a tragedy in
one act. They moved along with great delibera-
tion, the big dorsals waving gently and the tips
of the caudal far astern, so that it was an easy
matter to construct the entire hidden fish. It
was a school of white sea-bass, apparently none of
which was under fifty pounds. On they came,
not twenty feet from the beach, and, as I rose,
their bulky forms were sharply outlined against
the dark olive-hued bottom.

My rod and line, baited with flying-fish, was
lying in the small boat — note this premonition
of coming fisherman's luck. It took but a mo-
ment to grasp it, and so deft and agile was the
boatman that my bait, as he pulled offshore,
crossed the school, dazzling the very eyes of the
dignified strollers along this fishes' rialto. One
at least resented the intrusion. There was a
swirl of waters, a boiling seething as the school

20 Big Game Fishes

awoke to the fact that one had fisherman's luck ;
then followed a brief pause ; to swallow a fly-
ing-fish one foot in length, is not accomplished
at once ; and I could see the monster poising,
swallowing with convulsive gulp ; then feeling
the wire leader, it shot ahead, and for an instant
I gave the butt to one of the finest white sea-
bass that ever swam, which when hooked, un-
reeled the line to a new music of the reel. There
was no stopping this splendid rush, and with
thumb trembling on the pad, the tip bending to
the danger point, the boatman backing with one
oar, pulling with all his power on the other, to
whirl the boat around, my companion breathing
advice and caution in low tones, the reel swear-
ing, praying, protesting, ah ! it was an exciting
moment, one of those critical points in the life of
an angler that comes but once and is gone. " If
I can but hold him ! " Walton whispered on a
similar occasion. If ! what a world of chance
and possibility is tied up in that small word ! If
the line had only been newer ; if the leader had
not been rusty ; if that knot had been cut out, or
if you only had taken a gaffer who did not lose
his head, — each and any of these " ifs " might
have reversed this day of happy memory.

The Wbite Sea- bass 21

But I was in luck, and this catch has lived with
me ever since. Possibly the bass has grown a
little every year, gained a pound or so in the tell-
ing, but it would have done the same had it lived,
and far be it from me to deprive so noble and
generous a creature of any prerogative ; living or
dead, it shall grow, at least so long as my gaffer
lives.

We have left the fish rushing madly. I had
caught many bass, but never in shoal water.
They are taken almost invariably in the deep
blue water along the rocks, and will often, like
a salmon, or almost any fish, plunge down and
sulk ; but this fellow could not sulk, hence was
away, and when I checked it, it dashed around,
circling the boat so rapidly in a series of rushes
that only by heroic measures was it saved.
Twice or more the dash was so impetuous that
the rod was quickly passed under the oars of the
boatman to save it, he sending the flat-bottom
boat around on a pivot in a desperate attempt to
keep me facing the fish. Fifteen or more min-
utes slipped away, the bass making inshore
rushes to secure line, with which to reach the
deep channel. But the boatman hugged the
shore, and by sheer luck I kept the plunger in

22 Big Game Fishes

shallow water, where we could feast our eyes on
its every move. Its bearing off was splendid,
and so powerful was the fish that only the oars-
man kept it from going out to sea with skiff and
men. Slowly it came in, now stopping, beat-
ing the water ; now dashing off with all the
line gained by strenuous endeavor, shaking its
bulky head and every second testing line, rod,
and angler. There was no Timoleon in that
dancing, whirling craft, to boast of his luck and
see it take wings, but three men in good luck,
who finally saw the great fish come slowly to the
gaff. It circled the boat to the last, and was
gaffed, bearing off heavily, bending the slender
rod into a bow as it passed the gaffer, still vigor-
ous and full of fight, beating the water with its
big tail, hurling the foam over us, literally toss-
ing defiance in our faces as I unreeled the line
to permit the gaffer to slide it in, blazing in all
the colors of its kind, as he held it up a moment
that we might look upon its splendid proportions.
The actual weight of this fish was fifty-two
pounds several hours after the capture, and the
time occupied in its undoing was nearly half an
hour. The bass as it lay on the canvas fish-bag
was a picture for an artist ; nearly four feet long,

The White Sea-bass 23

of a grayish golden color above, merging into
silver upon the belly. About the head, the scales
were iridescent, flashing all the hues of a pea-
cock, blue and green, a dazzling creature when
seen just from the water. The fish was well
proportioned, long, fairly slender, a noble fish,
and well named Cynoscion nobilis (Ayres), the
weakfish of California.

This bass represents a genus well known in
American waters, about twenty species having
been described. It ranges the coast of California
even to Canada, and is most common from south
of Magdalena Bay to Santa Barbara; but it is
very uncertain in its movements, and equally so
in biting. The season may, theoretically, be said
to be from May i to July, or even August, but
some seasons the fish is very rare and will not
bite ; again it comes in numbers and affords
sport long to be remembered.

On the first of May, 1899, with a fellow-angler
ten of these fishes, all over fifty pounds in weight,
were taken between nine and twelve o'clock, not
one hundred feet from the beach in Avalon Bay.
A large school entered the bay and remained ten
days, affording excellent sport. In our boat, my
companion and I each hooked a large fish at the

24 Big Game Fishes

same moment. One rushed ahead, the other
darted astern, and we were at once involved in a
most spirited tug of war, which resulted in the
loss of one fish. At one time twenty or thirty
small boats were fishing, and sometimes half of
these would have bass hooked at the same time ;
the scene as the big fish towed the boats about,
the cries and shouts as lines were parted or rods
succumbed, being a most animated one. I recall
one rush of a bass hooked by a lady, which towed
the boat almost entirely across the bay before
the fish could be checked, the game later tip-
ping the scale at eighty pounds.

The large bass I took in the little shallow bay
was caught with much lighter tackle than gener-
ally used, the line being a number fifteen cutty-
hunk, which I commend, as the fish, with proper
care, can be caught with even a smaller line, if
in moderately shallow water. The only draw-
back to very light lines is the fact that the sulk-
ing fish must be lifted at times, when a little
carelessness will break the line. Better lose all
than to slay so gamy a creature with a hand-line
or anything larger than a twenty-one-thread line.

In the matter of rods, a seven- or eight-foot rod
weighing from fifteen to eighteen ounces, of split

The White Sea-bass 25

bamboo, greenheart, or any good wood, is em-
ployed. I have used light rods for these fishes,
which compare with the striped bass of the East ;
in fact, the white sea-bass takes the place of the
latter as a sport in Southern California, but I
have fished with a much lighter rod for my fifty-
pounders than is used for a striped-bass of this
weight at Cuttyhunk and elsewhere. As a matter
of fair play, the rod should be seven or eight feet
long; and if the water was always shallow, longer
ones could be used. At the islands where these
fishes most do congregate, the water is often ex-
tremely deep and blue a stone's toss from the
beach, and a sulking fish two or three hundred
feet down must often be considered after a rush ;
hence the rod must be sufficiently stiff to enable
the angler to bring it to the surface. The major-
ity of the catches are made in the bays, in fairly
shallow water, and as the well-equipped angler
will have several rods he can adapt himself to
circumstances. The line should be a number
fifteen, or smaller, despite the size of the fish,
if the latter is to have the advantage, which
of course is essential ; and the hook, a 9/0 Lim-
erick, or an O'Shaughnessy, or any good hook
of this size, with a piano-wire leader a foot in

26 Big Game Fishes

length ; gut or salmon leader is soon worn off
by the fine teeth of this noble Cynoscion. The
bait, if a smelt, six inches in length, is impaled
through the mouth, the point thrust into the
belly of the fish, and the mouth of the latter
bound or closed and fastened to the shank of the
hook by a silver wire, which should be attached
to every hook; it prevents the bait from whirl-
ing and the line from untwisting. The leader
should bear at least two swivels. Spoons, and
all kinds of artificial baits, are useless, at least
in my long and continued experience, the fancy
of the great bass — and the term bass is a local-
ism — being for very large baits, as the flying-fish
or smelt, a prodigious lure for even so large a
fish.

In searching for this game the boatman rows
along the rocky shores of the islands in perfectly
smooth water, not sixty feet from the high mas-
sive cliffs which merge into mountains. Often
the strike comes within a few feet of the rocks ; yet
the water may be two hundred feet in depth, so
precipitous are the shores, blue water being found
at the very portals. Again little bays are entered,
the mouths of deep canons which wind upward,
the great bass being fond of such places ; and in

The Wbite Sea-bass 27

the larger bays, as the Isthmus, the angler can
sometimes go ashore and cast from the beach, and
land these splendid fishes under ideal conditions.
The method of fishing en regie is to troll
slowly, with sardine, smelt, or flying-fish bait,
just outside the kelp. The fish comes in small
schools, almost always swims on the surface,
and can be recognized at once by its dorsal
fins above water. It frequents little bays or
indentures in the kelp, and I have taken it by
lying off and casting forty or fifty feet. Even
the tremendous bait, a whole flying-fish, dropped
into a school, does not alarm them, as this is
the habit of the flying-fishes, to drop with a
crash. The solidity of these fishes, the diffi-
culty to move them, can be illustrated by an
incident. A boatman took my rod while I was
fishing for larger game and cast it into a school,
where it was immediately seized by a large
bass. The man struck so heavily that the rod
broke off just above the butt, the fish not being
moved by the shock. Of course the break was
entirely unnecessary, but it illustrates the point.
I have been most successful in taking this bass
by following large schools of sardines upon
which they prey. The bass chase them in, tak-

28 Big Game Fishes

ing their position beneath them, a huge fish
being occasionally seen by the angler down
through a funnel of sardines as the line sinks.
In May or the latter part of April one or
two large schools of sardines enter the bay of
Avalon to spawn, and their numbers are so vast
and so closely do they lie, that they form an
almost solid mass. Into this I cast an empty
hook, and when it is out of sight a slight jerk
is sufficient to impale a sardine, which becomes
the most active of lures. The sardines do not
appear to notice the hook, but the struggles
of the live bait alarm them so that they form
a solid ring about it. Down it sinks until it
reaches the lower stratum of the school, when
it will be seized by the watchful bass that
apparently cannot resist the struggling fish.

The white sea-bass at Santa Catalina average
about forty or fifty pounds, small ones being
more or less rare. Specimens weighing eighty
pounds have been caught with cast or hand
lines; the rod record is fifty-six pounds. In
the San Francisco market bass weighing sixty,
seventy, and eighty pounds are not uncommon,
and doubtless the fish attains a maximum weight
of one hundred or more pounds.

The White Sea-bass 29

The spawning season is in June and July,
the young, which are found in San Diego, New-
port, and San Pedro (California) waters, are
supposed to be different fish, and are known
as sea-trout. The young resemble the adults,
but have three or four black or dusky stripes.
The fins are darker than in the adult, and the
pectoral fin bears at its base a blotch of color
more or less distinct. The young, or sea-trout,
afford excellent sport with an eight-ounce split
bamboo. The angler who desires to try them
should engage from the bait-catchers very small
sardines or smelt, and use a number two Sproat
hook, or any hook of that size.

The white sea-bass swim in long lines, four
or five in a column, move leisurely, and impress
one by their dignity and beauty. I confess
to never having caught one but I was tempted
to release it. They rank among the fine table
fishes of the Pacific coast, baked white sea-bass
of a large size with a dash of port being a savory
dish. The misnamed sea-trout are delicious.
They should be served whole, broiled or baked.
When cut into slices and disguised with some
individuality-killing sauce, they might be called
by any name and would be quite as unpalatable.

30 Big Game Fishes

The white sea-bass is eminently sociable, and
if the angler remains quiet, the passing school
will merely divide at the anchor rope of the
boat: I have inadvertently touched one with
an oar. At such a time, looking down, the
water appears rilled with the splendid fish, which
resemble gigantic salmon, and often their utter
contempt for all kinds of bait is maddening
to the most philosophical angler.

In the Gulf of California a large species of
this genus is found, known to science as Cyno-
scion macdonaldi and called at Guaymas totu-
ava. It is a stouter, bulkier fish than C. nobilis,
and exceeds it in size. An old boatman who
had wandered up the Gulf informed me that
he had caught these fish weighing two or three
hundred pounds, but he probably confused it
with the Gulf jewfish. There is a record of
a fish which weighed one hundred and seventy-
two pounds, hence two hundred pounds is pos-
sible. A friend who fished for them at San
Jorgas Bay, not far from the island of Tiburon,
considered them identical with C. nobilis, and
supposed it was the same fish; but instead of
averaging forty or fifty pounds the fish he caught
tipped the scales at eighty pounds. At San

The White Sea-bass 31

Jorgas Bay there is a very high tide, and behind
the flood follow the schools of white sea-bass
which have been named by Dr. Gilbert after Mr.
Marshall Macdonald, United States Commissioner
of Fish and Fisheries. The marked difference
between the two fishes that would be noticed by
the angler appears to be that in the latter the
snout is sharp, while in C. nobilis the head is
long, snout long and sharp. In C. macdonaldi
there are about fifty-five pores ; in nobilis, seventy
or eighty.

The Gulf bass is the giant of its tribe, and
can be found in vast numbers on the shores
of the east coast, even entering the mouth of
the Colorado River. The young are dusky and
silvery, and instead of stripes, as in nobilis, have,
according to Dr. Gilbert, " coarse black specks
along the lower part of the head and sides,"
there being no disposition to form streaks or
bands. It is caught at San Jorgas Bay in April
and May, and according to Dr. Gilbert is not
known at Guaymas in summer, having probably
migrated far up the Gulf, where vast schools
of mullet afford an ample food supply. The
angler who desires to take this fish will find
San Jorgas hot in summer, but pleasant in the

32 Big Game Fishes

spring. The settling up the country at the
mouth of the Colorado will undoubtedly develop
a new field for the angler and sportsman in this
section of California or Mexico.

A smaller species of white sea-bass, C. parvi-
pinnis, is known as sea-trout and bluefish along
the Californian coast, and has been found from
Mazatlan to San Luis Obispo. At Newport, San
Pedro, and Avalon it is a valuable fish, taken in
nets and often caught by anglers. The largest
specimen I have landed weighed about twelve or
fourteen pounds, and was about two feet long. It
differs in appearance from the other species. Its
back is a decided blue, resembling that of the yel-
lowtail out of water. The body is long and slen-
der, with a striking resemblance to its cousin the
Eastern weakfish. Altogether, with its vivid
silvery belly, blue back, yellow lower fins, it is one
of the most attractive of the Southern Californian
fishes which fall to the lot of the man with the
rod. It is not a common catch, and is taken with
small sardines with rod, line, and hooks described
for sea-trout. All these fishes are the Pacific
representatives of the Atlantic weakfish, or
squeteague, C. regalis, which every sea-angler
has taken along the Atlantic seaboard.

CHAPTER III

THE GRAY SNAPPER

" First let your rod be light and very gentle. I take the best
to be two pieces." — IZAAK WALTON.

WHERE keys like emeralds in settings of silver
seem to float on seas of lapis lazuli, where chan-
nels of turquoise wind in and about the coral reef
and soft trade winds sough through palm, man-
grove, and bay cedar, there is the home of the
gray snapper of the outer reef, the most cun-
ning and gallant fish in its mature condition, that
swims in any sea, the most difficult to catch, and
one of the most beautiful.

I first became a victim to the wiles and snares
of the gray snapper far out on the Florida reef
where the last key looks into the west. Here a
maze of coral reefs once reached the surface. A
mangrove seed came drifting in the stream,
lodged in the shallows, took root and grew. To
the angler coming from the east, following the
sun, this resultant isolated grove forming Bush

» 33

34 Big Game Fishes

Key, rising apparently from the sea, is the first
intimation that Garden Key and its satellites are
in sight. Soon other keys appear, low sandy
islands, capped with vivid greens — bay cedar
and cactus — between which winds a channel so
deep and narrow, so blue and beautiful in its clear-
ness, that the angler in this out-of-the-way corner
may well wonder by what trick of nature it was
formed. It surrounds Garden Key, being in turn
hedged by an outer fringing reef upon which the
sea breaks ; now in soft monotone, or when a
norther rises, forming a vast semicircle of foam
from which rise weird and terrifying sounds, the
grinding and gnashing of the teeth of the reef, as
the dead coral heads are rolled hither and yon by
the incoming and receding waves.

In the nooks and corners of this channel the
gray snapper makes its home, and that it has
the love of locality strongly developed, the home
instinct if you will, is evident from the fact that
week after week, month after month, certain
fishes are found in the same places. A certain
wreck was a favorite spot where the gray snap-
pers congregated. The old ship had long since
disappeared below the surface, but her huge tim-
bers still projected from the sand, forming a cover-

The Gray Snapper 35

ing or protected shelf about which the fishes de-
lighted to lie in water from ten to twenty feet in
depth. In general appearance the gray snapper
resembles the black bass, but is longer and more
slender. Its tints are a delicate gray, or green, in
the shallows often adapted to the soft mauve of
the bottom, or in deeper waters affecting in a
general way the more brilliant hues of its sur-
roundings — the reddish and yellow gorgonias or
browns of the sea-plumes. Its eye is extremely
beautiful ; rich in browns with a brilliant flash of
blue and at times red ; an eye which follows
every movement of the angler and is at once
critical and expressive.

The first vision of these fishes was my undoing.
I never rested until I had taken one, a consum-
mation which came only after days of patient
endeavor. I was drifting along shore, looking
downward from the rail of the dinghy, when it
floated over the old wreck, where, circling slowly
about, were a dozen or more gray snappers. They
ranged from one to two and three feet in length,
well proportioned, graceful, the type of all that is
beautiful in a fish. Their movements were dig-
nified and impressive, and there was a suggestive-
ness of reserve power, as in the black bass, which

36 Big Game Fishes

made one eager for the contest. Stopping the
dinghy, I anchored and cast my bait, a piece of
white conch (Strombu s gigas), the favorite grouper
bait on the reef, in their midst. It was a striking
dainty, standing out in the brilliantly colored
water like ivory, and was at once seized by
grunts, porgies, angel-fishes, and others, and
jerked and bandied about in a manner that would
have been irresistible to many fishes ; but to my
surprise, the snappers paid absolutely no attention
to it. I could see every movement, being directly
over them, and they were not disturbed in the
slightest from the even tenor of their way. I
then tried crayfish, breaking the tail shell side-
wise and taking the meat out entire, selecting
the lower end with its inviting tints of scarlet.
Of all baits in tropical waters this is the most
alluring and irresistible. Not a fish which I
recall, save the barracuda, but can be seduced
into biting it, and as it dropped slowly, out
sprang a timid parrot-fish and seized it, dashing
away followed by the grunts, chaetodons, and
other courtiers which constituted the train of
the gray snapper, that seemed to look with scorn
upon the smaller fry so easily deceived. I scat-
tered crayfish bait over the water, arousing the

I

Tbe Gray Snapper 37

entire community of the wreck to a frenzy in
their attempts to reach the bait. Staid old grunts
performed miracles of agility, in vying with the
parrot-fishes; the great black and white angel-
fishes, timid ordinarily to a painful degree, dashed
at the delicious morsels ; a long spotted moray
dragged itself from the lower story of the wreck,
and I could see by the rapid vibration of their
whips that even the crayfishes, which were backed
into sandy cells, were discussing the propriety of
taking the chances and joining the melee.

I had been spending a part ' of nearly every
day upon the reef fishing or floating over the
beds of olive-green coral, but now gave up other
piscatorial pursuits and devoted myself to the
gray snapper. I fished early and late, even at
night. I tried them at the flood and quarter ebb,
with light lines and dark, with baits whose variety
would have arrested the attention of the ghost of
Walton. I laid at their shrine young mullets, live
shad (Xystaema), gigantic shrimps; caught at great
expense of time and patience luscious sea- worms;
excavated from the deep mud the soft portions of
the rare queen conch clams, — not the base-born
bivalve of commerce, but a brilliant, radiant crea-
ture of dazzling hues. In desperation, I even

38 Big Game Fishes

whipped the glassy water with flies, but in these
early days of strenuous endeavor I doubt if I
once attracted the serious attention of the gray
snappers. Briefly, they ignored me, and the iron
was entering my very soul when one day as I lay
prone upon the beach, my line in hand, a Sacrata
boy named Paublo, who later became my boat-
man, came wading along with a cast-net slung
over his naked shoulders, stopped, followed my
line out, and as his bloodshot eyes rested on the
snappers he innocently asked why I did not
fish for them. There are times when the aver-
age angler finds solace in an appeal to high
Olympus; whether I did on this occasion, or
even added to my humiliation by taking Paublo
into my confidence, is immaterial. My reply
must have suggested that a doubt dwelt in my
mind that a gray snapper could be caught, where-
upon my companion proceeded to initiate me into
the art. He waded up the beach and with his
small bait-catcher, a cimeter-like iron barrel hoop,
cut down a number of sardine-like fishes an inch
and a half in length, which he called " hard heads."
From his shanty near by, upon which roosted
three tame asthmatic pelicans, he brought a line
of a pale blue color of about twenty-eight strands,

The Gray Snapper 39

soft and pliable, having been well stretched before
and after use. To this he attached a leader of
very fine and pliable copper wire over four feet
in length, and upon the long-shanked 6/0 steel
Limerick hook, impaled through the eyes six or
seven " hard heads " ; then with a graceful move-
ment he cast the bait, so that it sank gently
eight or ten feet from the wreck where the gray
snappers were poising. It had no attractions for
the small fry which rushed at it, nosed it, and
retired. Then Paublo began a manipulation of
the line, imparting to the bunch of silver upon
the bottom a tremulous motion. The bait ap-
peared to be a small school of sardines feeding ;
the simulation was marvellous, and had immediate
effect. A large snapper suddenly caught sight
of the struggling mass and turning gracefully,
moved forward, stopping within an inch of the
lure, backing water with its caudal fin, its dorsal
rigid, its eyes probably blazing.

Breathing hard, Paublo whispered, " Did yo'
see datcher snapper, mawster ? "

Again the bait rested, as the suspicious fish
backed away and the long wire disappeared in
the sand. The snapper now swam around, keep-
ing its eyes upon it, moving nearer and nearer

40 Big Game Fishes

until a deep shadow took shape over it and a big
dun-colored shark appeared upon the scene, pass-
ing over the bait, then stopping as it caught the
scent, driving away every living thing in and
about that particular wreck.

The lesson was not lost, and on the following
day, with a fresh supply of " hard heads," which
Paublo cut down for me with his sabre, I again
essayed the gray snappers. I fitted my light rod
with a new and approved line and the long
copper leader, then cast into the magic circle of
the gray poseurs. As the bait touched the bottom
I worked the line and leader into the sand, imitat-
ing the methods of my sable mentor. It was
now irresistible, and a large snapper moved at the
lure, stopping as did the other, like a Mexican
who rides full speed at a stone wall, turns on the
instant and touches it deftly. I had witnessed
the feat, and the rush and sudden halt of the
snapper was a vivid imitation. Its movements
were so forcible that the current of water partly
turned the bait, which I could see from the high
ledge of dead coral rock upon which I was stand-
ing five or six feet above. Never was more cun-
ning, more diplomacy, displayed. The fish was
fascinated, but it swam over the wire a score of

The Gray Snapper 41

times, turning to scrutinize it, and failing to see
it, returning to the bait, swimming about it again
and again, a picture of grace and buoyant life.
Now it deliberately approached and nosed the
lure, lifting the " hard heads " slightly as though
searching for the hook; then it swam away, to
my despair, and joined the complacent school
which poised and circled gracefully near by. But
a vigorous movement imparted to the line sum-
moned the snapper again, and with a single low
rush of eight or ten feet, it seized the bait, which
it shook as might an angry dog, and rose slowly,
with fins en charge, while I overran the line.
Higher it swam, rising slowly into the empyrean
of the waters ; then with a sudden gulp it at-
tempted to swallow the bait, felt the wire, and
charged the blue waters of the channel to the
melody of the reel, that, like the baying hound
on fresh scent, repays the hunter for hours of
weary waiting.

The rush was out and away into the deep blue
heart of the channel, every other snapper disap-
pearing at the charge ; and fifty or sixty feet of
line were lost before I stopped the fish. Then
it was a battle to the finish, with finesse, cunning,
and wariness on the part of the game. I appre-

42 Big Game Fishes

ciated the delight of the old monarch at the
discovery of a new pleasure, for here was some-
thing novel in sea angling. It was six or seven
three- or four-pound black bass in one, rushing to
the surface, breaking the water into crystal spray,
plunging down, and bearing against the deadly
reel in a long splendid lateral surge. Repeatedly
the fish broke away from me, tearing the line
from the reel, then dashing in, in an attempt to
reach the old wreck, where on rusted iron it
might sever the delicate line, — fortunately to
be checked by my run up the beach.

In and out, giving and taking, I played this
gamy creature ; and it played me for twenty min-
utes, now near shore, again leading me out into
the shallows until at one stage of the sport I was
waist-deep, literally hanging over the edge of the
channel, prepared to swim rather than lose this
splendid fish which had unreeled every inch of
the all too short line. But the gods which watch
over the fortunes of the angler were with me,
and I slowly backed the snapper into shallow
water, then, having no gaff, and no gaffer to
witness my triumph, reeled and led it inshore,
holding it at short line, while I admired its beau-
tiful proportions. It rolled its eyes at me in

The Gray Snapper 43

protest, I fancied, and it was beyond my philoso-
phy to kill such a rare fighter ; so I carefully cut
out the hook and released my quarry as Paublo
came running down the beach, grains in hand
in lieu of gaff-hook. That he questioned my
sanity I have no doubt, but that was not all.

"Why, mawster," he exclaimed, "datcher snap-
per gwine tell all de res'. Yo' ain't gwine to git
no mo' fishin' dis day." Which was true for
many a day at that spot.

But I was satisfied. I had outgeneralled and
caught what must have been a twenty-five-pound
snapper, at least Paublo, who saw it swimming
off, placed its weight at nearly twice that figure,
and when I pressed him for logical reasons for
his assumption, he said it was "de scales on de
snapper's back dun tole him."

There may be a difference in the game qualities
of gray snappers in different localities. The
deep-water specimens in fifteen or twenty fath-
oms are caught much easier, and at Marquesas
and Key West I took them in shallow water
with crayfish, when sardines or " hard heads "
were not to be had, but always found them
thoroughly game. Even the small fishes from
two to four pounds afforded excellent sport,

44 Big Game Fishes

readily taking crayfish. All were cunning, and
well deserved the name of sea lawyer.

The gray snapper, Lutianus griseus (Linn.), has
a wide range, having been observed as far north
as New Jersey, though it is not a common visitor,
and as far south as Brazil, ranging east to the
African coast. At Bermuda it is common and
attains a large size, individuals from fifty to sixty
pounds having been caught near Hamilton by
friends of mine, and I have heard of larger speci-
mens. The largest gray snapper I took on the
outer Florida reef weighed thirty pounds, and
this was exceptional, the average weight being
from seven to fifteen pounds.

I believe with the gray snappers there is a
certain but limited movement into deeper water
in the winter months. In summer large indi-
viduals are frequently found about mangrove
roots in from five to ten feet of water. Along
the coast of Florida, the spawning season is from
about June 15 to August 15. The young are
found almost anywhere, as gamy as trout, I
discovered, and among the most attractive and
interesting fishes of the reef from the fact that
they would allow me to approach so near that I
could almost touch them.

The Gray Snapper 45

The fact that the gray snapper affects com-
paratively shallow water makes it especially avail-
able to rod fishermen. It frequents old wharves
and similar places. It is difficult to describe the
color of the living snapper. I have taken indi-
viduals showing great variety of tints, but, as a
rule, the deeper the water the more brilliant the
coloring. Some fishes are a dark greenish hue,
the centre of the scales showing a burnished
black, the lower portion being a reddish coppery
hue, very brilliant, giving the entire fish a sug-
gestion of red golden bronze. Others, and par-
ticularly large specimens, taken by me at Garden
Key, where the bottom was gray sand, were
almost pure gray, suggestive of the specific name
griseus given the fish by Linnaeus.

An interesting and very gamy snapper, a valu-
able food fish, at nearly all the West India
Islands and Florida keys, is known as the dog
snapper (Lutianus jocu). Its habits are similar
to those of the gray snapper. The latter is
at the head, so far as game qualities are con-
cerned, of a large group of snappers, comprised
in the family Lutianidae, and is the largest, but
its many relatives — and the famous red snapper,
L^ltianus aya — afford excellent sport on the reef,

46 Big Game Fishes

and the red snapper as far north as Fernandina.
The latter is a deep-water fish, found at vari-
ous points in depressions in the bottom, and
is not available for the rod unless one wishes
to reel in a fish in water from seventy-five to two
hundred feet in depth. With the hand or cast
line it proves a hard-fighting and gamy fish. I
have had excellent fishing for the red snapper
north of Middle Key, Florida reef. The line was
rigged with a heavy sinker, the hook with a
strong six-inch leader being two or three feet
above it, the reason for which was that if the
sinker entered coral or gorgonias, the bait would
swing clear above. At various points along the
Gulf coast off Florida and off Fernandina, the
mouths of the St. Johns and St. Marys, red-
snapper banks are found, being well known to
local and professional fishermen. The so-called
red-snapper banks are met with all along the
Gulf coast around to Texas and beyond. The
" banks," which are really depressions in the
sandy floor of the gulf, range in depth from
ninety to two hundred feet. On the outer reef
conch was a favorite bait, but the fish are by no
means epicures, and fish bait is the ordinary lure.
Off Middle Key fish were found in spawn in

The Gray Snapper 47

May, but I never saw a young red snapper at this
point. On the upper coast Silas Sterns has
found them with well-developed ovaries in April,
May, June, and July.

On the reef about Marquesas, between Key
West and Tortugas, and at the latter key, I have
taken large specimens of what the fishermen
called the green snapper, Lutianus analis (Cu-
vier and Val.). It has much the range of the
gray snapper, and is a hard-fighting fish, attain-
ing forty pounds, though I recall but one fish of
this size, the average being much smaller. It is
a very attractive fish, richly colored, the general
tone a dark olive-green, but subject to much
variation, red, blue, purple, rose, and even scarlet
being conspicuous colors in its make-up. The iris
is brick-red, the eye large, the head larger than
in the gray snapper. The fins are also red in
color, and at times the fish appears to be spotted
blue, red, and white with indistinct horizontal
bars and a black spot near the tail; again it
is severely olive above and white below. The
dorsal is often beautifully tinted, roseate at its
base, golden green at the tips — altogether a
radiant creature, yet lacking the grace of form
of the gray snapper. It is a valuable food fish

48 Big Game Fishes

at Key West and Porto Rico. It spawns in
July and August and it is said to school ; but I
have never seen such propinquity in the sense
of schooling mullets, jacks, or other tropical
schooling fish. Snappers, in my observations,
were always seen together; that is, where there
was one, ten or fifteen would be observed in the
immediate vicinity, perhaps poising, or moving
slowly about, never conveying the impression that
there was a school — rather a community, as they
have the home instinct strongly developed, and,
like all snappers, live in certain localities, remain-
ing there during the day, but wandering abroad
at night, like many tropical fishes, to feed in the
shallow lagoons or flats, where they were never
found during the day.

The habit of night feeding in shallow water
was very marked at Garden Key, so much so that
when it was necessary to catch rare fishes we
invariably hauled the seine in the lagoon between
ten and twelve o'clock at night, always taking
many forms which were never seen there at other
times. There was one drawback — large sharks
and sting rays were particularly addicted to night
strolling, and frequently became entangled in the
nets.

The Gray Snapper 49

Of all the game fishes of Florida the snappers
afforded me the most sport, as they were essen-
tially gamy at all ages and sizes. The small
specimens, weighing from two to six pounds,
often found in the shallow waters of the lagoon,
were the trout of the reef. In one locality, where
a key had been battling with the hurricanes for
centuries, the great gales had swept the key
away from the roots of the mangroves, leaving
many stumps isolated and completely submerged.
Anchoring the dinghy near these shelters, and
casting with a heavy trout rod, using crayfish
bait, rare sport was always had. The snappers
lived among roots with a horde of other fishes,
and would rise as soon as the lure sank a few
feet, not having the discretion and coyness which
marked or characterized the adult snapper of this
region.

The snapper family is very large, including
twenty genera and about two hundred and fifty
species, nearly all of which have a high economic
value ; and wherever they can be taken in water
about twenty feet in depth, typify all that com-
mends itself in a true game fish. In American
waters alone, according to Dr. Jordan, there are
about fourteen genera and thirty-five species ; but

50 Big Game Fishes

including Porto Rico, now an American colony,
the list would be larger. Among the small
snappers, resembling the gray snapper, is the
schoolmaster, Lutianus apodus, easily recognized
by its reddish brown and orange colors and
whitish stripes. I have taken twelve-pounders
on the edge of a little channel near Bird Key,
and have seen individuals on the edges of the
channels which were doubtless much larger. As
a hard fighter and vigorous fish it is unexcelled.

Another gamy snapper is the red tail, Lutianus
synagris (Linn.), and seen directly from the
water it is one of the most beautiful of all fishes.
As it comes in on the line after a vigorous play,
it appears olive-hued; then as it reaches the
surface and the sun plays upon it, rose, scarlet,
silver, gold, deep maroon, and almost every color
flash and blend to add to its beauties. Even the
lips are vivid red, its eye or iris a flame of
scarlet, marking the fish as a fitting companion
to the gorgeous parrot and angel fishes of the
reef.

CHAPTER IV

THE LEAPING TUNA

" First be the fisher's limbs compact and sound,
With solid flesh and well-braced sinews bound ;
Let due proportion every part commend,
Nor leanness shrink too much, nor fat distend."

OPPIAN must have had this acrobat of the seas
in mind when he pictured the physical require-
ments of the fisherman, as he who would try con-
clusions with the leaping tuna, with the rod, must
be in good physical condition, and be skilled in
the use of the rod and reel.

Tuna angling is purely a modern sport which
I suggested ten or twelve years ago at the island
of Santa Catalina, California, and, like many
manly sports, it flashed into popularity and almost
world-wide fame. The tuna is the horse-mack-
erel, the giant of the mackerel tribe, the doughty
head of the family Scombridcz ; an ocean wan-
derer, a pelagic swash-buckler of the sea; now
feeding upon bluefish, menhaden, or herring in

51

52 Big Game Fishes

the Atlantic, gorging itself with the great flying-
fish or squid in the Pacific ; everywhere a terror
to the smaller denizens of the deep. For cen-
turies it has been caught in great nets in the
Mediterranean Sea, on whose shores it is con-
sidered a dainty ; and from the mouth of the St.
Lawrence to Cape Cod it is more or less common
in summer and occasionally harpooned, its cres-
cent-shaped tail being seen on many a longshore
fish house from Cape Breton to Swampscott, a
talisman of good luck.

The fishermen along the coast of Nova Scotia,
especially in the vicinity of Cape Breton, the
mouth of the Myra River, and the region about
Sydney, have long been familiar with the big fish
which they call the " albacore," and which chases
schools of herring into the great bays in July,
August, and September, often playing havoc with
nets. From inquiries among fishermen, I believe
that the Atlantic fish averages much larger than
those of the Pacific coast, entire schools of which
often range from eighty to one hundred and
fifty pounds. In the Mediterranean, five hun-
dred pounds is considered a large fish, and two
hundred, according to Kingsley, is the average.
At Cape Cod, near which they are often har-

The Leaping Tuna 53

pooned for the oil, Captain Atwood states that
"the average size is about eight feet in length."
According to Goode, the fish attains the weight
of twelve or fifteen hundred pounds; Cetti, the
Italian naturalist, gives its maximum weight as
fifteen hundred pounds. Dr. Storer describes
one weighing one thousand pounds, which was
fifteen feet in length, harpooned at Cape Ann in
1858; and Captain Webb in 1878 killed thirty
in Gloucester harbor, which averaged one thou-
sand pounds each. Dr. G. Brown Goode records
one weighing three hundred pounds, which was
harpooned at Minot's Ledge, August 16, 1856;
another, nine feet long, weighing six hundred
pounds, taken at Marblehead in the same year.
In 1856 a horse-mackerel was taken off the town
of Lynn, Massachusetts, which weighed one thou-
sand pounds, was ten feet in length, and six in
girth. It was harpooned and killed by three men
in a dory, and the specimen was secured and pre-
sented to the Lynn Natural History Society by
Dr. Joseph B. Holder, its president, father of the
author. This was the first tuna ever seen in a
scientific institution in America. In July of this
year Dr. Holder reported another fish, nine feet
in length, and a third, taken at Nahant, almost

54 Big Game Fishes

as large, nearly one thousand pounds in weight.
Dr. Holder reported to the society that these
fishes were very plentiful in Massachusetts Bay
in 1850, and that he had measured several which
were ten feet in length. Another fish taken at
Bass Point, Nahant, was examined by Dr. Holder
and Louis Agassiz, who were then investigating
the fauna of the bay; it was found to measure
ten feet in length ; girth, six feet ; weight, six
hundred and fourteen pounds. The discrepancy
between weight and length in different fishes is
one of the interesting features in controversial
angling, the weight being a question of condi-
tion, not length.

On European shores the horse-mackerel or
tuna reaches the Lafodin Islands in latitude 69°,
and can be found well up on the Newfoundland
coast in summer. It appears at Provincetown,
Cape Cod, in June, leaving in October, and is
harpooned for its oil, a large fish producing
twenty-three or twenty-four gallons. Regarding
the range of the fish in the Atlantic, Kingsley
says : " Mr. Matthew Jones of Halifax, Nova
Scotia, writes, * The tunny is very common on
the eastern coast of Nova Scotia in summer, and
is known to the fishermen as "albacore." The

The Leaping Tuna 55

Rev. Ambrose informs me that it regularly visits
St. Margaret's Bay every summer, several speci-
mens being taken and rendered down for oil.
They were particularly abundant in 1876. They
are never seen in the Basin of Minas.'"

That the Atlantic species, so far as seen, are
mainly giants is shown by the condition of nets
after their visits, Captain Atwood describing an
eighty-yard net which had forty-seven round holes
after a raid of these fishes; the tunas had gone
through it as through paper. In the Canadian
Fishing Report of 1863 Dr. Fortin states that
the fish is " quite abundant in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, especially the Bay of Chaleur and off
Gaspe, and also in the straits of Belle Isle and
Blanco Sablon Bay. It is also taken at Cara-
quette." Dr. Fortin adds, "The fishing is quite
exciting, although tiresome and requiring a good
deal of skill (steel hooks are used, tied to solid
lines), as in the efforts to escape they pull with
such violence as to endanger the lives of the
fishermen by dragging them overboard." In the
Mediterranean, the catch is entirely by a vast
net, known as a madrague, which is very suc-
cessful at Favignana, where as much as seventy
tons of the fish, here known as the tunny, is taken

56 Big Game Fishes

at once. Attempts have been made to take the
tunny in these waters with rod and reel, but so
far have failed. The game was found in great
abundance on the Italian coast, but for some
reason it would not bite.

I first conceived the idea and fostered the hope
of catching a tuna with a rod when measuring a
giant specimen which hung in Fulton Market
some twenty years ago. It had been harpooned
in Massachusetts Bay, was about eleven feet
long, and weighed in the neighborhood of one
thousand pounds — a type of all that is ponderous
and massive in the true fishes. The following
year I confided my ambition to a professional
fisherman, a man of great intelligence, with whom
I often fished at Ogunquit, Maine, and made
various trips to the offshore banks near Boon
Island Light in quest of the game which he
assured me was there ; but though I fished with
patience, trolling and anchored, tried all kinds of
bait from moss bunkers to live pollock, I could
never lure the Atlantic tuna, and indeed never
saw one, though my companion related tales of
monsters which came around his dory, feeding
almost from his hand, when fishing for dogfish.
In these waters the tuna never or rarely was seen,

The Leaping Tuna 57

as it did not leap for its prey, there being no fly-
ing-fishes. In 1887 or 1888 I began to fish the
waters of Santa Catalina, and here saw the same
horse-mackerel or tuna, now feeding on the Cali-
fornia flying-fish, to capture which it sprang into
the air in magnificent bounds; hence I called it
the leaping tuna, to distinguish it from the non-
jumper of the Atlantic. To take so large and
powerful a fish smooth water was a desideratum,
and so far as known, Santa Catalina, California,
is the only locality where the fish has been taken
with rod and reel ; and even here the fishing-
grounds are limited to about four miles of coast
in the lee of the island mountains, which afford
several open bays, generally smooth, the wind
blowing only part of the day, thus giving the
angler conditions absolutely perfect, without
which tuna fishing would be impossible and
extremely dangerous.

It would weary the reader to detail my efforts
to catch a tuna. I frequently hooked them, lost
tips, rods, and lines, which were cheerfully offered
at the shrine, and told the stories to incredulous
listeners, all to no purpose. Horace Annersley
Vachell, in his "Life and Sport on the Pacific
Slope," who has written a delightful account of

5 8 Big Game Fishes

this sport, thus refers to this period of proba-
tion : —

" The following excerpt, from an article writ-
ten by my friend Charles F. Holder, is worth
quoting : —

" ' The activity of the tuna is only comparable
to that of the tarpon. I have seen them leap ten
or more feet into the air, while they have been
known to jump over the boats in pursuit of them.
Sportsmen from the East have devoted weeks to
this fish, hoping to win fame and honor by taking
one on a rod ; but so far the tuna has harvested
the rods, reels, and lines, and is still master of the
situation.' "

At this time no large reels were obtainable.
The rods were jointed and inadequate, and I
recall one angler who devoted the entire season
to an effort to take the elusive tuna. Finally a
tuna was caught by Colonel C. P. Morehous, who
used a reel made for the purpose, and imme-
diately the pastime took its place, with that
of tarpon fishing, among the most exciting of
American sports. The advantage California has
over other localities is that the tuna, being an
oceanic fish, rarely if ever comes inshore nearer
than seventeen or eighteen miles. It is very

Figure showing Tuna reel and the position of the thumb when using the
leather pad brake. The silver disk on the reel indicates the patent
brake to prevent overrunning during a rush. Above the reel seat is
seen the cork grip for the left hand

Tuna or Tarpon reel, showing position of hands " waiting for the strike,"
— left hand grasping the upper cork grip, the right thumb pressing
gently upon the leather pad brake

The Leaping Tuna 59

rarely seen near the mainland of California ; the
island mentioned is about twenty miles out to sea,
and a natural feeding-ground of the fish in
summer, the alert tuna using the open bays into
which to drive its victims, the California flying-
fishes. The tuna boats of Catalina Island are
designed for the purpose, and are mainly stiff,
broad-beamed launches, built for three persons:
two anglers, who sit side by side in chairs facing
the stern, and the boatman, who is helmsman,
gaffer, and engineer of the three or more horse-
power gasolene engine. Overhead is an awning,
which is raised by the gaffer when the strike
comes, and each boat has a flag bearing the
figure of a tuna, which is thrown to the breeze
the moment a fish is hooked, so that interested
spectators ashore can tell several miles away
whether good luck is in the wind.

There are two essentials in tuna fishing, a
cool, intelligent, and practised gaffer, and per-
fect tackle ; with these the novice can be assured
that the responsibility for the loss of the fish
rests on his own shoulders. As to tackle, I
recall one angler who made a practice of never
using the same line twice ; at the end of the day
he presented it to the boatman. This is unnec-

60 Big Game Fishes

essary, as a good line will last a season through
if well used, but it illustrates the fact that some
anglers take no chances. The reel most in
vogue is made especially for the purpose ; it
is as well put together as a watch, and costs
from thirty dollars upward. It is of rubber and
silver, and is so perfectly adjusted that a whirl
of the handle will cause it to run some time.
It must have a capacity of eight hundred feet
of number twenty-one line when wet. It should
have a melodious click, and a drag to prevent
over-running, and attached to the lower or upper
cross-bar there should be a leather pad lined
with moose hide. This is the brake par excel-
lence, used by pressing it upon the line with
the thumb, and it should never be used unless
the line is wet, as the friction will burn the
line. The reel should always be lashed to the
rod. As to the line, there are several makes
in use. What is known as twenty-one cutty-
hunk and one or two others especially made
have all been tested on the tuna grounds. One
particularly good line is of Irish linen, hand
laid ; the twenty-one tested to pull forty-two
pounds dead weight ; the twenty-four, forty-eight
pounds; the eighteen, thirty-six; the fifteen,

Tested to Ibe. pal).
Nos.

12 i ii 24

18

24 ^v.i^^^vl•v^^^^T.^^^^,^^lv.^.vla;a^iJ 48

EXACT SIZE OF STANDARD IRISH LINEN LINES FOR
SEA ANGLING

No. 12, fish up to 20 pounds

No. 1 5, fish up to 30 pounds

No. 1 8, fish up to 60 or 1 00 pounds, and Tarpon

No. 21, Tuna, Black Sea-bass

No. 24, when heavy lifting is refused, as Jewfish, etc.

A ROD

ANGLER'S KNOTS
(See chapter on Leaping Tuna.)

The Leaping Tuna 61

thirty pounds. A line of this quality is indis-
pensable. By such a thread a tuna towed me
in a heavy boat ten miles, the perfect line saving
the day. For practice a number twenty-four
is commended, but after the novice has landed
a tuna a number eighteen line is sufficiently
strong for a cool hand. A new line should
always be soaked before using and stretched
for a day previous to use, and allowed to dry
in this way. I am aware that an opinion pre-
vails that this takes the spring from a line, but
I have always made it a practice. In the words
of an expert, " This sets the lay of the line, and
not only lessens the liability of kinking, but
helps to even its strength." This will be appre-
ciated by those who have watched the mental
anguish of a brother angler whose line has
kinked while the fish were biting.

The selection of a rod is important. A poor
rod, or a very cheap one, is an impossibility.
Large fish have been taken on small and light
rods, but the well-equipped angler will find sol-
ace and comfort in going into the fray with per-
fect tackle. A good greenheart rod weighing
twenty-five or twenty-six ounces, with one long
tip and agate guides, seven or seven and a

62 Big Game Fishes

half feet long, will be found equal to the de-
mands upon it. The tip must not be so pliable
that a heavy fish cannot be lifted, nor so stiff
that the rod will not bend; a happy medium
must be selected. A split bamboo rod, costing
from twenty to thirty dollars, is eminently adapted
to the sport. One of the best rods for the pur-
pose has a patent hard rubber butt into which
the tip fits, the rod really being one piece with
a short butt. It is of noib wood — a species of
greenheart of great tensile strength. This rod
has heavy silver mounting, double bell guides,
is six feet nine inches long, and weighs twenty-
six ounces ; with an extra tip the angler is well
equipped, though he should never go tuna fish-
ing with a single rod. In the equipment of
the line, especially in the question of knots,
every angler has his fancy. My own preference
is for a plain bowline in fastening leader to
line or swivel. I have heard many arguments
against it, but have never had the knot wear
or chafe off in the heavy work of tuna fishing.
To those who do not care for the bowline there
are others well known to the angler. Number
I shows a simple knot for tying leader to line,
the ends being merely cut off after tying. Num-

8/o. YELLOWTAIL

10/0. TUNA AND BLACK SEA-BASS

Needle-eye

TUNA OR BLACK SEA-BASS HOOKS, SHOWING SIZES
USED BY THE AUTHOR

Ordinary way of baiting Tuna hook with flying-fish. A, wire fastening
the mouth. The Tuna strikes at the eye

Hook suggested and used by Col. C. P. Morehous, Pasadena, Cal.

Morehous Tuna hook sewed upon ventral surface of 10-inch flying-fish

The Leaping Tuna 63

her 2 is for a similar purpose. Draw the knot
tight and cut the ends. Number 3 is a good
knot for fastening line to the swivel, one
easily made and as easily unfastened. Num-
ber 4 is an excellent knot to conjure with, giv-
ing easily to facile fingers. Number 5 shows a
knot easily untied by jerking the end of the
loop.

The leader, or snood, in tuna fishing should
be six or seven feet in length, of phosphor-
bronzed wire, and the next ten feet of line should
be doubled. This will save many a fish, as
in a long struggle the line is liable to chafe
off on the back of the fish. To the leader is
fastened a Van Vleck hook, supposed among
tuna experts to be very killing ; but a 10/0
O'Shaughnessy is equally effective — a small
hook for so large a fish. There should be at
least three strong brass swivels between hook
and line. The bait is a large flying-fish, which is
hooked in various ways according to fancy. The
tuna almost invariably strikes at the large black
eye of the flying-fish, hence many hook the bait
through the lips, barb up, and sew up the mouth
to make the fish run smoothly. Others sew
the hook along the body and have the point

64 Big Game Fishes

project through the abdomen near the vent,
while others again use two hooks, one with a
long shank — a method which has nothing to
commend itself. Another hook, suggested and
used by Colonel Morehous, has a shank six
inches in length and is double; that is, two
hooks are welded together, back to back, one
a little lower than the other [see Fig.]. In bait-
ing this hook the long shank is laid along the
belly and sewed to the fish, one hook penetrating
the body near the vent, the other projecting.
The mouth of the fish is sewed up and fastened
to the shank. This is a very killing arrange-
ment, and in view of the fact that the novice
misses about eight strikes to one catch, it is
admissible ; but I am an advocate for the plain-
est and simplest tackle on the ground of fair
play to the game. The use of two separate
hooks, one in the head and one in the tail of the
bait, often used, is an unpardonable sin, as nearly
all the fish come in foul hooked, — one in the
mouth, and one in the belly or side, — a result
which can but totally destroy the pleasure of
a capture after a four or five hour struggle with
the noble fish. In a word, the tuna should be
approached with all the advantages on its side.

The Leaping Tuna 65

Such is the equipment, and the angler will do
well to have several lines, at least two reels, and
half a dozen baited hooks ready for immediate
use, as it is the unexpected which invariably
happens in tuna fishing, as in anything else. I
have found besides duplicate rods a fishing valise
of value. This contains the reels, lines, hooks
and leaders, extra swivels, wire, pincers, pocket
oiler, extra guides, chamois for the reel, compass,
extra gaffs, hook, knife, rule, court-plaster, etc.
At Avalon every boatman provides the well-
equipped rods, but the angler who loves fishing
as an art and a part of his life worth living, will
own his tackle. The delights of angling are in
a general way threefold. There is, first, the
anticipation which lasts and is a solace through
long winter months ; then the possession of tackle
is a delight in itself; and finally the catch. Of
these the tackle — the old rods and reels — to
talk over in the out season, to my mind, rank
equally with the others. I retire my rods after
adequate service full of honors, and as they hang
on the wall, pensioned off, live over the incidents
in their lives so deeply engraved on their respon-
sive hearts. One, as a friend remarked, " is not
much to look at," but beneath its scratches and

66 Big Game Fishes

weather-worn appearance lie a tenacity, spring,
and strength worthy a rest for the remainder
of its life, as there is " life " to a rod which
departs in the course of time. With this rod
I played a fish four hours; later, it landed a
three-hundred-and-fifty-pound bass in the hands
of a friend, and then was invalided. Another
slender split bamboo trout rod, on the retired
list, brought in after an hour's struggle a thirty-
five-pound amber-fish ; and so on, one might
go through the list of old rods which have a
personality to the angler who really enjoys the
sport in all its details.

It has been my fancy to experiment with com-
paratively light rods, and when fishing to use as
nearly as possible a rod adapted to the fish ;
that is, so light that in the balance of chance
the game has a decided advantage. In fishing
for tuna, tarpon, and the black sea-bass, the trio
which are the tiger and elephant hunting of the
angling world, the temptation is strong to use
robust and short rods ; yet I took a one hundred
and eighty-three-pound tuna with a three-jointed
rod; have caught large yellowtails and sea-bass
on a black bass rod ; and a ninety-pound tuna,
that threw us into the sea a mile from shore,

The Leaping Tuna 67

was killed with a delicate jointed greenheart rod,
built and intended for yellowtail. Even Walton
assumed an apologetic air when he approached
a big fish story. " Because you say you love
such discourses as these, of rivers, and fish, and
fishing, I love you the better, and love the more
to impart them to you. Nevertheless, scholar,
if I should begin to name the several sorts of
strange fish that run into the sea, I might beget
wonder in you, or unbelief, or both, and yet I
will venture to tell you a real truth."

So with the leaping tuna. If I should relate
the experiences I have been witness to, I should
surely " beget wonder " in the reader, if not
" unbelief," so extraordinary are they, so seem-
ingly impossible; and it is perhaps fortunate for
this truthful history that there are forty or fifty
" blue button members " of the Tuna Club who
have survived their initiative, the taking of a
one-hundred-pound fish, all of whom have had
experiences equally remarkable, which make up
the chronicles of this organization devoted to
sea angling and the protection of game fishes.

The tuna moves north and south, in or out,
with more or less regularity. It is due at Santa
Catalina from the i5th of May to the i5th of

68 Big Game Fishes

June, generally soon after the arrival of the
flying-fishes. For weeks perhaps anglers from
all over the country have been waiting, vainly
fishing, when suddenly in the offing a black,
arrowlike object is seen to rise into the air,
A splash, a rush of waters, dozens of flying-
fishes radiating like gigantic dragon-flies in every
direction, and the tuna season has begun. Every
boat and angler is in a short time in the midst
of the fray, and many strikes there are, but few are
taken.

As to the time for tuna fishing, there is a
difference of opinion. Some anglers are on the
ground at daylight ; others follow the schools
at all times. I have had better luck ; that is, more
strikes, early in the morning on a rising tide, but
the tuna is fickle game. At times it bites vigor-
ously, then will cease without rhyme or reason,
during which exasperating period schools of hun-
dreds may be passed and crossed, the fish abso-
lutely ignoring the various devices of the angler.
The fishing-ground may be said to be from the
point of Avalon Bay to Long Point, a distance
of four miles, and from fifty feet to a mile off-
shore. The tuna is a strategist, and this shore-
line, with its numerous open bays, the mouths

The Leaping Tuna 69

of canons, constitutes a series of traps, into which
they can charge the flying-fishes ; and when they
are feeding, they can be caught on the edge of
the kelp within twenty feet of the shore. The
tuna does not travel in a single large school.
That they arrive in a body is doubtless true, but
when once on the ground they divide into small
squadrons of from fifty to two hundred and are
apparently preparing to spawn, playing on the
surface, and on calm days, which are the rule in
spring, they can be seen for a long distance, the
spike dorsal out of the water, followed by the
upper lobe of the sharp crescent tail. They move
in the general form of flying ducks or geese ;
a large triangular figure, with one or two large
fishes perhaps in the lead. They are so tame
that a boat can approach within fifteen or twenty
feet of them before they sink, and it is an easy
matter to follow and circle the school.

In fishing we are on the beach at daylight.
To the east great bands of vermilion are piercing
the sky, and the entire heavens are blazing with
a rosy light, the advance guard of the sun that
presently comes up over the Sierras on the main-
land like a ball of fire. The boatman, who is
just in with fresh flying-fishes, reports tunas all

70 Big Game Fishes

along shore, and a few moments later we are
shoving off, seated in the stern of a wide-beamed
yawl. She is rigged with a two-horse power
engine, but the boatman rows out into the bay,
stopping to fasten on the leaders as we overreel.
This accomplished, he rows on while we unreel
the entire line to soak it — an essential, as a dry
line will burn off under the rush of a fish when
the leather brake is applied. We are not out of
the bay when a flying-fish is seen coming di-
rectly toward us, then another, and still another,

" Look out, sir ! " cries the boatman.

Look out, indeed. Two fliers pass over the
boat, my companion and I dodging them, catch-
ing one, and then, not ten feet from us, a torpedo
seems to explode, and the still water flies into the
air a mass of gleaming foam. Quickly another
rod is taken, the living flier hooked on and cast.
We are surely caught unprepared, yet zeee-ee-zee !
a swirl of waters, a wail from the steel throat of
the big reel, and the game is away. Gone ? yes,
gone, and if it must be acknowledged, two tuna
men, who imagined they were cool under any
circumstances, have been robbed of bait and one
hundred feet of line, and all in a moment, now
sit dumfounded, then laugh at this phase of

The Leaping Tuna 71

fisherman's luck. Manifestly the tunas could not
wait for any lengthy preparation; they came in
to meet us ; we have met the enemy and we are
theirs. The moral is, not to start from the beach
until everything is in readiness and to be pre-
pared for a strike the moment the bait is over,
and all the time. A school of half a dozen tunas
has entered the bay charging the flying-fishes,
and is off up the coast, where we follow. Once
around the point the tuna ground stretches away
from point to point, four miles or more, of as
beautiful water as the eye ever rested upon,
with high rocky cliffs and blue-tinted mountains
to the left, and everywhere as smooth as glass.
Tunas are in a short time sighted, some leaping
into the air, and as we move down the coast a
heavy sea appears to be breaking on the Long
Point rocks. But it is merely tunas feeding,
each tuna as it rushes creating a whitecap ; and
as hundreds are seen, the sight is a marvellous
simulation of a storm on a sea of glass.

A flying-fish now comes soaring over the
ocean a foot above it, and we know that just
below is an eagle-eyed nemesis ready to pounce
upon it like a tiger. We know that the tuna and
its mate are swimming at an angle, canted, or, as

72 Big Game Fishes

the boatman says, with a " list," that its big,
black, hypnotic eye may follow each move of the
flier. The latter has soared nearly two hundred
yards and begins to flag ; its tail drops lower and
lower, then touches the water to beat it furiously,
at which there comes a rush of waters as the
tuna attempts to seize its game. But the flying-
fish in these few seconds of impact has stored a
fresh supply of force, or inertia, and now soars
away in a slightly different direction, a foot above
the surface, the tuna still beneath it, uncertain
whether to leap or to wait until the weary victim
shall drop into its maw. It is here that we are
treated to the lofty leaps of the tuna. If the
latter is swimming deep in the chase, it occasion-
ally dashes upward after the soaring fish, often
missing it and rising ten or more feet into the
air — a magnificent spectacle. Attaining its limit
it turns gracefully and drops headlong into the
sea. I have seen such a fish strike the flying-
fish and send it whirling upward like a pinwheel.
Again the tuna will seize its prey in mid-air, as
will a man-of-war bird.

While we have been digressing on came the
flying-fish, crossing our bait by a lucky chance,
or by the strategy of the boatman. We could

The Leaping Tuna 73

almost feel the premonitory crash ; every nerve
was tingling with expectation ; then twenty feet
from the bait there was a rush, the tunas had
sighted them, and for several feet they raced
along, for there were two (generally the case),
hurling the water, arrows aimed at the baits.
They had been deflected from the flier, and while
the water swirled astern, the cry of two reels rose
on the morning air. Vainly the leather thumb
brakes were pushed upon the line ; the latter
slipped beneath it in feet and yards, then one reel
became silent, the slack line telling the story of a
flaw, or possibly too much thumb power, or a
rusty leader. Despite every effort the tuna tore
the line from the reel, the boatman backing with
all his strength, endeavoring to force sternway
on the boat before the line was fully exhausted.
Five hundred feet had slipped away and the boat
was sliding through the water at a rapid rate
when suddenly the line slackened, the game was
gone. No, the line was doubling in, and spring-
ing to my feet I witnessed a splendid movement
of the gamy fish, one which I have never seen
repeated. The tuna had turned and was literally
charging the boat, el toro of the sea, coming on
like a gleam of light, its sharp dorsal cutting the

74 Big Game Fishes

water. I reeled with all my speed, knowing that
if I was caught on the turn with an unknown
amount of slack line, the end might come; but
fifty feet had not been gained before the tuna was
within fifteen feet of the boat, then seeing me it
turned and was away like an arrow from a bow.
The big reel groaned as the crash came, but the
brake was thrown off and my thumb played upon
the leather pad with rare good luck, with just
sufficient force to prevent overrunning. I gained
enough line during this spectacular performance
to stop the fish at three hundred feet, and held it
by the thread of line while it towed the boat out
to sea. A mile it took us, now plunging into
the deep heart of the channel, to rise again with
throbs which came on the tense line like heart-
beats and found an echoing response. I gained
ten feet to lose five, then would lose twenty to
recover all, and more by vigorous " pumping," as
the fish sulked and labored at the bottom of the
sea. Suddenly I felt the line humming, vibrating
like the cord of some musical instrument as the
great fish rose, and as it reached the surface with
a mighty swerve that gave the boatman active
work to keep us astern to the game, it turned and
again charged me. I rose, reeling rapidly as I

Figure showing size of reel used for Yellowtail, White Sea-bass,
and any fish up to 50 or 60 pounds. Right thumb on leather
brake: this is the fishing " position," showing also the "butt
rest " when used as a belt

Showing position of the hands, giving a Tuna "the butt."
Right thumb is on the leather brake, left hand grasping
cork grip

The Leaping Tuna 75

watched the splendid trick ; for trick it was, an
attempt to take me unawares, running in on the
line to break it if possible in the outrush. Again
the fish turned hard by the boat and dashed
away, this time inshore, towing us a mile or
more, and within fifty feet of the rocks and their
beard of kelp where I succeeded in turning it,
and now gained so rapidly that I had the fish
within a short distance of the boat. The boat-
man was fingering his gaff, when, with a mag-
nificent rush, the tuna tore from. the reel three
hundred feet of line, undoing the strenuous labor
of nearly two hours. The fish appeared to be
seized with a frenzy. It rushed around the boat
at long range, plunged deep into the blue water
as though searching the bottom for some obstacle
upon which to rub the line, then rising with a
strange bounding motion which was imparted to
the rod, again charged the boat.

For three hours I fought this superb fish,
during which it towed the boat from near Avalon
to Long Point, then several miles in and out,
repeatedly charging, never giving signs of weaken-
ing, always bearing away with its full force. At
the end of three hours I again brought the fish to
within fifty feet of the boat, when it again broke

76 Big Game Fishes

away and towed us four miles south, occasionally
stopping to rush in, and once carried us out into
rough water, towing the boat stern first against
the heavy seaway so rapidly that I expected to
see her fill ; but by sheer good luck I turned the
fish, and at the end of four hours brought it to
gaff. Slowly it circled the boat and for the first
time we saw that the fish was what we had
suspected, of unusual size. As it slowly swam
along, its big back of a deep blue, its white belly
occasionally gleaming as it turned, its finarettes
flashing gold, it presented a magnificent spec-
tacle, a compensation for the hardest struggle I
had ever made. Nearer it came, then it was
turned at the quarter, the boatman's gaff slid
beneath, and the big hook struck home. It was a
clever gaff, but with a tremendous surge the tuna
sounded, shivering the handle in the gaffer's
hands, and was away taking the wreck with
it. Fortunately I stopped the rush, and a few
moments later again had the tuna alongside.
This time a new gaff held it, the gamy creature,
never conquered, never discouraged, lashing the
water, hurling it over us, a last defiance. A
nervous gaffer would have lost the fish at this
stage, but the boatman held fast, and stepping

Playing a large Leaping Tuna from the boat used in California

The rod as it looked after the fifth hour of playing a Tuna

The Leaping Tuna 77

on the gunwale pressed it down to the water's
edge and cleverly slid the quivering, struggling
tuna into the boat, where it pounded the planking
with such vigorous blows that the small craft
trembled from stem to stern. As its fine propor-
tions were revealed, I realized that we had landed
the largest tuna ever taken with a, rod. Its
actual weight was about one hundred and eighty-
seven pounds; its scale record weight on shore
after bleeding was one hundred and eighty-three
pounds ; its length was six feet four inches.
This catch suggested the Tuna Club, and for two
years this fish was the record catch of this organi-
zation. I have taken a number of tunas since,
and have seen a large number caught, but have
never known a fish that so thoroughly exemplified
the word "game"; and in justice to this splendid
fish which is now in the possession of a Chicago
angler, I must confess that a few moments more
would have placed me hors de combat.

For staying qualities and hard fighting the
tuna in its best condition excels any game fish
I have taken, and one secret of success is to
fight it continuously without stopping, as when
the angler is resting the fish is also recuperating.
So fiercely do certain tunas fight that I have

78 Big Game Fishes

more than once seen them die suddenly, and a
few moments after a desperate rush come up
again dead. I have been one of three anglers
to battle with a tuna five hours. This fish,
though sorely wounded, towed the boat an esti-
mated twenty miles ; and had we not, seeing that
night was coming on, and that we were out of
sight of Avalon in an open boat, hauled it in
by hand, I am confident that the fish, which
weighed but one hundred and twenty-five pounds,
might have towed us across the Santa Catalina
channel or for an indefinite distance. Another
tuna fought Mr. W. Woods and boatman fifteen
hours and then escaped. Yet other fishes are
caught in from thirty minutes to an hour. Dur-
ing the season of 1902 Judge Beaman of Denver,
Colorado, fought a tuna of unknown size, which
towed the twenty-two-foot launch from near
Avalon, across the channel, to the vicinity of
Point Firmin, an estimated twenty-one miles,
in six hours and a half. The fish was lost at
the gaffing ; the line had chafed off at the swivel.
Many tunas, as stated, are caught in a short
time; but, as a rule, such fish are in poor con-
dition, or have just spawned, and lack their nor-
mal vigor.

C. F. HOLDER AND HIS RECORD TUNA, 183 POUNDS

Time of catch, 4 hours. Fish towed the boat 10 miles. This was the first large
Tuna that was caught

The Leaping Tuna 79

The largest tuna ever taken with rod and
reel was landed by Colonel C. P. Morehous of
Pasadena, California, in four hours ; it weighed
two hundred and fifty-one pounds, and is the
record to-day. Mr. H. Gray Griswold of New
York succeeded in taking a number of fishes in
less time than had been previously accomplished,
and demonstrated that they could be caught at
any time during the day. The largest number
taken in any one season fell to the rod of Mr.
E. L. Doran of Avalon, who has done much to
make this sport what it is, having been one of
the early pioneers in the strenuous pastime.

Among the exciting personal experiences inci-
dent to this sport which I recall was being cap-
sized by a tuna nearly a mile offshore. I was
trying the experiment of tuna fishing with a
light jointed rod, seven and two-thirds feet long,
weighing about fifteen ounces, which I used for
yellowtail. I hooked my fish, and after a beauti-
ful surface play of forty minutes brought it to
gaff. Jim Gardner, the boatman, gaffed it clev-
erly and landed it, when the fish made a con-
vulsive leap and fell upon the gunwale, capsizing
the boat, which sank beneath us, rising bow up,
covering the water with gaffs, oars, and other

8o Big Game Fishes

wreckage of the angler's art. My companion,
Mr. Townsend of Philadelphia, could not swim,
and was otherwise embarrassed by a heavy over-
coat; and as the boat rolled over and evidently
would not hold three, Gardner and I started
to swim to the launch, which had been lying
off, some distance away, and which was now
coming up, while Mr. Townsend rested upon
the bottom of the boat, assuring us that he was
all right. As I neared the launch I heard the
boatman's wife, who was aboard, scream that
her husband was drowning, and turning, saw
that Gardner had disappeared. Visions of cer-
tain big hammerhead sharks flashed through
my mind ; but as I stopped, endeavoring to look
down into the blue depths, up he came, and I
discovered that he still held my tuna by the
gaff ; in fact, he had never relinquished his grasp
upon the handle, and was towing the fish, the
latter, as it occasionally plunged downward, tak-
ing the plucky gaffer out of sight — a perform-
ance extraordinary in its nature, which was
repeated three times. Each time Gardner, who
was a professional swimmer previous to his boat-
ing career, dragged the tuna to the surface, and
after an exciting and exhausting swim we were

THE WORLD'S RECORD TUNA
Caught by Mr. C. P. Morehous, on rod and reel, 2 1 strand line ; weight, 25 1 pounds

The Leaping Tuna 81

picked up, the launch and a fisherman from shore
reaching us about the same moment, Gardner
securing a rope which his wife tossed him. I
was burdened with a heavy corduroy hunting
suit and leggings, and found that I could not
lift myself aboard, nor could the two men haul
me in, so I was lashed to the rail, Gardner
throwing his legs about the propeller. In this
position we rested a moment, then by a supreme
effort I was hauled in, and while the crew held
me by the legs I leaned over; and as Gardner
lifted up the still struggling fish, I thrust my
arm into its mouth and grasped it firmly by
the gills ; Gardner took a half hitch about its
tail with a rope, and the men hauled upon my
legs, and with a resounding cheer we dropped
the leaping tuna into the cockpit — a laughable
climax to a seemingly irrational and impossible
fish story. The tuna, which hangs on my study
wall, weighed but ninety-five pounds. It is need-
less to say that Gardner received the prizes of
the Tuna Club for the first tuna of the season
won in the angling tournament of that year.

The rush of the tunas as they drive in the
frightened, demoralized flying-fishes is an excit-
ing and dramatic sight. Droves of the fliers

82 Big Game Fishes

are forced out of the water, often to the beach,
and the wind, catching their wings, will take
them twenty or more feet into the air, where
they soar away like a flock of gigantic insects,
gleaming in the sunlight like silver. In this
pastime the tunas are fearless. They dash into
the kelp, high in air, or occasionally out upon
the rocks; in the case of a friend one leaped
over the stern of his boat. One evening at dusk
a school of tunas drove the flying-fishes inshore,
and as they passed over and struck our boat,
one coming at full speed hit me behind the ear,
nearly knocking me out of my seat. Such are
some of the incidents, more or less amusing,
in this strenuous sport among the Californian
islands.

Of all fishes the tuna is the acrobat of the sea,
though I doubt if the horizontal leap of thirty
feet, accredited to a Texan tarpon, has been
equalled by it ; but as a high and lofty tumbler,
a figure of grace, the tuna equals the tarpon.
The leap of the latter is a wild bound into the
air, accompanied by a vigorous shaking of its
bony jaws, the object being to send the hook fly-
ing through the air ; and the leap, though sensa-
tional, is not particularly graceful. That of the

Tbe Leaping Tuna 83

tuna is accomplished as a result of the attempts
of the fish to seize its prey, the flying-fish, in the
air, and is made almost directly upward at the flier,
which is a foot or more above the surface. As a
rule, the mark is missed, and the living arrow darts
upward six, eight, ten feet at rare intervals, then
turns with the perfection of grace and plunges
headlong into the sea. It is manifestly impossi-
ble to measure such a leap, yet on one occasion
I thought that I saw nearly fifteen feet attained,
though I may have been mistaken, and freely
confess to the excitement so often an aid to the
imagination. At the time the observation was
made I was drifting in the largest school of tunas
I had seen. I had noticed the school sweeping
up the coast of the island, the channel covered
with whitecaps for acres, caused by the rushing,
leaping fish, and had rowed out in a light skiff to
meet it. Tunas were in the air on all sides;
others rushing along the surface, while the flying-
fishes soared in all directions in such numbers
that I watched them carefully to avoid the
winged projectiles. Looking down I could see
numbers so terrified that they swam close to the
keel to elude the savage tunas. The latter were
leaping and plunging about me, and I realized

84 Big Game Fishes

that if one fell into the boat it would pass
through it as though paper; hence believing
discretion the better part of valor, I began to row
out of the school, but not before I had attempted
a mental calculation of the height of some of
the leaps which were being made about me. As
I stood upon the seat of the skiff, the rushes of
the tunas into the air appeared to the excited
spectator, who may in these few moments have
seen things which did not exist, to reach a point
five or six feet higher than his head.

The possibility of approaching schools of these
fish suggests various methods of taking them.
That most in vogue is to follow a school and
endeavor to head it off, or so encircle it that the
bait will cross the leaders ; as a rule, two strikes
are had if two lines are out, and several times
both fishes have been saved. I have succeeded
in obtaining a strike when tunas were not biting
by heading off the school and casting into it,
which is accomplished by reeling the line all in,
having the heavy flying-fish as near the tip as
possible. When the bait lands in the school
with a splash, the tunas evidently consider it
an exhausted flying-fish alighting, and forthwith
charge it. When other methods have failed,

The Leaping Tuna 85

they have been induced to bite by running a
launch at full speed, with a large, brilliant bait,
a white rag, or a large bone jig; this was the
method adopted by the professional fishermen
years ago, a fast sail-boat being used ; but in this
way only a hand-line can be employed to advan-
tage. The tuna will readily bite up to eight
o'clock at night, or until the phosphorescence
becomes too brilliant, and often in the morning
at Avalon flying-fishes are found in boats or on
the beaches, where they have soared to avoid
this rapacious fish.

The breeding habits of the tuna in this region
are unknown. The Mediterranean is a breeding
ground, and doubtless the Santa Catalina channel
is a depository for the spawn, which is laid
in the open sea floating on the surface, but
young tunas have never been seen here; the
smallest observed were about three feet in length,
the average adult weighing about one hundred
and fifty pounds. In 1902 schools of tunas were
seen in February, several fishes being hooked
and one caught in March ; but this was unusual.
It is supposed that they are offshore either in
deep water or in milder regions to the south in
the larger field of the open sea. In appearance

86 Big Game Fishes

the tuna, Thunnus thynnus of science, the king
of the mackerels, is trim, attractive, a type of
activity, a model of speed, and doubtless the
giant of the true fishes, attaining a weight of
fifteen hundred pounds or more ; a well-equipped
foeman for the angler who goes down to the sea
after large game.

In the winter the fishes take to warmer water
in the open sea ; at least this is the supposition,
as vessels report them at various times. The
tuna was first described by Linnaeus, and there
is but a single genus and species, the fish being
a world-wide wanderer in the warmer seas. In
the water the fish appears green, with flashes of
yellow ; but when landed, the back or upper por-
tion is seen to be a vivid, even iridescent blue,
the lower portion silver, in some instances gray.
The body is oblong, shaped like the model of
some modern yachts, evidently built for speed.
The tail has a decided fork, and is a powerful
organ, upon each side of which are pronounced
keels. The dorsal fin fits into a scabbard, and the
side or pectoral fins in old individuals fit into
shallow depressions. The scales are seemingly
covered with an outer skin. The first dorsal
is strong and powerful, and contains from twelve

The Leaping Tuna 87

to fifteen spines ; the second dorsal and anal bear
a spikelike fin, following which are from eight to
ten finlets, colored a vivid yellow. The teeth are
very small, so that the prey — sardines, flying-
fishes, or squid — is crushed rather than cut
The flesh of the tuna is excellent, dark and meat-
like ; but owing to the quantity of other kinds of
edible fish it finds little favor among Americans,
the catches being taken by Italian and Portu-
guese fishermen along the Pacific coast. On the
Mediterranean it is greatly in demand, but in
America its chief value is to anglers, who will go
thousands of miles to take it, the sport and that
of tarpon fishing well illustrating the importance
of a mere pastime as one of the assets of a state.
The tarpon brings thousands of dollars into
Florida and Texas. The game commissioners
of Maine estimate that sportsmen bring five
million dollars into their state yearly, while at
a recent trial involving the protection of the
game fishes of California a commissioner testi-
fied that the game of all kinds of the state
brought two million dollars to the coast per an-
num, which shows that sport has become one of
the assets of the nation, to be carefully protected
and conserved in the interests of the people.

CHAPTER V

THE BARRACUDA OF FLORIDA

" Do but fish this stream like an artist and peradventure a
good fish may fall to your share." — IZAAK WALTON.

IN the various works on game fishes in this
country and Europe, I have never seen the
barracuda included among those fishes worthy
the angler's attention, and as the result of several
years' sport with this long, rakish craft in the
Gulf of Mexico, where it was taken with rod,
cast-line, and grains, from one to six feet in
length, I welcome the opportunity to do it tardy
justice. My attention was first attracted to the
fish by meeting a Conch on the reef, who an-
swered to the name of " Barracuda." I learned
later that he had earned the title as a result of a
sanguinary battle with a very large barracuda
which had attacked him when swimming, lacerat-
ing him so severely that he carried the marks for
life.

At first glance the inland angler familiar with

88

Tbe Barracuda of Florida 89

the muskallunge would possibly mistake the bar-
racuda for this gamy fish of the lakes, as it is
long, slender, and pikelike; a silvery arrow, a
privateerlike fish, trim, alert, and possessed of re-
markable cunning. Its head is long and pointed.
The mouth wide, the lower jaw slightly protrud-
ing, giving it a bulldog appearance, which in old
fishes becomes the support or base of a single
large tooth, a companion to others of large size
and bladelike shape which make up its armament.
The first dorsal fin stands up alone like a leg-of-
mutton sail, boomed out by five spines. The
second is equally isolated, corresponding to the
anal. The tail is forked and a powerful organ
for propulsion, and very expressive in the sense
of the tail of a cat, vibrating in a singular man-
ner when the fish is about to pounce upon its
prey.

There is a single genus, Sphyrtena, and twenty
species, 61. barracuda (Walbaum) of the Gulf of
Mexico being the subject of this chapter. It
attains the length of between six and seven feet,
and the weight of sixty or seventy pounds, this
being my personal observation; and I have been
informed by " reef combers " that larger speci-
mens have been taken. The range of the fish

90 Big Game Fishes

appears to be from Brazil to North Carolina, but
the outer Florida reef and the warm waters of
the West Indies are its favorite haunts, where the
large individuals enter the deep-blue channels of
reefs and the smaller fishes frequent the shallow
lagoons. The color of the barracuda is influ-
enced more or less by its environment. I have
seen them on the gray or nearly white coral
sandy bottom of a lagoon when their simula-
tion of the tone was almost perfect. The large
specimens are frequently dark green above, or
gray ; the sides in the young splashed with black,
occasionally having a decided black stripe; the
sides and under portion of adults silver ; some of
the fins dark.

About the keys of the Tortugas group the fish
is found in great numbers. The spawning occurs
in early spring. Very young fishes are rarely
seen ; others from eight inches to two feet being
common in the shallows. Certain barracudas
school, this being particularly true of the Cali-
fornian species, to be referred to ; but the great
Florida barracuda is a " solitary," an ugly, fierce,
and threatening fish, and I can conceive of no
"countenance" more savage and vindictive among
fishes than this, coming, as I have seen it, out of

The Barracuda of Florida 91

the blue as it followed, wolflike, stealthily in my
wake when sculling a dinghy across the channel.
All my catches were made from Key West to
Loggerhead, within a radius of sixty miles, and
most of them in the beautiful blue arterylike
channels which encircle Garden, Bush, Sand,
Bird, and other keys, where they could always
be found. The fish is extremely curious, and
so marked are its peculiarities that I was con-
tinually comparing it to land animals. In its
curiosity it called to mind the antelope, as by
certain actions it could easily be attracted within
reach of the grains or so that I could cast a live
" shad " (Xystcema cinereum), mullet, or young
garfish before it. This was accomplished in an
absurdly simple manner, none less than by tying
a bit of white cloth upon a string about four feet
long and trolling it behind. As a result, sooner
or later, I would see the ugly pointed jaw and
black eyes of a barracuda come out of the gloom
and approach to within a few feet, moving first
to one side, then to the other, shooting ahead
slightly, then dropping astern, but never making
an effort to attack. The fish was merely curious,
and would dash away at the first alarm.

By this it must not be assumed that it was an

92 Big Game Fishes

easy fish to take with the rod ; quite the reverse
in my experience, and I have frequently spent
hours in attempts to beguile a barracuda. In
fishing for large specimens I found the borders
of the channels, where the coral had broken
away, forming an opening into a lagoon, a favorite
resort, and by sculling the boat along the edge,
either with the rag out, or slowly manipulating
the oar, a barracuda could almost always be
" flushed." Then a hook, baited with live fish, —
shad1 preferred, — was slowly dropped over. In
many instances the fish would dart away, but
if it so happened that it was hungry, it would
poise, its tail vibrating, its hypnotic eyes glaring
upon the victim, its muzzle slowly sinking and
following as though to charm it; then it would
move on, never rushing or darting, but in meas-
ured movement, the personification of dignity,
until its nose touched the bait, when it would
snap it up so rapidly that the eye could not
follow the motion. The bait was generally seized
by the tail, and the great fish would rise very
slowly, holding the struggling shad for a moment,

1 This is not the shad of the North, but a small, very silvery
fish known on the reef as " shad," and in Porto Rico as Mojarra
(Xystcema) .

The Barracuda of Florida 93

perhaps two, apparently enjoying its struggles as
it beat against its muzzle in desperate efforts to
escape ; then would come another gulp, and the
silvery bait disappeared.

Such was a typical strike, the entire operation
being distinctly visible from my position in the
stern of the dinghy. When the bait was swal-
lowed or taken entirely into the mouth, I would
slowly reel in until all the slack was taken ; by
that time the barracuda would feel the fine cop-
per-wire leader and would give a convulsive
shake of its head, then fairly leap into motion,
as it tore the line from the reel, becoming at once
a type of activity. Fifty, one hundred or more
feet of the line were taken before its rush was
stopped, then like an arrow it circled the boat,
hissing along the surface as I jumped for the bow
and as I hooked it, whirling the light dinghy
about and towing it up the channel as would
a small shark. Slowly the reel would eat up the
line, and finally, seeing the boat, the fish would
dash down with an impetuous rush, making the
click sing again, rising to circle the boat once
more and again slowly coming in after a splen-
did display of strength and power. Such a fish
would often defy a single man, trying to gaff his

94 Big Game Fishes

own fish, for an hour and then drench him, as it
thrashed the water in a final struggle, snapping
viciously and seizing the woodwork in its ugly
teeth in rage or agony.

Another method of taking the large barracuda
was to have a boatman row me along the
channels, and troll, using mullet or sardine bait ;
but the most satisfactory method was to first
attract their attention, then take them when all
their movements could be observed. The cap-
ture of a six-foot barracuda is by no means an
easy matter if the rod is used, and even with a
cast-line the fish makes a long and vigorous fight,
never giving up. The tackle employed in this
sport was similar to that used in white sea-bass
fishing ; but the line should be light, a number
twelve cuttyhunk ; that is, if the angler wishes to
fairly match his skill with that of the fish. The
leader should be a long, slender, copper wire ; the
hook small (I preferred a 2/0 O'Shaughnessy,
though many use a larger hook) ; the bait pro-
portioned to the size of the fish. For the largest
barracuda a mullet four inches long is sufficient.
It is a purely carnivorous fish, requiring bait with
shining sides, like mullet, sardines, gar, young of
their own kind, scorning, at least in my experi-

The Barracuda of Florida 95

ence, crayfish, shrimp, worms, conch, and other
baits in vogue on the reef for other fishes.

This barracuda affords excellent sport in all
stages of its growth, the young, from one to two
feet long, being very gamy and remarkably cun-
ning. A favorite place for them was off the
shores of a key from which I could distinctly see
every object thirty or forty feet from shore. The
fishes could be seen lying motionless a few inches
from the bottom, so simulating it in color and
tint, that they often appeared the very ghost of
fishes or shadows, the latter, under the noonday
sun, being more conspicuous than the fish. In
this case I used live or dead bait and cast far
beyond them, then manipulating the line with the
greatest caution so that the bait could be dragged
within their line of vision. The moment a barra-
cuda noticed the dazzling silver of its sides, it
would move slowly toward it. For this sport my
rod was a nine or ten ounce bass rod slightly
shortened, so that it would not be too pliable, as
I found that a twenty-four-inch barracuda is the
superior of a much larger lake trout. On would
move the barracuda, as though propelled by some
mysterious force, until its pointed muzzle pene-
trated the very sand beneath the bait, which, if

96 Big Game Fishes

dead, I now gently moved to make it simulate
life. The fish would gaze at it for a few seconds,
then back off to move slowly forward again,
tipping it over, as though wondering what was
the matter ; and if there was anything suspicious
about it, at this stage my fishing often ended.
They confessed to an overweening curiosity,
nosed the bait and moved it, when I succeeded
in making it struggle, but often would not take it.
Again my patience would be rewarded by the
lightninglike snap, and the fish would rise
proudly to later take me knee-deep into the
water to save the slender rod or line.

The bait of baits is a live, vigorous sardine or
the "shad" referred to, and frequently I had
negro boys accompany me alongshore with a
fine cast-net, or a long piece of mosquito bar,
with which small fry could be taken and used
fresh from the water when a good-sized barracuda
was located. Such lures would rarely, if ever, be
refused, though I have known certain fishes to
scorn every attempt to attract their attention. In
fishing in deep water, peering down into the
channel to watch the graceful jellyfishes or the
long purple anchor chains of the physalia as it
moved along, I have seen the muzzle of a huge

The Barracuda of Florida 97

barracuda come into view, the arrowlike form
moving gracefully, imperceptibly by, like some
grotesque torpedo with staring black eyes. Such
fishes are dreaded by old " reefers," and many
stones are related, especially of the Bahama bar-
racuda, which suggest that as regards fierceness,
the fish should be classed with the shark. Yet it
was my custom with others to swim across and
through a deep channel daily where large barra-
cudas were abundant, and so-called man-eaters
more so ; but we were never disturbed, and the
only reliable instance of a barracuda attacking a
swimmer, that came under my notice, was the
one referred to. Regarding the vicious reputa-
tion of the great fish, Jordan and Evermann say
that it is " sometimes dangerous to bathers, being
fierce as a shark."

The barracuda is an edible fish. Outside what
might be termed "pan-fishes," as yellowtails,
grunts, and a few others which are excellent, I
would give it the first place; yet on the Cuban
coast and in some of the West India Islands the
fish is supposed to be poisonous at times. This
was certainly not true seventy miles from Cuba,
where I caught and ate the fish every month in
the year. At Bahama and along the reefs of the

98 Big Game Fishes

West India Islands and at our province of Porto
Rico the barracuda attains, according to common
report, a very large size, eight feet being men-
tioned as its maximum growth by the United
States Fish Commission.

Of the habits of the great barracuda in its
solitudes, little is known. The fish so interested
me by its singular personality that I watched it
whenever opportunity offered, and it was always
the uncompromising foe to small fry, lurking
near schools of sardines or mullets, creeping upon
them with the slightest display of motion on the
part of its fins, conveying the impression of a
Machiavellian cunning, of ferocity coupled with
" ways that are dark," its entire make-up being
suggestive of the tiger which creeps upon its
victim and delights in playing with it.

CHAPTER VI

THE CALIFORNIA BARRACUDA

" Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so."

— IZAAK WALTON.

IN May or June the picturesque, lateen-rigged
boats of the Venetian and Portuguese fishermen
of San Pedro, California, go out in search of the
barracuda which is due at this time, coming in
from the outer and deeper sea, or from "down
alongshore," that mysterious locality where many
fishes winter. They have two or more hand-
lines boomed out to starboard and port, and
before the stiff trade, fly over the Santa Catalina
channel trolling for the California barracuda,
probably the most valuable food-fish on this
particular piscatorial horizon. The fisherman
has a cord or sheet fastened to his boomed-out
lines, and when a strike comes, or the bone jig
is taken, he hauls the line aboard by this con-
trivance and brings in the fish hand over hand,
without even luffing for courtesy.

99

ioo Big Game Fishes

The discerning angler may read between the
lines the truth. This barracuda is the antipodes
of its Floridian namesake and kinsman, and its
appearance in these pages is due to one fish,
one of many taken, which made a gallant fight,
and the fact that barracuda fishing is one of
the sports and pastimes all along the coast of
Southern California from San Diego to Santa
Barbara and beyond. It comes in large schools,
in this also being totally unlike its Gulf of
Mexico cousin, and often tints the very waters
a delicate yellow with its vast numbers. In
looking down from the boat thousands of pointed
muzzles and black eyes are seen, the fishes often
lying so thick that they appear to be a solid
mass; so closely packed that I have hooked a
fish accidentally by jerking it up among them.
At such times the barracuda will not bite. You
may dangle the most luscious morsel at its very
nose, but it will scornfully pass on ; at others,
especially in water slightly rough, the schools
appear to break up, yet retain a certain con-
tinuity, and then they bite ; not occasionally,
but all the time, and seriously interfere with
yellowtail fishing. This, with apologies to the
devotees of the barracuda.

Tbe California Barracuda 101

Owing to its sharp muzzle, it is somewhat
difficult to hook the fish, and it has an aggravat-
ing method of nibbling at the bait, or nosing it.
The novice, thinking this a genuine strike, gives
M. Barracuda the " butt " and misses again and
again, reeling in to find that this inglorious sam-
pler has bitten off a piece of the tail of the
sardine as a souvenir ; hence, the fish has become
known as a promoter of invective on the part of
the boatmen who are baiters as well. To obviate
all this, the angler should not endeavor to hook
at the first nibble but, if it is a decided strike,
should slack off the line, overreeling for a few
feet, thus affording the fish an opportunity to
swallow the bait. If hooked some individuals
surrender at once, refuse on any terms to be a
party to sport of this kind. One fish, which I
hooked, deliberately swam toward me, saving me
the trouble of reeling, and I doubt not would
have jumped into the boat, as they have been
known to do, had not the dismayed boatman,
with an ill-concealed "Well, I'll be dogged!"
jerked it aboard with the gaff.

To offer this as a type of the California bar-
racuda would possibly be a libel upon the species
argentea, as nearly all fight as well as the average

102 Big Game Fishes

pickerel of seven or eight pounds. The fish
referred to at the beginning of the chapter was
taken on an eight-ounce split bamboo trout rod,
with a number nine cuttyhunk line, and gave
excellent sport ; making fine rushes, swerving
from side to side, and finally at the surface, lash-
ing the water into foam, acting in so gamy a
manner that the boatman expressed the opinion
that it was insane. A trout rod is too light for
the barracuda, which runs up to fifteen pounds
and is often four feet in length. I would suggest
a light greenheart, or a split bamboo, such as
would be used for pickerel in Eastern waters.
The barracudas are taken almost entirely by troll-
ing, although the professional fishermen " chum "
them up at times, and when they "get them on
the run," haul them in as fast as the lines touch
the water, using a white rag as bait, the barra-
cudas, like mackerel, losing their heads and snap-
ping at anything. The most satisfactory sport
I have had with these fishes was to cast into a
school where they were biting, and by reeling
quickly take them ; in this way they will often
follow the bait up to the boat, displaying no fear.
The California barracuda is Sphyrcena argen-
tea (Girard) and like its Gulf of Mexico relative

The California Barracuda 103

belongs to the family Spkyr&nid&. It is a long
and very slender fish, the lower jaw projecting,
the muzzle sharp and pointed, the eyes black
and conspicuous. Its colors are brown or green
above, the belly white. When taken from the
water the back, like that of the yellowtail, often
takes on a bluish, almost iridescent, hue. The
fins are tinted a light yellow, so that when the
fish is seen deep in the water, it is sometimes
mistaken for the yellowtail. Along the mainland
the barracuda rarely ventures inshore, most of
the catches from San Diego to Santa Cruz being
made from one to five or more miles from the surf ;
but at the islands, — San Clemente, Santa Cata-
lina, Anacapa, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and San
Miguel, — where deep water sweeps the very rocks,
the barracuda is caught not one hundred feet
from shore, great schools moving up and down the
fringes of kelp — the fishes' highway — in search
of anchovies, sardines, and squid, the food of its
choice. There are several "runs" of this fish,
which mean that large schools move in, or up
the coast, at intervals. That they follow the
general contour of the mainland is certain, as in
the spring the barracuda is first reported from
Coronado; then the fishermen catch them from

104 Big Game Fishes

boats off Redondo and San Pedro, and it will
be often two weeks after this that it appears at
Santa Catalina and other islands, where it is taken
with more or less regularity up to August and
sometimes later; in September it disappears.

The barracuda spawns in San Diego Bay and
at San Pedro, and I have seen young barracudas
about two inches in length in Avalon Bay and
hence assume that this harbor is also a spawn-
ing ground. The young were in the kelp in
schools of perhaps two or three hundred, and
were remarkable for their shyness, it being almost
impossible to catch them, and for the rapidity
with which they moved. The entire school, as
though prompted by a single thought, would
dash away several feet and take up a position,
all headed in one direction; and when alarmed,
make a second move, always preserving a certain
continuity, most interesting to the observer, peer-
ing down through the olive-green fronds of the
kelp. I have never observed at any of the
islands a barracuda between the very small1
specimens and the adult, but intelligent fisher-
men have informed me that barracudas of all
sizes are found in the fine bay of San Diego.

CHAPTER VII

THE BLACK SEA-BASS

" Hugest of all fishes in the sea
For they were formed by heaven's great king
Before all other earthly thing."

— The Voyage of St. Brandon (Mediaeval) .

AROUND many portions of the Californian
coast, especially its islands, there is a submarine
forest of great density. The trees are repre-
sented by the so-called kelp, the Macrocystis,
which attains a length of several hundred
feet, rising upward in broad deep-green leaves
of gigantic size, which swing in the current
undulating like living things, forming a maze or
forest, which, while easily seen, is a closed region
even to the diver owing to the intricate convo-
lutions of the plants. Looking down into this
mimic forest when the sun is overhead, the scene,
especially when observed through a water-glass,
or a glass-bottom boat, is fascinating. Arches,
loops, parterres, festoons, colonnades, every pos-

105

io6 Big Game Fishes

sible conception which the imagination might
devise, is seen, glorified by the sunlight and
bathed in marvellous tints of green, while
through every interstice the deep-blue water
forms a matchless mosaic. At low tide the
long fluted leaves lie like snakes upon the sur-
face, the wind often lifting them, but at the flood
they are submerged and swing in the current at
an angle of thirty-five or forty degrees ; now
straightening up or turning, according to the
whim or fancy of the mysterious currents which
are found about these islands bathed by the
Kuroshiwo, the great Black Current of Japan.

This submarine forest is the home of the king
of the bass, Stereolepis gigas (Ayres), the gigantic
black sea-bass, possibly the largest of all the
serranoids. In appearance it bears a marked
resemblance to the small black bass. Imagine
a small-mouth black bass seven feet in length,
weighing six or seven hundred pounds, and some
idea of this monster, which is a common fish in
the region described, may be conceived. It has
been my good fortune to see the fish in its native
haunts. Lying prone on the deck of a small
boat, with my face within a foot of the water, I
was watching my bait forty feet down among

THE LARGEST FISH EVER TAKEN WITH A ROD BY A
WOMAN

The Black Sea-bass 107

the stems of the kelp, the water being so clear
that every object could be seen. As I looked,
into the range of vision, through a curtain of
kelp which it seemed to push aside like a portiere,
came a mighty fish which I recognized as a black
sea-bass. It was at least six feet in length,
weighing possibly three hundred pounds, and
simulated the color of the weed. At its ap-
proach the small fry and numerous sheepshead
disappeared before the king. Its movements
were slow and dignified, as became its size, and
guided either by scent or sight it swam toward
my small sardine bait prepared for yellowtail,
gazed at it warily and passed on to return and
view it from another position. A score of times
this gigantic fish, which I had previously imag-
ined a glutton that rushed at food and bolted it,
played about the bait with tactful movements,
the personification of caution and deliberation ;
then, as though satisfied, it poised directly over
it, depressed its muzzle until it stood upon its
head, tail upward, then took the bait and slowly
moved off. When it felt the wire leader a whirl-
wind seemed to have struck the kelp forest,
leaves and stems being tossed hither and yon
in a vortex as the tail of the mighty bass swept

108 Big Game Fishes

through it beyond my range of vision. I had
but two hundred feet of fifteen-thread line on my
yellowtail reel, hence the end soon came. The
reel uttered a vigorous protest, and the line
parted. But I was well paid ; I had seen a big
sea-bass standing upon its head in the heart
of this maze of kelp.

This fish makes its home in these dense lama-
rian forests and is found in abundance from the
Coronados and Cortez Bank, and doubtless farther
south, to the latitude of San Francisco, lurking
in the kelp beds around rocky points near shore
from April to December. In July and August it
spawns, and fishes caught at this time are filled
with enormous masses of eggs which are deposited
beneath the kelp in shoal water from twenty to
thirty feet deep, near shore. At this time the
fishes are very ravenous and bite eagerly, but
on or about November 15 they become scarcer,
and are rarely caught, though they do not entirely
disappear. There is reason to believe that they
run in schools at this season, and go offshore
to deeper water. They attain an enormous size.
I have caught many specimens from one hun-
dred and fifty up to three hundred and forty-
seven pounds, and specimens weighing four and

The Black Sea-bass 109

five hundred pounds have been taken, while the
Santa Barbara Islands claim a bass which tipped
the scales at eight hundred pounds, and fishes of
this size have been taken in the Gulf of California.
At Santa Catalina and San Diego the average
bass weighs two hundred and fifty pounds, and
small individuals are rarely seen. The smallest
fish observed by me at the former place weighed
thirty pounds, and fishes under one hundred
pounds' weight are very rare. Where the very
young go is a mystery, as they are never caught;
possibly they frequent the deeper waters offshore.
In 1870 there was a black sea-bass fishery at
Pebbly Beach, Santa Catalina, and the Portu-
guese from San Pedro caught hundreds of these
bass by employing the heaviest of hand-lines,
small ropes, with which several men could soon
master the largest fish. The fish were killed on
the spot and their heads thrown into the water,
resulting, according to local tradition, in so
alarming the fish that they deserted the locality
and have never been caught there since. The
meat was dried and sold as boneless cod, but was
found to be too tough and dry for this purpose.

Fishing for the giant as a sport has long been
in vogue at the islands off Los Angeles County.

no Big Game Fisbes

Previous to 1895 the fishes were caught entirely
with the hand-line, but about that time General
Charles Viele succeeded in taking a large fish
with rod and reel, and since then this has been the
method employed — anglers landing fishes ranging
from three hundred to four hundred pounds with
ordinary tuna tackle. While the rod is to be
commended as the most sportsmanlike, the fish
gives the angler more exercise with the hand-line,
and will easily jerk the absent-minded fisherman
overboard. I took my first bass in the latter
manner in 1886. My boatman provided a line
which in the East would have been sacred to
sharks ; the hook was a small edition of a shark
hook, while a chain served as a leader. The bait
was a five-pound whitefish, hooked through the
back so that it would swim. A half-pound sinker
was attached, and this crude contrivance, an insult
to the bass tribe in general, was lowered within
six feet of the bottom and the waiting begun.
" How poor are they that have no patience "
is well exemplified in this pastime, as without
patience no one ever landed a black sea-bass.
Catches of four or five a day have been made, but
the average is one, and often the wait is long and
wearisome to the angler who has no other re-

The Black Sea-bass

in

sources. On the day in question the strike came
in half an hour. Some idea of the strength of
this fish can be conveyed by giving the details of
a catch made by me in 1894. My companion had
never seen the fish caught, and insisted upon tak-
ing the place of boatman for the exercise. In a
weak moment I consented. The skiff, as I ascer-
tained later, weighed one hundred and twenty-five
pounds, our combined weight was three hundred
and fifty pounds. After an hour's fishing we had
by great good luck caught enough sheepshead, so
we threw over the large hand-line for black seaj
bass. The anchor was hauled up and the boat
made fast to the kelp ready to cast off at a mo-
ment's notice, and within fifty feet of the beach
we began to fish. It was not long before the line
began to move over the rail, and I took it in hand
while my companion cast off the big kelp leaf
which held us. Out ran the line, slowly and de-
liberately, the " bite " of this colossus being a sur-
prise to the novice. I allowed twenty feet to pass
over, then assuming that the bait was well in the
mouth of the fish, theoretically gave it the butt.
The answer came on the instant in so terrific
a jerk that I was thrown upon my knees and
my arms hauled almost elbow deep in the water

ii2 Big Game Fishes

before I could release the line, while the impact
had jerked the light boat around as though on a
pivot, and thrown my companion down. In the
meantime the line was rushing over the side. As
I seized it, the fish surged downward, taking the
stern of the light craft almost under water, drag-
ging it rapidly and irresistibly along. We were
carried two hundred yards out to sea before I
succeeded in stopping the fish, my companion
having shipped the oars, pulling violently against
it. By rapid manipulation I brought the fish to
within twenty feet of the surface and caught a
glimpse of its huge form, the dark brown back
and the flash of silvery belly; then seeing the
boat it made a rush that nearly carried the skiff
with it and took all the line I had gained, in the
direction of the inner kelp bed just beyond where
the sea was breaking heavily on a point of rocks.
Once in the kelp I knew that the bass would
escape, so redoubled my efforts while my com-
panion lay flat, balancing the boat, as the fish
seemed determined to carry it under water, so
fierce were its rushes. The bass would plunge
downward, then deliver a series of blows, arm-
wrenching in their power and probably given by
striking the head from side to side by convulsive

The Black Sea-bass 113

lateral movements of the entire body ; then, when
hauled up with the greatest possible effort, it would
circle the boat, endangering the craft, stop and
lash the water and impress us with its immensity.
For nearly an hour this fish fought me, as the
boat was so small that but one could play it; and
had my companion not remained in the bow the
bass would have sunk the frail craft. It was
finally brought to the surface, and holding it with
one hand I gaffed it with the other, when with a
tremendous rush it was away, wrenching the gaff
from my hand. Four or five times it repeated
this, and when I finally held it by the gaff I could
not kill it, so fierce were its lunges. A heavy
swell was now coming in, and there was a rough
point to turn at Church Rock. It was manifestly
impossible to take the fish into the boat, so I held
it while my companion rowed, its lunges almost
swamping us in the seaway as we rounded the
point. Three miles from here we met some
fishermen, and by the aid of five men the big
bass was hauled in, almost filling the boat and
bringing it down to within a few inches of the
water's edge. But the two boats convoyed us
into port, where the big fish, which weighed
between three hundred and four hundred pounds,

ii4 Big Game Fishes

was hauled upon the beach. It was not believed
possible to land so heavy a fish with a rod, but I
was fortunate in seeing the first one taken in this
way. General Charles Viele and myself were fish-
ing with rods from an anchored launch two hun-
dred feet from the shore at the "fence," Santa
Catalina. The General had a strike almost im-
mediately, and springing into a small boat with
the engineer as an oarsman was rapidly towed
away. In about two hours he had mastered the
fish and had it on the deck. When he was playing
it I had hooked four or five, losing my lines and
breaking two tips, it being impossible to stop the
rushes with light tackle (twenty-one-thread line)
from an anchored boat. Finally, my rod being
entirely depleted, I tried a hand-line, and in less
than an hour landed two bass. One weighed one
hundred and fifty-eight pounds and another two
hundred and seventy-eight pounds, the latter with
the aid of General Viele. We returned to port
with three bass, one weighing one hundred and
fifty-eight, a second two hundred and seventy-
eight, and the third two hundred and fifty-eight
pounds, before lunch. This was the initial rod
catch of this fish, and since then scores have
been landed with rod and reel, the record catch

Tbe Black Sea-bass 115

being held by Harrison T. Kendall of Pasadena,
with a fish weighing four hundred and nineteen
pounds. The second largest was taken by Mr.
F. S. Schenck of Brooklyn, New York, and
weighed three hundred and eighty-four pounds.

The tackle in vogue for this athletic and
vigorous sport is similar to that required for
tuna fishing. The same sized hook is used, a
twenty-one-thread line, and a long eight or nine
foot wire leader to prevent chafing, while above
the leader or snell the line should be either doub-
led or provided with a fifteen-foot upper leader
of strong cod line. This is to give the boatman
purchase when the fish has been brought to gaff,
as it almost invariably lashes the water, hurling
spray over boat and fishermen.

As to the standing of the black sea-bass as a
game fish there is much difference of opinion.
Some claim that it is superior to the tuna, but
in this I do not agree. I have taken possibly
twenty bass of various sizes in hard hand-to-
hand contests, and am fully impressed with their
power ; but in agility they do not compare with
the tuna or tarpon. I should class the black sea-
bass with the Florida jewfish and large black
grouper, though it is much more active than the

ii6 Big Game Fishes

former and more attractive, having the general
shape of a bass in the water. When hung up
and distorted, no idea can be had of its shape.
As to its qualities as a food-fish there is the
same difference of opinion; the large fishes are
dry and coarse, but specimens of one hundred or
so pounds, if properly baked, are very good. If
a fish is common, it is often despised, and if
hideous in appearance, repudiated ; this is exem-
plified in eels and sculpins, both fit for the gods
if skilfully prepared; but the latter is scorned
in the Atlantic, while in California it is esteemed
very highly.

The method of taking the black sea-bass in
California waters is to fish from an eighteen-foot
launch or a boat light enough for the fish to tow
readily, but still large enough to hold from one
to three bass of two hundred pounds each, if the
angler is so fortunate. The launch is anchored
either at the inner or outer kelp beds, the anchor
line buoyed so that it can be tossed over the
moment the strike comes, as the fish invariably
tows the boat until killed. On these grounds
albacore bait is the best, three or four pounds
being used, while live whitefish or half a barra-
cuda are not to be slighted. This great bass

RECORD BLACK SEA-BASS, 419 POUNDS
Taken at Santa Catalina, Cal., by Harrison T. Kendall, Pasadena, Cal.

The Black Sea-bass 117

has been caught when trolling for yellowtail with
sardine bait, but this is exceptional, though I
believe by trolling with a pipe sinker that would
keep the large whitefish bait twenty feet under
water, the bass could be taken in this most attrac-
tive way. There seems to be no choice in the
position of the bait. If half of a barracuda is
employed, or four or five pounds of albacore, a
veritable shark bait, it is taken either on the
bottom or a few feet above it. That the great
fish has many of the attributes of the typical bass
is shown by its habit of chasing whitefish to the
surface ; many times when reeling in a gamy
whitefish, I have seen the gigantic form of a
black sea-bass dash upward, snapping at it, caus-
ing the water to boil like a miniature maelstrom.
Often the bass seizes the fish and makes away with
it, line and all. The bass does not make the long
rushes of the tuna. Four hundred feet of line is
sufficient. A novice should never attempt the
sport unaided. It is a sport for two men in a
staunch boat, as large fish may tow a frail boat to
sea or capsize it; yet expert anglers who delight
in strenuous conflicts with these huge fishes have
played them, brought them to gaff, and hauled
them into the boat single-handed and alone.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HOGFISH

" And there were crystal pools, peopled with fish,
Argent and gold ; and some of Tyrian skin,

Some crimson-barred."

— THOMAS HOOD.

THE angler is a true lover of nature ; were he
not the gentle art would flag and die, as in his
experience there come dark days when the game
for some strange and unreasonable cause will not
rise, or sink to the lure. By such periods you
shall know the true rodsman, as when the fish
refuse to bite he finds solace in a thousand and
one objects : the soft sighing of the leaves along
some favorite stream ; the gurgle of the water as
it flows from pool to pool ; the call of the locust,
which " stabs the still air with its shrill alarm "
are all understood. If a sea-angler he can
" call spirits from the vasty deep " ; the deep blue
of the ocean, its many moods, the shadow of
clouds upon its surface, the delicate glasslike
shapes that drift across his line ; the sounds of

118

The Hogfisb 119

the sea which come from far away, deep in the
heart of some roller from the vast unknown, at
first low murmurs, then the clash of cymbals as
the silvery crest topples over, bursting into
thundering crash all down the line, spreading
out upon the sands, where the pebbles are casta-
nettes, or leaping high upon the face of some
rocky cliff with ponderous roar, — all these the
true angler loves and understands, so never
draws a blank in a day's fishing. To the world
he goes a-fishing, yet the actual catch is far from
being the sum total of his pleasure; he never
fails to land his game, if not fish, some new
delight in the appreciation of life and nature.
The haunts of the hogfish are among the most
aesthetic of all fishes, and if the game is not
found when sought the angler may pass the day
taking the many-hued courtiers which make up
the train and retinue of this radiant creature. My
fishing-ground was a long submerged coral reef,
which began with Bush Key of the Tortugas reef
and extended southward, a barrier to the sandy
lagoon to the west. The reef was made up of
dead coral heads, which were bare at extreme low
tide, but at the flood the sea rolled over it, pound-
ing so furiously in storms that the roar could be

120 Big Game Fisbes

heard far away. Out from the reef the water
deepened so quickly that fifty feet to the east it
was twenty feet deep and the bottom rapidly fell
away, merging into the deep water of the Gulf
Stream. In the shallows were many large heads
of coral, some like huge vases, hollowed out, the
homes of angel and other highly colored fishes,
while the floor of the reef was covered with a
forest of waving plumes of gorgonias, massive
seatlike sponges and other forms. There were
rich yellow reticulated sea-fans, three feet in
height, with beautiful yellow shells clinging to
them. Others were of the richest lavender hue,
while here and there were plume-shaped forms
in brown plush tints, long branchlike shapes in
black, lavender, and yellow. Beneath these was a
carpet of low-growing algae, and patches of fan
coral in large palmate branches of a rich olive
hue, with round heads and clumps of branch
coral everywhere, forming a garden in the sea of
marvellous beauty.

Not far away a fine large ship had gone down,
and part of the hull lay in this garden spot in
deep water, while the rest, tossed by the hurricane
like chaff over the sharp teeth of the reef, lay in
the smooth shallow water of the lagoon. Peering

The Hogfisb 121

down into what had been the hold, now filled
with growing coral : —

" Methought I saw a thousand fearful wracks ;
A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon ;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.
All scattered in the bottom of the sea."

This ocean garden, which flashed every tint or
color, was the home of the hogfish, one of the gami-
est of the tropical fishes and, with its long plume-
like fins and its coat of red, one of the most
beautiful. Ordinarily, fishing was had by pushing
the dinghy through a narrow channel, known as
the " five foot," the only retreat through the
great reef in case of sudden squall, and anchoring
in three or four fathoms ; but I often preferred to
haul my boat upon the reef on the lagoon side
at the ebb tide, wade out waist-deep, and climb
upon a coral head, or a heap of dead heads, which
had been piled up for the purpose, and fish stand-
ing in the water without the boat to alarm the
game. On the average summer day the sea was
glasslike, the heat intense, the water so clear that
every object upon the bottom could be seen.
Every head, fan, and bunch of coral was the
home of some gaudy or beautiful fish. The radi-

122 Big Game Fisbes

ant yellowtail, Ocyurus chrysurus, was most com-
mon and one of the gamiest. The angel-fishes,
especially the black and white variety, would
astonish one by their strength, while the great
parrot-fishes in gorgeous tints should be included
in any account of game fishes, affording good
sport with light tackle.

Among these gorgeous creatures, which seemed
colored to accord with their environment, the
hogfish reigned supreme, its striking shape and
brilliant color rendering it a conspicuous object
as it poised beneath a lavender sea-fan, as though
for effect, or slowly swam about followed by a
train of curious and brilliant yellowtails. The
hogfish ranges in weight from six to twenty-five
and even thirty pounds, though the large speci-
mens are rarely caught, individuals weighing
twenty pounds being considered large. But this
ocean park in summer was the home for fishes of
extreme size, and the sport they afforded compen-
sated for the pitiless heat that ashore made
butter a liquid and life correspondingly miserable.

The best fishing was in the morning, and by
poling over the lagoon in shallow water, just at
sunrise, quantities of crayfish could be caught feed-
ing, and grained, — the bait of baits for hogfish,

The Hogfisb 123

the tail making three large baits, which were
fastened upon the hook with soft copper wire or
thread — a measure to outwit the small fry. I
used a rod about eight and a half feet long, weigh-
ing sixteen ounces, a reel which held three or four
hundred feet of a number twelve line. The
leader was three feet of very light but strong cop-
per wire, with no sinker; the tackle was ex-
actly what I used for the six and eight pound
yellowtails, the only difference being that for the
latter often a trout rod was employed. A larger
hook was necessary for the hogfish, its enormous
mouth rendering a very small hook inoperative.
With a big net to hold the bait and to bag the
game, and sometimes a pair of grains, the coral
head was mounted and a cast thirty or forty feet
made out into deeper water, where the bait could
be seen white against the blue, sinking slowly
into the forest of plumes and fans. Up rose a
cloud of fishes to meet it. Now " breathe soft ye
winds ! ye waves, in silence sleep," as attracted
by the swarm of small fry that tosses the bait
hither and yon, filling the water with flecks of
white, comes a vision in red, a harlequin, or
Mephistopheles of the sea, with flaunting plumes.
It shoots ahead with a peculiar arrowlike flight,

124 Big Game Fishes

the yellowtails parting on either side, and presto !
the large bait disappears in the maw of the
hungry hogfish. As it turns and attempts to
descend the slender copper leader sags into the
corner of its mouth, the point of the hook pierces
its soft jaw, a streak of red and fading plumes and
the fight is on.

The great height of the hogfish and the power-
ful tail enable the fish to make a fight which,
when unseen, as is almost invariably the case,
impresses the angler with the belief that a much
larger fish is hooked. And so with my fish. At long
range I estimated it at twenty pounds, as it nearly
jerked me from my uncertain foothold, but no
forty-pound kingfish or barracuda ever made a
braver rush. Out it went, the silver reel singing
a merry refrain, the fine threadlike line cutting
the water with a hissing sound. The fish headed
for the deep azure heart of the channel in some
" dark unfathomed cave " to find shelter from this
new and unseen enemy. Slowly pressure was placed
upon the reel, down went the pliable rod, down to
the danger point, the tip fairly at the surface,
the reel giving way — ze — ze — ze ! — to protect
the line, then crying out z-e-e-e-e-e-e ! as the fish
made a strenuous rush. It was so far away now,

The Hogfisb 125

that the line did not touch the water within thirty
feet, and slowly rose with a peculiar rhythmical
thrill. Forward went the butt and it was slowly
lifted ; down dropped the tip, the reel singing of
victory, the multiplier eating the line with its
marvellous appetite. The fish swam in a semi-
circle, bearing off, but losing ground, coming in
steadily. It soon recognized the situation and,
with a lunge forward, turned and plunged directly
outward with an impetus that was irresistible, tak-
ing back the hard-earned line. The water was
comparatively shallow and there was no deep
sulking, and as the fish played midway between
bottom and surface the sport was intensified by
the insistent surging, the great curves, and the
repeated plunging ever outward. Again and
again the fish was turned by the pliant rod ; now
to the right, leading it into shoal water, again to
the left. And now, as its strength was waning, the
reel gained, and soon a great red spot against the
blue grew larger, and still making a gallant fight,
bearing hard against the marvellous thread which
held it, the great fish came to gaff and was igno-
miniously hauled ashore, its queer little eyes
gleaming, its tail beating the water in furious and
impotent protest. As it was hauled into a little

i26 Big Game Fishes

bay among the algae-covered rocks, the home of
the micramoc, it was a striking object; about
three and a half feet in length, the body very deep,
colored a vivid brick-red, the base of some of
the fins black, a jet-black crescent at the base of
the tail, a dark inky blotch on the forehead pecul-
iar to the male, while the lower jaw was yellow.
Other minor tints and differences between the
sexes may be found, but the prevailing color is
red, and the catch might better be called the
flame fish, as it blazes its way with lurid scintilla-
tions, through the blue waters. It is known as
hogfish because its mouth is supposed to bear a
resemblance to that of a hog ; at least, it is very
large, and armed with prominent teeth which
project outward. The first three dorsal spines
are provided with long red streamers, while the
first rays of the soft dorsal and anal are very
long, which, with the outer spines of the tail
likewise extended, give the hogfish a gay and
festive air. Preserved specimens, individuals
found in the markets, or even in the wells of
smacks, convey no idea of the beauty and bril-
iancy of the hogfish fresh from the coral groves,
where aeration is perfect and the bottom highly
colored.

The Hog fish 127

The deep-water forms, from forty or fifty feet,
are the most beautiful ; those which have been in
shallows for some time are less pronounced. So
marked is this variation of color and difference
between the sexes, and old and young, that the
unfortunate hogfish has, like others, been named
so many times that with the channel-bass it might
take the prize as a terrible example of the insati-
ate pursuit of names and new species. Leopold
von Buch, the well-known geologist of Berlin,
and friend of the lamented Agassiz, once said,
" When I am at Neuchatel and I knock at the
door of Agassiz I am always afraid." " Why ? "
asked a listener. " I dread," said Von Buch, " lest
he take me for a new species." It is only just to
say that Agassiz never experimented with the
nomenclature of the hogfish. Among other
names it is el capitan, and in Jamaica and Porto
Rico, perro perro ; but among the Conchs on the
reef, and the Bahamians, I never heard these
names: it was always the hogfish. One of the
finest table fishes in America, game in every
sense, yet fate ordains it to be " yanked " in, by
the smack fishermen, with grouper lines.

The hogfish, of which there is but one species,
belongs to the family Labridce (the Wrasse-

128 Big Game Fishes

fishes), to the genus Lachnolaimus (Cuvier and
Valenciennes), and is known to science as Lach-
nolaimus maximus (Walbaum). It is essentially
a West Indian fish, being more or less common
at Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and the various
islands of the Bahamas, and north to the Bermu-
das, where, at the mouth of Great Sound, on
Hogfish Shoal, stands a gigantic facsimile of a
hogfish in metal, announcing that there, at least,
the hogfish is sufficiently esteemed to be the
only game fish in the world to have a monument.
Key West and the immediate keys, west to
Loggerhead, is a favorite ground of the fish,
which for years has been a valuable catch, and
always found in the wells of the American
fishing-boats, which generally hailed in the old
days from Mystic, which provided Cuba with a
large part of its fish supply. Exactly why the
Cubans should prefer fish from America when
the same fish could be taken from their own
waters, was difficult to understand by laymen ;
but formerly the hogfish was supposed to be
poisonous and a law prevented its sale. Some
fishermen informed me that not many years ago
the Cubans believed that there was so much
copper in their waters that nearly all the fish

The Hogfisb 129

were poisonous, hence the demand for American
fish caught one hundred miles distant.

The hogfish is found in water from four to six
or eight fathoms. Where the reef dips rapidly
into deep water, and is covered with coral and
gorgonias, in a word, is a good browsing-ground,
there the hogfish will be found by the discerning
angler. While a swift swimmer when occasion
demands, it is normally a slow-moving fish. I
have often watched it through a water-glass, or
from some point of vantage as it poised by some
plume, or sea-fan, or slowly swam about, occasion-
ally tipping down with a display of caracoling to
take some reckless crab. It has been described
as capturing fish, but I never found evidences of
this diet in scores examined; the food of its choice
is crabs, crayfish, shells of various kinds, as the
fan-shell, which it takes from the gorgonias, sea-
urchins or echini, starfishes and hermit-crabs. In
shallow water described, mullet bait would not
attract the hogfish, but conch or crayfish, crab
or squilla, was especially to its taste. The deeper-
water fishes appear to be more democratic. The
hogfish is always to be found in the localities of
its choice. In winter it undoubtedly moves into
water slightly deeper, at least in summer more

130 Big Game Fishes

were seen on the shallow reef mentioned; and
as several were taken in seines at night in the
lagoon, in water from three to five feet in depth,
the fish doubtless came in at this time to feed
upon crayfish, which were then in the open, and
the large white short-spined echini found there.
Little is known of its breeding habits. Young
two inches long were taken in August in the
lagoons, and it was supposed to deposit its spawn
in water fifteen or twenty feet deep just outside
the breakers ; but this assumption was obviously
not justified by actual observation. Females
with spawn were taken in May and June.

The hogfish is rarely caught by anglers who
fish with the rod, as almost the entire fishing is
conducted or carried on in deep water, and it is
necessary to go out in the smacks and fish for
them, a la cod, with a hand-line — not a satisfac-
tory proceeding to the man who has been trained
to look upon the. hand-line as a device of the
pot-angler, which is hardly true. The strongest
argument against hand, or cast-line methods is
that by them the fisherman can take too many
fish.

Found with the hogfish in the new American
possession of Porto Rico is a fish known as

The Hogfisb 131

robalo (Centropomus), which attains a length of
three feet and bears some resemblance to a wall-
eyed pike with the lower jaw of a barracuda. It
is a gamy hard-fighting fish, and local sportsmen
go to the Rio Plata for the purpose of taking it.
On the Texan coast, on sandy bottom, is found
another species, C. undesimalis (Bloch), which at-
tains a length of four feet and a weight of twenty
or thirty pounds. I fished in vain for it in the
vicinity of Aransas Pass. Singularly enough, this
fish is rarely found on the outer Florida reef, —
at least, I saw but one individual; but there
were numbers of fishes there which undoubtedly
were present all the time, for some reason seen
but once or twice, even when fishing or drifting
over the reef was a part of almost every day's
experience. It is not safe to exclude a fish from
a locality because it is not caught. Many of the
game fishes described in contemporary works are
underestimated as to size, for the reason that de-
scriptions are often made from market specimens,
or from specimens in alcohol, in either instance
large specimens not being desirable. There are
numbers of fishes on the outer reef from four
to ten pounds in weight which, if taken with light
rods, afford fine sport. In this class I would in-

132 Big Game Fishes

elude some of the grunts, all the small snappers,
the parrot-fishes, the large angel-fishes, and large
(sea) gars. I have had the latter on a fly-rod leap
into the air and play with all the fervor of a trout ;
yet there is a prejudice among anglers against
many of these fishes.

SNOOK; SERGEANT-FISH
Centropomus uncfecimaJis (Bloch)

HOOKS FOR YELLOWTAIL OR WHITE SEA-BASS AND
BLUEFISH

CHAPTER IX

THE YELLOWTAIL

" The pleasantest angling is to see the fish cut with her golden
oars the silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait."

— SHAKESPEARE.

WHEN the green tones of Southern California
merge into gray, and the islands alongshore rest
like emeralds in settings of azure, the yellowtail,
the gayest cavalier of these summer seas, often tints
the ocean a golden hue as the vast schools tarry
in the shadows of the island mountains following
their short migration. The yellowtail is the fish
of the people. It is willing to try conclusions
with the veriest tyro when it is in the biting
humor, and can be caught with almost anything ;
but when not excited, when in its normal condi-
tion, with a bold and unaffected camaraderie it
disdains the arts of the cleverest wielder of the
rod and literally defies him to his face, often at
mere arm's length.

I have taken the yellowtail nearly every month
in the year "in the Santa Catalina channel and at

133

134 Big Game Fishes

Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands, but this
is exceptional, as the months of January and Feb-
ruary, as a rule, know it not, at least in shallow
water, and the angler who would take a yellowtail
at this time must search the deep San Clemente
channel, six hundred feet down, or the Cortez
Bank south of Santa Catalina, where there is
every reason to believe the yellowtails, or a cer-
tain percentage of the schools, lie not far from
the sardine and smelt schools, which also mys-
teriously move out at this time. In March a
few yellowtails appear at the islands, and in or
about the first of April, sometimes sooner, some-
times later, what is known as the first run comes,
and the bay of Avalon is often alive with fishes
and boats, and the shouts of laughter and disap-
pointment as the fish play havoc with the rods
and lines of the tenderfoot. Not many years
ago I was at Avalon when this spring " rush "
occurred. Without warning a large school of
yellowtails ran a small school of smelts in on to
the beach, then out again, breaking them up in
a masterly manner until the entire charming
bit of water was a mass of foam. The yellow-
tails averaged twenty-five pounds at least, and a
cyclone appeared to have struck the quiet bay.

Tbe Yellowtail 135

Men, women, and children were seized with that
mad contagion, the desire to fish, and hurried to
the beach with lines which were cast with shouts
and laughter, and in a short time the shore was
a beating, leaping mass of yellow, green, and
turquoise. Then the excitement grew fiercer.
The man with the rod determined to be a sports-
man under all circumstances, and cast over the
hand-lines. The fish of one angler ran around
the lines of both and into the field of a third,
and in a moment the line of fishermen and
fisherwomen were engaged in a war of words.
Every available boat was soon rowing about the
bay in every direction, many of which would have
one or two fishes on at the same time, presenting
a most animated spectacle.

The feature of this unusual and remarkable
scene, which found its prototype in the "jack
beat " of a following chapter, which impressed me
most, was the strength and game qualities of this
particular school of yellowtails. Nine-tenths of
the people were fishing with hand-lines, and so
numerous were the boats on the little bay that
it seemed impossible to use rods. The lines
were of the codfish variety, ropes more or less,
yet I doubt if a single member of this fishing

136 Big Game Fishes

babel failed to lose from one to five fish from
broken lines. The heavy line would be broken
fairly by the lunges of the fish, which jerked small
boats about and turned them with incredible
ease. For half an hour this commotion lasted,
and when the counting came the fishermen, who
had strikes as soon as the bait struck the water,
found that some had secured four or five yellow-
tails ; but the average fisherman had landed one
or two and lost from five to six hooks and as
many fish. This incident is introduced to give
some idea of the yellowtail when at its best, and
pound for pound it is one of, if not the best
fighter in the Western seas ; if it could be taken
in shallow water, it would put the salmon to
blush, as a past master in the finesse peculiar
to game fishes. This was some years ago ;
to-day the splendid fish is rarely taken with a
hand-line. I suggested the Tuna Club and its
rules for rod-fishing with the lightest lines as
a measure of protection to this fish as well as
others of these waters, and to the example of the
members of this organization is due the high
standard of sport which now holds.

We have seen that the first run of yellowtails
comes in April. This may last, so far as the

Tbe Yellowtail 137

angler is concerned, two or three weeks, then
will come a cessation of biting, though this is
by no means a hard and fast rule, rather a
general average in my experience. In May, and
from then on, the yellowtails are about the
islands north to Santa Barbara in vast numbers,
and have come for the season, which is of about
nine months' duration. They apparently come in
small schools, then break up and are found in
bands of greater or less size all summer ; in the
spawning time in pairs at the surface, refusing
the daintiest lure. The fishes sweep up the
"entire coast, reaching offshore to San Clemente
thirty-five miles, and occasionally are caught as far
north as Monterey ; but the approximate northern
limit, so far as the angler is concerned, may be
considered to be Santa Barbara, the fishing rang-
ing far to the south being particularly fine in
the vicinity of Ensenada and the shallow bays of
Lower California.

As the yellowtail enters the Santa Catalina
channel the charms of the island of that name
and San Clemente with their abundant food
supply capture it, and the actual rod-fishing of
Southern California may be said to focus about
the region of which these two islands, twenty

138 Big Game Fishes

miles apart, are the centre, giving about one hun-
dred miles of coast-line, bays, and coves for the
angler, one-half of which will be found smooth
water — that rarity on the Pacific coast. The
yellowtail follows up the mainland coast-line and
can often be taken two or three miles off the
beaches from Coronado north; and at ports like
Redondo, where deep water cuts inshore, it is
sometimes taken from the high piers. At the
islands offshore the north or east coast is the lee,
and does not experience the heavy trade-winds ;
and here is the home of the yellowtail, the waters
in which the angler finds conditions far out to
sea which call to mind some inland lakes. A
large percentage of the visitors to these angling
islands try conclusions with the gamy yellowtail,
and as a consequence, boats and boatmen peculiar
to the place have developed. The typical fishing
boat is a sixteen or twenty foot yawl or launch
with a two or four horse-power engine run by
the boatman, who is also gaffer and an expert
in his calling. The boat has two chair seats at,
and facing, the stern. Attached to the seat is a
cup of leather to receive the butt of the rod when
a large fish is being played, while overhead is
an awning, lifted when the strikes come by the

The Yellowtail 139

boatman, or if the angler desires he can stand
and play his fish.

The shore of the islands is remarkably abrupt,
rocky cliffs, rising sheer from the sea, and almost
anywhere a ship would strike the rocks with
her bowsprit before she would ground. To this
is due the close inshore fishing, as it is all within
from ten to two hundred feet of the shore. The
island is skirted by a fringe of kelp at various
points, and just beyond this is the yellowtail
highway where the splendid fish sails up and
down to the delectation or confusion of the
angler. The equipment for yellowtail is one
more or less of fancy. I give my preference,
and can only say in defence that it has been
eminently successful, owing perhaps to the pro-
verbial fisherman's luck. The rod of noib wood,
greenheart, or split bamboo is from seven to
eight feet in length and weighs not over twenty-
six ounces, pliable, yet sufficiently stiff to lift a
sulker of thirty pounds if perchance the occa-
sion demands. The line is a twelve or fifteen
strand cuttyhunk, or some equally good make,
and there should be three hundred feet of it ;
the hook, a 7/0 O'Shaughnessy, though a larger
size is more popular, with a six or eight inch

140 Big Game Fishes

piano, bronze, or copper wire leader in two
links. The leader should be fastened to the line
with a double swivel. The bait is either smelt
or sardine four to six inches in length. The
hook enters the mouth, coming out at the gill ;
then turned, is embedded in the belly of the
fish, so that the entire hook, except the upper
shank, is concealed. The mouth of the sardine
is now wound or closed with a five-inch, very
fine silver wire which is attached to the shank
of the hook. This is an important feature, as
it prevents the bait from whirling too rapidly,
which often results in ruining the line by un-
winding it. I have never been able to take
the fish with a spoon. ' At times, when the fish
are fickle, I have found a large flying-fish very
effective as bait, trolling slowly with a light pipe
sinker sufficient to take the bait down twenty or
thirty feet. This is an extraordinary bait for the
fish, being ten inches in length, but it frequently
results in the capture of exceptionally large yel-
lowtails that seemingly find it irresistible.

Thus equipped the lines are unreeled for fifty
or sixty feet and the launch, or rowboat, moves
slowly along the line of kelp with a rod out on
either side. The fishing is best in the morning,

YELLOWTAIL, OR AMBER FISH
Seriola dorsalis

A, wire on hook to close the
mouth of sardine or fish-
bait to prevent it from
twisting

Sardine or herring baited for Yellowtail or White Sea-bass trolling,

showing method of impaling fish.
(-4) Copper wire for lashing the mouth of the bait-fish

The Yellowtail 141

from sunrise to midday, on the flood-tide, and, as
a rule, the angler finds smooth water, with ripples
here and there breaking the surface, telling of
vagrant schools of yellowtails or sea-bass. The
water itself is a revelation ; it has a splendid tint,
dotted with living constellations of marvellous
shapes and design: crystal chalices, jellies with
fluted cometlike tails of maroon and deep lav-
ender, while scattered about with a lavish hand
are the gems of the sea, Sapphirince, flashing the
tints of mimic rubies, emeralds, topazes, diamonds,
and other gems. The angler must be callous
indeed who is not charmed with this divertisse-
ment, captivated with these beauties which, like
sirens, claim his attention until arrested by the
loud zeee-zeee! of the reel as it gives tongue
behind the rush of his first yellowtail. A shrill
staccato, and fifty, one hundred feet of line have
perhaps gone before the novice presses the
leather pad, with which all reels are equipped,
and essays to arrest the fierce outward rush. At
the first click the boatman stops the engine, and
the yellowtail now tows the boat around, as it
rushes here and there making battle so desper-
ately that the angler is easily wearied.

There is something so startling about the first

i42 Big Game Fishes

rush of the fish that the nervous holder of the rod
is sometimes stampeded. A fisherman is per-
haps seized with " buck fever," under its influence,
and drops the rod utterly demoralized. Others
cannot take in the fish, and lose fish, rod, and line.
The yellowtail makes a number of desperate
lunges, so vigorous that there is really nothing
to do but to give line. If the angler can with-
stand it, then the rod is too stiff for the code
which holds and is most in favor. The line is
kept taut and reeled when opportunity offers, but
if the fish is a normal one and full of vigor the
angler will find the latter impossible to reel in as
one would a bass or lake-trout, and it is here that
vertical or lateral " pumping " comes into play ;
and that it is absolutely necessary every one who
has tried conclusions with the fish will acknowl-
edge. I have seen a novice work upon a seven-
teen-pound fish for nearly an hour attempting to
reel it in out-of-hand. At the end of half an
hour the man was weary, while the fish appeared
to be gaining in vigor if the click was a true
prophet. Pumping, it may be explained to the
uninitiated, is the invention of some unknown
patron of the sport, which enables one to lift a
deep-sulking fish, accomplished in the following

The Yellowtail 143

way: The tip of the rod is lowered to the surface,
then, pressing the thumb upon the leather pad,
the fish is lifted with all the strength the line .will
bear, the angler always watching for the rush
which invariably follows, and when the tip is
raised three or four feet, it is suddenly dropped,
the slack so gained being reeled in as rapidly as
possible ; then the fish is again lifted and the
operation of " pumping " repeated indefinitely, or
until the sulker'is brought into sight. With expe-
rience or practice this becomes an easy by-play,
and the fish can readily be brought up. The
angler gazing over the side now sees a dazzling
object of silver careening across the line of vision
deep in the azure heart of the ocean. Up it
comes, now dashing along, causing the boatman
to row the boat around in desperate attempt to
keep the stern to the fish. As it comes higher,
or nearer, making gallant play, the old hand pre-
pares for what is perhaps the most desperate rush
of all, and it comes with a loud barcarole from
the reel.

Ten minutes have slipped away before the
boatman begins to finger his gaff, then the angler
reels the fish "in short," passes his tip forward
as the fish turns, protesting, ready for another

144 Big Game Fishes

rush, its heart still strong, the cruel gaff slips
beneath it, is jerked into the silver throat, and
the struggling fish lifted in. Such a moment is
an epoch in some men's lives. Thirty-five pounds
is the gaffer's report, and the fish he holds up to
the admiring angler for inspection is a magnifi-
cent specimen, the type of a game fish, nearly
four feet in length, well proportioned, with lines
like those of a privateer, a large head, yet not too
large for the body, a radiant a"nd large eye.
Along its back is a long dorsal fin ; the tail is
forked, powerful, and a vivid yellow which is
carried out in a stripe along the median line.
The upper body color is an olive-brown in the
water, changing in the sunlight to the most
brilliant blue iridescence, the belly silver. Such
is the general appearance of this prince of game
fishes that dominates the quiet seas along the
isles of summer.

Like other popular fishes the yellowtail re-
joices in a number of names, among which is the
white salmon, a sad misnomer, the amber-fish,
which has some significance, and cavasina, while
its generic name, Seriola, is euphonious. Its
nearest relative is the little pilot-fish, Naucrates,
which bears a strong resemblance to the young

Tbe Yellowtail 145

Seriola. Seriola dorsalis (Gill.) is the large
Pacific species. The fish attains a length of
over four feet, and I have seen a specimen which
weighed eighty pounds dressed, which suggests a
one-hundred-pound fish as the maximum; but
this is very rare, at least in the Santa Catalina
fishing-grounds, where the yellowtail is best
known. The average rod catch is from seven-
teen to twenty-five pounds, though I have seen a
sixty-three-pound fish taken from the wharf.

The yellowtail spawns in August, that is, fish
with spawn are seen and caught at this time ; but
the smallest yellowtail I have observed in these
waters in sixteen years weighed about seven
pounds, the very young never being observed
there. I understand they are caught in the bay
of San Diego and farther south. On one occa-
sion only have I seen a school of young yellow-
tails, and these must have averaged ten pounds
each. The very young yellowtail bears a strong
resemblance to the little pilot-fish, and is banded
with ten dark, more or less cloudy stripes. The
fact that the young are not seen at the islands is
by no means evidence that the fish do not spawn
here, as a similar instance is seen in the black sea-
bass. Almost every bass taken bears enormous

146 Big Game Fishes

masses of ripe spawn ; but the very young have
never been observed, at least by me or by any
professional fisherman known to me.

Like others of their kind the yellowtail is fickle,
and at times the sea will be fairly tinted with
them, and vast schools divide as the boat moves
along, yet the choicest bait is viewed with scorn.
At such times the resources of the angler are
tested. Bait is changed, pipe sinkers of various
weight tried, the speed of the boat varied. The
yellowtail will perhaps swim up to within a foot
of the boat, following in the bait, then turn,
saluting the angler with a blaze of color. A con-
scientious " chumming " may now be tried and, if
the school is swimming about slowly, the boat
may be rowed or steamed slowly in a circle, the
boatman throwing over small sardines on either
side, six feet apart. By the time the circle is com-
pleted a chain of yellowtails has been established,
all feeding, as they will take "chum"; and if the
angler is patient, he can in many instances break
the charm, and once biting, sport is assured.

It is a theory among some boatmen at the
islands that the yellowtail fishing is best from
May to August on the south end of the island
and trolling in order, and from then on, at the

The Yelkwtail 147

north end with casting or still fishing. In the
latter the boat is allowed to drift and the yellow-
tails kept alongside by chum, short casts being
made of thirty feet. In this way at the grounds
off Ship Rock I have seen yellowtails hooked
almost as soon as the line struck the water.
Perhaps the most satisfactory method of yellow-
tail fishing I have observed was from the beach
at the Isthmus, the shallow bay preventing sulk-
ing, the rushes and by-play being confined to
lateral movements.

The yellowtails are omnivorous feeders, taking
sardines, flying-fishes, smelt, anchovies, and squid
as occasion offers, and in this way they are often
" chummed " up and caught by casting, the boat
being allowed to drift. The remarkable clever-
ness of fishes has often been noticed. Certain
individuals will attach themselves to the wharf at
Avalon at times, and one of the morning pas-
times is to feed them by tossing over bait. A
handful of sardines will sometimes attract a
number which rush at them, picking up the
fishes with avidity, invariably not noticing the
hook which has been skilfully introduced into
one sardine. It is only the extremely patient
fisherman who can catch such fish. One veteran

148 Big Game Fishes

of the wharf was hooked to my knowledge five or
six times, bearing two hooks proudly in its jaw,
and trailed three feet of line. I hooked the same
fish twice within two hours, and each time it broke
the line by clever tactics. Its first rush was away,
then, feeling the line, it invariably turned and
came for the wharf like a race-horse, dashing
about the piles and severing the line, almost
immediately reappearing in its accustomed place
by the side of the pier, up and down which it
slowly swam in full view of the assembled anglers.

That some fishes have an attachment for one
another I am confident. A hooked yellowtail, in
its attempts to escape, after exhausting all methods
dashed down and squeezed under a hawser in
twenty feet of water, so completely fouling itself
that it could not move. I could see the unfortu-
nate fish distinctly, and close beside it poised its
mate or comrade of the same size, apparently
endeavoring to aid it in escaping ; and during the
long time I watched the two fishes, the free
yellowtail remained by its entangled mate.

Singularly enough, the yellowtail, the com-
monest fish in the Pacific, is not in great demand
as a food-fish, and few are eaten, owing to some
unreasonable prejudice, as when properly cooked,

The Yellowtail 149

especially boiled, it is excellent, and in any other
section of the country would have a decided
economic value.

The genus is well represented on the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts of America by several fine game
fishes. One, the amber- jack, Seriola lalandi,
deserves especial mention. I have landed but a
single specimen, which weighed forty or more
pounds, taken at Long Key, outer Florida reef,
since, I understand, washed away by a hurricane.
The fish attains a weight of one hundred pounds
and a length of six feet, and is a vigorous fighter.
An acquaintance who caught one of these fishes
weighing eighty pounds, at Palm Beach, informed
me that he fought the fish two hours before it
was brought to gaff. The amber-jack ranges
from the region of the equator to New York, but
is most common from Cape Florida to Key West,
at least most available to the angler. Many are
caught with hand-lines and mullet bait.

A smaller yellowtail, also called amber-jack, is
found along the Gulf coast of Florida and down
the keys, frequenting deeper water, and is occa-
sionally taken when grouper fishing. There is
another yellowtail, not to be confused with the
above, yet essentially the yellowtail of the reef,

150 Big Game Fishes

known to science as Ocyurus chrysurus, and at
Porto Rico as colirubia. It is a dainty, radiant
creature, one of the most attractive of all fishes,
nor only with yellow tail, which color constitutes
the base from which radiate rays of golden lines,
splashing and blotching it with color. Its eye,
like that of the large Seriola, is an object of
beauty, clear, bright, black, and vivid red. I have
taken it off the great fringing reef of Garden Key
by casting in among the waving gorgonias — a
fitting home for so beautiful a creature, and can
commend the fish, which attains a weight of eight
or even ten pounds, to the angler with an eight or
ten ounce rod, the lightest line, with a number
three O'Shaughnessy hook with a three-ply twisted
gut leader and no sinker. Such an equipment
with fresh crayfish bait will afford the angler
much delightful sport.

The relative game qualities of the same fishes
of different size is an interesting subject. The
yellowtails of all sizes are good fighters, and by
varying the size of the rod and tackle the angler
can obtain full enjoyment from all. In my ex-
perience the yellowtail of seventeen or twenty
pounds is as a rule the hardest fighter, many very
large fishes not possessing the agility and activity ;

Tbe Yellowtail 151

and except in rare instances this holds good
among all fishes, the fish of medium size being
the gamiest. In fishing for yellowtails one is
impressed with the truism that the act of capture
is a very small part of the angler's pleasure. In
the one case, he has in the California islands cool
days, smooth and beautiful water, attractive sur-
roundings, rugged cliffs, and the many beauties
of nature as solace if luck is poor. On the other
hand, when trolling, following the amber-jack
along the Florida keys, he is floating over verita-
ble gardens of the sea, which flash every color of
the rainbow, along sands which form the settings
for growing keys which, like pearls, are strung
along the Mexican Gulf.

CHAPTER X

THE BLUEFISH

" Fisherman. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.
Master. Why, as men do a-land : the great ones eat up the
little ones." — Pericles.

NOT far from the isle of Patience, in Rhode
Island waters, an old longshoreman and fisherman
once informed me that he had taken one hundred
and forty " horse-mackerel " in a single day. In
Georgia at the mouth of the St. Mary's not far
from Dungeness, my sable boatman told me of
the delights of " skipjack " fishing in the proper
season. The retired New Bedford whaler, who
fishes near there, will show you a rod bent by
" snappers," and the Jamaica Bay angler esteems
himself in great good luck when he makes a
catch of "skip mackerel." I offended the Pa-
tience Island fishermen by intimating that one
horse-mackerel a season would be considered a
good catch by some people, and then he produced
the game. It was a bluefish. So, in Georgia, the

152

The Bluefisb 153

bluefish was the skip-jack, and in all these locali-
ties it was the same hard-fighting, bluff, line-
breaking, hook-taking, devastating bluefish, not
travelling under an incognito, but having alias
upon alias forced upon it by the fishermen and
beach-combers alongshore from Maine to Florida.
Even the most rigid adherents of the school
of rod fishermen, who look upon the hand-
line as a contrivance of the pot-hunter, will have
to cry peccavi, when the bluefish is mentioned, as
the largest number of these gamy creatures are
taken with a hand-line, and find the ruthless
slaughter which they carry on among the small
fry turned upon themselves. No one can deny
the fascination of the sport ; the fresh wind, the
rushing boat, the skipper sitting on the edge of
nothing to windward, to hold her down, the angler
from the city perchance lying in the lee scuppers
holding on for dear life, his arms wrenched and
chafed by the gamy fish which seems to be in
league with the " old man " at the helm to com-
plete his demoralization. But when the same
ancient mariner has had his joke, and luffs at the
strike, then there is sport for the hand-liner, who,
seized with the lust for killing, plays and is
played, with shout and laughter.

154 Big Game Fishes

No one can watch the bluefish amusing itself
at the expense of a party of dry-land fishermen
but is convinced that this blue-backed, slashing
creature is the fish of the people. Off Newport
and all along the coast the bluefish has been suc-
cessfully fished for with rod and reel, and I have
enjoyed the sport at Fisher's Island, off New
London, and am convinced that if proper boats
were employed, after the fashion of the yellovvtail
and tuna launches of California, bluefishing with
a rod would become as popular as the quest of
the striped bass among the islands of strange
names, of which Cuttyhunk is the most familiar.

My first attempt to take a bluefish with a rod
was disastrous to the rod. The current at Fisher's
Island was particularly fierce where the fish were
biting, so that a rowboat was impossible; and,
with a stiff breeze, I had my boatman beat up
and down across the tide-rip, which reminded me,
in its intensity, of the " rip raps " at Old Point
Comfort, or " Pull and be d Point " at Ports-
mouth. The water was clear and beautiful, aerated
with constant whitecaps, hence exhilarating to the
fish, which were evidently feeding, breaking water
here and there. I had the mainsail triced up so
that the main boom, from a distance, looked like

HARDTAIL; "RUNNER"
Caranx crysos (Mitchill)

CREVALLE; " CAVALLY " ; "JACK
Caranx hippos (Linnaeus)

BLUEFISH
Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnseus)

The Bluefisb 155

the topgallant yard of a three-master ; at least, it
cleared my head when it swung around. My rod
weighed twenty-six ounces, was eight feet long,
with a far too slender tip, and was rigged with a
number twelve cuttyhunk line, which would pull
a dead weight of twenty-two pounds. The skip-
per had orders to luff at the strike and hold her
in the wind until I brought the bluefish to gaff
— this is a well-planned theory, and, as the boat-
man said later on, " it looked all right." Presently
we were bounding over the water, the silvery bait
flashing from wave to wave sixty feet behind. We
had reached halfway over the " rip," the little cat-
boat flying along, lee scuppers under, with a big
bone in her teeth, the skipper, with one hand on
the tiller, and the other grasping the main-sheet,
ready to slack away when the strike came — the
reel screamed, " luff! luf-f-f-f-f !" shrilly, then madly,
and up into the wind came the boat, caracoling,
shaking her sails, and making a prodigious pro-
test at being stopped in so ruthless a manner.
But all was not well with me; the bluefish had
made a prodigious rush, and aided by the speed
of the boat, literally ran out my line, and, despite
a desperate effort to save it, took line and tip.
But there were more lines, more tips, and more

156 Big Game Fishes

bluefish, and the next time we close-hauled the
cat-boat, ran her into the very eye-teeth of the
wind, against the current, and at the strike
pushed her into the wind, and let the main-sheet
run ; and then I was initiated into the delights of
real sport with the rod. No fish makes a better
or more vigorous fight, pound for pound. Amid
the clanking of boom, the tattoo of reefing points,
the jangle of the block along the traveller, I
played the bluefish. How it played and bore
away ! What mad rushes it made in and around !
now far away at the surface, where the dark
green waters rolled in silvery laughter; now
plunging off, forcing the fight, and making the
reel sob and cry. For ten minutes I played this
gallant fish, and when at last it came in, I was
forced around the mast and under the sheet sev-
eral times to meet its circling ; finally it came to
gaff, fifteen pounds of vigor and unsuppressible
animation.

The bluefish is one of the gamiest of American
fishes with a rod, but rods and a sail-boat rarely
agree, and the strain on the nerves of the average
angler, not to mention the skipper, who is ex-
pected to luff at the right moment, is too great.
With an eighteen- or twenty-foot four-horse-power

The Bluefisb 157

gasolene launch, built light, with a canvas hood,
which can be used forward, rigged with two chairs
facing astern, resting on a plank on the rail, blue-
fishing with a rod could be enjoyed, and would
become a popular sport around southern New
England, as such a boat can be stopped and re-
versed almost immediately.

There is something infectious and extremely
exciting in bluefishing, no matter how taken.
The big cat-boat off Nan tucket, with two or
three lines astern, and a large party of men and
women all eager for the fray, bright eyes spar-
kling, red cheeks splashed by the dashing spray,
the shouts of laughter, the hissing of lines
through the water, the beating of powerful tails
on the planks, are all features which add to the
gayety and joy of life and in making it worth
living, especially when fish are biting and bait is
plentiful. The bluefish attains a weight of thirty
pounds, possibly more, and the record catch with
a rod, according to the Forest and Stream, is a
twenty-five-pound fish, the fish being taken by
L. Hatherway, from the bridge at Cohasset Nar-
rows. The bluefish is now caught with rod and
reel wherever found in this country, and as the
young at nearly all ages are equally gamy, the

158 Big Game Fishes

angler has a wide range from " snappers " of two
or more pounds with a fly-rod, to eight pounds
with a bass rod, adapting his tackle to the size
of the game at hand. In trolling, the jig is used
— bone or metal, menhaden or any silvery fish, or
even a white rag. Along the Jersey shore and
many wide sandy beaches they are caught by cast-
ing far out beyond the breakers, the men running
the fish in with the line over their shoulders as
soon as hooked. Others, again, at very favorable
localities, wade out and cast with rods, but the
best rod-fishing is in some locality where the boat
can be rowed by a boatman or anchored near a
tide-rip, when the angler can cast his menhaden
or sardine out into the water, and by reeling in
hook the gamy fish.

The bluefish is a comely creature about three
feet in length, long, fairly slender, with a robust,
well-proportioned body, the dorsal fins low, the
tail large and powerful. Its color, as the name
indicates, is blue above, appearing green in the
water, and bright silvery below, and altogether
a beautiful fish, the embodiment of vigor, grace,
and pugnacity. It belongs to the genus Poma-
tomus, and has many synonyms, twelve at least,
and is now known as Pomatomus saltatrix (Linn.).

The Bluefisb 159

It has a wide geographical range, being found
from Nova Scotia to Brazil. It is a common
fish in Australian waters, in the Malay Archi-
pelago, and off South Africa. Its movements
are singular and erratic. Thus, in the Mediter-
ranean, it is caught at Algiers, but is rare on the
Italian shore. It shuns the Atlantic coast of
Europe in the latitudes in which it is common
in America. It never crosses from Florida to
the Bermudas, and it apparently avoids the
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. Doubtless it
disappears from certain localities, reappearing
again only after many years. Thus, so far as
known, it was not chronicled north of Cape
Cod prior to 1837.

The bluefish moves north or south according
to the weather. It appears along the shore of
Delaware, Virginia, and New York in May,
gradually reaching the higher latitudes as the
summer approaches, and remains until October.
During this period it moves in large schools,
feeding on menhaden, squid, and various fishes
allied to sardines, herring, and mackerel, and is
so voracious that it is a factor to be considered
in the depletion of bait fishes. I have seen blue-
fish charge a school of small mackerel, leaving

160 Big Game Fishes

the water filled with silvery fragments which
sank like stars in the blue sky of the ocean, to
be picked up by hungry dogfishes attracted by
the slaughter. The bluefishes seemed, like
"jacks," to eat what they wished, then, crazed
by the excitement of the chase, amused them-
selves by biting the fleeing victims for the mere
wanton pleasure of killing. Such a killing can
often be recognized from a distance by the fly-
ing foam and the vociferous notes of gulls which
hasten in that direction. The enormous numbers
of bluefishes off the American coast in mid-
summer are beyond computation. Professor
Baird refers to a thousand millions, and to afford
some idea of their voracity he says that if each
one eats ten small fish per day, then ten thou-
sand millions of small fry are needed to supply
the daily commissariat of this fast-moving army.
The fisherman in " Pericles " who wondered how
the fishes of the sea lived, doubtless had never
been a bluefish fisherman.

Considering the vast number of bluefish very
little is known regarding its spawning. On Cape
Cod and at Nantucket the fishermen believe that
it spawns in midsummer, depositing its spawn
on the clear sandy bottoms. G. Brown Goode

Tbe Bluefisb 161

suggested that they spawned late in the year,
as small bluefish were seen at Beaufort in
December; but the question is an open one.
About ten per cent of the young of each fish
are supposed to attain maturity. When about
fourteen inches long the weight is a pound. A
fish two feet in length will weigh about seven
pounds, and the early spring fish often range
from seven to ten pounds in weight, larger
and more robust specimens appearing later in
the season. As to the spawning habits of the
fish in the Gulf of Mexico there is more definite
data. According to Mr. Stearns it is very abun-
dant on the Gulf Stream coast as far west as
the mouth of the Mississippi River. It arrives
in April or the last of March, there being several
distinct " runs." The first to arrive are smaller
than those coming later. Then, every fish
Mr. Stearns found in spawn, and that it is
deposited at this time, in the months of May,
June, July, and August, he is confident, as he
has caught young bluefish in June and August
not over three-quarters of an inch in length. In
June nearly all the adults disappear from view,
and in November and December the young fish
are seen to pass through the inlets and go to sea.

1 62 Big Game Fishes

At this time fishes ranging from three and five
inches to fifteen inches are observed. In obser-
vations covering six years I never saw or heard
of a bluefish on the outer reef.

The bluefish is a valuable food-fish — one of
the most delicious table fishes in America. After
being kept or frozen, its delicate flavor is, to a
certain extent, lost. Over eight million pounds
of bluefish are consumed annually, valued at
about half a million dollars, and all alongshore
wherever found they rank high as game or food
fish, or both.

CHAPTER XI

THE JACK

" But why, good fisherman,
Am I thought meet for you, that never yet
Had angling rod cast towards me ? "

— Moll Cutpurse (1611).

LONG JOHN, Bob Rand, Paublo, and Chief, the
Seminole, all clever with the grains at long range,
and with the cast-line, were the authorities at
Garden Key, on the Florida reef, and as I un-
folded a rod one evening in their rangy quarters,
and announced that I was going to fish with
it, they looked at me in such undisguised amaze-
ment that I assumed that a piece of " machinery "
of the kind had never before been seen on the
key of the gulf. In the summer months par-
ticularly, the various channels of the reef were
the favorite haunts of the jack (Caranx hippos\
one of the gamiest fishes that swims the South-
ern seas.

The keys dotted the blue gulf like emeralds ;
masses of green bay cedar encircled with white

163

1 64 Big Game Fishes

coral beaches, apparently floating on the waters,
possessing a charm peculiarly their own. The
air was as soft as velvet to the cheek, the days
clear and beautiful, and the atmosphere had a
strange resonance as though the blue vault of
the heavens was a sounding-board which made
every sound bell-like and distinct. The distant
roar of the surf on the outer reef, the grinding
of the dead coral rocks as they were tossed
hither and yon by the waves, the far-away
" ha-ha " of the laughing gull, the crash of the
big ray as its winglike fins struck the wrater,
all were heard with extraordinary distinctness
by the angler drifting in lagoon or channel.
This explains why the jacks invariably sum-
moned me to the sport, which for excitement
and novelty it would be difficult to exceed.

In my initial experience I was a fourth of a
mile away when a sound like the pattering of
rain came softly down the wind. Louder it
grew, changing into a ringing, rushing noise,
then into a roar.

"Don1 yo' hear it, sah?" whispered Chief,
resting on his oars, allowing the dinghy to drift.

I turned in the direction of the sound and
became witness to my first "jack beat." The

The Jack 165

lagoon was a sheet of glass, a dead calm having
taken possession of the gulf, as far as the eye
could see. Here and there the knifelike fin
of some vagrant shark cut the water, or a billfish
went ricochetting along, the only disturbing
elements ; yet near the shore-line of a long
attenuated key of white sand, the waters were
beaten into foam, amid which scores of bodies
were leaping. It was the jack, or cavally, the
horse crevalle, as it is known from Cuba to the
Carolinas and beyond, and the roar was made
by a large school fiercely charging the ranks
of a school of sardines, to capture which they
sprang into the air, surged along the surface,
all the while beating the water with their tails,
creating a loud and peculiar sound called by
my boatmen "beating" — a term which well ap-
plied. With lusty strokes, Chief now sent the
dinghy flying ahead, and in a few moments
forced her into the midst of the wildest and
most remarkable commotion I had ever wit-
nessed. The fishes had moved inshore, and
for two or three acres changed the water into
a foaming sea. They were in the air by hun-
dreds, their silvery sides glistening in the sun-
light, their fins flashing golden yellow — a most

1 66 Big Game Fishes

exhilarating spectacle. I had reeled in my line,
but as I lifted it from the water a jack seized
the bait, and broke it. As the bow of the dinghy
ran up on to the sandy beach I saw scores of
fishes, ranging from ten to twenty-five pounds,
leap from the water out upon the shore. I
sprang overboard knee-deep into the throng,
and found that the sardines formed an almost
solid mass two feet or more wide directly along-
shore, with stragglers forming a dark streak
for five feet out. Into this helpless cordon the
jacks were plunging, maddened with excitement,
long ago satiated, and now killing in wanton
sport, for the mere lust of killing, filling the
water with silvery bodies and their parts until
a line of blood marked the melee.

The jacks paid no attention to us, and my
Seminole boatman, himself seized with the desire
to catch the fishes, carried away with the excite-
ment of the scene, plunged his hands into the
teeming mass and grasping the jacks by the
tail tossed them upon the beach, where scores
were leaping and beating their way down the
sands into the water again. I was repeatedly
nearly overthrown by being struck by them,
and finally made my way to the beach to watch

The Jack 167

this remarkable scene of carnage, to revel in
which, gulls, pelicans, and man-of-war birds
were now gathering from all over the reef. For
ten or fifteen minutes the extraordinary spec-
tacle was continued, until the low beach was
lined with jacks, dead and dying ; then the school
drew off as suddenly as it had appeared, leav-
ing the long, sinuous red stain to tell the
story.

This, I learned, was the method of feeding
most in vogue among jacks in this region. The
school, composed of thousands, would sweep in
from the gulf, follow up the narrow blue chan-
nels, the veins of the reef, and when a school
of sardines was sighted, drive it bodily inshore,
losing all sense of danger or fear in the wild
excitement of the "beating." The remarkable
leaps of the jacks, their quickness, evident
strength, and agility, suggested a new field for
the rod, nor was I disappointed. The school
had left the lagoon, turned the point of the
key, and was evidently now in the channel,
where I found it the following day, and enjoyed
sport that comes rarely in the experience of
the angler, which even here could not always
be counted upon, as the schools were constantly

1 68 Big Game Fishes

moving. Chief notified me that the jacks were
in the channel, which ran so near the key that
one could almost dive into the blue water. From
the sandy beach I cast, having baited with a
three-inch sardine, dropping the line, a number
twelve, with its slender copper-wire leader,
seventy or eighty feet from shore, then reeling
quickly in. Hardly had the reel gained ten
feet of the line when a jack shot along the
surface taking it deftly, then rushed away throw-
ing the water bravely, seemingly in search of
others of the school; then it felt the line, and
a reserve fifty feet went spinning off so rapidly
that I was nearly forced into the water in my
efforts to save something. I had not ten feet
of line left on the reel when I stopped the rush
of the valiant fish. No sulker he, but a con-
stant fair fighter, a rush directly away, asking
no favors, giving none ; now up partly into the
air with vigorous shake, now 'surging along the
surface, to turn with a lateral rush, a very
volley of tricks and stratagems hurled at the
angler with a rapidity that could not fail to
confuse the most phlegmatic veteran of the rod.
The angler's poet, the late Isaac McLellan,
writes : —

Tbe Jack 169

" Swift speed crevalle" over that watery plain,

Swift over Indian River's broad expanse.
Swift where the ripples boil with finny hosts,

Bright glittering they glance ;
And when the angler's spoon is over them cast,

How fierce, how vigorous the fight for life !
Now in the deeps they plunge, now leap in air

Till ends the unequal strife."

My light rod bent almost double and was
tested in every fibre, as the long deep surges
came thrilling up the line. Now my game had
me fairly in the water, then I gained and backed
up the sands, reeling when I could, giving, taking,
drinking in the music of the reel, and anon catch-
ing a glimpse of the stolid countenance of the
Indian boatman, who followed my every move-
ment with amazement at the mysterious power
of what seemed to him a whip, to control so
powerful a fish. Gradually I worked the game
up the beach into shallow water, that my sport
might not be interrupted by the sharks, and for
perhaps fifteen minutes played and was played
and nearly outgeneralled by the fish ; then waist-
deep in the water, where it had forced me to
save the delicate line, I finally reeled it within
reach.

Every day in June, July, and August the roar

170 Big Game Fishes

of a jack beat could be heard, sometimes a dozen
times from the reef, and so exciting was the inci-
dent that generally some one would pull off
and join the gulls, pelicans, and other curious
ones. At this time the fish would bite at any-
thing. A handkerchief dashed through the water,
a piece of coral thrown in, — indeed, any object
would be seized; and I have seen several fisher-
men cast their lines into the throng, and become
so excited that an inextricable tangle was the
result.

The jack, like many other fishes, changes its
name with the locality. On the reef where I
caught it winter and summer, around Long,
Sand, Bush, Garden, Loggerhead, and other
keys, it was the jack pure and simple. On the
Cuban coast it is toro. At Porto Rico it is
jack, and jiguagua, but up the coast at Indian
River it becomes cavally, while the South Caro-
linians call it horse crevalle. It ranges the
waters of the Gulf of Mexico and vicinity, on the
Pacific side of the isthmus, and is common in
the region of Panama ; but for some reason the
fish does not range north on this coast, despite
the warm water. In the Atlantic, specimens
have been seen as far north as Cape Cod, but

Tbe Jack 171

this is exceptional. The northern range of the
fish, so far as the American angler is concerned,
may be considered St. Augustine. I have fished
for it unsuccessfully at Fernandina and from
there alongshore as far south as New Smyrna,
where it is caught. On the outer reef the jacks
appeared in numbers and began the " beating "
about the middle of April, sometimes a month
earlier, the schools frequently being of large size.
They apparently broke up into small bands and
were caught until November in goodly numbers,
the first norther ending what may be called the
season, though some jacks were to be had every
month in the year. They ranged in weight from
ten to thirty pounds, but I am positive that I
have seen jacks in a school off East Key which
must have weighed much more. The smaller
fishes, say of fifteen pounds, predominated.
They spawned on the reef in June or July, nearly
all fishes taken in May and April containing
spawn, and a few weeks later young were found
on the surface, every jellyfish being preempted by
the young of some species

The best-known and the most available fishing-
ground for the jack, or cavally, is from Cape
Florida north on the West Florida coast, at

172 Big Game Fishes

Aransas Pass and other points on the Texan
coast, and in the Indian River region. At the
latter locality they afford excellent sport and can
almost always be found from May to November,
and few anglers in Florida but have tried conclu-
sions with this fish. The jack is a convivial fellow,
bold, daring, sociable, with a penchant for dis-
playing its attractions around wharves and docks,
darting along near the surface, a vision of silver,
gold, and green, its " Roman nose," large head,
and prominent eyes making it a conspicuous object,
while the variety in size renders it game for the
smallest rods. I have taken small jacks with a
trout-rod with good results, and one can grade
them up with rods adapted to their size, which
is an essential in all fair fishing. In taking the
large jacks I used a jointed greenheart rod eight
and a half feet long, not over twelve ounces
in weight ; the reel held about three hundred
feet of line corresponding to what is. known as
number twelve cuttyhunk; and for jacks weigh-
ing from ten to fifteen pounds, even a number
nine line, providing three hundred feet was at
hand, was sufficiently strong to enable me to land
the game.

The jack is not an epicure ; any lure is game

The Jack 173

for it. I have caught a fish trolling with a white
rag, with crayfish, conch, cut to resemble a sar-
dine, or mullet, and with a hand-line after a sail
boat it affords all the sport of the bluefish when
taken in the same manner ; but for true sport the
rod should be employed, casting or trolling with
sardine or young mullet bait impaled on a 3/0
O'Shaughnessy hook.

The jack, Caranx hippos, is a member of the
family Carangidcz, a near relative of the mack-
erels and pompanoes ; on the Atlantic coast alone
there are twenty-five or more species, many of
which afford prime sport with the rod. The
only criticism one can make concerning it is that
it is not a table fish of the first rank, though in
the hands of an expert chef the dark meat is ex-
cellent. The hard-tailed jack, or jurel, Caranx
pisquetus, though not attaining the size of the
former, is of very similar habit and very gamy, its
swift movements making its capture rare sport
with a light rod. Once while turning green
turtles on Loggerhead Key, a school of these
fishes began to beat alongshore. I waded among
them and threw out upon the sands as many as
my men required by catching them by the tail, as
they dashed into the almost solid mass of sardines.

174 Big Game Fishes

When seized they wriggled, or quivered, so con-
vulsively that they imparted a series of seeming
electric shocks felt as high as my elbows, and
curiously enough some of the boatmen believed
that this jack was an electric fish. I have noticed
the same effect when holding a bonito firmly by
the tail, and a dying tuna will sometimes impart
a tremulous quivering motion to a small boat.

The jacks add greatly to the pleasure of an-
glers along the coast of Florida, especially in the
Indian River country, down by Biscayne Bay and
up the west coast, where they are easily caught,
and at Aransas Pass, Texas, though I failed to
take them at this interesting fishing ground. It
is one of the highly esteemed game fishes; and at
other localities in the Gulf states, its valiant habit
commends itself to the man with the rod.

CHAPTER XII

THE CALIFORNIA SHEEPSHEAD

" Out in the golden sunshine,
Throw we the net and line.
The silvery lines to-day
Flash in the silvery spray.
So throw the line, throw-yo, heave-ho ! "

— MERIVALE. The Fisherman's Song.

THE region represented on the map by South-
ern California and its contiguous high seas is
supposed by many to be a land of perennial sum-
mer, and to a certain extent this is true. The
summer alongshore is a comfortable season,
cooler than that of any Atlantic state ; the winter
a cooler summer, when the mercury drops into
the roaring thirties and wild flowers insist upon
coming into bloom. It is not a real winter, yet
certain fishes, creatures of habit, insist upon their
prerogative and make this floral, verdant winter
an excuse for following the ancient and honored
custom of their confreres in other and colder seas;
in a word, they migrate.

176 Big Game Fishes

One could tell by the first glance at the sheeps-
head that it could not by any flight of the imagi-
nation be included in this class ; that enormous
white protruding under-jaw, the very archetype
of determination and obstinacy, tells the story.
The sheepshead remains winter and summer.
True, it may move out a few fathoms in February
or the preceding month, but it can be caught any
day in the year from San Diego to Santa Barbara
by boatmen who know the ways and haunts of
fishes. In general appearance the adult sheeps-
head is one of the most remarkable of fishes, due
to its enormous hump, or forehead, formed by a
fleshy pad, which gives it a most pugnacious ap-
pearance, the fish resembling an animated batter-
ing-ram. The body is deep, the tail powerful,
the pectoral fins ample ; and in swimming the
sheepshead uses them more than any fish that
I recall except some of the kelp, and parrot-fishes.
Its coloring is as remarkable as its shape. The
head of the adult male, its dorsal and anal fins,
the tail and the back part of the body are jet,
often blue black resembling velvet, the remainder
of the body brown, almost white or a deep crim-
son, the latter being the most prevailing color,
indicating a perfect physical condition. In con-

The California Sheepsbead 177

finement I found that the rich crimson band
faded in a few days.

The coloring of this remarkable fish is so ar-
ranged that it appears to have three large distinct
bands ; the head black, the mid-body crimson, the
caudal portion black. In old males the under-
jaw becomes very prominent and is pure white.
The fish has an enormous mouth, recalling that
of the hogfish, which is armed with canine teeth
so prominent that they give it a most ferocious
appearance. The eye is small yet richly colored,
and while lost in the enormous head, is an inter-
esting organ giving character to the fish, due,
perhaps, to its unusual power of motion. Thus a
large sheepshead, which I kept in confinement,
would follow me around as I walked by its tank,
begging to be fed, poising and holding itself in
position by delicate and dexterous motions of its
side-fins. It would follow every movement with
its eyes, tipping and turning about to an extraor-
dinary extent. This fish became very tame, and
with it I kept others of both sexes and all sizes,
which were so varied in color and marking that
they would be easily considered different fishes by
those not familiar with them. The females were
normally a dusky red or rose color all over ; some

1 78 Big Game Fishes

almost white ; the very young maroon barred with
black.

Owing to this diversity of colors the fish is
known by various names along the coast — the
fathead, or redfish, being the most familiar; but
at the islands, where it is taken with a rod as a
game fish, it is known as the sheepshead, and to
science as Pimelometopon pulcher (Ayres). The
average fish ranges from ten to fifteen pounds,
but I have seen large males which would weigh
twenty or twenty-five pounds. The sheepshead
spawns at the islands in June or July, depositing
its eggs in the kelp beds near shore ; and these
ocean forests are its home, where, amid the most
aesthetic surroundings, it poises in company with
the colossal black sea-bass. The islands of
Southern California and much of the mainland
coast have this border of kelp, which is a fishes'
highway, — a maze of vines (macrocystis) of
enormous length, whose leaves, long, broad, and
richly tinted in olive-green, rise from great depths
and sway in the current, or at ebb tide lie along
the surface, their fluted edges fluttering in the
soft wind, often waving slightly above it.

This submarine forest is the salvation of the
fishes. It forms an effective breakwater, without

Tbe California Sbeepsbead 179

which many would be unable to live, owing to
the surf, which would otherwise roll in strong
and pitiless. On the South American coast the
kelp attains a length of nearly four hundred feet,
and without its protection it is easy to see that
life on shore would be difficult to sustain. The
kelp in rising upward forms halls, parterres, and
colonnades through which the sun projects its
rays, bringing out their many beauties, as each
leaf is a study in itself, abounding in varied forms
which constitute the food of certain fishes.
White lacelike corallines cover them ; crabs and
shells, which mimic them in color, crawl along
their stems, and delicate hydroids in many forms
and shapes add to their beauties. The water is
so deep along this highway of the sheepshead that
blue water is seen through its interstices bringing
out the leaves and stems in strong relief. In the
watery atmosphere float countless living gems —
the Sapphirina — a minute crustacean, which
vies with actual gems in its beauty. Some are
like diamonds; others are yellow, blue, red, or
crimson ; and so rich and plentiful are they that,
peering down, one might believe that some lavish
Midas had sprinkled the water with jewels. Here
float gorgeous jellyfishes, some with tentacles

i8o Big Came Fishes

thirty feet or more long, tinted a deep lavender;
others are crystal chalices, or chains of dainty
design. If the scene along this forest is fasci-
nating by day, what can be said at night, when
myriads of lights appear. Every point and form
then becomes a living light, while the water itself
blazes out in silver radiance.

Such is the home of the sheepshead, the sly,
cunning, jocular denizen of every ocean hedge
and byway from San Diego and beyond to San
Clemente, Santa Catalina, the islands of Santa
Barbara on to Point Concepcion, which appears
to be its northern limit. At the island of San
Clemente it is particularly plentiful, the many
caves lined with kelp affording it retreats to its
choice. Looking down through the openings of
the kelp, following some vagrant sunbeam, I have
seen dozens of these poseurs and watched them,
unsuspected. They were always deliberate in
their movements, sailing in and out of the vari-
ous halls formed by the kelp, accompanied by the
dazzling golden angel-fish ; now standing on
their heads to pick up some object on the bottom,
or darting down to rub themselves upon a moss-
covered rock. I recall one huge fellow at this
place which moved sedately about, proudly drag-

The California Sbeepsbead 181

ging three feet of what appeared to be a cod-line,
the hook plainly visible against its white jaw.

At such localities the angler tarries to try con-
clusions with this doughty fish. The boat is
anchored within the kelp, one of the leaves being
hauled aboard as an anchor. The rods are taken
out, put together, and the question of bait remains
to be decided. When the fish is in the biting
humor, sardines are readily taken, but when it is
coy, crayfish, the long-whipped crustacean, which
takes the place of the lobster in California and
the tropics, is selected. But the sheepshead is
no clumsy game, to be caught even on selected
bait. At times it scorns anything; but it hap-
pens that to-day the fish is in the biting humor,
and no sooner has the bait reached the bottom
in twenty feet of water than it is taken. A good
honest strike this. No nibbler to peck at the
bait and examine it, like a customhouse officer,
for hidden fish-hooks, but a strong, steady jerk to
which you respond with as heavy a hand as the
exigencies of the situation and the hard jaw of
the fish require. There is no doubt as to the
result ; the fish is hooked, the water hisses before
the line, the reel sings merrily, and the fight is
on, with a royal foeman that tugs, rushes, plunges,

1 82 Big Game Fishes

hammers, and sulks, all in such rapid succession
that the novice is fairly puzzled, recognizing the
tokens of several fishes. With difficulty the fish
is kept out of the kelp, but finally it rushes along
the bottom, making for open water, and you have
a clear field in which to play your strength
against a very clever fish that shortly demon-
strates its game qualities by taking the line in
long and continued bursts of speed, which test
rod, line, and the finesse of the angler, who wins
only by careful work with the reel and thumb
brake.

Finally, after having been repeatedly stopped,
the fish begins to come in on the reel, fighting
every step, taking long lateral runs to dash
alongside with an impetuosity that so demoralizes
your amateur gaffer that he misses, and so the
fish has to be turned again. This time it is on
the surface, its great bands of jet and red, its
enormous head and white underjaw, making it an
extraordinary object. It lies for a moment flap-
ping its big pectorals and rolling its comical red-
rimmed eyes at you out of a sea of black — an
appeal for mercy that is sometimes heeded by
certain anglers who flatter themselves that they
understand the language of fishes. Fishing in

Tbe California Sheepsbead 183

this manner on the west side of Santa Catalina
and at San Clemente, I have known these fishes
to bite so rapidly that they took the bait as soon
as it reached the bottom. It would have been
a piscatorial bonanza for a professional fisherman,
as he could literally have filled his boat with
sheepshead of the largest size. So much for
taking this fish with a light rod where it has a
fighting chance. If the fisherman really enjoys
hand-line fishing, it can be had all alongshore.

The sheepshead is a valuable food-fish in
California, many thousand pounds being dried or
salted annually ; but for domestic consumption it
would be classed as a " chowder " fish, and is
excellent for the purpose. While its praises
probably have never been sung before, I com-
mend it to the angler, confident that when taken
with a fairly light bending rod and a number
fifteen or eighteen cuttyhunk line it will repay
the expert in the gentle art of angling.

With the sheepshead, living in its highway, is
another gamy fish, the whitefish, Caulolatilus
princeps (Jenyns), which attains a maximum
weight of twenty pounds, that has afforded me
such sport that I may refer to it. Small or
medium-sized specimens may be caught almost

1 84 Big Game Fishes

anywhere alongshore, away from sandy beaches,
and at rocky points, but the largest I have found
after fishing at nearly all the islands were at the
government island of San Clemente, about fifty
miles from San Pedro, or opposite San Juan
Capistrano. During a yachting trip around this
island we anchored on the lee or east side where
there was a rapid current, and in this I amused
myself one morning casting for yellowtails. In-
stead of the latter, quantities of whitefish rose
and began to follow the bait. At a distance they
resembled and acted not unlike pollock, and
taking a ten-ounce split bamboo rod, and using
crayfish (spiny lobster) bait, I was soon partici-
pating in sport well worthy the name. The swift
current carried the bait astern, and as it drifted
twenty-five or thirty feet there was a struggle for
it by scores of whitefish of large size, their at-
tractive drab colors, with dashes of blue and
yellow, flashing in the sunlight as they played
upon the surface. When hooked they rushed
away with force and vigor that tested the light
tackle to its utmost, and as the sport grew fast
and furious, and several anglers joined, the snap-
ping of the delicate lines began. Some of the
largest fish made a determined battle, and an old

The California Sheepsbead 185

trout fisherman of the party remarked that they
equalled in game qualities any of these fishes he
had ever taken. Ten or more minutes would be
occupied in landing a fish, and with trout tackle
it would have taken a much longer time to bring
the largest to gaff or net.

The whitefish is one of the most valuable of
the California food-fishes, and one of the most
attractive, in its demure coat of gray, drab, or
olive. It is not a migrant, being found about the
islands from the Coronados north at all times.
The attention paid to angling in Southern Cali-
fornia is well illustrated at certain points, as
Coronado Beach, Long Beach, Terminal, and
Santa Monica, where long piers have been built
out into the surf, upon which anglers who are
satisfied with small fry can indulge in the pastime.
Here the mackerel, halibut, and various kinds of
surf fishes, Embiotocidce, are taken, which, if it
were possible to fish for with trout-rods, would
afford fine sport, as the fish weigh from one to
five or six pounds, and are gamy ; but the exigen-
cies of the case require stiff rods, and the long
bamboo pole is chiefly used, as by it the fish can
be lifted to the high piers. Large fish, if hooked,
are led ashore and hauled upon the beach. The

1 86 Big Game Fishes

" surf " of these localities is particularly interest-
ing from the fact that the young are born alive.
I have kept the parents of the species known as
shiners, Abeona minima, in a tank, where the
young were born. The latter immediately
"schooled," and formed interesting pets. They
fed from my hand with avidity, displaying no
fear, — the entire school following me as I moved
around the tank, watching every movement with
lively interest. The young were an inch and a
quarter in length at birth, and were at once able
to care for themselves, the parents paying no
attention to them. As their name suggests, they
are found in the surf, feeding upon the various
crustaceans which burrow in the sand.

A gamy fish, for a black-bass rod and the
lightest line, is the rock-bass and its many species
of California waters. I have taken them up to
ten pounds and found them gamy; but light
tackle is a desideratum, as while they are modelled
after the shape of the black bass they have not
the staying qualities of this fish. There are many
species, all found at rocky points, lying in the
weed simulating more or less the general tone of
the bottom.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CHANNEL-BASS

" The blessing of St. Peter's, master, be upon all that hate
contentions, and love quietnesse, and virtue, and go a-angling."

— IZAAK WALTON.

INNES RANDOLPH has described the channel-
bass or red-drum in verse : —

" Long as a salmon, if not so stout,
And springy and swift as a mountain trout."

Any one who has taken the fish will recognize
the faithfulness of the picture. The poet is too
modest; the fish is often longer than a salmon,
and far more active than a trout. In truth, the
marine fishes have so long been caught with
heavy hand-lines that their true game qualities
have never been fully appreciated. Let the trout-
fly fisherman take a bonito of six pounds with the
rod with which a six-pound trout has been suc-
cessfully landed, or attempt to catch a seventeen-
pound yellowtail or kingfish with the correctly
appointed salmon rod, which has taken salmon of
similar weight, and the relative qualities of the

187

1 88 Big Game Fishes

i

two will at once be apparent. To land a twenty-
pound yellowtail with a long salmon rod would
be a matter of hours, at least such was the opinion
confided to me by an old fisherman after a day's
yellowtail fishing in California. Laymen are
prone to scoff at the technical names of fishes.
They care little that the channel-bass is of the
genus Scicznops, and that it is known among all
nations as Scicznops ocellatus, the latter term
referring to the spots near the tail. The actual
necessity of this common language name is
emphasized in this fish, which has so many titles,
local names from Virginia to Texas, that the
would-be historian of the fish is amazed, and the
travelling angler more so. Where I caught
the fish at the mouth of the James River, the
dug-out fishermen, who cruised around the oyster
beds in their rakish crafts, called the fish the
drum, and I at first supposed they meant the big
drum, the bass drummer of the finny tribe.

At the mouth of the St. Marys, Georgia, my
boatman, who was a city father of a neighboring
commonwealth, took me " red-bass " fishing. The
boy who collected fiddlers for me in the swamp
on the way to Fort Marion, Florida, confided to
me the best " spotted-bass " fishing-ground in the

RED DRUM; REDFISH ; "CHANNEL-BASS
Scicenops ocellatus (Linnaeus)

Rig for Grouper, Red Snapper, etc. ; fishing-hook above the sinker

The Channel- bass 189

vicinity. When I reached the St. Johns and cast
my luck among the genial pilots of Pilottown and
the shadmen of Mayport, I was told that in the
mouth of the river I would find the finest channel-
bass fishing in America. This was bewildering,
but the end was not, as on a trip to Jacksonville

I met an old friend, N , who had advised me

by all means to take a run down through the
Indian River country to catch "red-horse."
Another friend who lived at Tampa invited me
to go over and try the " reef -bass." While talk-
ing over the fishing outlook with an angler in
New Orleans, he asked why I did not take a run
to the coast and try the Poisson rouge ; while
at San Antonio, Texas, I was regaled with stories
of the big Fez Colorado to be had down at
Aransas Pass and all alongshore. What a diver-
sity, what a plethora, of sport these titles open
up to the mental vision of the insatiate angler!
Yet everywhere I found the same fish was meant ;
namely, Scicznops ocellatus. It will come to
this: —

SCENE, INDIAN RIVER. ANGLERS PASSING

First Angler. What luck ?

Second Angler (a better fisherman than grammarian). Fine.
Ten Scmnops ocellatus. ^Boatman faints.

1 90 Big Game Fishes

The question what to term this fish may be
argued elsewhere. I am going to call it the
channel-bass, first, because this name appears not
to be applied to other fish, and secondly, I have
noticed that the majority of anglers and sports-
men prefer and use the term, which is the very
best of reasons. In casting over in my mind the
best channel-bass fishing I have enjoyed, the St.
Marys and the mouth of the St. Johns rivers
and the beach out from Pilottown, Florida, crowd
and elbow to the front. The mouth of the river
is an interesting place, especially at Mayport,
where the sand-dunes at the time of my last visit
were migrating, and one fisherman's house was
almost completely covered. In the morning the
housewives would be seen sweeping out the sand
from the walk as they would snow. Some of the
buildings were on stilts, and it was almost neces-
sary to take a running jump to reach the door of
one hostlery. The boatmen, Americans and
some Minorcans, and their descendants, were
nearly all in the shad business, and many fished
the mouth of the river habitually. The water
over the bar was often very shallow, so that
schooners laden with lumber were sometimes
obliged to wait for a combination of high tides

The Channel-bass 191

and an east wind to blow the water in and up ;
so shallow was it at low tide that I saw a gigantic
sunfish ground as it wandered in, its struggles
attracting so much attention that it was ulti-
mately caught. This shallow water created a
heavy sea, or rip, which was more or less uncom-
fortable at times; but by anchoring on the edge
of the channel, and fishing at the slack tide, much
sport was enjoyed, while, up the river, in smooth
water, there was an excellent " channel-bass
ground," very popular with the anglers who came
through from Fernandina in boats or from up the
river. So fierce was the tide that almost every
one used hand-lines and sinkers, and even then
the latter would often apparently rise to the sur-
face ; but at slack water I fished with my ' rod,
which was about eight feet long, of greenheart,
weighing twenty-four ounces ; the line, a number
twelve cuttyhunk, tested to pull twenty-two
pounds, and hook about the size of a 7/0 Lim-
erick, though the boatmen used something much
larger. The bait was mullet and crab.

We started in at the ebb, and anchored in a
place selected. In a short time the tide, rushing
against the incoming sea, created a singular rip,
unpleasant to look upon, which seemed to merge

192 Big Game Fishes

into a heavy-breaking sea farther out. We picked
up a few small bass by casting up-stream, using
pipe-sinkers, but in a marvellously short space of
time the bait and sinker would pass the boat and
lie at the surface. Several sharks followed up
the mullet trail and afforded some sport. The
shad fisherman, who had never seen a five-foot
shark killed with a line of that size, confidentially
informed me that " he'd have been dogged ef he'd
'a' b'l'eved it, ef he hadn't seen it."

Gradually the current slackened, and then sud-
denly my reel gave tongue, and in a few seconds
I was engaged in sport that was sufficiently excit-
ing to satisfy the most exacting angler. Out into
the midstream the fish went in a splendid run,
having all its own way, the tackle being too light
for any immediate protest, and it was two hundred
feet distant before the thumb brake began its
deadly work and I turned it. Then it shot across
the water in the opposite direction, never slacking
or giving up. Now the reel would gain twenty or
thirty feet, and the gamy fish would spring forward
and turn downward, sounding with an impetuosity
that was irresistible, making everything hum with
the soul-stirring zip-zip-zip ! of the reel, which so
truly echoes the exact movement of the stricken

The Channel-bass 193

fish. The gamy creature would have joined
forces with the current and towed us out to sea
but for the strenuous efforts of the boatman ; and
so, ever fighting, making a brave show of resist-
ance, the fish came in, cutting the water with
splendid side rushes, growing shorter and shorter
until I had it on the quarter, its burnished sides
flashing in the sunlight, and as it turned and lay
upon the surface, I saw why some call it the red-
drum, as a red golden iridescence caught my eye
as though for a second the fish had blushed. I
passed it forward to the mercies of the gaffer, who,
with a clean-cut lift landed and held it up for my
inspection. It was a most attractive fish, weighing
between thirty and thirty-five pounds, which had
engaged our attention — a minute per pound,
according to the boatman.

The channel-bass bears a strong resemblance
to the California roncador. The body is long
and well proportioned ; the back perfectly arched
from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail ;
the nose blunt, mouth opening parallel to the
ventral line or bottom of the fish. The head is
long ; eye small ; dorsal fins low, the second dor-
sal being long and beautiful. The tail explains
the gamy nature of the bass, being a large and

i94 Big Game Fishes

powerful organ. The color of the fish is pro-
nounced bronze above, silver and grayish below;
over all a reddish iridescence, caught when the
fish is seen at an angle, making it a resplendent
creature immediately after the catch. At the
base of the tail is a single black spot, about as
large as the eye. On some fishes there were
several of them, and I noticed that some of the
negroes called the fish " two eye " for this reason.
In the South the St. Johns is one of the best
localities for channel-bass, though I have had
excellent sport at Fernandina near Fort Marion.
It is found in the deeper portions of the channel,
and I took large specimens later from the beach
on the Pilottown side, where the water is deep
near shore. This locality was equally famous for
large sharks, strikes from this game being about
two to one of channel-bass. One hooked with a
heavy shark line, which I had made fast to a
heavy log, carried the latter down the beach and
nearly dragged me into deep water, a lucky chance
changing the programme. In a word, sharks
are to be expected here. On the St. Johns the
channel-bass appears with some regularity in
June, and in this month, and in July, the angler
may expect large specimens running up to fifty

The Channel-bass 195

or sixty pounds, — the fish attaining, if current
report can be relied upon, seventy-five or eighty
pounds. The largest I have seen weighed sixty
pounds. In August and September, in the St.
Johns, the fishermen expect a second run of
smaller fish ; and the sport is good until Novem-
ber. Anglers are told that they can be caught
later. Possibly individuals have been, but I have
religiously fished the mouth of the river in Janu-
ary and did not take a channel-bass. My boat-
man insisted that they were there, and intimated
that they had been taken, so I concluded that
while luck was with me in the summer I was a
poor off-season fisherman. The average-sized
fish taken in the rivers of Florida is from twenty-
five to thirty pounds, and there is a remarkable
difference in size and tastes in different localities.
I tried several " spinners " in the mouth of the St.
Marys, but did not have a strike ; yet on the Indian
River I understand, on the excellent authority of
Dr. Kenworthy, the dean of the angling frater-
nity of the South, that this method has been
very successful. I have seen a yellowtail hooked
with a tooth-brush handle metamorphosed into
a jig; yet this fish refuses a spinner. There is
no accounting for tastes even among fishes.

196 Big Game Fishes

Surf fishing for channel-bass is an exciting
sport. One morning in riding down the long
and beautiful beach of Amelia Island, Florida,
which was seemingly covered with snipe and
plover which rose into the air in silvery clouds as
I galloped along, I came upon a group of anglers
who had a tent in the brush and were fishing for
channel-bass. The wind was offshore, the surf
low at the point they had selected, and they
waded out from shore at low tide, and with heavy
cast-lines and sinker tossed their bait far out into
what appeared to be a school of channel-bass,
which made so gamy a struggle that more than
once two men seized a line and with shouts of
victory ran plunging over the waves up the sands.
Doubtless the heavy normal surf here would not
permit it, but if an iron pier could be run out
over the breakers, the rod fisherman would have
some remarkable sport. The admirer of this fish
will find it almost everywhere along the Indian
River, but I never saw it on the reef in the vicin-
ity of Key West, or farther west. It is reported
as abundant on the west coast of Florida and in
the Gulf states. Mr. Silas Stearns states that
they appear in this locality in March and April.
They seem to congregate about the mouth of

The Channel-bass 197

inlets at this time, sometimes going in at once,
again hovering around outside. They come in
large schools which soon break up. In October
and November they leave. Following around the
Gulf, we come to what is probably the greatest
fishing-ground for channel-bass in this country —
the region around Galveston and Aransas Pass.
Here the fish is omnipresent, the best fishing
being from May to November. This section of
the country is comparatively little known to the
angling fraternity, but abounds in large numbers
of game fish of many kinds, channel-bass being
large and gamy and the common fish of the
country.

I fished for them here in the inner bay of
Aransas in shallow water, the bass congregating
in the shallow holes, taking shrimp bait with
avidity. Another excellent location was on the
Gulf side of the island, where one could wade
out and cast for bass in the surf with a light
black-bass rod. I had good sport with small ones
up to ten pounds. It is not necessary to go to
Florida or Texas for fine channel-bass fishing.
In South Barnegat Bay, at Harvey Cedars, some
of the finest fishing can be had at times, espe-
cially in September, — the fish running large,

198 Big Game Fishes

catches ranging from fifteen to fifty pounds.
The luck of Harvey Cedars is a trite saying
among the anglers who know it well, and the fine
fishes taken here illustrate the singular fact that
there are many famous fishing resorts along the
Atlantic coast near New York for some reason
not so well known as far inferior places many
miles distant.

As game, the channel-bass recalls the striped
bass. It lives upon crustaceans, mollusks, and
sea-worms, and has been seen to root and tear
up the weeds in shallow water in its search for
food. This explains its presence along the line
of surf in the shallow waters of the great sandy
beaches of the coast, the home of numerous bur-
rowing crustaceans. While an oceanic fish, it
enters rivers, being caught as far from the sea
as Jacksonville in the St. Johns, and according
to Dr. C. J. Kenworthy, in Crescent Lake and
Lake George, Florida, where large fish are
taken with a spinner. As to their spawning
habits, Mr. S. C. Clark states that the channel-
bass spawn in the Indian River, Florida, in
August and September, the young fish being
found there at all times. The adults appear
at the inlets of Florida in January and Feb-

Tbe Channel-bass 199

ruary, and remain until August, spawning there
in the shallow bays, leaving or going to sea in
October. Dr. Jordan reports young measuring
two and a half inches at Pensacola in April.
This gives the Indian River region a channel-
bass season, of nine or ten months, about equiva-
lent to that of the yellowtail of the Pacific.

As a food-fish the channel-bass is of great
value, those up to ten or fifteen pounds being
of excellent quality, the older and larger fish
better adapted to the angler, though I have
eaten a large channel-bass, seined on the St.
Johns, that was beyond criticism. The eco-
nomic value of the channel-bass can be realized
by a glance at the catch and returns of various
states. In North Carolina, in 1888, 140,000 Ibs.
were taken, valued at #3800. South Carolina
took out 50,000 Ibs., valued at #1600 in the
same time. Georgia, 20,085 Ibs., valued at #470.
Florida, 404,557 Ibs., valued at $11,000. Mis-
sissippi, 140,000 Ibs., valued at $6000, and Texas,
838,000 Ibs., valued at $32,761. From this it
will be seen that Texas, where the fish is
known as redfish, is the headquarters for chan-
nel-bass and offers an interesting and profitable
field for the angler.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ALBACORE

"Vext with the puny foe, the tunnies leap,
Flounce in the stream, and toss the mantling deep;
Ride over the foamy seas, with torture rave,
Bound into the air and dash the smoking wave."

— OPPIAN.

THE albacore, the long-firmed, big-eyed harle-
quin of the Santa Catalina and San Clemente
channels, is the understudy of the tuna, follow-
ing its mighty cousin, cheek by jowl, in many
of its cyclonic rushes into the bays and harbors
of the California islands. Owing to this habit,
it is often a factor to be counted on in tuna
fishing. Being more active and agile, it seizes
the bait intended for the tuna, and the unfortu-
nate angler, while surrounded by the big fish
of his choice, catches nothing but twenty-five-
pound albacores, which, while excellent sport,
under the peculiar conditions becomes a deep-
seated injury.

200

The Albacore 201

In watching a school of tunas at this time, the
albacores are seen, types of activity, rushing
hither and yon, in marked contrast to the
larger fish, on the alert to steal the prey of the
tuna or pick up the silvery morsels which often
besprinkle the water after the larger fish has
rushed through a school of smelt or mackerel.
Like the tuna, the albacore is a pelagic fish,
born on the high ocean and a rover in many
seas, at home in mid-ocean, coming into shal-
low water and near island shores in spring to
exercise its voracious appetite upon the small
fry of its choice — herring, anchovies, squid,
smelt, mackerel, and others.

So far as known the Southern California
islands are the only localities where the albacores
are caught with the rod ; the conditions being
particularly favorable, the fish coming in near the
rocky shores from the Coronados to San Miguel
Island where there is smooth water in the lee,
permitting the angler to play them with pleasure
and comfort. I have hooked the albacore within
twenty feet of the rocks, but the favorite and
most popular trolling-ground is half a mile off
Avalon Bay, where large schools, or many small
ones, are found, breaking the mirror-like water

202 Big Game Fishes

into foam, from May fifteenth to November or
December, the fall fishing possibly being the best.
At any time, but especially in the morning, the
swift launches of the boatmen, with their gay
tuna and other signals stretched to the breeze,
may be seen in the offing, the two anglers sitting
in the stern with rods out on either side.

A typical equipment may be described as
follows : the rod of greenheart, noibwood, or split
bamboo ; if the two former, to weigh about
twenty-six ounces, as the fish is often a sulker and
has to be " pumped." The rod, if the angler con-
sults his greatest convenience, is a single piece ;
that is, a long tip with a short butt, and there are
two long tips to such a rod, or better still, three
— one stiff, for tuna, a second less so for albacore,
and a third lighter yet, for yellowtail and white-
sea bass. The rod has double bell guides of
German silver that the line can be changed every
day so that the rod will not assume a chronic
curve in any given direction. The reel, which
should always be lashed upon the rod, should be
of medium size, to hold three hundred feet of wet
number fifteen cuttyhunk line, which is tested
to twenty-eight pounds, though some anglers use
tuna reels and tackle for this sport, owing to the

The Albacore 203

possibility of hooking one of these fishes at any
time. A short phosphor-bronzed leader and an
8/0 O'Shaughnessy, a Van Vleck, or any similar
hook completes the equipment. Trolling at full
speed the albacore can be taken with a bone jig,
but there is no pleasure in this for the rod angler,
as before the engine can be reversed the fish
takes nearly all the line. Sardine, smelt, or squid
are typical baits, but the latter is almost impos-
sible to obtain, and smelt is the common lure.
The hook is inserted in the mouth, brought out
at the gills, the point turned and thrust into the
belly of the bait near the vent; when pulled
straight, or " set," it is almost concealed. The
mouth of the smelt is closed with a wire fastened
to the shank of the hook, or thread may be used,
and the lure is complete. No sinker is employed,
and each leader or snell should have two, if not
three, swivels.

We are now ready for the sport. The launch
is sent slowly along, the speed being governed
by the exigencies of the occasion. The boatman
and gaffer sees the schools from afar, as the alba-
cores leap from the water two or three feet, and
follows them up. The strike comes, — a long,
sudden, tremendous strain or jerk, which has

204 Big Came Fishes

been known to take the rod from the hands of
a not over-alert angler. There is little need to
strike or attempt to hook the fish ; in nine cases
out of ten this is accomplished by the albacore
itself, as it strikes on the run, with a fierce rush,
and does not stop, bearing away and down as
it feels the hook, with such irresistible force that
the angler is often obliged to give and give, until
his thumb loses nearly all sensation by the con-
tinual pressure upon the leather brake in the
vain attempt to stop the fish, which plunges deep
and yet deeper, sounding at times like a very
whale; then, perhaps maddened by the reel, it
sways and cuts the water to right or left and rises
far away in so singular a manner that the angler
fears that it is being chased by a shark, and so,
ever fighting, ever bearing off with tremendous
power for its size, the fish comes slowly in, the
angler with the butt of the rod in the leather cap
between his knees working his passage and pay-
ing fare as well. The multiplier is all-powerful,
and far down in the azure waters a flash of silver
is seen, circling broadside on. Slowly it rises,
now showing a black eye almost as large as that
of a plesiosaurus in its adolescence. At this stage
it is well to count on a stupendous rush, as the

The Albaoore 205

silvery game, at the apparition of the boat, makes
one of a series of final charges, any one of which
might shatter the rod, or break the line if it was
checked. The click gives tongue loudly with
its short, quick ze-e-eing, u stabs the air with its
shrill alarm," and again the reel moves and the
fish comes in. This is repeated several times
during the fifteen or twenty minutes' contest, and
presently the angler sees the game at the surface,
still full of fight, a finny fury. Bending the tip
forward he passes it into the field of the gaffer,
who ends the game by his clever movement be-
neath its silvery throat.

The strength of the albacore can be appreci-
ated by the terrific tattoo which it now plays
upon the canvas-covered planking of the boat,
which, if small, it shakes from stem to stern.
The boatman gives the fish its quietus and holds
it up by the measuring scales, with his " Twenty-
five pounds, sir ! " And this is what we see :
a plump, compact tuna, all but the long side or
pectoral fins ; about three feet in length, the muz-
zle sharper, the eyes larger, almost the same
spikelike second dorsal and anal ; a remarkable
thickness and compactness in proportion to its
length, and one would invariably " guess " under

2o6 Big Game Fishes

its actual weight; the tail is strongly forked,
keeled, and here are the finlets of the tuna, seven
or eight in number. Trim the side fins, and the
average observer not skilled in fish lore would
announce it a tuna ; but these remarkable fins dis-
tinguish it from all other fishes. Each pectoral fin
is nearly half the length of the entire body, or to
be exact, two-fifths its length, shaped like daggers,
with a slight curve downward; the fins are very
narrow and in every instance observed by me
were held close to the sides of the fish when
swimming, the real locomotive organ being the
tail, a " screw " of tremendous power. Doubtless
the long pectorals have more to do with the re-
markable agility of the fish than is suspected. In
its coloring the albacore is very attractive, garbed
in resplendent tints. Its back is a vivid steely
blue, and being broad and rotund it is a conspicu-
ous object in the water. The belly is white, or
silvery, the fins dark, gleaming with a blue irides-
cence or lustre.

Such is the catch, the albacore, the Germo
alalunga (Gmelin) of science, the most active
of all its congeners. It is one of the commonest
fishes in the Pacific waters, found in nearly all
tropical seas, but not caught on the Atlantic

The Albacore 207

coast and rarely seen. In the Mediterranean
Sea it is a familiar catch in nets. Germon is its
French title, but the common name, albacore, was
given it by the Portuguese, who undoubtedly took
it from the Arabic al, a; bacora, little pig. The
specific name, alalunga, by which it is known in
Sardinia, means "long-winged." Many authori-
ties give the maximum weight of the albacore as
twelve or fifteen pounds, which is far too low.
I have measured an individual which weighed
sixty-two and a half pounds, and have been in-
formed by reliable fishermen that they have taken
albacores in the deep San Clemente channel, ten
miles west of Santa Catalina, which weighed one
hundred pounds; but these large fishes rarely
come inshore. The one first referred to was
caught by an acquaintance, not fifty feet from the
rocks, and for three hours it fought, towing the
boat during that period an estimated five miles,
often against the oars of the boatman, and mak-
ing such strenuous resistance that it was consid-
ered a tuna until the long sabrelike fins of the
fish told the story. No tuna could have made a
better struggle than this long-finned, big-eyed
wanderer of the family Scombridce.

On the Pacific coast the albacore spawns in

208 Big Game Fisbes

July and August ; at least at this time fishes with
ripe spawn are observed. The eggs are depos-
ited presumably in the open channel ; the very
young fish I have never seen. The smallest
observed weighed about five pounds. The
young resemble the adult, except that the pecto-
ral fins are shorter. The adult fish, while it is
caught near the island shores, never approaches
the mainland, being found from two to five miles
out. Always present in vast numbers, feeding or
playing, the albacore is a feature of the angling
life of the islands and affords no little amusement
to visitors who watch its leaps, and the turmoil it
creates ; now here, now there, ever wandering, it
is a constant menace to the small fishes. The
average catch weighs from fifteen to twenty
pounds, yet fishes of this size drive the large fly-
ing-fishes inshore and often afford remarkable
exhibitions of ground and lofty tumbling, almost
invariably coming down like arrows. The rush
of a school of albacores, as they charge the flying-
fishes, invariably arouses the angling community,
as every one knows that here are bonitos, and
possibly tunas, all forming a pack of sea-hounds
crazed with the lust for slaughter.

" Ahoy ! " comes from a launch over the water,

Tbe Albacore 209

and a boatman, with a camaraderie not always
found where competition is keen, is seen pointing
away to the south, where a scene is staged on the
blue, glasslike sea well calculated to stir the blood
in the veins of the most phlegmatic angler. A
great patch of the ocean appears to be in violent
commotion; the air is filled with flying-fishes,
which dart along soaring, not flying, crossing each
other's path, resembling great dragon-flies, glisten-
ing in the sunlight, while a roar like the sound of
distant waves breaking upon the rocks is heard.
Boats are turned in that direction, and anglers,
rod in hand, are presently in the midst of the fray.
In such a sortie it is not a question of catching
fish, but how many will satisfy. Two anglers
have taken forty or more with rods in a few hours.
The greatest demand for albacores comes from
the black sea-bass anglers, who have discovered
that this leviathan looks favorably upon the rich
oily meat of the albacore. To the dwellers on
the Mediterranean it is a choice dish, but to the
average American albacore is neither

" fish, flesh, nor good red herring."

Despite this, the offshore commercial catch is
large and important in all the seashore towns

sio Big Game Fishes

from San Diego to Santa Cruz. As sport it
brings many dollars to the coffers of the boatmen,
who go from five to seven miles out from San
Diego, Coronado, San Pedro, Long Beach, Re-
dondo, Santa Barbara, and all alongshore. The
catch for 1895, taking this year as an example,
was one hundred and seventy-eight thousand one
hundred and forty-five pounds, valued at $4600.
Nearly all the fish used in this way are caught by
sail-boats, whose owners troll far from shore in
rough water, using several lines, and bone jigs.

CHAPTER XV

THE GROUPERS

" You strange, astonished-looking, angle-faced,
Dreary-mouthed, gaping wretches of the sea,
Gulping salt water everlastingly,
Cold-blooded, though with red your blood be graced,
And mute, though dwellers in the roaring waste."

— LEIGH HUNT. The Man to the Fish.

IN visiting different fishing-grounds, hunting
for new fields to conquer in the sea, or along-
shore, the sea angler instinctively contrasts or
compares the various fishes he catches with those
of other regions which he has known, and fre-
quently finds many points of resemblance. The
bluefish is represented on the Pacific coast by
the yellowtail, the latter completely filling its
place to the sportsman but not to the epicure.
In Florida, where the cod is not found, it has a
representative in a number of serranoid fishes,
the groupers, which as food-fishes are almost
equal to, and as sport rank much higher than, the
cod.

211

212 Big Game Fishes

The angler who visits the outer Florida reef
and wanders from Biscayne Bay down the
islands as far as Loggerhead will find at Key
West and all alongshore smacks fitted with wells
which are often filled with groupers, principally
the red grouper, caught in fairly deep water.
When the well is full, the smack squares away
for Havana, where the catch is disposed of to the
Cubans. The red grouper is a large ungainly
fish, ranging up to seventy pounds in weight, this
being the largest fish of the kind I have seen, its
length being about three and a half feet. It is an
omnivorous biter, living near the bottom, in water
from twenty to one hundred feet deep, preferring
the bases of the great coral reefs, where an abun-
dant supply of food is assured. As a hand-line
fish at such localities, it affords some sport. The
grounds north of Sand, Middle, and East keys of
the Tortugas group may always be counted upon,
winter and summer, while other fishing-grounds
are common all over the Gulf, the fish having a
wide range, from Rio Janeiro to Maryland, in-
dividuals wandering still farther north. The
tackle used is a stout cod -line ; the hook (I used
a i o/o Kirby Limerick) is gauged a foot or more
above the sinker, the theory being that the latter

The Groupers 213

may sink into the branch coral or a grove of gor-
gonias, while the hook or bait would in this way
swing clear. Again, the strike, or bite, is felt
much quicker when the hook is above the sinker.
The bait most in vogue at this particular point
is crayfish or conch, the latter being hard and
almost indestructible ; at other places fish bait is
employed.

If the right ground is found, excellent sport
may be enjoyed, the red grouper being the chief
attraction; but the pleasure is intensified by the
remarkable variety of fishes taken, of which the
big porcupine-fish, which fills itself with air when
reaching the surface and sails along on the water
like a balloon, is not least. The red grouper
when at forty or fifty pounds is, so far as its
game qualities are concerned, like the cod, there
being more than a suspicion of laziness, though
some big fellows will give fair play ; but the fish
should not be wholly condemned. Hauling the
best of fishes from a great depth is not the most
exciting of pastimes, but such fishes, given other
conditions, often prove worthy the term "game."
So with the red grouper; I found that while a
deep-water fish, a companion of the red snapper
and a bottom lover, it came inshore in June to

Big Game Fishes

spawn and at certain places could be found and
fished for from the reef. Such a locality was at
Bush Key in the Tortugas group, where I caught
red groupers weighing thirty pounds with a rod
in twenty feet of water. They could not sulk,
and the rushes away and around the boat made
me a convert to the despised grouper if found
under the conditions described. The fish spawns
in May and June on the reef, but as I often found
spawn in specimens taken miles offshore in deep
water, I assumed that this is not a rule with all
groupers. Probably those near the shore move
in to spawn, while those living in deep water,
away from land, spawn in deep water; in other
words, I should not consider the fish a migratory
one. I frequently caught small individuals two
or three inches in length, with fly-hooks and cray-
fish bait, around the mangrove roots in the
lagoon, where they consorted with young grunts,
gray snappers, and angel-fishes. As a table fish,
when properly cooked, the red grouper is unex-
celled in the South. Boiled, served with shrimp
or crayfish sauce, is a very acceptable method of
serving.

The red grouper, Epinephelus morio, belongs
to the family Serranidcz, which includes many of

The Groupers 215

the most valuable food and game fishes, many of
which are noted for their size. It has a large
head, with wide buckler-like gill-covers, very large
or deep where its neck should be, grading off
gradually ; not what would be termed a handsome
or comely fish, yet with its red coat, bright and
prominent eyes, long and full dorsal, it makes
a brave showing. The young, especially when
they weigh about ten pounds, are particularly
attractive.

There are fascinations in angling in tropical
seas not experienced elsewhere. The fishing is
excellent all the year round. Sir Henry Wotton,
the good friend of Izaak Walton, once said that
u he would rather live five Mays than forty
Decembers," and every angler will agree with
him, as where is there good fishing in December?
It is the season in the North for story-telling.
The angler takes out his rods, his fly-book, or his
trolling lure, large and small, and tells to some
patient and loyal friend, who has heard the same
tale fifty times, of the colossus that escaped on a
certain day ; and the friend, with the camaraderie
of the true angler, smiles, expresses wonder, and
enjoys it, and fails to note how the monster
grows with passing seasons. But there is a

216 Big Game Fishes

region where every month is May, where life is a
constant angling fiesta.

"A heavenly Paradise is that place,"

far down on the outer reef. Any day in the year
I could row out beyond the lagoon, watch my
chance, and run through the narrow five-foot
channel that breaks the great barrier, and float
over groves of coral and gorgonias whose grace
and beauty defied description. Mounds of olive-
green coral, patches of lavender and gold gorgo-
nias fanned by the current, with their reticulated
surfaces, some like ostrich plumes in red or brown;
seaweeds of varied hues, delicate vines, living
cloths of green covering the dead coral rocks,
all forming the home of scores of fishes, any
one of which was game to the not too critical
angler.

It was over such a region that I met another
member of this family. I had been fishing for
the captivating yellowtail, and was reeling in,
when there came a swirl of waters, a vision of a
mighty fish, and my yellowtail line and tip were
gone. I could see that it was not a shark. Chief,
the boatman, expressed the opinion that it was a
jewfish; but the robber was blacker, trimmer,

Tbe Groupers 217

swifter than the huge jewfish, so I baited a suit-
able line with a living yellowtail and cast it over
into one of the " gulfs enchanted " which I could
plainly see. The bait was very active, and made
a brave showing with its vivid gold and silver
tints, and as it sank slowly, struggling, something
like a great shadow came out of the depths, and
the next instant I was dragged down flat into
the stern, and the line was hissing, leaping
over the rail like a living thing. So fierce was
the rush, so vigorous the onslaught, that for a
few seconds I lost the line, and when I did grasp
it, Chief had cast off the buoyed anchor and we
were away behind as lively a steed as one would
wish.

" Man-eater shark, sa'," grunted the Seminole,
sententiously, but he had not seen it. I had, and
it was either a jewfish or some fish new in my
experience.

But no jewfish ever looked so dark and black
as did this mystery that turned and towed us
directly out to sea. And as the water deepened
rapidly, we were shortly off bottom with the fish
directly beneath us, towing the clinker-built boat
so swiftly that she had not one, but two bones
in her teeth. It was only after much exertion

218 Big Game Fishes

that I lifted the fish to within twenty feet of the
surface ; then it turned and towed us directly in
toward the reef, where a high sea was breaking.
Chief now took the oars and pulled against the
fish, while I labored strenuously, gaining a foot
or two, then lying back and holding hard, while
the fish made desperate rushes, displaying an
indomitable spirit, making me suspicious that I
had caught a tartar. From early youth having
had a penchant for taking impossible fishes in
various ways, it had often occurred to me that
anglers were strange creatures, undergoing great
fatigue, working, straining, being jerked this way
and that, to conquer a big fish. Under the ban-
ner of sport, this was pleasure ; but if one was
rewarded like the ordinary daily fisherman, how
prosaic, how monotonous, how hard the labor
would be. It all depends upon the point of
view, and as I controlled my fish after a particu-
larly heavy rush, Chief stopped rowing, and gaz-
ing at my face, contorted with emotion, remarked,
" Ef yo' had to do it, sa', it would be mighty
hard work!" Chief could never understand
why I insisted upon doing all the hauling while
he was paid to do it. Chief was plainly not a
sportsman; he had never experienced the thrill

The Groupers 219

of joy of the angler at the supreme moment of
vantage gained ; and so it is worse than useless
to argue with the man who does not care for
angling; he cannot understand that the angler
is, as a rule, born, not bred.

One cannot philosophize with a wild unknown,
battering and hammering at your arms, plunging,
then rising to the surface with convulsive bound
to turn and plunge again. There is a "second
wind " in sea angling, and if the fish secures it, it
is a sorry day for the fisherman, and seeing that
the fish must be fought without cessation, I
played it, hauling and giving with all my power,
and in a few moments had the pleasure of sight-
ing a magnificent fish at the surface, where it
turned and beat the blue water into foam, tossed
the Portuguese men-of-war into pearly fragments,
and ground up scores of delicate jellyfishes
which swarmed the warm waters of the Gulf. I
held the game while Chief cleverly inserted his
big gaff-hook beneath the head, and we held the
monster hard and fast and rested our eyes upon
the beauties of the black grouper, Garrupa ni-
grita, which, when towed in and hauled upon the
beach at Long Key, was estimated to weigh three
hundred and fifty pounds.

220 Big Game Fishes

This grouper attains a weight of six hundred
pounds, possibly more. It is found in Brazil,
Cuba, Porto Rico, and the islands of the Carib-
bean Sea, ranging as far north as Pensacola and
the mouth of the St. Johns River; on the west-
ern Gulf coast it has various names. The large
individuals are called the black jewfish down the
reef; smaller ones of one hundred and forty or
fifty pounds, by some fishermen, black groupers.
The term " black " is to some extent a misnomer,
as, while the fish appears black as it rises, its real
color, at least in specimens I have observed, is
a deep grayish or orange brown, or olive. Along
this reef, and particularly near an old wreck a
mile from Bird Key in the Tortugas group,
where the barrier reef deepened, I took numbers
of a smaller black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci
(Poey), a fish ranging from twenty to forty-five
pounds, and found them very gamy. Crayfish
bait was the most alluring. The tail of a cray-
fish, which I grained on the open reef early in
the morning, was crushed on the side, which
splits the shell down the back and renders it
easy to open. This was cut into two long baits.
The line used was a number twenty-one, attached
to a three-foot, slender, copper-wire leader or

The Groupers 221

snood. A large bait was necessary, as it was at
once attacked by parrot-fishes, angel, and other
beautiful bait destroyers, whose actions attracted
the groupers, which darted at it and made a fine
play, invariably poising for a second, with dor-
sals erect with excitement, then feeling the hook,
charged to the sounding of the reel.

Another really beautiful grouper which can be
commended to the angler is the hamlet, cherna
criolla, or Nassau grouper, called by my boat-
man the white grouper. It is Epinephelus stria-
tus (Bloch) of science. Its color is at times
almost white, more properly a pale gray, but its
normal tint is a light olive-green most beauti-
fully barred with white or pearl-gray, while the
head is striped horizontally, giving it a dashing
appearance. The eye is a rich blue, and all
together this fish is one of the most attactive of
the tropical game fishes. I have taken it at Key
West and all along the reef to the west, and it is
a common fish in West Indian waters, where it
attains a weight of fifty or seventy-five pounds.
The large size of many of these fishes is unsus-
pected, as the giants are not desirable for market
and often cannot be transported. I never saw
a black grouper, a " white grouper," or a red

222 Big Game Fisbes

grouper in the market at Key West which
weighed over ten or fifteen pounds. The largest
fishes were often rejected, as they could not be
conveniently disposed of ; hence few except reef
fishermen know that many of the groupers attain
such large dimensions or are endowed with game
qualities.

Another fine and attractive grouper, the spotted
grouper, Epinephelus drummond-hayi, may be
classed with the large game fishes, specimens of
which have been caught which weighed forty
and fifty pounds ; but the average weight of the
species caught by me off East Key was but
twenty-five pounds. The young fish of ten or
fifteen pounds, often taken about large coral
heads, afforded good sport. There are numerous
small groupers, snappers, and grunts, belonging to
the Florida fishing-grounds, which while com-
paratively unknown, would repay the angler who
spends the winter and spring along the Florida
reef.

CHAPTER XVI

THE TARPON

" But lo, each wave to silver turns."

— WILLIAM SHARP.

FEW anglers forget their first view of the tar-
pon. One saw the fish make a thirty-foot hori-
zontal leap. Another sprang aside as a large
fish fell headlong into the boat, passing through
the bottom. Another viewed the silver monster
coming like an arrow over the edge of a seine and
dodged in time to prevent a repetition of the
tragedy which had happened before. An angler
in a boat being towed behind a river steamer saw
a tarpon leap over him ; and still another, sitting
on the deck of a steamer, was made a target by
one of these fishes, which fell headlong into his
lap. Others have had a shark rise with their first
tarpon in its mouth, literally shaking the silver
king in their face ; and many incidents might be
given in the yearly history of this grand sport,
showing how deep an impression the initial

223

224 Big Game Fishes

appearance of the tarpon makes upon the man
with the rod.

I saw my first tarpon under peculiar circum-
stances at Garden Key on the Florida reef. I
had a platform built beneath a wharf, where I
could fish and watch certain fishes unseen, pro-
tected from the terrific heat ; and one day when
creeping to this vantage-ground I was amazed to
see directly by my side, in water so shallow that
its long dorsal spine was at the surface, a huge
tarpon. It was perfectly stationary, and a better
opportunity to observe the great fish with silvery
armor was never afforded. The fish was at least
six feet in length, and as I gazed down upon it,
its back had a deep blue tint. I did not dare to
move, fearing that the fascinating vision within
my very reach would disappear, and for several
moments feasted my eyes upon its fair propor-
tions, when it slowly moved down the sandy slope
into the deep blue channel and disappeared.
What induced the great fish to take this position
I could not conceive. The following day, with a
cast-net boy and fishing-tackle, I went to Long
Key, which at that time, previous to a hurricane
which I understand washed it away, was a sandy
island, about four feet high, fifty feet wide, and

THE LARGEST TARPON EVER CAUGHT WITH ROD
AND REEL

Caught by N. M. George, of Danbury, Conn., at Bahia Hunda, Florida,
April 8, 1901. Length, 7 feet, 2 inches; girth, 46 inches; weight,
2 1 3 pounds full

Tbe Tarpon 225

nearly quarter of a mile long, which formed the
western barrier of a large lagoon. Near the
lower or southern end of this key the bottom
rapidly dropped away from three or four feet into
the deep channel. On the edge of this I cast
a live mullet bait, which sank down into the chan-
nel, out of sight, my line resting on the sand over
a windrow of shells, Portuguese men-of-war,
lanthinas, the purple sea-snail, and many more,
tossed up by the sea. The coral sands were
fairly alive with hermit crabs. Nearly every
shell was preempted, and presently they were
crawling over me with the curiosity of their kind ;
while out from myriads of holes came wrhite spirit
crabs, their glassy eyes alert, ready to dart back at
the first alarm.

A strange place was this key, — not a tree or
bush, nothing on or in the sand but crabs, and an
occasional turtle's nest. While I was wondering
how the young turtles escaped so many crabs, my
line moved perceptibly, then ran into the water for
a foot or two and stopped. By this time I was on
my feet and had the line — not a moment too
soon — as it ran swiftly out, I giving, hoping that
it was a tarpon, yet fearing a shark. Perhaps
fifteen or twenty feet of line slipped away ; then

226 Big Game Fishes

thinking that this was enough for even the mouth
of a tarpon, I allowed the line to come taut and
hooked my fish, hooked it well, as up into the air,
fifty feet away, rose a mass of molten silver, which,
caught by the sun, flashed and scintillated in
a thousand rays, and while in mid-air the splendid
creature shook its massive head in a desperate
effort to rid itself of the hook. Then down it
fell, not gracefully, but like the swordfish, upon
its side, tossing the water in every direction. Like
a knife the line cut the water, throwing the spray
as the fish shot away, taking the line, garner-
ing it in yards. Only by mere chance was the
fish turned to the right, so that its rush was up
the key, upon whose beach we had been running
and slacking to wed the fish from the deep
channel. It could now be seen racing along near
the surface in the great arc of a circle ; now leap-
ing into the air, shaking its massive head, endeav-
oring to plunge down, tossing its tail out of water,
then falling, stopping aimlessly to thrash the
water into a flurry of foam.

There was but one chance to save the fish, and
this was to keep it in shallow water and gradually
work it in ; and as it rushed over the lagoon we
ran, finally going out into the shallow water,

The Tarpon 227

waist deep, to save the line. The rush of the
tarpon and our erratic movements started a
school of large black nurse-sharks, which were
sleeping here, into a wild stampede, which threat-
ened the line. It was mere good luck that saved
the tarpon, that now repeatedly left the water and
sprang into the air, a glittering mass of molten
silver, in the tropical sun. But foot by foot it
was forced up the lagoon, and finally my bait-
catcher, wild with excitement, literally threw him-
self upon it as I led it into the shallows, grasped
it by the gills and dragged it out upon the sands,
if not the same fish I had watched the day before,
one of equal size, a thing of beauty, a joy forever.
It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the
regal splendors of the tarpon to those who have
not seen it. Imagine a plain herring or sardine
lengthened out six or seven feet. Imagine its
scales newly minted silver dollars, frosted instead
of stamped, silver dollars which have had the
nacre of the whitest pearl in their composition,
and some conception may be had of the glories of
this radiant creature as the sun's rays flashed upon
it, glancing and scintillating in every direction.
The fish which lay upon the sands was about six
feet in length and weighed possibly one hundred

228 Big Game Fishes

and twenty-five or thirty pounds ; but this was
an estimate. The tarpon is literally a gigantic
cousin of the herrings, and its ties to the gamy
ten-pounder, Elops saurus, and bone-fish, Albula
vulpes, are still closer. It is included in the
family Elopidae, and after many nomenclatural
vicissitudes is now, according to Dr. Jordan,
Tarpon atlanticus (Cuvier and Val.), differing
but little from an East Indian tarpon, Megalops
cyprinoides.

In appearance the tarpon is long, slender, and
thin, or compressed — the typical herring type.
Its mouth is enormous and strikingly oblique, and
when open, the gill-covers expanded, showing the
blood-red gills, as often seen when leaping, it pre-
sents an extraordinary, grotesque, even cynical
appearance. The lower jaw is very prominent,
suggestive of a determination not to be caught ;
the teeth are minute, like velvet or plush (villi-
form), and the interior of the cavernous mouth is
hard and difficult to penetrate. The eye of the
tarpon is large and striking, and its glare has
more than once given a novice a tremor, as the
gigantic fish seemed to hang in the air dangerously
near the boat. The dorsal fin is high but short,
shaped like a lateen sail, the last ray long and

THE RED GROUPER

Epinephelus mono

ACTUAL SIZE OF JOKER

THE LITTLE JOKER
Used in Tarpon and Tuna fishing as a brake

The Tarpon 229

slender, reaching backward halfway to the base
of the tail. The latter is deeply forked, a power-
ful organ by which the tarpon leaps. The most
remarkable feature is the scales, which are enor-
mous, the largest being three inches and a half
in length. One in my possession measures three
inches and a half by three, almost one-half seem-
ingly covered with molten silver. The upper
portion of the back has a metallic blue cast,
appearing green in the water; the rest of the
body is pure silver.

The tarpon is found along the Atlantic coast
from Long Island to Brazil, but not in sufficient
quantities north of Florida or the St. Johns River
to assure sport. In the waters about the south-
ern portion of the Peninsula, on both sides, it is
very common, but is not plentiful on the extreme
outer reef from Key West to Loggerhead. In
six or seven years very few were seen. The
localities famous for them on the Florida coast
are in a general sense from the St. Johns to
Biscayne, Indian River, Lake Worth, and Fort
Meyer. Other localities made famous by anglers
are Captiva Pass, Boca Grande Pass, Marco,
Naples, Pine Island, and Homassossa. Here the
fish is known as the tarpon or silver-king, but on

230 Big Game Fishes

the Louisiana coast it becomes the grand ecaille,
and along the Texan shore tarpon and savanilla.
The tarpon is a migratory fish, moving north
over the vast area of the Gulf. One pronounced
migration is along the coast from Mexico, so
reaching Louisiana; the other possibly passing
up the Windward Islands, so reaching Key West
or vicinity, following up the keys to the Cape,
some following the west and others the east
coast. I infer this from the fact that if the vast
schools moved north in the centre of the Gulf,
they would have been noticed at the Tortugas
group, where, as stated, the fish is rare. Around
Cuba and other islands some tarpon are found all
the time, but they are more plentiful in summer
at the Florida points ; schools have been seen all
winter between Key West and Cape Florida, par-
ticularly at Caesar's Inlet. They appear in Feb-
ruary, increasing rapidly in numbers in March,
April, and May, entering rivers and streams as the
Apalachicola, being seen, according to Stearns,
eight miles from the mouth. I am indebted to
W. S. Jenkins, chief engineer of the Aransas
Pass Water Company, for much interesting data
relating to the arrival of the tarpon in Texas.
He writes : " The tarpon makes its appearance in

The Tarpon 231

Aransas Pass, lat. 27° 50' north, early in March
of each year, coming from the south. During
the months of March, April, and May they may
be seen in schools of six to one hundred, coming
up the coast from the south. Reaching the deep
water of the Pass, they congregate in the gorge
of the Pass for a while, as though to rest and
feed, and then pursue their journey north along
the coast to Galveston, Sabine Pass, and other
points. From the middle of April to the middle
of May they do not appear to take the hook or
bait; during this time they are congregated in
large numbers in the shallow bays and flats and
can be approached easily in a small boat without
displaying any alarm, and no lure will tempt
them to take the hook. Apparently this is their
spawning season. . . . During the latter part of
May and in June the tarpon take the hook
readily and seem eager for the mullet.

" The smallest tarpon I have measured was
2' 9" long and weighed eleven pounds; but
September 22, 1897, I hooked a tarpon which
appeared to be but twelve or thirteen inches
long. I lost it, so cannot say that I have seen
the young taken. About the first of December
the tarpon disappear entirely from the Pass.

232 Big Game Fishes

I believe that they go south or seek the warmer
waters of the Gulf."

As to the spawning habits of the tarpon almost
nothing is known, and the above information was
in reply to some questions I propounded, hoping
to obtain some definite facts. I watched the
hauling of the seine several years at the Tortugas
group, but never saw a young tarpon taken, so
assume that it does not breed at this point.
Mr. Barton W. Evermann found in his investiga-
tions among the fishes of Porto Rico, reported to
the United States Fish Commission, that the fish
doubtless made this region a spawning-ground.
He says : " Common about Porto Rico, where it
evidently breeds, as numerous immature individ-
uals were taken at Hucares and Fajardo.

" The four examples are from Hucares, from
7.5 to 11.5 inches long, and were seined in a
small, brackish pool of dark-colored water, not
over 5 feet deep, in the corner of a mangrove
swamp, and at that time (February) entirely
separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of
land scarcely 25 feet wide. The thirteen others
are nearly all very young, of 2.25 to 3.25 inches,
collected at Fajardo. No large individuals are

seen."

TARPON; TARPUM
Tarpon atlanticus (Cuvier and Valenciennes)

COMMON MULLET; STRIPED MULLET
Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus)

The Tarpon 233

The tarpon attains a length of seven or eight
feet and a weight of four hundred pounds.
Evermann states that a specimen weighing three
hundred and eighty-three pounds has been
harpooned, and from the descriptions of men
who lived on the upper reef I am convinced
that this is not the limit. In its habits the
tarpon is a wandering, predaceous fish, preying
upon sardines, mullet, and small fry of a similar
nature. It devastates the schools, pursuing its
course up the rivers into bays and over the flats,
everywhere a rapacious fish, and by the fisher-
men where it is liable to be seined, considered
dangerous, owing to its habit of leaping to
escape. The tarpon is not valued in America
as a food fish, and many fishes hooked for the
sport are released, the large specimens being
mounted as trophies. The tarpon has a value
outside of its flesh. The beautiful scales bring
from ten to twenty-five cents apiece in the
market. Dealers use them for various purposes ;
and some anglers, as a piscatorial carte de visite,
write their name, the date, and the weight of the
fish on the inside, and send the alluring object to
some distant angling friend, who is thus infected
with the fishing-fever and made wholly miserable.

234 Big Game Fishes

The tarpon, ranked by its devotees as the great-
est of game fish, is perhaps the only one which is
utterly scorned as a food fish. I found my negro
oarsman poring over an old geography one day at
Garden Key, carefully measuring a map of Florida
from Loggerhead up, with a foot rule. Finally he
said : " Boss, disher's a mighty out-ob-de-way place.
Fs jes' reckonin', an' hit's jes' two hundred and
fifty miles from a watermelon patch."

" Well, you have a tarpon, the finest-looking fish
in the world," I said, referring to the one caught.

"Yes, sa', hit looks fine; so does hay. Fd
rather eat hay dan tarpon, yes, suh, I would."

The great fighter is caught mainly for the sport
it affords, its relations to the angler as game
being similar to those of certain animals to the
hunter, who often risks his life to obtain the skin.
The tarpon season at Boca Grande, Captiva,
Marco, Naples, and other places, is marked every
year by remarkable sport, and now that railroads
have opened up Florida and palatial hotels are
found all alongshore, the .angler can reach the
best tarpon grounds with every comfort. At
these places anglers from all over the civilized
world congregate and try conclusions with this
marvellous game, and as a result, boatmen have

EDWIN VOM HOPE'S TARPON, 210 POUNDS, WHICH WAS
THE WORLD'S RECORD FOR A TIME

Tbe Tarpon 235

developed, well schooled in all the requisites, and
the sport can be fully enjoyed. Tarpon fishing
with the rod is like tuna fishing — a modern
sport — and was brought into public notice by
Mr. W. H. Wood, of New York, the first tarpon
having been taken in this way by Mr. S. Jones
of Philadelphia at Indian River Inlet. This his-
toric tarpon weighed about one hundred and
thirty pounds and was six feet in length, and
fought the angler over two hours before it was
brought to gaff. The fortunate boatman who
shared the reflected honor was John Weier of
New Smyrna. I well recall the interest aroused
among anglers when it was announced that an
angler wagered the expenses of any one to Flor-
ida who would take a tarpon with rod, reel, and
light line. This was rash, as the fish had already
been taken by Mr. Jones, but it was the intro-
duction of this remarkable sport.

We will assume that the angler is at some of
the resorts mentioned, or at St. James City, at
Pine Islands, to reach which the train is taken
from Jacksonville to Charlotte Harbor. Once on
the ground, arrangements can be made to fish in
the vicinity or any of the localities farther south.
The question of tarpon tackle is important and

236 Big Game Fishes

is much a question of taste. It will be noticed
that the men who have courted fame by bringing
their fish to gaff in a short time use " club " rods,
built, as a certain boatman sententiously said, for
" snatching a tarpon bald-headed." But there are
others who temper their methods with a modicum
of humanity, and use longer rods and the lightest
line that the conscience of the true sportsman will
allow. Such a rod may be of snake wood, noib
wood, or greenheart. It has a single long tip with
a short butt, and when jointed is seven or seven
and a half feet in length. The line is a number
fifteen or eighteen, and the hook a 10/0 Limerick,
a Van Vleck, or an O'Shaughnessy of similar size.
The snood, or snell, is a debatable question of vital
importance along the tarpon belt. Some anglers
use wire, but it is a shark country, and there are
groupers, channel-bass, and various game which
become vermin when the mind of the angler
is concentrated on tarpon alone, hence a soft
snood is preferred, that the shark may sever it and
cause no delay in the real work cut out for the
day. The hard jaw of the tarpon easily files off
a slender line, so a compromise is effected, and
a stout cod-line snood is used by some; others
again employ a moose-hide snood, and there are

The Tarpon 237

others. A large multiplying reel is necessary,
one that will hold six hundred feet of wet line, and
this should have a leather thumb brake. The
regulation tarpon reels are fully equipped, and in
point of fact the tuna and tarpon outfits are alike
with the exception of the snood, which in tuna
fishing is always of wire and very long. The
boats employed vary in localities and are ordi-
nary light, serviceable, lapstreak boats, with a seat
for the angler or anglers to face the stern.

The boatman having secured a catch of mullet,
you are off for the grounds, with a choice of
methods depending upon the boatman, the place,
or its traditions. You may anchor on the edge
of deep water, anchor inshore, or your boatman
may row, the gamy fish being taken in various
ways. Some anglers refuse to have the boat cast
off, preferring to fight to the finish from the an-
chorage. Assuming that the boat is anchored
in a favorable position, the mullet is cast thirty
or forty feet distant, and the waiting, that is an
accompaniment of all sport, begun. If there has
been a norther, if it is a late season, if cool weather
has been the rule for some weeks, the wait may
be a long one, and there is a tradition of a man
who never had a strike, yet is fishing on and on, a

238 Big Game Fishes

piscatorial Wandering Jew. If it is very hot, there
is more chance for an early strike, as the tarpon
evidently prefers warm weather and the resultant
warm water. Some wit has described this phase
of tarpon fishing as sitting in a Turkish bath
holding a string ; but the heat in this part of Flor-
ida is cool compared to the still days where I have
fished far down on the outer reef. Despite this
uncertainty, the angler should take for his motto,
Nunquam non paratus, and live up to it, as a
strike is liable to come at any time. There are a
thousand and one diversions in Florida to occupy
the angler, who of course is a lover of nature, even
if the fish are not biting ; and again it may be the
day of days when the game is in the Pass and
fish are seen at once rising all about, flashing here
and there. Such a day Mr. O. A. Mygatt of New
York found at Boca Grande on May 26, 1898,
when he took twenty-two tarpons, which I believe
is the record ; while at this famous locality Mr.
W. H. Grenfell of London took one hundred fish
between April 19 and May 10, — both of which
cases illustrate the possibilities in this sport of
sports.

We may assume that it is a fishing day. Pres-
ently the line begins to run out, and you aid

The Tarpon 239

the big reel, overhauling the line, paying out,
ze-ze-ze-ze! until perhaps twenty-five or even thirty
feet have gone. This is the method of many
successful tarpon anglers, but not my own. By
this time you fancy that the tarpon has bolted
the bait, and you give it the butt as the line
comes taut, forcing the hook into its big throat.
Up into the air it rises, looking so big, shaking
so fiercely, that you wonder if such a monster
can be caught. At such a moment a tarpon
has tossed the baited hook yards away, dropped
to the water with a crash and leaped, wild
with fear, pain, or astonishment, still believing
itself hooked. A tarpon in such a frenzy has
been seen to throw itself an estimated thirty feet
along the water. Sometimes it rises near the
boat, again fairly alongside. But your fish is
headed away, and as your boatman has hauled up
the anchor, you are off behind this silvery king.
Now it threatens to take you out into the surf in
its wild rush for the Gulf — now it is in the air,
a splendid glittering object, the type of activity.
Two or three hundred feet of line have been
taken in the succession of rushes, and despite
your utmost exertion, your pumping and fighting,
the tarpon holds its own, is still king ; but in the

240 Big Game Fisbes

end you win, and after half an hour, or perhaps
it is two hours, the tarpon is alongside. Your
boatman gaffs it and deftly slides it into the boat,
and as you lean back, worn, weary, dishevelled,
a finger nail gone, perhaps, two knuckles bleeding
where the handle of the reel caught you at the last
rush, yet you are happy and delighted ; and so far
from being discouraged, you are now determined
to hook a record fish if it takes all summer.

Such may be the experience of an angler in
Florida. At Captiva Pass, Mr. Edwin vom
Hofe of New York took his two-hundred-and-
ten-pound tarpon, which was for many years the
record, and I believe still holds for this particular
region. It was exceeded by Mr. N. M. George
of Danbury, Connecticut, who took with the rod,
at Bahia Honda, April 8, 1901, a tarpon which
weighed two hundred and thirteen pounds. Its
length was seven feet two inches and its girth
forty-six inches.

This, then, is the record for American waters.
This catch was exceeded by Dr. Howe at Tam-
pico, Mexico, his fish weighing two hundred and
twenty-three pounds. All these catches stand on
a weighing basis. R. E. Farley of Aransas Pass
informs me that C. W. McCawley of Dallas,

The Tarpon 241

Texas, landed on July 17, 1901, a tarpon seven
feet ten inches in length, with a girth of forty-six
inches. This fish, unfortunately, was not weighed.
According to the formula given, this would indi-
cate a fish weighing two hundred and thirty-
three pounds, doubtless the record fish ; but in
a question of records weight alone is accepted.
A fish taken in Corpus Christi Bay, near Aran-
sas (on a hand-line, so I understand), was eight
feet three inches in length and weighed two
hundred and nine and a half pounds. I have
seen a photograph of this remarkable fish, and it
was very long and slender. If it had been in the
best condition, doubtless it would have exceeded
any fish taken with line.

The question of records is an important one
to the angler, who has, it must be confessed, a
single weakness manifested in pride in the cap-
ture of a large fish ; hence certain safeguards
must be thrown about the question. There are
records with the harpoon, records with the hand-
line, but the true record of the sportsman-angler
is the rod record, — in a word, the catch made
in a sportsmanlike manner, as that of Mr. George
or Mr. vom Hofe ; and there is an unwritten
rule that the record weight must be that shown

242 Big Game Fishes

at the weighing, and shall be attested by wit-
nesses. I made the draught of the original rules
of the angling tournament of the Tuna Club,
and suggested that the club demand that con-
testants use a fairly light rod, theoretically not
over twenty-six ounces in weight, a line not
larger than a twenty-four cuttyhunk; that the
fish must be brought to gaff unaided, any break-
age or assistance from boatman debarring the
angler. This assures a contest between one man
and the fish, the chances on the side of the latter.
It is astonishing how a fish will grow in the
hands of a determined and enthusiastic boatman.
I recall one who always claimed that the scales
were "shy four pounds." He then added two
pounds for loss of blood while playing, two more
for certain " shrinkages and evaporations " before
it could be weighed ; then this true and cheerful
soul would throw in an extra pound for luck, and
was prepared to take affidavit that the weight
was correct. My catches were the envy of the

reef when Billy had the weighing. And then

to hear him announcing the weight to others !
Then it was that he soared to the very empyrean
of the imagination. The arguments that he had
to sustain his premise, the impressive manner

The Tarpon 243

in which he swore to the double weight, the
evident fact that he convinced himself that he
was right, were all delightful features in these
fishing days when records were not thought of.
I once caught with his aid a three-hundred-and-
fifty-pound jewfish and frequently told the story.
After several years I met Billy, and in his pres-
ence related the experience ; but when I men-
tioned the weight, his face assumed an expression
of surprise. "Why, sir," he said, "you forget,
sir, that I weighed that fish, and it weighed five
hundred pounds, sir," this so seriously that no
one could hold out against it; doubtless it was
five hundred pounds, and I was mistaken. This
boatman was an Irishman, a second Paddy Farrell
of Kinsale, whose angling lines have made John
Lander famous in the annals of angling poetry.
You will remember that Paddy thus writes to
his friend Thady Mullowny and beseeches him
to come down and try the fish of Kinsale, send-
ing him a hake through the mail as a sample
of the big fish then biting: —

" We've a choice set of books for the student who wise is,

The eel of true science to seize by the tail ;
At all seasons a skate you can have where no ice is,
Or a sinecure plaice you may get at Kinsale."

244 Big Game Fishes

Back to Paddy came this rollicking answer : —

" Dear Paddy — I got your poetic epistle,

Along with the hake that you sent by the mail ;
But what could bewitch you to sing, or to whistle,
In strains so melodious the praise of Kinsale ?

" In all baits you're well skilled, you cod-dragging curmudgeon,

To hook every fish, from a sprat to a whale ;
But your lines shan't catch me — by my soul, I'm no gudgeon
To flounder or starve in the streets of Kinsale.

" I know your design is, as usual — sell — fish ;

For catch what you will, my old boy, I'll be bail,
You'll jolt off to Cork your best hake and best shell- fish,
And leave barely a claw for the town of Kinsale."

Texas should add the tarpon rampant to her
escutcheon, as sooner or later the fame of this
splendid fish and the remarkable fishing found
along her shores will become one of the prime
attractions of this region. That I might speak
from first hand and describe the capture of the
Texas tarpon from actual experience, I made the
trip to the Gulf coast in July and August, 1902,
finding the fishing at Aransas Pass far beyond
my expectations, and what was more surprising,
the grounds tempered by a cool breeze which
made the sport enjoyable and in every way satis-
factory.

The Tarpon 245

The tarpon is found all along the coast of
Texas, but the centre of interest is Aransas Pass,
a narrow cut between St. Joseph's and Mustang
islands, eight miles from the mainland. On the
former stands the fine club-house of the Tar-
pon Club, whose hospitality I enjoyed through
the courtesy of Judge A. W. Houston, its vice-
president, a devoted tarpon angler of San Antonio.
On Mustang Island is the little town of Tarpon
and its one hotel, Tarpon Inn, where the angler
will find excellent entertainment, good boatmen,
and tackle, if perchance he is without it. Aransas
Pass is reached from New York or California via
San Antonio, the Sunset Route being the most
direct in either case. At San Antonio the Aran-
sas Pass road in a few hours takes one to Rock-
port, from which there is a daily mail-boat down
the fine bay of Aransas fifteen miles, to the
Tarpon Club or Tarpon Inn. The fishing sea-
son here is from April to December, and possibly
the angler would find it cooler in October, when,
I was informed, the fish are in the inner Pass;
but I found the conditions excellent in August, a
cool breeze blowing night and day and the fish
biting. I fell into the hands of one Mateo Bru-
jen, one of the many skilled boatmen here, and

246 Big Game Fishes

in ten minutes after reaching the Pass I was
playing my first Texas tarpon ; and of six boats
which made up the party, all had fish or strikes
soon after reaching the ground. I fished with a
rod eight and a half feet long, a twenty-one cutty-
hunk line, using a large tuna reel of Edwin vom
Hofe make, containing six hundred feet of line, a
Van Vleck hook with a three-foot phosphor-
bronzed wire leader, or snell, the boatman doub-
ling the line for about a foot beyond this. The
bait was a live mullet not over four inches in
length, hooked through the lips, and with thirty
feet of line out I began fishing.

My boatman rowed slowly along the jetty, not
ten feet distant, where the water was shallow.
The tide was slack, the water smooth in the
channel, but breaking heavily on either side.
That tarpons were plentiful was evident, as every
few minutes the back of one would be seen ; and
as the boatman rowed out beyond the jetty I had
my first strike, and with the best of luck hooked
my fish. Up into the air four or five feet went a
splendid mass of molten silver, to fall with a
crash, only to go up again, this time tossing the
bait at me with such force that it fell on the
gunwale. As the fish reached the surface, it

The Tarpon 247

made a fine run of one hundred and fifty feet
which was irresistible. The boatman shouted
that a shark was after it, so I forced the fighting
while he backed water. Up into the air went the
silver king on the crest of a big roller, falling
broadside and still hooked, as I had with the big
multiplier kept a taut line; then it stopped and
came toward me, sweeping around in the arc of
a circle, making a splendid leap so near the boat
that I fancied I heard the boatman gasp; perhaps
it was myself. Nothing could be more gamy,
more magnificent, than the play of this fish, as
rushing, leaping, coming in, bearing off, always
on the surface, it fought its gallant fight for fifteen
minutes or more, until I brought it successfully
to the boat. As near as I could estimate, the fish
was six feet in length, as we lost it after having
towed it nearly to the beach a mile distant.

By this time two other anglers were playing
tarpons, and the scene was intensely exciting and
sensational, especially as a gaffed tarpon very
nearly wrecked a neighboring boat, overturning
gaffer and angler in the melee. Tarpons were
now leaping here and there, and I turned my
attention to attempts to photograph them, one
angler forcing his fish to jump for my benefit and

248 Big Game Fishes

with a thirty-seven cotton line endeavoring to trip
or throw it in the air.

At times, when a dozen or more boats have
been fishing here, six or eight tarpons have been
seen in the air at the same moment, and the lofty
tumbling productive of much entertainment. A
large fish hooked by a member of the Tarpon
Club leaped over the boat of Judge Houston ;
and a fish hooked by another angler leaped into
the air and struck the chair of the occupant of
another boat, almost knocking him overboard.
In such a whirl of excitement it is evident that
angler and boatman must be on the alert, not only
to secure their own fish, but to avoid the air rushes
of the frenzied game of some one else.

The second tarpon I hooked was kept at short
line especially to observe the leap, in a hope to
photograph it; but when the splendid creature
went into the air higher than my head, not ten
feet distant, hurling the spray over me, I confess
that all thoughts of the kodak vanished. When
in the air, the fish was apparently headed for me,
but it dropped alongside with a crash, and as the
warning of the boatman came, fearing that the
fish would come aboard, it dashed by me three
feet under water, canted upward at an angle that

Tbe Tarpon 249

caught the sun's rays, a blaze of silver, and before
the boatman could whirl the skiff about I saw it
gleaming in the sunlight over my shoulder, high
in air again ; then, despite my pressure on the
rubber brake, it was away, fifty, a hundred feet,
literally to rise into the empyrean like a bird
again and again, and with wide-open gills en-
deavor to throw the deadly hook from its jaws.

While I was trolling, ten-pounders, here called
skipjacks, were darting into the air, their leaps
being very similar to those of the crazed tarpons.
For fifteen minutes or more this gamy creature
fought and leaped, then coming to gaff with vigor-
ous protest, and was only landed in the skiff after
great difficulty, though only five feet three inches
in length.

Having taken all the tarpons I desired, I
devoted my time to observations of the vaulting
feats of this gallant and spectacular fish. Those
who have read the lines on tuna jumping will,
perhaps, have noticed my reticence, as I realize
how easily one may be mistaken ; and in the case
of the tarpon I have the same hesitation, yet fear
I may do injustice to this marvellous jumper if I
do not refer to it. I was particularly desirous
to determine the effect of the side swing of the

250 Big Game Fishes

tarpon in mid-air on a taut line, and began trolling
with a line not over fifteen feet out — a seeming
absurdity ; yet my boatman assured me that along
the jetty this was often effective, and he was a true
prophet. The strike soon came and I responded
at once, possibly giving the fish the benefit of a
foot by dropping my tip before striking, then
repeating it twice at least ; in a word, attempting
to hook the tarpon as I would a tuna on the
instant. In every instance this was successful,
and I did not miss hooking a fish, trolling at a
speed of two and a half miles an hour ; those lost,
with one exception, were while I was towing them
in after I had brought them to the boat — a dis-
agreeable process and one that would be unneces-
sary if a good raft was anchored in the lee of the
jetty. When I hooked a fish with the short line,
it went into air so near the boat that my boatman
feared that it was coming aboard ; but, fortunately,
I was able quickly to give the reel handle a twirl
so that the fish was in mid-air with a taut line.
The tarpon had its mouth and gills open, and as
nearly as I could judge it made two convulsive
lateral swings before it fell, merely jerking a foot
of my line from the reel, the anti-overrunning drag
coming into play here. The fish dropped heavily,

The Tarpon 251

and I held it with all my strength, right thumb on
the reel-pad and left thumb and forefinger on the
line above the reel, stopping the tarpon despite
its struggles and resulting, as I had expected, in
another frantic leap almost alongside.

This jump may have been seven or eight feet.
I attempted to throw the fish from its position in
mid-air merely as an experiment, but failed to effect
it ; with a heavy line this could easily be done,
from all of which I deduce that with a good drag
there is no reason why a taut line should not be
kept when the tarpon is in air. As to the height
the tarpon attains when leaping, Mr. Waddell
states that he saw a fish, hooked by Mr. L. G.
Murphy of Converse, Indiana, make an initial leap
of twelve feet and follow it with six leaps all
equally high. He says, " The ordinary height a
tarpon leaps is from seven to eight feet." This
agrees with my observations, and that the fish
attains the highest jumps of the tuna is shown
by the statement of Mr. Mason.

The time of my visit was considered an un-
fortunate one, owing to the fact that the recent
floods had filled the water with mud, which seri-
ously interfered with the fishing ; yet, at its worst,
I doubt if there is anywhere else such tarpon-

252 Big Game Fishes

fishing or so many fish constantly in evidence.
This is best illustrated by some of the records
of the Tarpon Club and the Tarpon Inn. Up to
August 8, 1902, the rod catch of the latter place in
the half season was over three hundred, and Mr.
J. R. Wainwright of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, had
taken one hundred and seventy-four fish, ranging
up to six feet in length, his best catch being thir-
teen in one day, the fish ranging from five feet
ten inches to six feet three inches. A number of
ladies have made records at the Tarpon Club, and
Miss Houston, daughter of Judge Houston, vice-
president of the club, killed the record fish of
the season of 1902 after a hard contest with the
gamy silver king, which was six feet six inches in
length. Miss Hampton, daughter of General Wade
Hampton, brought fifteen tarpons to gaff during
her visit to the club.

Not alone in Texas do ladies hold records, as
previous to the capture of the two-hundred-and-
ten-pound tarpon at Captiva Pass by Mr. Edwin
vom Hofe, the record was held by Mrs. George T.
Stagg of Kentucky, who, single-handed, brought
to gaff in May, 1901, a silver king which weighed
two hundred and five pounds.

From July 20 to August 17, 1901, Mr. J. T.

Tbe Tarpon 253

Mason of Denver took eighty tarpons at Aransas
Pass, and his record for 1902 was even more
remarkable. Mr. Mason observed a tarpon leap
fifteen feet over a boat containing two men, clear-
ing the men's heads by ten feet; and doubtless
this is sometimes exceeded. If the records of this
exciting fishing-ground could all be told, they
would test the credulity of many who do not go
down to the sea to fish. Judge Houston and a
friend landed nineteen tarpons in two and a half
days' fishing, which is a remarkable feat when
the activity of the fish is considered.

The fishing at Aransas Pass is mainly trolling,
and nearly all fish not desired as trophies are towed
to the beach, hauled up, measured, and after a
scale is taken, released. Few fish are weighed
here. If the angler is curious as to the weight of
his catch, he uses the following formula, which
gives a good general average : Weight in pounds
is equal to the square of the maximum girth in
inches, multiplied by the length in inches, divided
by eight hundred. The Texas tarpon is by no
means particular as to bait. I found that live or
stale bait was equally acceptable, and a variety of
fishes can be used as lures. The tarpons begin
to gather in the Pass in October, and the first

254 Big Game Fishes

" norther " in November sends them south, the
season closing by the first of December, when
tarpons appear to be crowded out by the ducks.
To Dr. H. W. Howe of Mexico lovers of this
strenuous sport are indebted for the discovery
that the tarpon winters as far north as Tampico,
and that there is excellent fishing here in January,
February, and March ; hence the travelling angler
can find tarpon fishing if desired every month in
the year, between Florida, Texas, and Tampico.

In an interesting and valuable series of articles
in Forest and Stream, Mr. Waddell gives many
interesting facts relating to this gamy fish in its
winter home. He believes that it is more gamy
at that season. According to Mr. Waddell, the
Mexican tarpon ascends the river Panuco forty
or fifty miles, and a small one was taken in the
Papaloapam River one hundred and twenty-five
miles from the Gulf. The Mexican tarpon record,
according to the same authority, is a two-hundred-
and-twenty-three-pound fish, six feet eight inches
in length, caught at Tampico by Dr. Howe of the
city of Mexico.

This catch will stand as the world's record. In
a letter to me Dr. Howe said : " My fish weighed
223 pounds six hours after it was caught, Its

The Tarpon 255

length was only six feet eight inches, but it was
built more like a jewfish than a tarpon [that is,
very deep]. It showed its head above water
but twice." Dr. Howe played this record fish
from eight in the morning until half-past eleven,
or three hours and a half, before it was brought
to gaff.

The Texas tarpon, like other fishes, varies
much, some medium-sized fishes making a fight
that involves the angler in a long and arduous
contest. One, despite his efforts, took Mr. Cotter
of Tarpon down the Gulf coast through the
breakers for several miles. Others are brought
to gaff in from fifteen to twenty-five minutes, and
if the shark was not a factor to be considered, a
number fifteen or eighteen cuttyhunk line would
be admirably adapted to the sport ; but when a
shark appears as a contestant, demanding its
pound of flesh, sometimes the entire spoils, it is
necessary to force the fighting, which can be done
with a number twenty-one cuttyhunk line and a
short rod.

The tarpon angler will be puzzled by the differ-
ent weights of fish of nearly the same length. I
brought to gaff a tarpon which I estimated was
six feet in length, yet it was long and slender, and

256 Big Game Fishes

its weight doubtless not over one hundred and
twenty pounds. Mr. vom Hofe's record fish was
but six feet eleven inches, yet weighed two hun-
dred and ten pounds; and Dr. Howe's tarpon,
which weighed two hundred and twenty-three
pounds, was three inches shorter than the above.
The truth is, that the maximum length of the tar-
pon is about eight feet, a long, slender fish ; but
mature fishes, or those which have had very favor-
able food conditions, fill out, become exceedingly
robust, thus materially adding to their weight
without affecting the length.

The midsummer tarpon grounds of Aransas
Pass are tempered by a cool, constant breeze.
The health conditions are apparently perfect,
with a complete absence of malarial taint and
few, if any, mosquitoes. In fishing from eight
to twelve, or four hours, daily, and sometimes in
the afternoon, the angler may expect to take
from one to five tarpons a day. In a month's
fishing by Mr. J. T. Mason, referred to, he drew
but two blanks. On nine days he took four fish
and over. On eleven days he took either two or
three daily. This, with the remarkable average
of Mr. Wainwright, of one hundred and seventy-
five tarpons for but half of the season of 1902

The Tarpon 257

or up to August 8, will give the reader a fair idea
of the possibilities of sport in this part of Texas.

This chapter gives experiences in fishing in
Florida and Texas, but possibly the would-be
tarpon angler and novice may desire some explicit
directions, which, however, are naturally influenced
by personal likes and dislikes. I have frequently
in these pages voiced the sentiment that anglers
obtain the fullest enjoyment in the possession of
their own tackle, and that it often means the cap-
ture of the fish goes without saying. We may
assume, then, that the layman has been enthused
to the tarpon-taking point and looks about him
for an outfit. Many experienced tarpon anglers
advise the making of tackle, that is, the snell or
leader, some even making rods. I note that Mr.
Mason made his own rod. A very successful rod
can be made by selecting a good bamboo pole,
cutting it down to seven feet, buying a reel seat
and German silver guides and attaching them;
yet I would not advise it. Good tarpon rods are
works of art, and they are produced by experts in
their line by the great tackle dealers of the country.
In this sport one wishes to take no chances, hence
I would suggest to the would-be angler to buy or
order from some one of the old firms a tarpon rod

258 Big Game Fishes

complete. Personally I am an advocate of rods
longer than those generally made for the purpose,
and have demonstrated that tarpon can be taken
with them ; but the regulation rod is of noib wood,
greenheart, or split bamboo. I would suggest
the first — a species of greenheart of excellent
properties. One which I have used has a short,
hard rubber, silver-mounted butt, with a long tip
with double bell-guides, and is six feet nine inches
in length and weighs twenty-six ounces. With
one tip the rod costs $17; with two tips $22. An
excellent rod is made of split bamboo; indeed,
Mr. vom Hofe took a six-hundred-pound fish
with a standard tarpon rod of split bamboo seven
feet in length. Another noib-wood tarpon rod is
seven feet three inches and weighs twenty-four
ounces. My best tarpon rod was eight and a half
feet in length, but the novice should remember
that the difficulties in landing a fish increase with
the length of the rod. One rod of this kind is suf-
ficient, though two are better, and they should
be carried in a stiff leather rod case made for the
purpose. How much depends upon a reel every
veteran angler knows, and there is but one for
this fishing, the best ; not necessarily the highest-
priced, but one of a make that has stood the test.

The Tarpon 259

A cheap reel will go to pieces sooner or later.
The desirable reel costs from twenty dollars up-
ward. It must hold six hundred feet of wet
twenty-one cuttyhunk line, or some good line of
equivalent size. It can be fitted with one of the
several good drags on the market if desired, and
should have a leather or rubber thumb-pad fas-
tened to the cross-bar to press against the line.
The line must be of the best quality ; a number
eighteen is large enough for a cool, skilful angler,
and with it the largest fish can be killed ; but for
an angler in his novitiate a number twenty-one or
twenty-four is better. Such lines cost from three
and a half to four dollars — and the fisherman will
do well to have several, especially if the fishing is
away from the haunts of men or dealers. In the
matter of hooks, quality and quantity both must
be observed. The Van Vleck is a favorite with
all tarpon anglers, and is the result of keen and
intelligent observation on the part of an ardent
tarpon angler. The 10/0 O'Shaughnessy is an
excellent hook. The latter is fastened to a leader
or snell of phosphor-bronzed wire at least five feet
in length, divided into three lengths, each con-
nected by a swivel. The angler can make his
own leaders, If so, a small vise, and pincers of

260 Big Game Fishes

several kinds and a supply of wire are necessary.
This gives one something to do on rainy or off
days ; but I believe I am offering good advice
when I suggest that the angler lay in a supply of
ready-made leaders, several dozen at least from
the best makers. These will cost from fifty to
eighty cents apiece complete. I would suggest
that the angler have a box made by some dealer
which will hold the reel in the centre and on the
sides the lines and mounted hooks. There should
be room in this box for a revolver, several pincers,
a set of miniature tools, — the kind which stow in
the handle, — a flat file, a patent oiler, a piece of
chamois skin for the reel, some sandpaper, a
knife of bowie type, a few pipe sinkers, a brass
line drier, some fine copper wire, a spool of silk
for repairing, sticking plaster, and some simple
remedy for abrasions, etc. These can be so stowed
that the convenient " grip " holds all the necessary
articles except the rod. If the angler is going
away from well-known grounds I would suggest
a gaff, spear, shark-line, and several hooks. On
the reef my boat was equipped with all these ap-
pliances and I frequently found them convenient.
In making up such a box the novice can obtain
the advice of the dealer, who should be familiar

The Tarpon 261

from personal experience with all the fishing-
grounds. A leather rod-rest or socket is a con-
venience. They come for the boat seat or waist
and cost from two to three dollars. One for the
seat is not only a luxury but a necessity. Such
an equipment, and it may be varied, will be a
pleasure aside from its actual use, and if the fish-
ing is in out-of-the-way parts of Florida, it is almost
essential, though at some points good tackle can
be purchased. At Aransas Pass the best tarpon
tackle is for sale, but if the angler is starting from
New York, he will have better "luck" to equip
there, thus taking no chances, as small dealers
are liable to be out of certain rods or reels.

Arriving at the grounds, the angler selects his
boatman, a man of experience, in a short time
learning the peculiarities of the grounds. On the
morning appointed he finds himself in the Pass.
The rod-rest is screwed on to the seat between his
legs. The line which has been stretched, if new,
the night before, is wet ; and the boatman lashes
the reel to the rod whether it has a patent fastener
or not, reeves the line, fastens the snell to it, and
baits the hook, while the angler, seated in a com-
fortable chair, reels off the line with his left hand
the number of feet suggested by the well-posted

262 Big Game Fishes

boatman, — it may be forty and it may be fifteen.
I hooked several tarpons with the latter length,
and saw the magnificent leaps close aboard, too
close for actual comfort if the truth were told.
The angler now holds the rod across his lap, point-
ing over the quarter to port and slightly up, never
astern, and at its best nearly at right angles to the
boat. His right thumb rests upon the thumb-
brake, the left grasps the cork-grip above the
reel. The boatman is rowing at a speed of about
two and a half miles an hour, and if he is the man
I take him to be, he is rich in expedients in ward-
ing off ennui. At the exact moment the novice
begins to be discouraged he invariably sees a tar-
pon, or hears one grunt or puff, and thus deftly
carries the angler along, keeping him on the alert
until the strike really comes. This is an epoch
in the angler's life, a bright moment in what Byron
terms that " solitary vice " of angling. What to
do and how to do it well is the question. If the
angler follows my suggestion, he will sway the
point forward, then strike at once ; but if he accepts
the dictum of many others with possibly far more
experience, he will give some line, on the ground
that as the interior of the mouth of the tarpon is
hard and bony, it must swallow the hook, which

The Tarpon 263

will become impaled in the throat. I may be
hypercritical, but I would rather lose a fish than
play it with my hook embedded deep in its throat.
If the hook strikes an impenetrable portion of the
jaw, it will, especially if two or three strikes are
made, slide along and find a soft place in the angle
of the jaw ; at least I have rarely failed to hook
my fish when trolling, by striking at once ; and
with apologies to other and better anglers, I com-
mend the quick strike, and by strike I mean the
retort courteous to the " bite " of the tarpon. It
must not be a jerk but a powerful backward sway,
the thumb pressing hard upon the leather brake.
The fish will at once jerk away; but the angler
can repeat the strike from one to three times,
thus "setting" the hook in its jaw. The fish
struggles violently, and the angler holds the rod
up as firmly as possible, " giving the butt," then
slipping it into the leather socket. At this pre-
cise moment the well-regulated tarpon should go
into the air from three to twelve, or more, feet
— a bewildering, dazzling vision, the silver king
of vaulters, and fight and struggle

" Till floating broad upon his breathless side,
And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore
You gayly drag your unresisting prize."

264 Big Game Fishes

Despite all efforts to hold it, it breaks away,
and to the merry jangle of the reel goes bound-
ing along half across the channel, tearing the
line from the reel, until the novice is amazed at
the strength and power of the fish. Up into the
air it goes, again and again, and with two hun-
dred feet gone the angler stops it and begins to
reel, and here often meets his Waterloo. The
angler should be perfectly cool, prepared to trans-
fer hand from brake to reel handle and back with
great rapidity; he must not hold the fish by
the reel handle — often a great temptation; the
rushes must be stopped by the thumb and upper
hand pressure, and the moment this is accom-
plished seize the reel handle and turn, then drop
the tip to the water's edge, or very low ; and with
both hands, the right on the brake, lift steadily
back until the rod is vertical, then lower the tip
suddenly, reeling rapidly. This is "pumping,"
already referred to, and by it the angler gains
several feet with ease; in fact, deliberately to
reel in a hard-fighting tarpon out of hand, with-
out resorting to this expedient, is at times almost
impossible. By a series of short "pumps" the
fish comes in rapidly, but the angler should be
watchful, as the fish, if it is thoroughly game,

The Tarpon 265

will make many desperate rushes and leaps
which seriously interfere with the best-laid plans
of the most astute angler ; but if all goes well,
in from fifteen to thirty minutes the fish should
be alongside. The angler holds it firmly, then
passes the tip of his rod forward, on the port
side if he is right-handed, and the game swims
into the field of the gaffer, the angler's right
thumb on the pad ; the left hand may now steal
to the reel to overrun a foot or two as the gaffer
does his work, but he should hold himself well
in hand, as the work is not complete until the
fish is in the boat ; at any moment it is liable to
make a rush and escape. I have seen a large
fish leap out of a barrel ten minutes after it had
been gaffed and its capture supposed to be a
closed incident.

If the fish is not desired as a trophy, the gaffer
seizes the doubled portion of the line and holds
it at the gunwale, inserts a short gaff just beneath
the lower jaw and holds the fish while it is un-
hooked and cast off, perhaps to be caught again.
If the fish is to be kept, the gaffer does not
touch the line, nor does he attempt to gaff until
the fish is in position ; then the gaff is placed
under the head and jerked heavily upward be-

266 Big Game Fisbes

tween the gills and the tip of the jaw, and the
fish's head held partly out of water against
the boat, while it struggles. Some anglers kill the
game with a revolver, or stun it with a club. It
is a dangerous experiment to take a living tarpon
into a light boat, as a lusty fish will wreck a skiff,
and has been known to throw all hands over-
board. Assuming that it is in condition to take
aboard, the boatman steps on the rail, forcing it
to the water's edge, and slides the fish in upon
the canvas which should cover the bottom of
his part of the boat and which, if the tarpon still
struggles, can be thrown over it. If the fish is
firmly hooked, the boatman now cuts the line,
or unfastens it, and baits a new hook ; hence no
time is lost if fish are biting.

I have seen tarpon fishing described as requir-
ing no skill, but no more laughable picture can
be seen upon the high seas, no more helpless
individual, than the man utterly unfamiliar with
rod and reel trying to land a big game fish;
he does not realize it, but the fish is having all
the sport. I once came upon a Frenchman, off
the bay of Avalon, who hailed me ; and when we
went alongside he was clinging desperately to a
very pliable impossible bamboo rod, his back

The Tarpon 267

bent into a bow, and on his knees, holding on to
a tuna which was somewhere down in the deep
channel. The fisherman's face was red, the veins
stood out upon it like cords, and perspiration
rained down. " Ze man who invented zis tunare
fishing, he ought to be in zee jail," he cried.
"Come and take me off heem, will you? For
hours I have heem ; he take my fingare nail, he
take my skin ; he take me next. Zis is not fish-
ing, zis is Hades."

The Frenchman would not allow his boatman
to interfere, as he thought he had a record fish, and
he had been trying for hours to reel it in ; when
it did come up, through the efforts of my boat-
man and myself, and was found to weigh but
eighty pounds, the woe and rage of that French-
man passed all understanding.

The angler at Aransas Pass will find the cus-
tom holds of towing the fish to the beach — a
most laborious habit and unnecessary if the boat-
man has a large wide-beamed boat, when the
largest tarpon can be held at the rail, the hook
dislodged, or the game killed and taken aboard
with ease by a boatman who understands his
business. A green hand, or a nervous man,
should be avoided, as such an one will lose his

268 Big Game Fishes

head at a difficult gaffing and strike at or down
upon a fish, and so cut the line — a crime of
sinister character, for which the code provides no
adequate punishment, especially after a fish has
been played for several hours.

One of the charms of tarpon, as well as tuna,
angling is that it is preeminently a social pas-
time. Often fifteen or twenty boats are grouped
within hailing or signalling distance, and the man
who has no strikes is regaled with the vaulting
fish of more fortunate anglers, and the sight. of
four or five tarpons in the air at once is a most
exhilarating scene ; yet Byron in " Don Juan "
refers to angling as a solitary vice.

"... angling, too, that solitary vice,
Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says ;
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it."

There were many delights which did not enter
the soul of the great poet, almost the only man
of distinction to denounce angling. Yet we may
pardon him, as he appears to except the tuna and
would probably commend the tarpon had he
known this noble fish. His honest dislike for
angling is well worth quoting, and in a note to

Tbe Tarpon 269

the condemning lines in " Don Juan" he writes:
" It would have taught him humanity at least.
This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to
quote (amongst the novelists) to show their sym-
pathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches
us how to sew up frogs and break their legs, by
way of experiment, in addition to the art of
angling — the cruelest, the coldest, and stupidest
of pretended sports. They may talk about the
beauties of nature, but the angler merely thinks
of the dish of fish ; he has no leisure to take his
eyes off from the streams, and a single bite is
worth, to him, more than all the scenery around.
Besides, some fish bite on a rainy day. The
whale, the shark, and the tunny fishing have some-
what of noble and perilous in them; even net
fishing, trawling, etc., are more humane and use-
ful — but angling ! No angler can be a good man."
After writing this Byron appears to have re-
called the fact that he had a friend addicted to
angling, and we find the following : "One of the
best men I ever knew — as humane, delicate-
minded, generous, and excellent a creature as any
in the world, was an angler. True, he angled
with painted flies, and would have been incapa-
ble of the extravagance of I. Walton." In a

270 Big Game Fishes

third note he explains that " The above addition
was made by a friend in reading over the Ms.
Audi alterant par tern — I leave it to counterbal-
ance my own observation."

In tarpon angling when there are many boats
in a small area there holds an unwritten code of
courtesies which, indeed, applies to all fishing,
and which may be mentioned. Thus it is the
rule not to anchor near another boat unless re-
quested. When a fish is hooked, other anglers
should give the player the field. When two men
are fishing in the same boat the other should reel
in at once. To cross the line or foul that of a
fellow-angler is a gross discourtesy, and it is
equally criminal to talk to a man playing a fish,
either to gibe or congratulate. Social amenities
find no place at this strenuous moment. It is
well not to borrow bait or tackle on the ground,
as the average angler will gladly respond, and
it has happened that the fishing days of two,
instead of one, have been spoiled by the negli-
gence of one boatman to secure bait; a boat
should not put out without an abundance of bait
and a perfect equipment. It need not be said
that these suggestions are advanced to a would-
be angler or novice. Nowhere in the world of

The Tarpon 271

sport is found a warmer fellow-feeling, greater
hospitality, and more courteous camaraderie than
among the gentlemen of the rod on the great
fishing-grounds of America.

To Dr. H. W. Howe of the city of Mexico and
Mr. J. A. L. Waddell of Kansas City, anglers are
indebted for information regarding the midwinter
tarpon fishing at Tampico, Mexico, an unsigned
and interesting paper on the subject appearing in
Modern Mexico in May, 1901, to which I am in-
debted for the data herewith given. Dr. Howe
wrote me that he has hooked several tarpons here
which he could not handle ; hence, the tarpons of
Tampico are of large size. The season is from
November i to April, the time when the tarpon
practically disappears from Florida and Texas.
The tarpons are not only very large but are found
in vast numbers. Some mornings during his
visits there could be seen hundreds of fishes
within fifteen minutes by boat from the hotel.
Mr. Waddell in eleven days in December at
Tampico landed twenty-four tarpons, fifty-nine
jack-fish, and two jewfish, weighing in all thirty-
five hundred pounds; the largest tarpon meas-
ured six feet ten inches. In March he landed
six tarpons here in one day. Mr. A. B. Ross in

272 Big Game Fishes

six hours caught four tarpons. In the Forest
and Stream of July 26, 1902, Mr. Waddell gives
in detail much interesting data relating to the
fishing here, and states that the Tampico tarpons
" strike more voraciously than do those at Aran-
sas, and I believe they fight harder and jump
higher. One that I had on this last trip jumped
fully twelve feet."

From this it appears that Tampico is a profitable
field for the wandering angler during the winter
season in the United States, and as thirteen of
Mr. Waddell's fish averaged six feet in length,
they do not lack in this important particular.
Aside from good sport at Tampico the angler will
find attractive surroundings. Tampico is a typical
Mexican city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants.
It stands on a bluff, overlooking the Panuco River,
at which point this fine stream is fifteen hundred
yards wide. The river enters the Gulf at Point
La Barra, about five miles from Tampico, where
there are fine jetties. The fish are found at their
best from the mouth of the river to the city and
where the Tamesi flows into the Panuco. The
fishing-grounds are protected from the ocean here,
and ideal conditions found. The winter climate
of Tampico is described as being " all that could

The Tarpon 273

be desired, being neither warm nor cold." The
tarpon season is not the rainy season, hence the
visitor will find healthful conditions and, to quote
the language of Modern Mexico, the climate during
the season described is "delightful." Anglers
proposing to visit Tampico should take their own
tackle, and doubtless more definite information
may be obtained by addressing the officials or
consuls stationed there.

CHAPTER XVII

THE BLACKFISH

"When chestnut leaves are as big as thumb nails,
Then bite blackfish without fail,
But when chestnut leaves are as large as a span,
Then catch blackfish if you can ! "

THE blackfish, tautog, Tautoga onitis, is rarely
referred to as a game fish, yet few members of
the finny tribe, at least in New England waters
and in Long Island Sound, afford so much
pleasure to so many people. The tautog is
omnipresent, and the angler catches the smaller
members of the tribe whether or no; and when
the water is fairly shallow and the fish run
large, up to ten and fifteen pounds, the black-
fish, if it is approached with light tackle, will
surprise the angler. Such a location and such
fish I found at Fisher's Island, Long Island
Sound, and similar localities are known all
alongshore. While the blackfish is in America
a very democratic, not to say plebeian, crea-

274

The Blackfisb 275

ture, it is of aristocratic lineage. The scarus of
Europe is its foreign representative, and the
ancient Romans gave it many high-sounding
names, one of which was Cerebrum Jovis Su-
premi. Aristotle claimed that it slept. He
wrote : —

" Scarus alone their folded eyelids close
In grateful intervals of soft repose
In some sequestered cell, removed from sight
They doze away the dangers of the night."

Pliny repeats this interesting statement, add-
ing that it is the chief of all fishes. Ovid and
Oppian sang its praises in verse, while ^lian
claimed for it a surpassing love for its young.
Elipertius expended vast sums in securing the
fish for the wealthy epicures of Rome. Mar-
tial was so fond of it that he described it in
verse, while Xenocrates writes of the viscera
of the scarus brought directly from the sea.
His favorite dish was the liver, which, with the
milt of murries, the brains of peacocks and
pheasants, and the tongues of flamingoes, was
served under the high-sounding title of " The
shield of Minerva," given it by Vitellius, the
famous epicure. At a Roman dinner it was
the custom to exhibit the living scarus to the

276 Big Game Fishes

guests, that they might be assured that it was
fresh and directly from the sea. To-day the
American scarus, the tautog, is disposed of in a
few words — it is an excellent "chowder fish."
I have had rare sport with this fish at the Long
Island Sound locality referred to. It makes a
hard fight, though the greatest difficulty gen-
erally was to keep the bait intact until a large
fish took it, so insistent were the small fish and
their cousins, the " cunners " and " nippers."
The tautog is taken at Cape Ann, and alongshore
to Chesapeake Bay, where I have seen it at
Old Point, and doubtless it ranges farther south,
specimens having been carried to Charleston,
South Carolina, in the well of a smack; but it
is not found in great quantities. Around New-
port it spawns as early as April, and from then
on until August. I have heard from fishermen
of blackfish weighing forty pounds, but a fifteen-
pound fish was very rare in my fishing experi-
ences all along the coast. G. Brown Goode
gives, as the largest specimen known, a black-
fish which weighed twenty-two and a half
pounds. This was three feet in length, and is
in the collection of the National Museum. I
have had fair sport with this fish from the

The Blackfisb 277

rocks with a rod, off Salem, Massachusetts; and
all alongshore, wherever rocky bottom and fairly
deep water are found, and the conditions and bait
are right, this sport may be enjoyed.

While the pollack does not come within the
proper scope or range of this volume, and is not
a large fish, I found it as gamy as a trout at Ogun-
quit, Maine. Casting from the rocks, I took them
with a green fly, as well as bait ; and several tips
of my black bass split bamboo paid the penalty
before I gauged the power of this active fish, not
as well known or appreciated as it should be.

There is another blackfish, at least so called, in
the waters about Martha's Vineyard, the sea-bass,
Centropristes striatus, an entirely different fish.
It belongs to the family Serranidae, in which is
included the splendid striped bass, which attains
a weight of one hundred pounds, and affords rare
sport off the islands of southern Massachusetts
and in various localities, and since its introduc-
tion bidding fair to become the famous game fish
of the San Francisco region. There are two
species of sea-bass, ranging from Cape Ann to
Texas, the northern species being found north of
the latitude of Hatteras. The southern species
is common at Cedar Keys, St. Marks, and other

278 Big Game Fishes

Gulf coast localities, but I never caught it out
on the reef. It is a bottom fish, and yet affords
many people a vast amount of sport in rod fishing
of a peculiar kind well known to New Yorkers.
One may read in the local press advertisements
of certain steamers which in the summer months
go daily to the fishing-banks outside of Sandy
Hook. These banks range from the Highlands
to Long Branch and beyond, the Cholera Banks
being an exceptionally popular ground about
twenty miles east of Sandy Hook. Going aboard
one of these vessels, the angler finds an array of
very short and clublike rods with heavy reels,
stout lines provided with heavy sinkers, and abun-
dance of clam or fish bait. Once on the ground,
the steamer is anchored, rods are taken in hand,
and the extraordinary sight witnessed of several
hundred men fishing with rod and reel in deep
water. The fish bite well, and the sport begins,
sea-bass from four to seven pounds often being
the largest catch.

There are a number of little-known fishes of the
ocean which, if the angler could divest himself
of certain prejudices, would be entitled to come
under the term " game." Thus in Southern Cali-
fornian waters the halibut of large size is often

The Blackfisb 279

taken in shallow water, affording sport of an
exciting nature. I have often seen the clumsy fish
charging schools of sardines with all the zeal of a
bass.

If sharks were to be included among the game
fishes, some remarkable tales might be told of
experiences between Florida and California ; but
probably Mr. Edwin vom Hofe holds the record
in this field of sport, having taken a six-hundred-
pound saw-fish with a tarpon rod and line. Such
catches with rods suggest an enumeration of
strange creatures hooked while fishing for true
game. While fishing for the eastern horse-mack-
erel off Boon Island, north of the Isles of Shoals,
I hooked a sunfish (Mola), but it was accidental.
On the Florida reef while trolling for barracuda
I once caught a small hawk's-bill turtle. In
Avalon Bay I hooked a sea-lion, which took my
bait, and I played the large animal for several
moments. I thought I could bring it to the
boat, but the sea-lion evidently disagreed with me
and brought the proceedings to a close by darting
among some boats and breaking the line on an
anchor rope. Few swimmers even can make head-
way against a man with a light rod and line. Other
catches in California, which are often made by

280 Big Game Fishes

yellowtail anglers, are gulls and cormorants, and
one fisherman distinguished himself by hooking
a sea-eagle. Another played a young black-
fish, which must have weighed half a ton, a
second or two, while another angler's hook when
trolling caught in the back of a fifty-foot Cali-
fornia gray whale, — illustrating the variety that
comes into the life of the rod fisherman in many
seas.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE KINGFISH

" By the way, old Cotton's instructions, by which I hoped to
qualify myself for the gentle society of anglers, are not worth a
farthing for this meridian." — Redgauntlet.

THE deadly monotony of a "dead calm " in the
tropics can be appreciated only by those who
have sailed the seas south of the tropic of Cancer
where the sun's humor is fierce and uncompro-
mising, and the wind god passes his summer days
in a long siesta. Our trim craft, that could show
her heels to any vessel on the reef, had literally
been caught napping. The wind had gradually
dropped until we floated on a sea of glass, the
only motion on its surface being the long swell,
the remnant of some recent gale, which served to
swing the booms from side to side, — their jaws
uttering weird moans, shrieks, and wailings, as
they gripped the dry masts, which did not add to
the pleasantness of the situation. The heat was
pitiless, and the water pouring over the decks out

281

282 Big Game Fishes

through the scuppers did not even harden the tar
which oozed up from every seam.

For twenty-four hours we drifted, the clear rich
blue of the Gulf Stream offering every invitation ;
but the dusky shapes of a number of " man-
eaters " barred even this solace. It was while
thus adrift, thirty miles east of East Key, that
Paublo bethought him of a wind-raiser, and forth-
with taking a belaying-pin, hammered vigorously
on the foremast. I learned later that this was
generally infallible; this day it failed, failed to
raise the wind, but as the captain of the galley
and clever boatman replaced the pin, the smooth
water of the Gulf broke into foam not two hun-
dred yards away : he had " conjured " up the king-
fish. The dinghy was drifting astern, and it took
but a moment to grasp rod and tumble in. Under
Paublo's strong strokes we were presently in the
heart of the school from which I took my first
kingfish. The rod was so well fitted for the
work that I can but commend it. It was of green-
heart, eight feet in length, of two joints, and
weighed about twenty ounces. The line was a
fine linen, number twelve cuttyhunk — a mere
thread to be broken at the slightest mistake ; the
hook, a 6/0 Limerick, with a long copper wire

Tbe Kingfisb 283

leader of home make. The bait was a " sliver " of
the belly of a salt kingfish, about four inches
long; and as I overreeled and paid out, this
ancient dainty was seized not fifteen feet from
the boat, and about one hundred feet of line
taken with a single rush. How the steel click
told the story in metallic shrieks ! finally settling
down into a spasmodic zip-zip-zip ! as the fish
was checked by the brake. Like the bonito
it played upon the surface not five feet under ;
now on the top, making side rushes; now cir-
cling the boat, bearing off until the rod bent to
the danger point and the delicate line hummed
a music of its own ; and anon going into the air
in splendid leaps. For five or six minutes, due
perhaps to the exigencies of the situation, the
lightness of the tackle, the kingfish played me,
jerked my arms down, to release them as suddenly,
shook its powerful tail at me in derision, plung-
ing through a fleet of Portuguese men-of-war or
cutting through the chalice-like form of some
dainty jellyfish deeper down, but almost always
on the surface, and moving so rapidly that the
boatman was ever on the alert to keep the light
boat stern to the game. The water was alive
with fish of the largest size feeding on a vagrant

284 Big Game Fishes

school of small fry, and there was constant fear
that the taut line would be cut by the dorsal fin
of some fish.

Two hundred feet of line was forced, coaxed,
torn from the reel, before I really stopped this rois-
tering plunger, and then it was give and take, a
long battle in which the banner changed sides
more than once ; the fish making a splendid dis-
play of its game and fighting qualities, which, to
me at least, are utterly lost when the fish is taken
with a hand-line after a fast-sailing boat, the typi-
cal method, due, perhaps to the fact that the king-
fish is found in the open sea or where the water
is more likely to be rough. Slowly it came in,
leaving silvery flashes against the deep blue of the
Gulf, fighting every inch until the gaff struck it
and Paublo lifted it, quivering, upward, his eyes
standing out in amazement at the size of the fish
and the mysterious power of the rod and thread-
like line.

" Why, mawster," he said, " while you workin'
datcher wheel I could wif a cast-line [hand] ketch
fo' or five kingfish."

It was our first day's fishing, and I suspect that
Paublo thought that I " did not have all that be-
longed to my upper works," as the Conchs ex-

The Kingfisb 285

pressed it ; but I lived to see him a derisive
mocker of his compatriots, who " jerked in" game
fish with a ropelike line, or did not give the game
a more than fighting chance for its life.

The fish which Paublo held up in the sunlight
for my inspection was one of the two or three
fishes which the wreckers and fishermen along
the outer reef called " king." It was between five
and six feet long ; as it was held up its tail rested
on the boat and its head was even with Paublo's
eyes, a splendid creature which we " guessed " at
forty pounds, a long, slender barracuda-like fish of
the mackerel type, a privateer, rakish, gamy in
appearance, fitted for swift rushes and strenuous
work among the small fry. The dorsals were two
in number, the first low and extending from the
base of the pectoral to nearly opposite the front
fin of the anal, the upper portion colored almost
black. The second dorsal was higher, with a
jaunty effect; then followed eight finlets resem-
bling those of the tuna ; the tail was large, forked,
and powerful. The sides of the fish gleamed like
burnished silver ; its back was dark blue, while
across its sides pronounced black longitudinal
stripes extended, represented above and below by
dark spots, giving the fish a peculiarly attractive

286 Big Game Fishes

appearance. The eye was large, bright, and
beautiful. Such was the kingfish, or spotted
cero, Scomberomorus regalis, which later it was
my good luck to catch all along the reef from
Key West westward.

The fish attains a much larger size than gener-
ally supposed, and I am confident that I hooked
specimens on the borders of the reef to the east
of Garden Key which would have tipped the
scales at over seventy pounds ; yet it is well to
bear in mind that it is the largest fish that inva-
riably escapes. At all sizes this fish is a gamy
catch, the small specimens making excellent play,
while the large ones are game, always hard fighters.
The fish is fairly common on the extreme outer
Florida reef, increasing in numbers as one goes
to the south toward Cuba.

The second kingfish, and the best known in
our own waters, especially in the region between
Key West and Biscayne Bay, is the cero, Scom-
beromorus cavalla. It has a striking resemblance
to the former, but can be recognized by the
angler at once by the absence of the spots or
bands, its gray color, and by the lateral line which
takes a sudden dip just below the second dorsal
fin. This species is the fish of the people, the

The Kingfisb 287

common catch offshore, ranging from Brazil to
Massachusetts, but most plentiful in the region
from Key West to Cape Florida. I have seen the
water ploughed into foam by it in the open Gulf,
and it is as gamy as its cousin. I never heard the
name cero used by any men on the outer reef in
connection with either of these fishes; all called
them " kingfish." To the professional fisherman
it is exceedingly valuable, and is caught in great
numbers in the vicinity of Key West. In all the
Gulf states about 400,000 pounds are taken an-
nually, valued at $6000. I often took it down the
reef, off Sand, East, and Bird keys, where it came
in near the great fringing reef that was sub-
merged at high tide. The water here was perhaps
fifteen or twenty feet deep, with a bottom of coral
heads, plumes, and sponges, washed by the grand
swell, and being on the edge of the Gulf Stream
or in its very midst, seemed to offer the exhilarat-
ing conditions demanded by this active creature,
which by trolling could almost always be taken
here. The adults ran from fifteen to thirty or forty
pounds, and there were legends of colossi which
weighed up to one hundred pounds, but I never
saw them. The young, from six to twelve pounds,
were very gamy with light rods, calling to mind

288 Big Game Fishes

bonito, which in my experience is a surface fighter.
I baited usually with young mullet, but the king-
fish stands not upon the order of bait, but takes
what is offered with a rush. I have caught them
with rags white, rags red, and rags yellow; with
a bone jig, with a piece of elongated conch, and a
home-made spoon cut and filed from the tip of
the big Strombus gigas, this by casting and reel-
ing quickly. For a fish so extremely common
very little is known regarding its habits. Speci-
mens which I caught in the open water near Key
West in December contained spawn, but I never
saw a very small or young fish in the outer bays
or reef. Smack fishermen state that they spawn
in the shallow waters around Biscayne Bay. The
professional fishermen of Key West have a hearty
appreciation of the kingfish, which they follow
in large and small boats, trolling for them in deep
water, or on shallow grounds offshore, as the case
may be, often literally filling the boat with the
ceros which rank high as table fish.

A feast of the kingfish which I often attended
is an experience long to be remembered. It would
often be announced by the laughing gulls, whose
loud and resonant " ha-ha " would come over the
glasslike waters as the bird rapidly increased its

The Kingfisb 289

speed. Others, recognizing the summons, joined
it, and out from all portions of the reef came birds
— the lumbering pelican, and last the man-of-war
bird. What had been at first a few splashes was
now a mass of foam, which, surrounded by smooth
water in the heart of a dead calm, presented a
strange appearance. The ocean seemed to be
boiling, the patch of several acres moving slowly
along. Once in this magic area, countless fishes
were seen dashing along the surface, chasing a
school of small fry. Long ago mere hunger had
been appeased, and the kingfishes were slaughter-
ing their subjects for the mere pleasure of killing.
The foam was tinged with red, and from it, sinking
into the sea, would be seen a shower of silver, the
severed bodies of the victims attracting sharks and
other prey.

Resembling the kingfish in many respects is
the Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus maculatus,
a game fish in every sense, coming from southern
and unknown seas in spring in vast numbers in
search of food — menhaden and other small fry —
and to spawn. I have taken large specimens
trolling to the east of Fortress Monroe near the
capes, where large schools come in, and once ran
through a school in the Florida Straits, which

290 Big Game Fishes

seemed to cover the ocean as far as the eye could
reach. In the Gulf they were common, a few
individuals being seen at all times in deep water
around Garden Key in the Tortugas group. Here
they frequently made splendid displays, beating
the water much like the jack, only in deep water,
never running in upon the beach. The sound of
their feeding was like the roar of a heavy tide-rip,
caused by the fishes dashing hither and yon into
the air and back. At such a time I have run
through a school with a sail-boat, the sport being
comparable to bluefishing, a white rag being
used. But the most satisfactory sport was to cast
into the school from the outer edge. The fish
played like the bonito, making no effort to sound,
dashing around a fish of ten or fifteen pounds,
towing a dinghy about as though on a pivot. If
the Spanish mackerel could always be found, it
would soon take its place as a fine game fish and
be eagerly sought by the angler; but its move-
ments are erratic, and often, when located, it will
not bite. Such, however, is the masterly play of
the fish that the angler who takes it once will
return invariably to the often elusive search.

I found the Spanish mackerel fishing excellent
at Aransas Pass, and every morning in August

Tbe Kingfisb 291

during my visit a small fleet of boats would gather
in the narrow pass and fish. Those who fished as
a business had long bamboo poles which they kept
moving* up and down, landing a mackerel of small
size every few minutes. I used a light black-
bass rod, and baiting with shrimp, caught by a boy
with a cast-net, enjoyed the sport, taking fishes
from three to seven pounds; but the man with
the fifteen-foot bamboo, with a short line tied to
it, beat me ten to one, and gazed at my light tackle
as the armament of a tenderfoot. While fishing
here several skipjacks and a three-pound "ten-
pounder" jumped into my boat at intervals of
ten minutes ; then an alligator gar rose alongside
apparently anxious to emulate the small fry, while
a speckled sting-ray hovered for a moment in the
air like a bird, astern. These and schools of mul-
lets, constantly leaping in silvery waves on all sides
in the shallows, gave the impression that all the
fishes in this peaceful region were jumpers ; and
there was consolation in the thought that if the
fish did not bite, they might at least jump aboard,
which was much the same thing if dinner, as well
as sport, was to be considered. I have seen the
Spanish mackerel in many waters, but these Texas
fishes, with their black and vivid yellow or golden

292 Big Game Fishes

spots, seemed more beautiful than any I had pre-
viously caught; and when my professional com-
panion came ashore with sixty to salt down, the
homely boat fairly glowed with the golden glint
reflected from the brilliant throng.

The Spanish mackerel has a wide range from
Brazil to Gloucester and on the Pacific Coast of
America, everywhere held in high esteem as the
finest of table fishes. It is usually caught by troll-
ing, and is essentially a surface fish. Its schedule
of migration may be considered as follows : It
arrives off the western Florida coast in March and
reaches North Carolina about the same time. In
May I have taken them off the rip-raps, at the
entrance to the Chesapeake, and large quantities
are taken on the Eastern shores. The movement
is northward, and by July they appear in the
waters about New York, moving slowly up the
coast, everywhere in demand. Mr. Earll states
in his exhaustive monograph on this fish that it
spawns near Sandy Hook, in Chesapeake Bay, and
in Pamlico Sound, beginning in April in the latter
and ending in August in the former. The eggs
of a six-pound fish he estimates equal 1,500,000.
As soon as cool weather approaches in the fall the
Spanish mackerel moves, and by October it has

The Kingfish 293

disappeared from the North, probably seeking
warmer waters farther south.

In appearance the Spanish mackerel is very
beautiful, especially when taken from the water.
The upper portion is a deep, steely blue, the lower,
silver, while over all is a sheen of delicate pinkish
iridescence. On the sides are orange-colored spots.
The dorsal fins are tinted black, white, and yellow,
seemingly blended to increase its beauties. So
far as its economic value is concerned, it ranks
second to none, the fisheries being extremely
valuable, amounting annually to about 2,000,000
pounds, valued at about $75,000. The largest
number are taken in pound and gill-nets.

The bonito, Sarda chiliensis, is, in my estima-
tion, one of the gamiest fishes taken with a light
rod on the California coast. It is the humming-
bird of the sea, no description or word-painting
being adequate to describe its beauties. An eight-
or ten-ounce split bamboo, with very light line
baited with a two-inch sardine or smelt, or several
anchovies, is the lure most telling at Santa Catalina.
I anchored one day in a little bay not far from
the isthmus and went ashore, giving instructions
to the boatman to " chum " while we were at lunch.
Half an hour later a signal came telling that the

294 Big Game Fisbes

game had arrived. When I reached the launch
the water appeared to be alive with forms dashing
about with great velocity. When a handful of
sardines was tossed over they charged them from
the channel a few feet away, picking them up with
great rapidity, then disappearing. Almost the
moment a cast was made, almost before the bait
was set in motion by the reel, the strike came, and
a blaze of color dashed along the surface to the
music of the click. Always on the surface, — no
sulking here, — darting this way and that, in and
out around the launch, this bonito, the skipjack
of the sailors, was the peer of any trout in the
world, and only after a struggle was it brought
in ; and then one could but regret the capture of
so beautiful a fish. It was robed in silver satin
below, merging into vivid blue above, with dusky
stripes, and over all, flashing and scintillating, an
iridescence in pink, blue, and yellow, which made
it one of the most charming of the finny dwellers
of the Californian sea. The bonito is short and
very plump, and when lifted by the gaff or net (the
latter is to be preferred, as the fish bleeds badly)
it quivers so violently as to impart a disagreeable
sensation to one who attempts to hold it by the
tail.

The Kingfisb 295

The season for bonitos, on the California coast,
is from May until December, the midsummer
months being the best The largest fish I have
seen weighed twenty pounds, and was so power-
ful that it repeatedly towed the heavy boat around
and around, making a more desperate fight than
some fishes I have taken, of twice the size. The
average size of the bonito in these waters is
twelve pounds. The range of this species is very
wide, covering all the Pacific from San Francisco
to Chili, beyond and west to the shores of Japan.
It doubtless spawns in the open Santa Catalina
channel and in the vicinity of the islands; but
extremely young fishes have never been observed
here by me, though I have dredged and watched
the hauling of seines and nets, surface and other-
wise. This region is a spawning-ground for many
genera. The flying-fish spawns here in July, yet
I have never been able to secure a young one,
though I confess to have chased them, about the
size of grasshoppers, for hours with a scoop-net.
The little creatures, about an inch in length,
could " fly " or soar about a foot, and attempted
to take to the air as I struck at them with the
net. They well illustrated the ease with which
the young of common fishes can escape obser-

296 Big Game Fishes

vation. The bonito is eaten on the California
coast, but the flesh is coarse and very different
from that of the delicious Spanish mackerel. It
is well to remember, however, that there is only
one cook in a thousand who understands how to
cook a fish. In point of fact, every fish is a gas-
tronomic study by itself ; some should be eaten im-
mediately after the catch, and this is particularly
true of the mackerel tribe, — always excepting
the salt mackerel of Marc Antony, which, we are
assured by Plutarch, constitutes the theme for his
true fish story, involving the caprice of Cleopatra.
How many anglers have played this same joke
on an unsuspecting friend! And lest there be
some son of Ananias who claims it as new, the
story may be recalled. It seems that Antony and
Cleopatra, according to veracious Plutarch, were
fishing, probably in the Nile; and wishing to
make the noble Antony a victim to her wit, she
instructed a slave to slip over and dive down and
fasten upon his hook a dried salt fish, supposed
to be a mackerel. The slave obeyed, and when
the act was accomplished, gave the line a vigor-
ous jerk, holding on while Antony tugged and
played, until the slave lost his breath, then landed
the salted and ancient fish. At this point the

The Kingfisb 297

victim, at least to-day, is the butt of gibes and
laughter ; but not so with Marc Antony. He held
up his catch proudly that his mistress might look
upon its charms, then said to an attendant : " Un-
hook it. True, it is not so large as I conceived
by the play it made, but it is by far the oldest fish
taken to-day."

CHAPTER XIX

THE FLORIDA JEWFISH

" In gulfs enchanted where the siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare."

IT requires more than ordinary temerity to
include the huge Florida jewfish among the
game fishes, as the average individual is the type
of all that is indifferent, a lazy, heavy " beastie,"
a finny Falstaff, the colossus of the nooks and
corners of the reef. Yet several jewfishes which
I have met have made a game struggle, and all
afforded sport. On the coasts of Texas and
Florida the fish is occasionally taken with rod
and reel in true sportsmanlike fashion.

My first experience with the jewfish was in the
vicinity of Marquesas, on the edge of a deep blue
channel which blazed its way through the reef
like a rope of turquoise. We had seen several
so-called tiger-sharks with dark bars athwart their
tawny flanks, and Paublo, the dusky boatman, had
aroused my curiosity in this tiger of the sea by

298

The Florida Jewfisb 299

various incidents more or less racy, dragged, I
fear, from the deep, unfathomable recesses of his
imagination. One story apparently was true.
A tiger-shark had leaped after a swimmer climb-
ing aboard a yacht and had carried him down.
The shark was plainly seen moving about, eight
or ten feet away, doubtless awaiting the rejecta-
menta of the culinary department. I baited with
a live yellowtail, as dainty and alluring a three-
pound fish as could be found on the reef, and
almost before it had reached the bottom, the line
stiffened out in a steady strain — in my experi-
ence the typical strike of the shark. I waited for
the line to run out, but the shark evidently was
peacefully swallowing the bait ; then I saw it ris-
ing out of the depths dimly against the blue, and
thinking that it was coming to the surface, struck
with all my strength. No shark, nearly every
kind of which I have caught, ever hurled back
so sturdy a defiance. It was irresistible, and the
line tore through the water with the peculiar
hissing sound which carries a fascination with it.
Fifty yards clear away the fish dashed, before it
could be stopped, and all this time the tiger-shark
was slowly rising, plainly not a party to the pro-
ceedings. I was in a light dinghy, my man cast

300 Big Game Fisbes

off and at once we were rushing away, bow
under, in a manner so sharklike that I was con-
vinced that the tiger-shark had a mate and we
had hooked it ; but this conclusion was dispelled
by the sudden slacking of the line.

" Ole jewfish, sa', an' he done tuck to his
hole ! " cried Paublo, as the little boat came to a
standstill.

Paublo was a true prophet, and investigation
showed that the fish, in all probability, had run
beneath a deep ledge of branch coral, and any
attempts to lift it would result in chafing off the
line ; so we decided to " kedge off " the game.
The dinghy was rowed into the channel three
hundred feet or so, and while Paublo rowed vigor-
ously, I hauled, with the result that the fish was
forced from beneath its shelter, and after taking
it in two hundred feet, it made a gamy rush
around the dinghy. Owing to the length of line
I was able to hold the fish, while Paublo pulled
for deep water, where we held it before it sounded.
Despite a piece of canvas as an improvised brake,
I could not stop the fish ; and only finally suc-
ceeded by lying flat back in the bottom and bear-
ing on with the big line in the scull hole; I
thought for a moment that the fish would take

The Florida Jewfisb 301

the dinghy under, so forcible were its downward
lunges. For several minutes it plunged and
sounded, then I passed the slack to Paublo, who,
as I hauled, coiled the line, making everything
shipshape for a big rush which might be ex-
pected. But the hand-line tactics were too much
for the game, and I steadily gained, not without
punishment, as the fish would ever and anon lit-
erally shake its head, giving such sturdy, dislo-
cating blows that my arms ached again. Finally
it neared the surface and Paublo leaned to wind-
ward that I might glance over and see the game
that was putting up so desperate a fight. As I
looked down, not twenty feet in the clear water,
I saw my first jewfish, apparently as large as the
dinghy, a colossus in black, with here and there
a flash of a lighter tawny tint as it rolled and
essayed to plunge. It must have seen me, as it
made an upward rush, then around, whirling the
dinghy as though on a pivot, so that she ca-
reened viciously. This was the last. I gave
Paublo the word, and as he backed water rapidly,
I soon had the big game at short quarters, and
its mighty head triced up at the surface astern,
while a short distance away the tiger-shark swam
lazily about, its tall dorsal cutting the water. As

302 Big Game Fishes

the jewfish rolled from side to side, occasionally
pounding the water with its powerful tail, it was
a remarkable spectacle. Its length, as near as I
could judge, was over six feet ; its color a brownish
olive with lighter spots, lighter upon the belly.
The head seemed enormous, the eyes small and
perched high up, and far down near the nostrils ;
the lower jaw projected slightly; the gill-covers
were large. Perhaps the most noticeable feature
was the rounded tail, which is the antipodes of
that of the huge Stereolepis of the Pacific coast,
with which it is often confused by anglers who
apply the name jewfish to both. The bulk of the
fish was overpowering, and what it weighed was
a matter of conjecture. Those who saw it, esti-
mated its weight at between five and six hundred
pounds, Paublo being ready to make affidavit that
it was an eight-hundred-pounder ; but while there
seemed to be no limit to its vastness, I think it
would be safe to place it at three hundred pounds.
Later I saw a jewfish on the beach at Conchtown,
Key West, which, it was said, weighed six hundred
and forty-two pounds. The fish attains a weight
of over one thousand pounds and fully meets the
estimates placed upon it by boatmen, whose im-
aginations are limited by no slavish bonds.

The Florida Jewfisb 303

Our struggle with the jewfish attracted the at-
tention of the skipper of a smack, and as I was
about to cast off the fish, he hailed and asked for
it. We towed it alongside while he ran up in the
wind, then a barbless hook was inserted in its jaw,
the crew manned the halyard, and the jewfish was
hauled aboard. The skipper, who hailed from
Mystic, quickly took a few stitches in its mouth
to prevent it from eating the rest of his catch,
then the fish was lowered into the well and later
carried to Havana, where jewfish steaks were
highly esteemed.

Within thirty miles of this place I caught a
number of jewfishes, several giving me exciting
contests before subdued. One taken in shallow
water fought in a lagoon for three-quarters of an
hour before it was landed. The tackle employed
for this fish was an ordinary halibut line with a
doubled leader six feet long, and a very large
hook ; the bait was hooked through the fish just
under the dorsal fin, near the tail, so that it was
practically uninjured ; a small sinker was used to
carry it down.

There are two genera called jewfish by the
habitues of the reef: the black grouper, when of
large size, and the " Warsaw," Promicrops itaiara.

304 Big Game Fishes

Not a few anglers profess to believe the two fishes
identical, the huge Warsaw being the adult black
grouper ; but the consensus of opinion is against
this, and the two adult fishes side by side certainly
could not be confused. The jewfish proper, Pro-
microps, is found from Brazil to Georgia, possibly
rarely straying farther north, and in the Gulf of
California. I was assured that the fish was com-
mon at the mouth of the St. Johns River, Florida,
but in three months' fishing there and at Fernan
dina I saw none, though it is fair to say that sharks
were so plentiful at the time that they seriously
interfered in the quest. The fish is fairly common
at Garden Key ; also on the Gulf coast of Florida,
— in fact, the entire Gulf coast, where it appears
to haunt the bayous, preferring " holes " and
localities affected by the grouper, in compara-
tively shallow water. At Aransas Pass, Texas,
and vicinity, the fishes of the largest size are
taken by sportsmen with rod and reel.

Some exciting fishing for jewfish may be had
at the town of Tarpon, Aransas Pass, where the
fish attains an enormous size, and at certain times
is found in what are apparently schools. In No-
vember they come in, or " run," for several days,
by the Point of Rocks, and are fished for from

The Florida Jewfisb 305

the beach or near it. In 1902 the anglers at
Tarpon had some remarkable fishing. Six huge
fishes were taken in a day, and sixteen in two days,
one of which, caught by Mr. J. A. L. Waddell,
with Robert Farley as boatman, weighed four
hundred and fifty pounds, and was claimed by the
angler as the record jewfish of the world with
rod and reel. This does not conflict with the
Pacific coast record of Dr. H. T. Kendall, as the
two fishes are generically different. Mr. Wad-
dell's fish was a jewfish (Promicrops\ that of Dr.
Kendall, a black sea-bass (Stereolepis). The
Texas record fish made a most gamy fight and
redeemed the tribe. It measured seven feet
three inches in length, its girth being five feet
nine inches — a veritable colossus. According
to the old fishing formula given elsewhere the
fish weighed five hundred and eighteen pounds,
sixty-eight pounds more than the actual scale
weight of the fish, two days later. The largest
jewfish landed in these waters was taken by some
seiners at Corpus Christi Pass, Texas, several
years ago. It weighed one thousand and fifteen
pounds, suggestive that there is a field for the
lover of such big game in these haunts of the
tarpon. When in comparatively shallow water

306 Big Game Fishes

the great fish can be counted on to make a
gallant play.

The equipment for this strenuous sport is a rod
not over seven feet in length and of sufficient
stiffness to lift the heaviest fish. The noib-wood
tuna rod described is equal to the task by using
a heavy tip. The line should be number twenty-
four, the only difficulty being that the fish when
taken in shallow water has a sorry habit of plung-
ing into the equivalent of the " dark, unfathomed
caves," where the best of lines often fails to dis-
lodge it. Every sportsman fond of big game has
a keen desire to kill an elephant. So, too, the
big fish angler will be tempted to take a jewfish ;
and should it chance that they are all hard fighters,
he may become enamoured of the sport. I rarely
caught young jewfish and do not recall seeing one
less than two hundred pounds in weight. They
spawn in May, June, and July, and are found in
the localities mentioned at all seasons of the year,
but more frequently in spring and summer. It
is believed that they retreat into deeper water in
winter. It was not uncommon to take jewfishes
from June to October on the edges of the lagoons
or off the outer reef in water not over twenty feet
in depth. They fed in the shallow lagoon at

The Florida Jewfish 307

night; but in the so-called winter months we
sought them in the outer channels, hence the be-
lief grew that they were slightly migratory.

On the mainland coast of Florida the jewfish
can be found at Captiva, Palma, Sola, Charlotte
Harbor, the Biscayne Bay country ; and all along-
shore, where there are sheltered nooks, where a
channel runs in, and mangrove roots have rolled
down the bank, forming a cheveaux de frise, are
haunts to its fancy ; but among the outer keys the
fish is found along the base of deep coral groves.
Such a home I well recall on the southern end of
the great Tortugas lagoon so frequently changed
by hurricane and storm. I had been in quest of
the queen conch, — a rarity even in this prolific
hunting-ground, — and was slowly drifting over the
lagoon, eying the bottom through a glass observa-
tion box, when I suddenly came to the edge of the
reef, where the coral began. The water was from
twenty-five to thirty feet deep, now paved with
luxuriant, long-pronged branch coral that, under
the influence of the abundant food-supply, had
developed to an amazing extent. It appeared to
be five or more feet in height, surrounded by
masses of lavender-tinted gorgonias and plume-
like forms in rich browns, while dotting the bot-

308 Big Game Fishes

torn were great heads of coral, their surfaces
sprinkled with the brilliant breathing organs of
worms of all colors.

Poised in this garden were dainty yellowtails,
parrot-fishes of lovely colors, angel-fishes, sea-
porcupines, and an endless train, — all courtiers of
a huge jewfish which crouched or poised in a
little bay, an enclosure of coral just large enough
for it to enter and turn easily, the entrance being
small and narrow. In this veritable bower, with
aesthetic objects of the sea on every side, the
jewfish rested, only darting out as my boatman
plunged over and swam downward, to rob the
sea-fans of the yellow "fan" shells which clung
to their reticulated sides.

The angler who does not care to go to the outer
reef beyond Key West or to Texas, will find the
fish all alongshore on the Indian River, the towns
of Titusville, Cocoa, Eau Gallic, Fort Pierce, and
others being centres for professional fishermen,
now easily reached, while the west coast abounds
in resorts from Cedar Keys south. Indeed, the
entire region from Cedar Keys on one side and
St. Augustine on the east coast to Loggerhead is
an angler's paradise, winter or summer, abound-
ing in the greatest variety of fishes.

CHAPTER XX

THE DRUM

" His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye."

— Rape of Lucrece.

THE good Bishop Paul Jovius, who flourished
in 1531, tells the following story, illustrative of
the regard in which the epicures of olden times
held a European representative of the drumfish.

In 1480 there lived in Rome a famous gour-
mand named Tamisio, who had a weakness
for the maigre, the surmullet, and for murries
drowned in wine. To such an extent did this
passion carry Tamisio that it was his custom to sta-
tion his servant in the fish-market to bring him
intelligence of the destination of the finest fish.
Learning, one evening, that a maigre of unusual
size had been brought in, he instantly hurried to
wait on the conservators, in expectation of an
invitation to dinner; but as he ascended the steps
of the capitol he met the head of the fish, adorned
with flowers and borne, by order of the conserva-

309

310 Big Game Fisbes

tors, as an offering to Cardinal Riario, nephew of
Pope Sixtus IV. Tomasio, being well acquainted
with this prelate, gladly joined the procession;
but Riario, delighting in a play of words, said
that the head of the greatest of fishes should by
right go to the greatest of cardinals, and sent it
accordingly to Cardinal St. Severin, who was of
extraordinary bulk. St. Severin, in his turn, de-
spatched it in a golden dish to the wealthy banker
Chigi, to whom he owed money. This time To-
masio, in his eager pursuit, had to traverse the
whole city and to cross the Tiber on his way
to the Farnesian palace, which Chigi had built.
Chigi, however, did not retain the much-prized
head, but after replacing the faded garlands by
newly gathered flowers, sent it to his mistress,
whose abode lay a good way off. There Tamisio,
who, though fat and unwieldy, had tracked the
object of his desires, under a hot sun, over a
whole city, was at length permitted to enjoy the
luxury he had endured so much toil to obtain.

The persistence of Tamisio was a bagatelle
compared to the journeys of modern anglers, who
cross oceans and continents to take the fishes of
their choice. The modern Tamisio is an angler,
his object being to take a big sea-drum with light

The Drum 311

tackle. Its flesh is little appreciated, though it is
fair to say that very few anglers know that the
head of many fishes, invariably thrown away, is
the bonne bouche.

The sea-drum is a very well-known fish, attract-
ing attention by its ponderous size. It ranks next
to the tuna, black sea-bass, Florida jewfish, black
grouper, and tarpon in size among American
game fishes, specimens having been taken which
weighed over one hundred and fifty pounds;
and fishes from forty to eighty pounds are not
uncommon. In appearance the sea-drum is a
large and attractive fish. The body is deep and
oblong, rising in a decided "hump," the ventral
outline being quite the reverse, so that when
placed on the beach the lower surface of the fish
will touch from the lower jaw to the tip of the
tail. The dorsal fin is tall and prominent; the
tail large and powerful, not forked ; the anal fin
long; the eye is large and striking, the head
blunt. The teeth are small and arranged in
bands ; the pharyngeal bones provided with a
crushing pavement, formed of blunt molar teeth,
or "oyster crushers." The color of the fish is
black or very dark in the adult, the young being
silver gray with five or six vertical bands. On

3i2 Big Game Fishes

the under jaw are numerous short barbels. The
range of the fish is from Long Island to Mexico,
being almost everywhere a common fish, afford-
ing good sport to the angler.

The drum belongs to the family Sci&nidce, which
includes the weak fishes, the white sea-bass, and
many others famous in European waters and
among the ancients. The sea-drum, the object of
our attention, is known to science as Pogonias
cromis, but in various localities it has other
common names. In some the striped young are
considered separate fishes and called striped drums.
On the extreme outer reef the men I fished with
called it the " porgy," the drum being " big porgy "
and the sheepshead " little porgy."

Its habits are similar to those of the sheepshead.
It is a slow swimmer, frequenting shallow waters,
preferring sandy bottom ; affecting oyster-beds, or
localities where it can obtain shell-fish. Its taste
for these dainties renders it one of the enemies of
the oystermen, the small succulent bivalves being
crushed like paper in its powerful jaws. The
trail of the drum along oyster-beds is easily fol-
lowed by the masses of broken shells and the evi-
dences of ruthless destruction, which can only be
compared to that produced by the deadly starfish.

The Drum 313

So dreaded are these fishes by oystermen that
the owners of beds have adopted many methods
to frighten them, one being to anchor highly
colored cloths over the beds, which move up and
down with the waves ; others, according to Ernest
Ingersoll, drop pieces of tin on the beds, in the
hope that the flashes and gleams of light will
drive them off. At such times the drums are
often found in vast schools, each fish weigh-
ing from forty to sixty pounds, and possessed
of an extraordinary appetite for oysters in the
shell. Such a devastating horde was caught
in a school in Great Egg Harbor nine years ago,
in a seine ; the fish numbered two hundred and
eighteen, and weighed nearly nine thousand
pounds. A City Island oysterman reported to
Mr. Ernest Ingersoll that drums had mulcted
him to the extent of $10,000 in a single
season. Similar stories come from almost every
locality where the fish is found.

The fish spawn in the latter part of March, in
April and May, in different parts of Florida, those
farther south spawning first. Thus down near
Cape Florida the fish spawn in March. Upon
the upper Florida and Alabama coast and along-
shore, according to Silas Stearns, they spawn in

314 Big Game Fishes

April and May, and at Tortugas, as near as could
be determined, the spawning season was in March.
While an oceanic fish, the drum enters rivers, and
I have seen six- or eight-pounders taken with a
seine between Jacksonville and Mayport on the
St. Johns, and have caught large specimens in the
Nassau River near Fernandina, where the water
was certainly more than brackish. I have also
caught large sea-drums near Old Point Comfort,
some localities being famous for them. Perhaps
the most remarkable feature of the drum is the
habit of "drumming," from which it derives its
name. I first heard it when fishing in the Chesa-
peake, the sound being so loud and resonant as
to be distinctly heard several feet away. On my
speaking of the incident to the late Professor Baird,
he told me that some years previous he had gone
out with a fisherman on the New Jersey coast for
the purpose of listening to the drums, and that the
sounds they produced astonished him. A pecul-
iar feature is that the drumming often sounds
differently to different persons. To me it was a
muffled boom — boom — boom, with a slight reso-
nance, this from the open water; but later I had
a number of large drums under my observation
for several weeks in a large tank, and the sounds

SPANISH MACKEREL
Scomberomoms maculatus (Mitchill)

DRUM; GRAY DRUM
Pogonias cromis (Linnaeus)

Tbe Drum 315

were deeper, a roaring boom so penetrating that
it could be heard throughout a large room. It
happened that I was looking at one of the fishes
when the sound was made, and noticed a very
slight opening of the mouth and gills, a convulsive
movement. The drumming is possibly a sexual
call, at least it is heard more in the spring when
the fishes are breeding, both sexes uttering it;
that produced by the male is the loudest, that of
the female is said to be the most musical. The
drumming sound is produced by the air-bladder,
and whether it can be heard to any great distance
beneath the water is a question unsolved. I have
been fortunate in hearing the vocal accomplish-
ments of a number of fishes, and several are
certainly as interesting as the drum's and one as
startling. The common grunt (Hamulon) of the
Florida reef would always grunt and groan in a
most despairing way when caught. The loudest
noise I have heard made by a fish was uttered by
a midshipman, a fish nearly a foot long, which I
kept in a tank at Santa Catalina Island. This
fish would utter a loud resonant croak or bark
under water which could be heard with startling
distinctness fifty feet away.

Nearly all of the Sciaenidae are sound utterersf

316 Big Game Fishes

and that the early Indians were familiar with the
notes of the drum is shown by the legend of Pas-
cagoula and its music, it being described as rich,
soft strains which rise from the water on still
nights, sounding like the notes of an /Eolian harp.
In the narrative of Bienville, who entered the
Mississippi in 1699, there is an account of the
music of Pascagoula. The Italians give the name
of covo to one species, which utters a croaking
sound. El roncador of Central America has a
similar habit, and Sir John Richardson states
that upon one occasion he could not sleep on the
coast of Carolina owing to the drumming of a
certain species. Lieutenant John White of the
British navy reported to his government that
when anchored at the mouth of the Camboya
River, his men were demoralized by strange
sounds which came up from the sea, " resembling
the bass of an organ mingled with the tones of a
bell, the croaking of an enormous frog, and the
clanging of an enormous harp." Humboldt also
refers to a similar occurrence which is quoted by
the same author: "About seven o'clock in the
evening the sailors were terrified by an extraor-
dinary noise in the air like the beating of tam-
bourines, followed by sounds which seemed to

The Drum 317

come from the water, and resembled the escape
of air from boiling liquid. It ceased at nine
o'clock." Not a few black boatmen who fish where
the drum is found are terrified by the mysterious
sounds.

The large drums are fishes of striking appear-
ance, and while not quick of motion, when they
find themselves hooked, they make a remarkable
fight and afford good sport. The greatest catches
are made with hand-lines; and near Fernandina,
in a party of a dozen men fishing, but two had
rods, the others being armed with lines which
would have held a man-eater shark, and I was
told by my sable boatman that even these were
sometimes broken by big " sheepshead. " But I
found that a number fifteen line was large enough
for any " sheepshead " up to seventy pounds, and
the largest drum known can be taken with a light
rod and a number twenty-one cuttyhunk line. So
far as tackle is concerned, I should use for these
fish the equipment employed for the yellowtail,
that is, for large fishes, but the twenty-pound
drum can be taken on a much lighter line.
Crab and clam bait were used in the Chesapeake,
fiddler crabs being a common lure at Fernandina.
I used crab, a "fiddler" community affording

318 Big Game Fishes

excellent bait for channel-bass or drum. The
capture of a drum of seventy pounds' weight will
be remembered, if the fish is taken with the rod ;
and when the angler reaches that part of Florida
where the people try to sell him all kinds of
articles, from picture frames to impossible flowers,
all made of fish-scales, he may accept it as a
foregone conclusion that " drum " can be caught
in that vicinity, and later on he will witness the
extraordinary scene of a longshore Cracker, a
Conch, or a " reefer," scaling drum with a hatchet,
for the very good reason that the fish does not
relinquish its scales with ease. One black oars-
man I had, cleaned the large fish by nailing the
tail to a scantling and, standing off, scraped off
the scales with a sharp hoe. .

One of the largest drums it was ever my good
luck to catch was far out on the Florida reef
and under peculiar conditions, — circumstances
which demonstrated the fact that the big drum is
possessed of Joblike patience. I was lying prone
upon some staging beneath a pier, where I could
observe the coming and going of fishes beneath
me, unseen, and was intently watching the actions
of a number of grunts, which were engaged in
a game of some kind, when I saw a large, high-

The Drum 319

built, thick-set, " double-decked," dark grayish fish
come slowly out of the gloom of the channel. It
swam with great deliberation, and I quickly recog-
nized the high forehead, the big dorsal fin, of the
drum, or " big porgy." On it came, until it reached
a pile not six feet from me, when it stopped and
began, after the fashion of its kind, to dine upon
barnacles and teredos incrusting the woodwork,
making the rotten and disintegrating wood fly
in every direction. As the fish poised and moved
around the pile, I noticed something peculiar
about it. It had several horizontal stripes which
were not fixed, but undulating and wavy, and
presently I saw that they were remoras, the pecul-
iar fishes which attach themselves to sharks by
the sucking plates upon their heads. There were
four of these fishes clinging to the drum, which
patiently towed them about wherever it went, bear-
ing them not only without the slightest protest,
but with absolute indifference. As the pieces of
teredo-infested wood began to permeate the water
with a dusky cloud, the remoras disconnected
themselves and darted rapidly about, evidently
feeding. The fish was one of the largest I had
seen, and I determined to attempt its capture.
Not fifty feet away, alongshore, were the remains

320 Big Game Fishes

of an old wreck, and judging that the fish would
visit this, I carefully retreated, and having secured
a rod hard by, baited the hook with a third of the
crushed tail of a crayfish — the spiny lobster of
the reef. This luscious morsel I cast from a high
pile of dead coral rock which formed the inter-
vening beach between the pier and the wreck in
a highway which I knew the porgy or drum
would pass in full view, owing to the remarkable
clearness of these tropical waters ; nor was I mis-
taken. The moment my bait sank in about
fifteen feet of water it was surrounded by a
motley throng of grunts, shad, young gray snap-
pers, porcupine-fishes, angel-fishes, and others,
which seized and tossed it about like a ball, creat-
ing a commotion that, as I surmised, attracted
the attention of the big fish which in a short
time appeared, still swimming slowly and with
dignity, its jet-black followers trailing against its
sides like the barbels or whiskers of a catfish.
One broke away and swam ahead, and rushing
into the throng, seized the bait. As the ponder-
ous drum approached the lure it stopped, turned
slightly upon one side, evidently eying it, while
the swarm of small fry melted away as do wolves
or coyotes when larger game approaches. The

The Drum 321

bait was evidently satisfactory, as the drum
turned until it appeared to stand almost upon its
head, then seized it. The remoras, which had
been darting about, " got aboard," attaching them-
selves, and the drum moved on.

At this particular moment I became a factor
in the proceedings. I had given the fish three or
four feet of slack, and as the line came taut the
big fish did not immediately notice it; then it
gave a sudden jerk as though of annoyance,
making the reel cry out beneath my thumb, and
then with a steady bearing off I successfully set
the hook into its ample jaws which so easily break
large hooks by a mere crushing or grinding pro-
cess. A streak of gray, with streamers of black,
a cloud of sand sent rolling upward into the clear
waters, a z-e-e-e-e-e-e-e ! long drawn out, and the
game was away, a rush so fierce, so determined,
that I fully expected to see all the line unreeled ;
so I descended from the pile of dead coral, my
point of vantage, and ran along the beach to a
dinghy, hoping to reach it. But the boat was
high on the sands and I ran by it, as the fish was
now going rapidly down the slope of the channel
into deeper water, and headed out the channel.
It carried me fifty yards up shore before I stopped

322 Big Game Fishes

it with my light rod, and then I had waded out,
knee-deep, on to a little shoal which projected into
the channel, from which vantage-ground, the
home of the mullet, I played my fish and was
played. I would gain ten or twenty feet, then
lose it, then by turning the fish inshore and
wading rapidly, I would regain the lost line. And
so, giving and taking, the contest went on, every
now and then the fish making a desperate rush ;
and the closer in I reeled it the more savage
became its plays. It had one singular movement
which appeared to be a rapid dive in a half-circle,
bearing away on the line with all its power, then
evidently turning suddenly, which gave a slack
line for a second as it ran toward me, which was
perhaps a trick to gain line. But I foiled it by
more than ordinary good luck, all the time being
carried slowly up the channel, but now moving
gradually in so that I at last reeled the fish up
the steep channel slope on to the shoal and had it
in three feet of water, where it circled me several
times as I slowly and carefully backed inshore.

By this time one of the boatmen had appeared
and now waded out ; and, as well wearied with my
bare-headed fight under a terrific sun, I brought
the fish in, he grained it — a savage and barbar-

The Drum 323

ous method of gaffing, but possibly excusable
under the circumstances — and dragged it out
upon the sands, remoras and all, the four attend-
ants refusing to leave until they were forced off.
This fish weighed, if my memory serves me rightly,
about seventy pounds, and was the largest " big
porgy " ever seen at Garden Key, at least by
the fishermen I knew. I gave it to the man I
often fished with. He was not a Tamisio, and I
fancied he looked at me reproachfully the next
day when I asked him how it tasted. His reply
was that it might have been " fine fishin', but it
was mighty tough eatin'." So my biggest drum
undoubtedly went to feed the sharks, which were
the principal scavengers along the key of the
Gulf.

Small drums, or " porgies," from eight to twelve
pounds were highly valued and caught in the
same localities as sheepshead, though in deeper
water, one of the best places being on the edge of
a deep channel opposite Sand Key, where " Long
John " could soon fill the well of the " Bull Pup,"
as he called his old sloop, which went to the bot-
tom one day in a hurricane. The fishes were
probably revenged by using her as a retreat until
the teredos reduced her to dust.

CHAPTER XXI

THE SHEEPSHEAD

" I shall stay him no longer than to wish, . . . that if he be
an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes
a-fishing." — IZAAK WALTON.

THE ancients long ago discovered the value
of the sheepshead or its representatives, and the
Chrysophrys of the Greeks, and Aurata of the
Latins, was the gilthead of the English, accord-
ing to Sir John Richardson. Sergius Grata, a
famous Roman well liver, considered the gilt-
head the finest of all fishes, and it is said that his
surname was derived from this fish. He intro-
duced them into ponds, and cultivated oysters and
other shell-fish that the giltheads might have the
most delicate food. According to Pliny, he sug-
gested and designed the oyster nurseries at Baiae
upon which were fed the sheepshead which were
sold to the Roman epicures. Few fishes to-day
excel the sheepshead when properly served, and
as a game fish it ranks high when taken with a
light rod and the lightest line.

324

The Sheepshead 325

I have fished for sheepshead alongshore from
Long Island to the Chesapeake, off the Georgia
coast at Marion Island, and far out on the Florida
reef, and have always found it a gamy fish.

It belongs to the family Sparidce, to the sub-
genus Archosargus, and is known to science as
Archosargus probatocephalus (Walbaum). Its
head is large and high, the body deep, with
a long dorsal fin ; the tail forked but not deeply,
a powerful organ. The mouth is large and
provided with a curious array of teeth, those
in front being conical or incisorial, for tearing or
biting. Back of these are others, in two or
three rows, which are crushers or grinders.
These are suggestive of the habits of the sheeps-
head, which is equipped by nature to live upon
shells and crustaceans, and wherever found it
feeds upon young oysters, barnacles, cockles, and
crabs of various kinds. With the front teeth it
wrenches shells from rocks or piers, passes them
to the grinders, where they are crushed as though
passing through a rock breaker. In color the
sheepshead is gray, with six or seven vertical
stripes which make it very conspicuous. It is a
slow-swimming fish, frequenting rocky shores in
shallow water, piers, and old wrecks, the latter

326 Big Game Fishes

particularly being favorite resorts ; and whenever
a wreck can be located on the Atlantic coast, good
sheepshead fishing will be found. There are
several such ocean rookeries between Newport
and Delaware Bay which have become famous.
I have had excellent fishing near Old Point Com-
fort, where I have taken sheepshead from the
wharf, and at Beaufort. The fish has never been
seen north of Cape Cod, and some localities
which knew it well several years ago, know it no
more. I was informed by an old fisherman at
Fisher's Island that when he was a boy sheeps-
head were plentiful, but faithful fishing there failed
to obtain a rise; though not many miles away,
on the south shore of Long Island, the sheeps-
head was the common fish. I once accompanied
a party up the beach, near Cape May, who waded
out into the breakers, which were not very high,
and made long casts out over the supposed loca-
tion of an old wreck, some exciting sport being
the result. The fishes were large and extremely
gamy, making an exhilarating fight, rendered the
more exciting by the capsizing of an old angler
by a sea as he was about to land his fish.

The oyster-beds of the Chesapeake are favorite
localities for sheepshead, and I have taken the

The S beeps bead 327

fish from the north beach at Old Point Comfort,
where they were evidently feeding upon the crabs
which fairly covered the bottom at times. The
bait used was a single soft-shelled crab — a kill-
ing lure. There are numerous fishing-grounds
about New York bay well known to boatmen at
Staten Island, Fort Hamilton, on the New Jersey
shore, Jamaica Bay, Fire Island, South Bay, and
various other localities. All these places have
their habitues ; some fish with hand-lines, some
with rods, who have the shallow mussel beds and
other " spots " located off which they anchor, cast-
ing on to the bank with good, bad, or indifferent
results depending upon tide and weather. The
"beds" can be often recognized by the quantities of
broken mussel shells. On the outer Florida reef
the feeding-ground of the porgies, as they were
called, could be determined by a dark spot on the
otherwise clear sand of a shallow lagoon, sur-
rounded by the broken shells of bivalves. The
Hon. William Elliott, in his delightful " Carolina
Sports on Land and Water," describes the sport
in Port Royal Sound, where large enclosures were
built out into the water to encourage the growth
of shell-fish — the food of the sheepshead. Stands
were also erected for the angler, who was a man

328 Big Game Fishes

after the heart of the salmon fishermen, the rod
used being " twenty feet " long, probably a single
bamboo pole.

Such an angler created a sensation in Southern
California waters several years ago by advocat-
ing long rods. It so happened that I accom-
panied him one day and observed its working.
He had a long bamboo pole, the longest and
stoutest I remember having seen, and the method
was to place the butt of the rod in the leather
cap on the seat, and when a strike came merely
hold on. I saw this long-rod philosopher play a
thirty-pound yellowtail, while I was convinced
that he was fast asleep ; the fish seized the bait
and plunged down, hooking itself, taking the
tip several feet under water ; but the tremendous
strain was too much for even this gamy crea-
ture, and the rod gradually raised it, when the
fish made another rush, and again the back
spring lifted it. And so the fight went on until
the angler awoke and reeled in the exhausted
fish. Long rods are to be commended, but the
rod which does all the fishing is an embarras de
richesse.

Mr. Elliott baited one hook with a raw oyster,
its attributes being an appeal to the fish's sense

The Sbeepsbead 329

of smell, — in a word, to attract it ; while on the
second hook was a boiled oyster, strong and
tenacious, which served as the killing lure. The
fish is supposed to migrate, that is, it disappears
from the eyes of fishermen in its northern haunts
in winter, either moving south, out into deeper
water, or lying dormant. At Old Point Comfort,
Virginia, the sheepshead appeared in April, some-
times in March, disappearing in October. On
the Florida reef, at Garden Key, it could be
caught the year round, but was much more
frequent in summer. Georgia is apparently the
limit of the supposed migration ; from here south
it was found the year round, the fishing being
merely affected by the question of bait. The
sheepshead is common all along the coast of
Florida in winter, the numbers increasing the
farther south one goes. The Indian River region
down to Biscayne Bay is a favorite locality for
it. Mr. Stearns states that on the mainland
Gulf coast the fish is found during the entire
year, especially at St. Marks River, Cedar Keys,
Homosassa River, and to the south. On the
other hand, in the northern Gulf localities, as
Appalachicola, St. Andrews, Mobile, and Pensa-
cola, it is migratory, appearing in large numbers

330 Big Game Fishes

only in October and November. The fish spawns
in April and May in these localities. On the
outer keys spawning fish were found in the
shallow lagoon east of Long Key in the latter
part of February and the first weeks in March,
and shortly after the young fish were seen,
while several weeks later a seine hauled about
the old mangrove roots would contain great
quantities of young, easily recognized by the
black stripes or bands.

The average fish I caught on the reef weighed
from seven to twelve and eighteen pounds, while
individuals weighing twenty pounds were fre-
quently taken. Among New York fishermen
stories of extraordinarily large sheepshead are
often reported, but individuals weighing fifteen
pounds are considered large catches. It is mar-
vellous how a fish will shrink and shrivel when
subjected to the deadly scales that have not been
encouraged to make the most of things. I once
saw a sheepshead which had been caught over
an old wreck, near Asbury Park, which was
hailed as the record; but it appeared later that
the fish was "in ballast/' having been made a
repository for all the lead sinkers of the party.

The sheepshead is trapped and seined, taken with

The Sheepsbead 331

hand-lines, and looked upon as a mere commercial
commodity alongshore ; but it is a game fish in all
the term implies when caught with a rod. In
the question of tackle there is the greatest differ-
ence in taste, and most of the sheepshead are
hauled in with heavy lines, the latter being
anchored to the ground with a heavy sinker.
Other fishermen use tarpon rods, or rods which
sell as bait rods, made for use on the fishing
steamers which run out of New York to the
banks. They are stiff and heavy, to permit the
hauling of a dead weight from a considerable
depth. My own experience with the sheepshead
has been with a light rod not less than eight
and a half feet long and a cuttyhunk line as
delicate as one's conscience will permit. I took
my largest sheepshead on a number nine cutty-
hunk line; and as the average fish weighs but
six or eight pounds, a very light line can be
employed. A sinker is necessary at times. I
have fished at the mouth of the St. Johns, where
my heavy sinker seemed to be always on the sur-
face; but there is a lull in the current between
tides which is a good time to begin to fish.
Again, the bait can be cast up the current and
allowed to drift down. There is more true

332 Big Game Fisbes

satisfaction in taking a fifteen-pound fish with
a single gut snood and a small hook than
with a wire leader designed for sharks, or
for large and powerful fishes which play so
long that their fine teeth are very likely to saw
and sever the more delicate equipment. An in-
teresting fish sometimes found with the sheeps-
head is the triple-tail, Lobotes surinamensis. It is
a large and powerful fish, reaching a weight of
forty or fifty pounds. It has a remarkably wide
geographical range, from China to America, and
at many intermediate localities. I took a speci-
men at the " Rip-raps," Old Point Comfort, which
weighed about twenty-five pounds, the fish mak-
ing a very gamy fight, and later I saw speci-
mens which had been taken on the St. Johns. In
color it is silvery gray, very attractive when
taken, and resembling the common " blue perch "
of Santa Catalina waters. It is high, short, and
"thick-set," the dorsal and anal fins extending
so far backward as to give it the appearance of
having three tails, hence the common name. It
is taken all alongshore, from New York to
Florida, but in such limited numbers that it has
never been a factor in the catch of the anglers
of any locality.

SHEEPSHEAD
Archosargus probatocephalus (Walbaum)

TRIPLE-TAIL; FLASHER

Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch)

CHAPTER XXII

THE PARROT-FISHES

" And there crystal pools, peopled with fish,
Argent and gold ; and some of Tyrian skin,

Some crimson-barred. And ever at a wish
They rose obsequious, till the wave grew thin

As glass upon their backs, and then dived in,
Quenching their ardent scales in watery gloom,

Whilst others with fresh hues rowed forth to win

My changeable regard."

— THOMAS HOOD.

IT is said that the gods held the scarus as first
among fishes, and Pliny tells us that during the
time of Emperor Claudius an epicure and angler
of great wealth, one Optatus Elipertius, collected
a large number of the most beautiful of these
fishes and liberated them in the Italian sea for
the benefit of posterity. The waters of the outer
reef, and of our new colony Porto Rico, abound
in these birds of the sea, which, in their fanci-
ful coloring, brilliant, indeed dazzling, tints, are
among the most conspicuous of the dwellers in
these tropic seas. In my early days on the reef

333

334 Big Game Fishes

I at times fished from a small craft known by
the euphonious title of the " Bull Pup," under the
command of a genial character of the reef, " Long
John." I frequently hooked a fish on the edge
of the coral in fairly deep water, which bit the
hook in two as cleverly as I could have cut it
with a file, though it was only when I fished with
the small i/o hook described in angel-fishing.
I believed the unknown to be a small shark, but
my Conch boatman, Long John, said it was a loro
verde, a fish which had a beak like that of a parrot,
— was, in fact, a parrot-fish. Acting on his sug-
gestion, I changed the hook, putting on what he
termed a "grunt hook," which had a leader, or
snell, of silver guitar string. This hook was what
is known to dealers as a number five, spring steel
blackfish hook, and while small, was stout and
inflexible, almost impossible to break. With this
and a very light line and pliable rod I continued
fishing, landing first, as though to show what
bizarre game there was over this remarkable
coral wall, a porcupine fish, which when brought
to the surface expanded to a perfect ball covered
with spines, and when cut loose sailed away on
the sea like a balloon.

I next hooked a fish which made so gallant a

The Parrot-fishes 335

rush that the reel sang again, and Long John,
unused to rods, stared in amazement at the bam-
boo, and expressed the opinion that it was " dun
fer." I can recall no North Atlantic fish, except
a large bluefish, with which to compare this
gamy creature. It made a clean dash of at least
one hundred feet down into deep water, evidently
following the sloping bottom, then circled around,
coming back when checked, stopping and evi-
dently shaking its head, imparting to the rod a
most erratic series of motions which seriously
threatened its future usefulness. At times the
rod was more than outclassed by this fish, and I
considered it good fortune more than anything
else that I succeeded in holding it at all. Now
it was away, deep in the blue channel, then came
rushing in, plunging down the coral wall by the
side of which we were fishing. A gamier, more
keenly active fish I never had played. For sus-
tained and powerful resistance, it was a royal fish,
and when finally it was brought to the surface
after a hard contest, I saw that I had been play-
ing a despised and, so far as anglers are con-
cerned, utterly neglected parrot-fish. I was
amazed. I was familiar with the young, and of
all fishes it is to the eye the slowest, the most

336 Big Game Fishes

easy-going, playing about the coral heads, lying
in gorgonian snug corners, a gorgeous poseur, a
scaled coxcomb of the fishes' rialto, perhaps the
last individual of this gorgeous throng that would
be selected as a hard fighter, a breaker of hooks.
The names given fishes are sometimes without
rhyme or reason ; but no better appellative could
be chosen than the sea-parrot for this doughty
creature which lay upon the surface, rolling its
oddly colored blue and yellow eyes, flapping its
broad pectoral fins, and occasionally lifting its big
tail to scatter water over the boat, as though to
emphasize the fact that while in the toils it
hurled defiance at us. In color and general
appearance it suggested some of the gaudy ma-
caws, especially in color, as encased in an armor
of huge scales it was painted a vivid turquoise
blue from head to tail, and possessed a remark-
able set of beaks, solid nippers, and biters also
colored. Other fishes have more tints, are more
beautiful ; yet I recall none which made a more
striking impression upon my mind than this sea-
parrot, which eyed me so intently, I fancied,
wondering whether I was the kind of an angler
who had a high appreciation of a good fighter
and would release it, or whether I was merely

The Parrot-fishes 337

a plain pot-hunter fisherman, who would murder
it in cold blood, and stow it away in a bag to gloat
over its size and weight with other barbarians
ashore.

My catch was estimated at three and a half feet
in length as it lay on the surface, for I would not
allow Long John to take it in, much to his
amazement; and that it would have tipped the
scales at nearly thirty pounds, I am confident,
having weighed several individuals taken in a
trap or net for scientific purposes, which tipped
the scales at twenty and twenty-five pounds. As
it lay on the water it was a beautiful object, seem-
ingly painted with the same brush used in deco-
rating the marvellous turquoise channels of the
reef; body, fins, tail, even the iris, was the same
rich and radiant hue, giving remarkable expres-
sion to its eye. At the base of the fins the blue
was deeper, more intense, bordering on purple ; the
belly was greenish blue ; while upon its " cheeks,"
below the eye, this macaroni of the "gulfs en-
chanted " had touches of rouge, — at least a
decided pink flush was seen that heightened its
gorgeous costuming. The lower jaw was touched
with yellow, the pupil of the eye had a narrow
yellow band inside the deep blue iris ; give to the

338 Big Game Fishes

fish a long, high dorsal, a ramlike " snout " ex-
tending beyond the mouth, and a faint idea of
this fish may be had by the reader who has not
seen it. My boatman announced it as "pizen,"
and proposed to kill it on general principles ; but
so rare a foeman, so gallant a contestant, never
died by my hand unless it was strongly in de-
mand, and to Long John's wonderment I cut it
loose. In the years I spent on the reef I do not
think my catches of large parrot-fishes would
number over ten or twelve, and this was the larg-
est, though I saw a crudely mounted specimen in
a shop in Key West which must have weighed
over forty pounds; but such fish are the excep-
tion, a twenty-five-pound fish being moderately
rare, the average fish seen around the coral
heads near in ranging from five to eight pounds.
I unhesitatingly give the loro a place among the
hard-fighting game fishes of our tropical and
semi-tropical waters when taken with proper
tackle.

This fish, known as the blue parrot-fish, loro,
and many local names, is the blue scarus (Scarus
coeruleus) of science. It has a wide geographical
range from the coast of South America to Mary-
land. On the reef the fishermen and boatmen

The Parrot-fishes 339

with whom I came in contact all believed it
poisonous, and invariably killed and threw it
away. It affected water of medium depth, but
came in upon the lagoons at night to feed. At
Porto Rico, according to Evermann, it is a more
or less important food fish, the people not having
the foolish superstition of many of the Conchs.
Dr. Jordan states that " In Hawaii the parrot-
fishes, being eaten raw, are very highly esteemed
and even once held as tabu, to be touched only
by royalty." As near as I could determine, the
men whom I knew, believed the fish to be poison-
ous because it was " green," when in point of fact
it was blue, though another large green parrot-
fish and several small ones found here fell under
the ban. Long John explained to me that on
the Cuban coast there were "submarine ledges
of copper," which certain fishes, like parrot-fishes,
ate and so became poisoned. No argument
could convince the men that they were mistaken,
even though I ate the parrot-fish and others, and
still lived to tell the story. Long John met this
self-sacrificing experiment with the remark that
" Some folks was pizen proof."

With the blue parrot-fish at Long Key another
form, Pseudoscarus guacamaia, equally as large

340 Big Game Fishes

was occasionally caught in the manner described
with a very small but stout hook on the face or
at the base of a perpendicular coral cliff. The
channels here were very deep and precipitous,
and were often lined with branch coral which
formed an almost perpendicular wall, a perfect
cheveaux de frise, the interstices of which formed
favorite lurking-places for the parrot-fishes of
large size. This fish, though rarely caught with
a line, was, when three feet in length and rang-
ing from eighteen to twenty pounds in weight, a
powerful, active fish. Large individuals were
frequently taken at night on the edge of the
lagoon, showing that, like many others, it came
into the shallows to feed. It was held in no
esteem by the fishermen, being considered poison-
ous; its only economic value lay in the "bills,"
which were a vivid blue when fresh, green later,
and which were sold to visitors as curiosities.
The remarkable feature about these fishes are
the singular "bills" or teeth, which in the dif-
ferent species coalesce, more or less, forming a
sharp, solid ridge instead of several teeth. This
biting armament partakes of the color of the fish.
In the large parrot-fish described they were pink-
ish and white ; in another genus, green. The

The Parrot-fishes 341

fishermen believed that this armament enabled
the parrot-fishes to bite off the tips of branch
coral, which constituted their principal food.
When I expressed a doubt of this, Long John
took me to a " grove " of branch coral and
showed me the tips of countless branches where
the polyps had been destroyed by the parrot-
fishes; but I found that the real "coral eater"
was a huge marine worm, which literally drew
itself over the tips of branch coral as one would
pull the finger of a glove, swallowing it to a dis-
tance of four or more inches, thus securing the
polyps. That the parrot-fish could bite off a
coral branch there is little doubt, or that it does
at times I would not venture to deny; but its
principal food consists of crustaceans, seaweed,
echini, and the ordinary game of the tropical
shallows, — this from an examination of its inter-
nal economy.

But a few ardent anglers will have the temerity
to spend a summer on the outer reef where my
old boatmen, Long John, Bob Rand, Chief, and
Busby, lie buried by the great current which
sweeps silently on through these isles of eternal
summer.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE DOLPHIN

" A shoal of dolphins, tumbling in wild glee,
Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been
The rainbow's offspring, where it met the ocean."

— MONTGOMERY.

FEW anglers have taken this beautiful creature,
whose home is upon the high seas, and whose
presence often gladdens the heart of the mariner
in the idle forties; hence few know the amount
of power, force, exhilaration, and game qualities
possessed by this gorgeous acrobat, this harlequin
of the sea. It happened some years ago that I
was caught at sea in a remarkable calm, which
continued for nearly a week, during which period
the ship drifted many miles, but sailed not one.
We were in the Gulf Stream, so went on at a
mysterious pace, yet without sails, to the measure
of the eternal tapping and rippling music of
countless reefing points and the nerve-rasping
creaking of booms whose jaws, drying under the

342

The Dolphin 343

pitiless heat, seemed to scream in very agony
at every lunge of the ship. All the expedients
known to mariners were brought into play. The
foremast was hammered by all hands. The cap-
tain of the galley, a jolly shipmate under some
circumstances, whistled for the wind with a rare
faith, while the good skipper swore and believed
himself bewitched as the days sped by.

Such monotony became intolerable, and I
began to occupy myself by rowing about in a
boat, always keeping near the ship in case the
welcome wind should come. We were on the
outskirts of the famous Sargasso Sea. Great
patches of sargassum, the gulfweed, covered the
water everywhere, each islet forming, at least to
me, a fascinating world in itself. They were float-
ing islands with marvellous populations, — crabs,
shells, shell-less " shells," and fishes, — all colored
the exact tint of their surroundings, a rich green.
Here was the strange antennarius, or walking fish,
with its nest, a bunch of weed held together by a
glutinous secretion and covered with myriads of
eggs the size of a pin's head. So marvellous was
this fish in its mimicry that I could hardly dis-
tinguish it from the weed when lying on it, even
with my face but two feet distant.

344 Big Game Fishes

On these trips I took a rod, hoping to
catch a bonito, and so it came about that one
day, I think the fourth of our imprisonment,
when every one was desperate, that I ran foul
of the misnamed dolphins. I was sculling along
to enter a little bay in the gulfweed, when I saw
a number of large fishes come coursing along,
charging the weed evidently in search of small
fry. Quickly taking the rod, which was baited
with a small flying-fish that had flown aboard
ship in the night, I cast fairly among them, and
I have reason to believe that every dolphin in
the pack — and I say pack advisedly — dashed
for it. One fortunate fish took it on the run and
never stopped until two hundred feet of my line
was unreeled, to such music as I had never heard
before. The following day, when I took the reel
apart to see what had happened, I found the
interior flaked and covered with brass filings,
which told the story of that rush. The fish was
followed by the entire school, and when I finally
checked it, they noted every move until I had the
gamy creature in the toils. Such rushes in and
out, such doubling, such sudden stops, were never
seen. Suddenly with a wild rush the fish would
encircle the boat, then dash into a mass of weed,

The Dolphin 345

and for fifteen minutes I did not gain thirty feet
on this glorious fish, and I never would have
caught it on my light tackle had not hard luck,
the very hardest, fallen to the lot of this beautiful
" offspring of the rainbow." I fought it, played it,
turned it, but seemed incapable with my rod and
line to bring it in ; and finally, in one of its
rushes in a circle, it dashed into a particularly
dense mass of gulfweed, and with the line so
completely involved itself that I took it with
ease — the most bare-faced act of piracy ever
perpetrated in this latitude, I dare say.

When I approached, stopping now and then
to reel in the slack, the dolphin was lying flat
upon its side almost entirely out of water, its
efforts and struggles forcing it further out on
the thick mat of weed. How shall I describe
its wonders, its flashes of color, gorgeous changes
from tint to shade, its dazzling effulgence ? I
have never seen anything to compare with it in
suddenness of unexpected beauties, unless I ex-
cept a large squid which I once kept in confine-
ment alive for an hour, over whose surface color
changes in all the tints of red passed with such
rapidity that it could only be compared to heat
lightning, which I have observed in the tropics

346 Big Game Fishes

when there was absolutely no cessation, but a
never ceasing pulsating glare. I could think of
but one comparison, — the interior of a large and
brilliant haliotis shell with its marvellous shades
of blue, yellow, red, pink, violet, black, and white
pearl. This might convey in some degree the
beauties of the dolphin as it changes color in the
bright sunlight. The fish was nearly four feet in
length, and I should judge weighed in the neigh-
borhood of sixty pounds. Its head was large,
mouth big, eyes radiant, and down the back to the
sharp-pointed tail a long, purple dorsal fin splashed
with other tints, itself a coat of many colors.

In general appearance the dolphin is one of
the most attractive of all fishes. The prevailing
tint is greenish olive, brownish olive above ; the
belly white with a golden sheen ; but the most
marked ornamentation is a series of vivid splashes
of labradorite blue along the upper portion. Add
to this, blue-splashed fins and a yellow tail, and
some idea of this radiant creature may be imag-
ined— a fish which, if available to anglers near
shore, would take its place among the great game
fishes of the world.

A few days later the "dead calm" gave way
before the trade: a sleeper awakened, and the

The Dolphin 347

ship made her course again under the stiff breeze,
with cordage whistling — the music of Arion in
the ^Egean Sea. The dolphins came in schools
and raced along under the cutwater, darting by
it, performing mighty feats of valor. It was an
easy matter to observe and catch them, and
swinging from an improvised seat on the dolphin
striker the men supplied the galley with these
splendid fishes.

Few fishes are better known than the dolphin,
yet as rarely seen at close quarters, though I have
often taken them from the bows of ships at sea,
and the sport is a common one among sailors.
The real dolphin is a well-known figure in my-
thology. It was Arion who, captured at sea by
pirates, when sentenced to death, asked permis-
sion to play upon his harp. The notes drifted
away over the sea so sweetly that they attracted
a school of dolphins, and when Arion was tossed
over he fell upon the back of one and was carried
to the shore ; hence we see in the heavens Arion's
harp and the dolphin forming the well-known
constellation of that name.

The dolphins (Coryph&nida) are pelagic fishes
living on the high seas and offshore on the Amer-
ican coast from Virginia to the Rio Grande, often

348 Big Game Fishes

venturing beyond these lines, but rarely if ever
seen inshore. There is a single genus and but
two species, the one described, C. hippurus, a
large, powerful fish, attaining the length of six
feet, and C. equisetis, from two to three feet.
The name dolphin is an unfortunate misnomer;
the fish might better be called harlequin, as the
name dolphin is applied to the mammalian dol-
phins — small, whalelike animals, equally common
and referred to in mythology. Doubtless few
anglers have seen the real dolphin (Delphinus)
landed. I once saw a bottle-nose dolphin, weigh-
ing about fifty pounds, which was taken with
hook and line and sardine bait at Santa Catalina.
The angler supposed he had a seal, and landed
the animal only after a hard and consistent
struggle ; and knowing all the details of the cap-
ture, I am enabled to place this interesting crea-
ture on record as a very gamy catch.

While the fish dolphin is a gorgeous creature,
it has been my good fortune to see at the Califor-
nia islands another fish, a cousin germane, whose
glories cannot be adequately described. This
is the butterfly-fish, the opah, Lampris luna,
known as cravo, poisson luna, soho, and other
names in all parts of the world. It attains a

The Dolphin 349

weight of nearly five hundred pounds, is an ac-
tive, hard-fighting fish extremely difficult to catch,
and may be considered the rarest of what might
be termed the pelagic game fishes of the United
States, which, though rarely seen near the main-
land shores, are found about the adjacent islands
of the Pacific from the Coronados to the Faral-
lones, and on the high seas in general. Large
individuals have been seen at Monterey on the
California coast. I remember well when a fish-
erman at Avalon came to tell me of the splendid
fish he had taken, and the beautiful object which
met my eyes on going to the beach where the
opha, a small individual weighing perhaps fifty
pounds, was hung. Its normal or ground tint ap-
peared to be dull silver, but over this was drawn a
seeming fabric of rose-lilac hue, while dotted over
the surface were round, pronounced, vivid silvery
spots, giving the fish a most artificial appearance.
The fins were vermilion; the eyes very large, larger
than in any other fish I recall, and a deep blue,
completing a make-up which was at once striking
and beautiful. The flesh was a deep red, and
recalled salmon in its flavor. If this shy fish of
many glories was available, it would afford excel-
lent sport to the lover of big game at sea.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MARIPOSAS

"There we sit
For a bit
Till we fish entangle."

— WALTON. Piscator's Song.

AMONG the fishes of semi-tropical America
there are many which are passed by with indif-
ference by anglers for the very good reason that
their limited time is wholly occupied with tarpon
and the larger game. To know them all and
know them well, it is necessary to spend the hot
months of summer in the haunts where they are
at their best. It was my fortune for several
years to have the midsummer fishing on the ex-
treme outer Florida reef — the land of the "tin
cow " and the roaring nineties, where the heat at
times was intolerable, and only cheerfully faced
by youth or the most ardent lover of sport. I
see the long stretch of water, the green-capped
keys lying on its surface like gems, the clumps
of graceful cocoa palms, through which the wind

350

The Mariposas 351

sighs and makes rippling music ; the groups of
mangroves growing in the water, the long sub-
merged reef, the old wreck, the clouds of snowy
terns. I recall the submarine garden, the coral
groves cut by strange channels of turquoise-blue,
the colossal heads of coral eaten out into curious,
vaselike shapes, the masses of plumelike gorgo-
nias floating, waving eternally in the restless cur-
rent, the paradise of the southern seas.

In these gardens were some of the most beauti-
ful of all fishes, known as mariposas and angel-
fishes, the various species being garbed in colors
so brilliant and startling that one could almost
believe that nature was masquerading. In the
wealth of other game they are rarely noticed and
rarely caught, so small are their mouths. Espe-
cially rigged tackle is necessary, at least the angler
fishing for the gray snapper, yellowtail, or jack
would never take a mariposa unless by accident ;
but once caught, they would always be included
among the delight givers of the reef.

Anchoring just outside the fringing reef on
which the sea was beating, over one of the beau-
tiful coral plantations, with a water-glass myriads
of these gorgeous fishes could be seen in water
fifteen or twenty feet deep, some attaining a

352 Big Game Fishes

weight of twenty-five pounds, though represented
about the wharves by very much smaller individ-
uals. My first introduction to them was more by
accident than anything else. I was fishing for
yellowtails (Fig. 9), the gamy gold-tinted fish so
common on the reef, when a huge barracuda came
drifting in from the outer Gulf Stream, and hovered
about, looking us over with its black staring eyes,
which gave a suggestion of how the plesiosaurus
might have looked. I had no bait, so dropped a
" fly " hook over, hoping to catch a small grunt or
yellowtail which could be used as a lure for the
barracuda. Instead, I hooked a spadefish of
three or four pounds, which gave me so spirited
a contest that I determined to fish for them with
intent to kill. An eight-foot bamboo rod was at
hand and a delicate line comparing to a number
twelve cuttyhunk; to this was added a gut-
snelled hook equivalent to a number eleven steel
sproat hook, a very small affair for so powerful a
fish, but necessary on account of the small mouth
of this game ; briefly, the hook should be very
small but stout. This I baited with the red meat
of the crayfish, or spiny lobster, and cast a few
feet out. Some manipulation was necessary to
keep it from the smaller fry, but after a number

The Mariposas 353

of small catches I hooked a fish which soon
demonstrated that it was essentially game. I had
no thumb brake, and the fish took my line at
marvellous speed, resisting all attempts to capture
it, and putting the delicate tackle to the test more
than once, coming in only after a well-sustained
protest. The captive must have weighed be-
tween eighteen and twenty pounds ; and on other
occasions I took larger specimens of this interest-
ing and conspicuously beautiful fish, shaped very
much like the typical angel-fishes, with a high,
elevated body much compressed, the upper or
dorsal and anal fins extending back in graceful
points suggesting plumes, giving the fish the
appearance of having three tails. My boatman,
Long John, called it a porgee, the third fish to
which the name was applied on this portion of
the reef.

The fish, which is Chcetodipterus faber of sci-
ence, has a wide geographical range. I have
caught small individuals in the Gulf of Mexico, at
Aransas Pass, Texas, at the Tortugas, Old Point
Comfort, Virginia, and have seen it taken from a
pound net in New York harbor near Coney Island.
Dr. Jordan describes it from San Diego, Califor-
nia. The young are easily recognized by the six

354 Big Game Fishes

or seven pronounced stripes, one of which passes
directly through the eye. In Florida I found this
fish everywhere about the large coral heads, al-
ways in company with angel-fishes and yellow-
tails, adding to the manifold attractions of these
submarine gardens. The most constant compan-
ion of this gamy creature was the black angel-
fish, which so far as shape is concerned closely
resembles it. Very large individuals attain a
weight of ten pounds or more, averaging much
smaller about the wharves and docks; yet few
fishes of their size present so brave a front and
make so desperate and sustained a fight against
capture. The struggles of a trout of the same
weight or even a black-bass fade into insignifi-
cance when compared to this broad gray or black
fish of extraordinary countenance and vivid white
lips. The angel-fishes proper belong to the
family Chaetodontidae, which includes nine or ten
genera or about two hundred species, mainly
found in tropical seas the world over, in some
localities being known as coral-fishes, and every-
where among the most gorgeous and beautiful
of the denizens of the ocean, their vivid coloring
rendered more striking by the contrast of the
sombre olive-hued coral. Flashing like gems in

The Mariposas 355

all the colors of the rainbow, this group is well
named the mariposas, or butterfly-fishes.

The black angel-fish, Pomacanthus arcuatus
(Fig. 9), might better be termed the gray angel-fish,
as in thousands observed on the reef I never saw
a black individual or one that approached black ;
hence the black angel-fish is black in the sense
that the white elephant of Siam is white. Its
color is a peculiar beautiful gray, some of the
scales being very dark with white borders. The
broad tail has a white border ; the mouth is pure
white. All these fishes, due to the lofty or ele-
vated " forehead," the projecting mouth, and their
faculty of moving the eyes more than many
other fishes, have more of a " face " in the human
sense than almost any other group of fishes ; and
to watch them in the home of their choice is an
interesting, indeed, fascinating, occupation. In
movement they are exceedingly dignified, spend-
ing much time posing among the branches of
coral, and assuming many mannerisms which
attract one's attention. I hooked them readily
with the tackle described, and was always repaid.
The first rush away of the fish is so violent that
the novice almost invariably loses the delicate
line and hook ; and so impetuous is the dash, so

356 Big Game Fishes

determined the resistance, that one is easily over-
matched.

In watching the fish I found that it made its
sturdy resistance by keeping its broad side to
me, fighting inch by inch ; and when wearied it
would bound upward and wear away round on the
other tack, presenting its opposite front, all the
time making a struggle that could but arouse
the admiration of the angler. These experiences
were, of course, with light rod and delicate tackle.
With a twenty-five-ounce rod six and a half feet
long, and a large line, the angel-fishes would
drop back into the ranks of " bait stealers " and
not be considered worth catching, nor indeed
would a trout under the same circumstances.
I have seen the black angel-fish taken in Vir-
ginia, though rarely, its home being in tropical
seas, and on the Florida reef and the West Indies
in general. There it is one of the commonest of
fishes, and by no means a poor table fish, though
there is a strong prejudice against it in some
localities, many believing it to be poisonous.

Not so common, but a gamy catch, is the
yellow angel-fish, Holacanthus ciliaris, with brill-
iant yellow margins to its scales, its body not
so elevated as in the black angel, the tip of what

The Mariposas 357

might be called the dorsal and anal " plumes "
extending beyond the tail with graceful sweep,
making the fish a charming object in the gardens
of the sea. It attains the length of two feet and
is often seen, its curious face peeping from some
crevice in the coral, from which it can be lured
with crayfish bait. The young of nearly all
these angel-fishes differ so in appearance from
the adults that they would hardly be suspected
as relatives, and often are far more beautiful.
In the Southern California waters is found a
form known as the golden angel-fish. The adult
is a rich golden yellow with no break; but
the young, which I have kept alive of all ages,
present a singular contrast to them and are
thought by the fishermen to be an entirely differ-
ent fish, and are called " electric " fishes from the
fact that the blue tints which mark them are so
vivid that they appear to flash with an iridescence,
or like an electric spark. The very young are
blue over the entire surface, but as they grow
this brilliant and beautiful color seems to give
way and they become spotted, then striped, then
faintly tipped with blue, finally losing it entirely
to become golden angel-fishes in all the term
implies.

358 Big Game Fisbes

An interesting feature of the latter fish is
its tameness. Through a water-glass I have
watched a diver in armor at the bay of Avalon,
who sat upon the bottom and crushed some
black echini, whereupon numbers of these fishes
swarmed about him, eating from his hand with
great complacency. At my request he took
down a wire box and placing some bait in it,
caught several of the little creatures. On the
Florida reef a brilliant assemblage could be col-
lected by tossing over some crayfish at which
the radiant creatures would rush, and amid them
there generally would be the singular surgeon
fish which carries its lance in the side of the tail
(Fig. 9), which is freely used to enable it to hold
its own in the struggle for existence. To land
the game is not everything in fishing, or the chief
end of the angler; indeed, these diversions, the
study and observation of the habits of fishes, the
unexpected glimpses of their home life, the view
of their beauties and charm of coloring, are a part
of the day's fishing, which are perhaps more
compensating than to make a goodly bag. This
is especially true on our southern borders, where
vast reefs stretch away, embracing coral lagoons
and shallows.

CHAPTER XXV

THE HALIBUT

" Flat fish, with eyes distorted, square, ovoid, rhomboid, long,
Some cased in mail, some slippery-backed, the feeble and the

strong ;
Sedaned on poles, or dragged on hooks, or poured from tubs

like water,

Gasp side by side, together piled, in one promiscuous slaughter."

— BADHAM.

THAT the halibut might be a game fish under
certain conditions dawned upon me some years
ago when hunting for the tuna off the Maine
and New Hampshire coasts. My companion, a
local fisherman of repute, had anchored the dory
about six miles offshore, and standing upright,
with a line to port and starboard, was " codding "
after the approved method. Every few moments
he would drop one line and haul vigorously on
the other, and in due course of time "boat" a
fine fish, during which operation I took the first
line and so experienced some of the melancholy
joys of the deep-water hand-liner. It was while

359

360 Big Game Fishes

relieving my companion in this way that I
hooked something which bade fair to lift me out
of the dory, then when I renewed my hold, the
unknown jerked my arms into the water, whirling
the dory about in the most spirited manner, so
convincing me that I had hooked a ground shark
that I was inclined to pass the line to the pro-
fessional. But suddenly the fish began to rise
and came to the surface nearly one hundred and
fifty feet away, tossing the water into foam,
following it by a dash around the boat that would
have made the reputation of many a game fish.

" A halibut, I'll swan ! " exclaimed my com-
panion, " and a sockdolliger."

Now every real angler knows what a "sock-
dolliger" is, and it is hardly necessary to refer
to it ; but for the benefit of the layman, the un-
fortunate who has never fished, I may say that
the term applies to those remarkable fishes of
gigantic, even heroic size which constitute the
main subject of conversation among anglers in
the out season. It is the fish that always escapes,
the record-breaker ; every angler has hooked it a
score of times, but has never landed it, and if the
truth were told, never expects to.

It will be seen that I was in a most fortunate

HALIBUT
Hippoglossus hippoglossus

CHINOOK, KING, OR QUINNAT SALMON
Oncorhynchus chonicha

The Halibut 361

and unconventional position. I had hooked the
sockdolliger before a witness who had proclaimed
it on the high seas, and I readily understood why
he was so anxious to take the line, — he wished the
credit. His argument that it might be a five-
hundred-pound fish, which would be valuable to
him, and that he knew just how to manage " such
critters," fell on deaf ears. I had chartered the
craft and skipper, the sockdolliger was my pre-
rogative, and I ordered the envious boatman to
haul in the float anchor, and taking my place in
the stern of the dory prepared to land the fish if it
took all summer. It is unnecessary to go into the
details of this experience, needless to say that the
fish plunged to the bottom again ; it had come to
the surface merely to " size me up," and had re-
turned satisfied that it was merely a question of
time with me. I had lifted sulking turtles on the
Florida reef ; had toiled with the big sunfish, side
on ; had labored with rays from the manta down ;
and had lifted seeming tons of coral when fishing
for red snappers in the Gulf ; but all these "sulkers"
seemed combined in this mighty fish, which moved
slowly on, taking line foot by foot with such regu-
larity that I began to realize that it was tipping
over the side of some submarine hill and going

362 Big Game Fishes

down into the deep valley of Despair. My boat-
man lighted his pipe and asked me what I was
going to do when the remaining fifty feet of line
had disappeared. He was clearly in the sarcastic
stage, and I retorted by suggesting that he take
the oars and see what could be done. This
stopped the run, and by the most heroic and
muscle-rending labor I gained twenty feet on
the line, then lay back while that awful weight
dragged and surged and took the dory down
deeper and deeper.

" Any of your folks ever have shocks ?" senten-
tiously asked my companion.

I ignored the suggestion and held back with
desperation and hauled in vain; inch by inch,
foot by foot, the fish took the line, and it gradually
dawned upon me that the real fisherman was at
the other end ; the sockdolliger had indeed " sized
me up," and was playing me. It jerked my arms
almost out, took the skin from my fingers ; it
pulled me this way and that while ambling along,
now stopping to hammer me with sturdy blows,
then putting on a strain that nearly lifted me
from my seat, and the iron entered my soul as I
realized that I would have to ask for assistance.
If I could only have gotten rid of the fish in

The Halibut 363

some other way! If a shark would only take it ; if
the line would only break, or the hook ; but noth-
ing of the kind happened, the sockdolliger was
evidently enjoying itself, the season for man-fish-
ing had opened well, and the anglers among the
cod, haddock, lings, and halibuts were doubtless
watching the sport with open-eyed admiration at
the skill with which the game in a boat was being
played and made miserable. The end was near.
My "second wind" had come and gone, there
was no hope in sight, and theoretically I began
to look for a " soft place to fall." I believe this
is the correct expression.

" How much did you say this fish is worth?"
I gasped, bracing my feet against the rail during
a particularly heavy plunge.

"Why, I calculate a big fish like that's worth
twenty dollars," was the reply.

" If that's the case, take the line," I said, to
show my magnanimity.

" Oh, I don't want to spoil your sport," rejoined
the boatman.

" That's all right," said I, airily. " I've taken
the freshness out of him." How I wished I had !
How I despised that sullen brute at the bottom
of the sea !

364 Big Game Fishes

The boatman deliberately knocked the ashes
out of his pipe, rolled up his sleeves, looked
around the points of the compass, and then taking
his place by my side picked up the line, while I
went forward, took the oars, and prepared to enjoy
his agony. At that precise moment the boatman
attempted to haul vigorously and broke the line.
It was cowardly, but I could not resist remarking,
" You don't seem to understand these big fish,"
to which there was no answer. The fisherman
couldn't do it justice and stood silent, merely
looking at me.

This being a sockdolliger, it is an easy matter
to estimate its weight, which was between five
and six hundred pounds ; at least the great hali-
but of these waters (Hippoglossus hippoglossus,
Linn.) is known to attain this weight, and so far
as mere size and strength are concerned, ranks
with the tarpon, tuna, the great South American
arapaima, and other huge fishes. It was very
evident that could a medium-sized fish be found
and hooked in shallow water, it would afford no
little sport. As to the actual maximum size of
this fish, Nilsson reports one from the Swedish
coast which weighed seven hundred and twenty
pounds ; and Gloucester fishermen have a record

Tbe Halibut 365

of one taken at New Ledge, sixty miles southeast
of Portland, Maine, which weighed six hundred
pounds. I was told at Boothbay, near which
the Gunner Club, to which I was once "grand
chummer," was wont to meet, that a dead halibut
had been found which weighed nearly six hun-
dred and forty pounds, which was the record fish
of New England waters. One of the largest
halibuts ever brought into Gloucester weighed
but three hundred and eighty pounds, and many
catches have been made of over three hundred
and fifty pounds. The fish of this weight are
over seven or eight feet in length, and from three
and a half to four feet in width, most difficult
creatures to lift when the broad back is presented
to the fisherman one hundred or more feet above.
On the North Pacific coast this fish is com-
mon, and is occasionally followed by Americans
for sport. A friend who accompanied- some
Alaska fishermen offshore informed me that it
was an exciting but very " damp pastime." The
hook which these Indians use for halibut, one of
which I have in my possession, is a most extraor-
dinary object; few who have seen it understood
its nature, as it resembles a wooden god, half
being the totem of the tribe, and the barbless

366 Big Game Fishes

hook being in the most impossible and out-of-the-
way position.

If the capture of the great halibut is strenuous,
there is one of the group which has afforded me
all the gratification of a thoroughly game fish,
for which reason is the flatfish, with "eyes dis-
torted," admitted to this honorable company of
game fishes. The islands of Southern California
lie, as a rule, parallel to the mainland coast, long
mountain ranges, — recumbent sea-monsters from
seven to twenty-five miles in length, — lying at the
surface twenty miles offshore ; and as the prevail-
ing wind is from the west, they have a perfect lee
on the eastern shore, a region of calms, while on
the west other conditions hold. At Santa Cata-
lina, on the south and west coast, the sea often
beats wildly against abrupt cliffs, which in
storms hurl it back with loud discordant sounds.
Coming down this coast one day from the
black sea-bass fishing-grounds, we sighted, well
in the surf, a school of fishes of large size, toss-
ing the water in air, striking heavy blows, and
evidently playing havoc with the small fry which,
in rows of gleaming silver, shot from the water.
I was trolling with a fifteen-ounce greenheart
rod seven and a half feet long, hoping to pick

The Halibut 367

up a stray white sea-bass ; hence, was ready for
the sport, and while I reeled in, the boatman
backed into the surf as far as safety permitted,
and held the boat head on to the not high seas,
shooting ahead when they threatened to break, to
drop back when they passed, allowing me to drop
my small bait directly in the storm centre along-
shore. On the instant came the strike, and as
the light boat went careening over a breaking
sea, I hooked the fish and presently was playing
it from a fairly smooth vantage ground. My
boatman suggested large rock-bass, but I was
positive I had seen a flat tail waved in the air,
and my inference was correct as a halibut came
fluttering along the surface with a curious undu-
lating movement for a moment, as though led
by a line; then realizing that it was hooked, it
plunged down and ran away with my line while
the reel made wild music, ran away so effectually
that I thought it would be exhausted, dashing by
the kelp bed, disdaining this refuge which the
black sea-bass always affects, and swimming for
open water to make a splendid play, surging on
the line that hissed like a knife as it cut the
surface — now deep in the heart of the waters,
rising with a singular bounding motion to encircle

368 Big Game Fisbes

the boat, and as suddenly plunge down to sulk
in angry protest and apparently present its broad
surface against the rod, making the turning of
the reel almost an impossibility.

Slowly the boatman rowed out of the surf, and
if this fish could have been played in water as
shallow as that familiar to the salmon angler,
where its rushes would have been off instead of
down, it would have commended itself to the
ardent lover of purely game fishes. For fifteen
minutes it fought me, and until I brought it
within eyesight, my boatman insisted that it was a
yellowtail — one of the most powerful and hard-
est fighting of all fishes ; but it was a halibut, one
of the despised flounder tribe which appeal to
the digestion but not to an appetite whetted for
sport. This gamy creature redoubled its fighting
as it saw the boat, repeatedly broke away, and
when gaffed was making a flying rush around the
boat after various attempts to hold it ; and when
finally held, its white belly blazing in the sun-
light, beat the water with powerful blows, and
literally hurled watery defiance in our faces.
When the boatman held the fish up, that I might
observe its fine proportions, it was evident that it
was built for such work and was an animated

The Halibut 369

resistant. The fish, which was the bastard hali-
but, Paralichthys californicus, weighed between
fifty and sixty pounds, was three and a half feet in
length, a fine specimen of this genus common
about the islands, though rarely caught of this
size, possibly because bottom-fishing is seldom
indulged in here except by professional fisher-
men on the so-called grouper banks. At Cata-
lina Harbor, a California fjord, Empire Landing,
and a few localities on the west coast, it can
always be found. At San Clemente, twenty
miles to the southwest, it is also common, and it
is also taken at Coronado, in the bay, at La
Jolla, San Juan, Monterey, in fact anywhere
alongshore where shallow and protected water is
found. The young fishes, when lying on the
sandy bottom, so simulate it that it is almost
impossible to distinguish them. I have taken
them from the beach with an eight-ounce split
bamboo, and found the sport enjoyable.

Of all fishes this group is perhaps the quaint-
est. When young they swim upright, as do
others, but as they grow they fall over and lie
flat, the lower side turning white as the pigment
is found unnecessary, and then comes a change
which, in its seeming impossibility, equals the

2B

370 Big Game Fishes

most improbable fish story. The under eye be-
gins to move, literally starts upon its travels, dif-
fering some in the various species in route and
method of procedure, but moving, nevertheless,
passing around in some, directly through the
head in others, until in the adult fish we find both
eyes on top, having travelled around from the left
to the right side. I am indebted to Dr. Alex-
ander Agassiz for a drawing showing the various
stages of this remarkable journey of an eye.
Nearly all these fishes commend themselves to the
epicure, — the English sole, California sand dab,
the New England turbot, the summer flounder,
and many more being extremely valuable. The
halibut of the Northwest coast has a pronounced
economic value, and the " Halibut Express " from
Vancouver to Boston is suggestive that the
eastern coast cannot supply the demand.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE LEAPING SHARKS

" Toward the sea turning my troubled eye
I saw the fish (if fish I may it cleepe)
That makes the sea before his face to flye."

— SPENSER.

IT requires more than ordinary temerity with
an audience of anglers, to admit, even by infer-
ence, the shark to the select and honorable com-
pany of game fishes. I do not propose to commit
this possible solecism, but merely to describe the
play and action under restraint, of several sharks
which I have caught, and others which I have
seen caught, and leave the question, game or
vermin ? to the reader.

It has so happened that I have passed many
seasons, winter and summer, in what might be
termed "shark countries," that is, localities
where the shark was always a factor to be consid-
ered. If a tarpon was played long enough to
permit its blood to tint the water and reach away,

371

372 Big Game Fishes

a shark, like a hound, would follow it up and rise
from the sea, shaking the fish in one's very face.
I have had them on the extreme outer Florida
reef, about my boat by the dozen, chasing the
large barracuda that I had been playing, snatch-
ing it from the line, leaving me the head, perhaps,
as a reminder that they were not altogether
graceless. So plentiful were they, that I often
fished for them single-handed, or with a compan-
ion, in a small boat ; under such conditions a ten
or twelve foot shark has the advantage, and on
the Florida reef I frequently cut away, rather
than be towed out to sea by some unseen
monster.

Shark-fishing is a legitimate sport if the par-
ticipator will approach the game fairly, and some
of the most exciting days of my life have been
passed on the Florida Keys or at the mouth of
the St. Johns River in the shad season, where,
alone, I endeavored to master large sharks ; and I
can commend the exercise to the man of seden-
tary pursuits.

There are two sharks which, in their play when
hooked, are remarkable imitations of certain game
fishes which deserve the attention of anglers.
One of these is very common at Aransas Pass,

Tbe Leaping Sharks 373

Texas, and I have taken a similar shark from the
beach of Loggerhead Key on the extreme outer
reef. In the summer of 1902 I was fishing for
tarpon at Aransas, and one day after making
several catches I had my boatman row me to the
vicinity of some fellow-anglers, hoping to photo-
graph a tarpon in mid-air, — a feat that has been
accomplished by Dr. Howe of Mexico, who at
Tampico, the centre of the winter tarpon-fishing,
succeeded in inventing a gun camera which ac-
complishes this work. While watching the leaps
of the fishes, and snapping a kodak at them, gen-
erally taking the sky, the sun, and nothing else, I
observed a fine leap accompanied by a most
energetic thrashing in the air. The fish left the
water bodily, and when three feet above the sur-
face seemed to lash itself into a perfect curve
before it descended, hardly touching the water
before it went into the air again. I assumed it
to be a very gamy tarpon, perhaps what was
known here as "Yucatan Bill," a wily, long,
slender tarpon, a " Yucatan bounder " that was
supposed to return to this locality every summer
for the purpose of amusing itself with certain
innocent anglers. The " bounder " had broken
lines and rods, shattered chairs, broken oars,

374 Big Game Fishes

towed boats down into the breakers opposite the
jetty, and literally played havoc with the fishing
fraternity, and as yet was uncaught.

I had been regaled with descriptions of this
fish by the veracious wags of Tarpon Inn, who
pictured him with scales as large as a dinner
plate, a mouth full of big hooks, and wire which
hung like a beard, and naturally thought it not
improbable that my companion was being initi-
ated by "Yucatan Bill"; hence I watched the
play with much attention. Never did tarpon
leap with more force or with greater zest than did
this fish. Up into the air it went, whirling
about, now landing on its head, now coming
down broadside on, making a wave of foam, then
stopping to rush to one side and encircle the
boat ; always fighting, bearing off with a force
that kept the stiff rod of the angler bent and the
reel screaming. For twenty minutes at least I
watched the play, and then, to my amazement,
saw the successful angler cut away the game,
and later heard his shout that it was a " leaping
shark."

I had been keeping out of the way that I might
not interfere with the play of the game, hence had
not recognized the outline of the fish. The ha-

Tbe Leaping Sharks 375

bitues of Aransas considered this shark essentially
game. It was included among the " game fishes "
caught by the members of the Tarpon Club, and
certainly deserves the honor and the appellation if
one can throw off the inherent dislike to sharks
which holds with nearly all anglers. A similar
leaping shark was not uncommon at Garden Key.
I have had them leap out of the water, the entire
body except the tail being clear, the subsequent
rushes challenging admiration. In a word, the
shark was gamy and a hard fighter ; but when it
came up snapping and biting at oars and gaff,
and its disagreeable half-musky odor pervaded
the air, only a shark after all, one's enthusiasm
paled. At Catalina Harbor, on the island of that
name, at its very head where the water is not over
three or four feet in depth, is the breeding-ground
of a small and attractive tiger shark, known to
science as Galeorhinus. In July and August
they are found here in such numbers that the
water within a few feet of the shore appears to
be fairly bristling with large dorsal fins. It
chanced that I strolled up the beach one day
with a light rod and hired an old fisherman to
take my heavy bait out into the bay that I
might hurl back the banter of a companion who

376 Big Game Fishes

doubted my ability to land one of the sharks with
my light rod and number twelve line. In a short
time I had a strike, and upon hooking the game,
up into the air it went, clear of the water, a
mauve-colored creature beautifully striped and
gracefully formed, to fall with a crash and dash
up the beach at a speed that rapidly exhausted
my line and forced me to run along the sands
some distance before I succeeded in turning and
stopping the shark, which had reached fairly
deep water, arid was making a most creditable
fight, bearing off heavily, darting from side to
side, and now and then rising into the air and
shaking itself bravely. Had it not been a shark,
the miserable scavenger of the sea, the cousin of
the tarpon killer, it might have been considered a
very gamy fish, as for fifteen minutes it defied my
efforts to bring it to gaff, coming in then reluc-
tantly, being gaffed in an extremely gallant manner
by a fair angler of the party. This shark meas-
ured nearly five feet in length, and weighed sixty
pounds. The leaping habit is common to the
species, at least in this locality.

The sharks which have been taken in various
localities with the rod and very light lines often
surprise the layman by their size, girth, and fight-

Tbe Leaping Sharks 377

ing qualities. Along the mouth of the St. Johns
and from the beaches of the Florida Keys I have
enjoyed many a bout with these doughty ruffians
of the deep. I once hooked a large tiger shark,
picking it out from a school which I had baited
around the boat, and as it started off towing the
boat, numbers of these ugly creatures followed me,
some on one side of the bow, some on the other,
and others just below and not five feet from the
surface — a menacing contingent. Out of scores
of sharks of different kinds which I have taken in
the Atlantic, the Mexican Gulf, and the Pacific
I would award the palm for hard fighting and
strength in proportion to its size to the hammer-
head, two of which I once saw off Capes Charles
and Henry in the mouth of the Chesapeake,
which were not less than fifteen feet in length.
I have hooked them in the Pacific and played
them with the rod, but have never landed a large
one in this way. Other anglers have played them
longer and seemed on the very verge of victory,
but so far as I am aware no one has conquered a
large hammerhead with a rod. To illustrate the
courage and pugnacity and thorough fighting
qualities of this shark, which is a foeman well
deserving the attention of him who delights in

378 Big Game Fishes

hard and closely contested hand-to-hand strug-
gles, I may describe a certain catch made by me
off Catalina Island. I was fishing for whitefish
with a light rod when something took the bait
and cleverly cut the wire leader ; the next mo-
ment the enormous fin of a shark appeared along-
side the small boat and began to circle around it,
so near that I could have touched it. My com-
panion was demoralized, and demanded to be
landed upon the rocks hard by. This accom-
plished, I returned and the shark took three baited
hooks as fast as I could renew the bait and cast
them ; when I hooked it, it merely turned its
head, cutting the hook or wire. It was apparently
between nine and ten feet in length, and I could
plainly see the extraordinary hammerlike head
with the eyes upon the ends, hypnotic and ugly.
Near me was a boat in which were two Germans
fishing, and as they landed a fish they hung it
upon a string overboard. This now attracted the
shark. I called to them and they jerked the
string of fish into the boat, not a moment too
soon to save it. The disappointed and hungry
fish darted about the boat, striking it with its big
dorsal fin, so terrifying the men, who doubtless
had never before seen a shark, that they lay down

The Leaping Sharks 379

in the bottom of the boat; presently I saw the
barrel of a rifle, and one of the men began pump-
ing bullets at the big. creature, some of which
must have taken effect, as it swam off, but still on
the surface, its dorsal fin looking like a miniature
lateen sail.

I determined, if possible, to catch the shark, and
followed it into the bay of Avalon, and while I
hurried inshore to get a shark line it dashed into
a fleet of small boats and endeavored to steal the
fish. When I again reached my boat, which
was a two-hundred-pound, flat-bottomed skiff, I
found that the hammerhead was still swimming
about, defying the entire floating community.
The boats were following it, men shooting at it
with revolvers, or striking at it with oars and
boat-hooks ; but I could not see that it paid any
attention to these attacks except now to continue
around the shore and so out of the bay on the
opposite side. I had secured a long cod line
with a jewfish hook, which I had baited with a
ten-pound fish, coiling the line astern. A fresh
companion rowed me directly out of the bay in
order, if possible, to intercept the animal, and in
ten minutes we were in its path. As it came on,
I swung the bait at it. There was a swirl of

380 Big Game Fishes

waters, the line tautened, and allowing a few sec-
onds to pass, and as many feet of line to glide
over, I jerked the hook into the shark. With all
my care I was hauled to my knees, losing the
line which rose from the carefully laid coil like a
living thing. We were in water two hundred
feet deep, and before I realized it the line was ex-
hausted, and no flat-bottomed, broad-sterned skiff
ever came so near being literally dragged bodily
under water as did this. My boatman was utterly
demoralized, and more than once I pressed the
open knife which I had ready, upon the line, as
the boat sank to the danger line.

All this time the boat was moving directly out
into the channel, carrying a big wave beneath
her, the shark having sounded like a whale, the
line being so stiff and taut that I could not move
it. My companion now shipped the oars and
held them, trying to row ; but this had no effect,
and the shark towed us a mile at the top of its
speed before I made any impression on the line,
and then it became evident that we should have
to cut line or gain on the fish ; so I manned the
line and hauled, leading the line forward between
my feet, my companion coiling it as I hauled,
the boat being so light and unstable that but one

The Leaping Sharks 381

could work. It was most difficult and laborious
work, — I will not call it sport, — though in its
excitement and danger there was enjoyment of a
certain kind, and time and again the lusty shark
tore the line from my hands and threatened to
sink us ; but after half an hour I had it in hand.
When it lunged I lay back and held on with my
knife between my teeth, and presently found
that I could hold it; hence the strength of the
shark was on the wane, whereupon I played it
with renewed courage, hauling it as rapidly as
possible, holding hard when it rushed ; in this
way I soon brought the shark so near the surface
that in glancing over the stern I could see it
circling below. Looking back at the distant bay
I saw that we were followed by a number of
boats, yet we were still being towed at such a
pace that the men had to pull at full speed to
catch up to us, and by the time the first boat
came up and threw us a line I had the shark
within ten feet and saw that I could hold it ; but
it was evident that two skiffs were not a match
for this doughty game, and it was not until five
boats were in line, and ten oars pulling against it,
that the victorious flotilla began to move inshore.
The shark's head was now partly out of water,

382 Big Game Fishes

and I was holding it by the hammerlike projec-
tions while it writhed and lunged. In this man-
ner this hard-fighting, gamy shark was towed in,
its courtiers, the black remoras, clinging to it
even when twenty men seized the line and drew
the struggling animal upon the sands, a type of
the utterly fearless brute of the sea — an animal
that defied scores of men, swimming among their
boats, paying no attention to bullet or club, sail-
ing about with complete indifference, only going
down before superior numbers.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE CHINOOK OF MONTEREY

" Here, when the labouring fish at the foot arrive,
And knows that by his strength but vainly doth he strive,
His tail takes in his teeth ; and bending like a bow l
That's to the compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw ;
Then springing with his tail, as doth a little wand
That bended, end to end, and flirted from the hand,
Far off itself doth cast ; so doth the salmon vaut
And if at first he fail, his second somersaut
He instantly assays, and from his nimble ring
Still yesting, never leaves until himself he fling
Above the streamful top of the surrounding heap."

THERE are many reasons why the sea-angler is
a very lucky personage. One is, that often, when
fishing, he has the charms and delights of both
sea and forest, and nowhere is this better exem-
plified than at Monterey, the old California town
so rich in historic associations. Here, or in the
adjacent waters, is the true home of the chinook

1 This explanation of the leap of the salmon was entertained by
some writers within the last fifty years.

383

384 Big Game Fishes

salmon, the gallant high jumper, the ultima thule
of the angler's dreams and hopes, the Oncorhyn-
chus tschawytscha of science. No more attractive
country can be imagined than that contiguous
to the waters of the bay of Monterey where it
reaches north to Santa Cruz and south to the
bay of Carmel, of happy days, with its old mis-
sion, its trout streams, and charming coast line,
a natural park, to linger long in the memory. It
appeals to the angler in many ways, and one can
readily understand why the old Spaniards selected
this spot as their stronghold in the north.

It is generally believed on the Pacific coast that,
as a rule, the salmon will not rise to a fly, and it
has passed into angling history that we owe our
possession of Alaska to this fact; for did not a
certain British admiral of sporting proclivities say
when the question was being discussed by the
nations of the world, " Oh, let the Yankees have
it, the salmon won't take a fly ! " And did not
the English press immediately drop the show of
opposition to the purchase which it had made?
If angling history is to be believed, it did. Dr.
Jordan states : " The chinook salmon does not take
the hook [probably meaning fly] when in fresh
water, though it is occasionally taken on the

The Chinook of Monterey 385

trolling spoon ; " and the dean of this particular
sport on the Pacific coast, Mr. J. Parker Whit-
ney, writes : " None of the Pacific coast salmon
take the fly. There may be isolated cases, but
few and far between." One of these cases fell
to the luck of Rudyard Kipling, who acquired
merit in the eyes of all lovers of angling in
an article to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, writing
delightfully on his experiences : " The next cast,
ah, the pride of it, the regal splendor of it, the
thrill that ran down from finger-tip to toe.
Then the water boiled. He broke for the fly
and got it." Not alone with fly, but with
spoon, did the genial poet conjure the gamy
chinooks. Listen : " How shall I tell the glories
of that day ? Again and again did California and
I prance down that reach to the little bay, each
with a salmon in tow, and land him in the shal-
lows. Then Portland took my rod and caught
some ten-pounders, and my spoon was carried
away by an unknown leviathan." Ah, that you
and I could have been on the Clackamas when
" Portland held the gaff and the whiskey," and
Kipling held the rod. Happy " Portland " ! lucky
Kipling! what tales he must have told at night
to " California," of the mighty Mahseer and the

2C

386 Big Game Fishes

heathen but gamy Rohu ; ah, the very thought of
it ! May good luck always avert calamity when
he is fishing, be it on the Clackamas, Indus, or
Irrawaddy.

Despite this unbending of the chinook to Kip-
ling on the Clackamas, the sport with the fly on
the Pacific slope is so uncertain that few anglers
attempt it, and the principal salmon-fishing is in
the waters of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel
bays, where the splendid fish is certainly at home
and affords sport of an exalted kind. Who landed
the first salmon here is unknown to fame ; but the
angler who has made the sport the closest study
is Mr. J. Parker Whitney of New York, who well
deserves the following encomium from some
appreciative brother angler, which I find in the
Forest and Stream of Sept. 2, 1893: "Salmon
fishermen the world over owe a debt of gratitude
to Mr. J. Parker Whitney for his extremely inter-
esting accounts of sea-fishing for salmon on the
Pacific coast. Though that fishing has been
known for years to a limited number of anglers,
Mr. Whitney, as the first one to exploit the sport
in an adequate description for the benefit of
the guild, may fairly lay claim to its discovery.
Others may have known of it as the Norsemen

Tbe Cbinook of Monterey 387

knew of America; Mr. Whitney has been the
Columbus to proclaim the discovery to the world,
and to command for it the attention it deserves."
As salmon-fishing the world over is in streams,
from the beautiful pools of Canada and Maine to
those of Scotland, the fish has come to be known
as a fresh-water denizen. It is rarely thought of
as an inhabitant of the ocean, yet the cool water
of the Kuroshiwo, which sweeps down the north-
west coast, is doubtless its home, and it goes up the
streams but to deposit its eggs and die. Salmon-
fishing par excellence, with the fly, as well as the
habits of the fish, is fully described in another
volume of this series, hence I shall merely refer
to the sport as it is found in salt water. The
salmon live somewhere offshore all winter, — ex-
actly where, is not known ; but it is the belief of
anglers that they do not stray to any great dis-
tance from the shore, probably haunting some
bank where the herring and anchovies roam in
winter. In spring they move north, or in, and
by the last of May, — sometimes sooner, sometimes
later, and generally about June i5th, — they enter
the bays of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel,
chasing in the great schools of herring, squid, and
anchovies. For weeks the professional fishermen

388 Big Game Fishes

have been on the lookout for them, and when the
assurance is given, telegrams to San Francisco,
New York, and other places are sent, and anglers,
devotees to this sport, are soon speeding to the
various points, and the season begins.

The professional fishermen have no sentiment,
and it seems a carnal sin to see hundreds of the
finest fish jerked in with literal ropes and beaten
about the head with sinkers weighing a pound or
more. They troll for them with heavy lines down
thirty or forty feet, where the gamy fish bite eagerly
at smelt or herring; and the men in the course of
the season reap a rich harvest. The sportsman
will have none of this; he approaches the game
with all the deference worthy the king of game
fishes. The angler who would take the salmon
in its home must discard all the preconceived
ideas he may have had from experience or reading
regarding salmon in the rivers of the East, as it
is another matter here and to all intents and
purposes another fish ; and the non-multiplying
salmon reel, the delicate line, and long, beauti-
fully bending rod are worse than useless, though
it would be an interesting experiment to try this
tackle on the fish in its haunts in the open sea.
The tackle I would suggest is a rod of split bam-

The Chinook of Monterey 389

boo almost identical with that used for yellow-
tail, or a good noib-wood rod and long tip not to
weigh over twenty-six ounces and between seven
and eight and a half feet long, a number twelve
or eighteen cuttyhunk line, with a 7/0 O'Shaugh-
nessy hook and short wire leader with two swivels,
baited with a three or four inch sardine or smelt.
The angler trolls slowly, with bait twenty or thirty
feet down, or at times he may try the surface with
good luck ; but a sinker, as a rule, is an essential.
Mr. Hermann Oelrichs, a well-known expert in
this sport, who has landed four hundred and fifty
pounds of salmon in one fair morning off Mon-
terey, representing thirteen fish, uses a seven-foot
rod with ample reel. Mr. J. Parker Whitney,
according to the Sunset Magazine, fishes with a
steel Bristol trolling rod seven and a half feet in
length, weighing but eleven ounces. His line is
a linen sea-bass, number eighteen, with a large
multiplying reel holding five hundred feet. His
hook is a large Kirby soldered to a brass wire
with a linked wire leader about a foot in length,
all connected by swivels. The sinker weighs four
ounces. With this outfit, with smelt bait, fishing
thirty feet down, Mr. Whitney has had phenome-
nal luck, averaging eight salmon a day ; the weight

390 Big Game Fishes

of his first sixty-nine fish, according to the author-
ity quoted, being eleven hundred and thirty-three
pounds, or an average of sixteen pounds each.
The smallest fish weighed two pounds, the largest
fifty-four; and that Mr. Whitney's methods are
eminently successful it need only be said that his
catch to date numbers four hundred salmon.
Such are typical outfits by well-known anglers
who have fished these waters for years, and many
others may be seen on the grounds ; all of which
points to the moral that the typical fly-casting
salmon rod is out of place.

Thus equipped, we may steal out of Monterey
some morning before daylight, tool down the
seventeen-mile drive to the melody of the surf as
it piles in upon the rocks, finally reaching Carmel
Bay before sunrise, or just as the sun is coming up
over the distant Sierras, a ball of crimson. We
have made arrangements for a boat, and the boat-
man is waiting; and in a few moments we are
drifting over as fair a sheet of water as I have
seen, one that with the charming surroundings
must appeal to the most phlegmatic nature. The
open bay is like a lake, save where some affrighted
anchovies are rushing, or some vagrant finny sun-
worshipper rises in air to greet its mistress. A

The Chinook of Monterey 391

shining sardine is fastened on the hook ; the line
twenty feet from the hook is looped for a few
inches and held in place by a thread upon which is
hung a pipe sinker, — that is, a sinker two or three
inches long, slender and perforated ; the loop and
thread should be very little longer than the sinker.
The philosophy of this is apparent when the
strike comes, as the full force will come upon the
thread, which, when it breaks, liberates the sinker,
giving the angler the fish alone to play without
the leaden annoyance. Mr. Whitney has made
an improvement on this device, often used in sea-
angling, which is as follows, and which I take the
liberty of copying from his valuable article in
the Sunset Magazine: —

" I have lately adopted a better method of at-
taching and liberating the sinker, by having the
four-ounce lead round in tapering form with a
small ring soldered in one end; up the line six
feet from the hook and part of it I tie in two
swivels nine inches apart I then tie a short
piece of weak cotton twine to the bottom ring of
the upper swivel and to the upper ring of the
swivel below, having threaded the cotton twine
through the ring of the sinker ; shorten the cotton
twine to four inches in length between the two

392 Big Game Fishes

swivels, which loops up four or five inches of the
regular linen line. The salmon, striking and
holding the baited hook and giving the conse-
quent strong pull, breaks the cotton line, and the
sinker, liberated and of light value, drops away
in the sea, leaving the salmon free and unimpeded
for his vigorous and gallant fight, except for the
fine line and rod strain."

As in white sea-bass fishing, the game is often
discovered by the birds, shags and others, which
are plunging down and swimming through schools
of anchovies, playing havoc with the small fry, be-
neath which the hungry salmon often lie like these
bass, picking off the stragglers, or at times chasing
and driving them in upon the rocks or into the
surf. On this day the fish bite well, and the
angler's patience is not exhausted. The strike
comes, and if you are an old salmon fisherman
from the Restigouche country or elsewhere, this
doughty chinook will treat you to some remark-
able surprises and possibly to a new sensation.
What is the splendid creature that seizes the bait
and shakes and worries the line like a bull ter-
rier, giving blow for blow; this tremendous surge
down, down, deep into the heart of the bay, with
irresistible force ? Surely this is not the fish, or

The Chinook of Monterey 393

its cousin, that you have cast flies for in some
Eastern pool, but a deeper sulker, a down-plunger,
as there is water in which to plunge, calling to
mind the yellowtail, and illustrating the point that
almost any fish when hooked will " sound " if the
water is deep; and I venture the statement that
if tarpon were not taken in shallow water they
would not leap so well or so continuously. They
leap partly because they cannot go down to any
great depth; and if the tuna could be taken in
water twenty feet deep I am confident that it
would dash into the air and take its place with
the ten-pounder, tarpon, leaping shark, black
bass, kingfish, and others which leap at the
strike. Mr. H. Gray Griswold endeavored to test
this with the tuna by towing one into shallow
water, but doubtless the fish by this time was too
fatigued to leap.

Our sulking salmon is raised by pumping and
other means, and when it nears the surface bears
off, running and making a gallant fight. But
possibly a soup$on of disappointment enters the
soul of the angler at the few leaps of the salmon,
but wait. As the noble fish comes up and the
gaffer fingers his weapon, the salmon springs into
activity, the reel screams ze-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, a long

394 Big Game Fishes

wail. Did ever a salmon of the pool make so
splendid a rush ? Your line is melting like the
snow on the distant Sierras in this morning sun.
You have been playing the fish for ten minutes,
but the sport has just begun, and two hundred
feet, perhaps three hundred, away, after a desper-
ate leap, the chief of the chinooks is hammering
away, dealing you lusty blows, and preparing to
dive deep into the azure waters. Down it
plunges. You feel the throbbing of the line, and
reel and lift, making line slowly against this marvel
of game fishes which, when again at the surface,
alternately rushes and plunges, and sometimes
— tell it not in Gath! — hurls the hook from
its jaws, to eye you a second and slowly dis-
appear. But you wear the talisman of good luck,
and the gallant salmon comes in, fighting every
inch, a splendid quarry, the type of all that is best
in the angler's score, a perfect game fish in play
and edible quality.

On such a day and in this very place, Mr.
Whitney took twenty-seven salmon from daylight
to five o'clock in the afternoon, weighing four
hundred and eighty-two pounds, a record which
if it has been exceeded in the beautiful bay of
Carmel has not been recorded. I can conceive

The Chinook of Monterey 395

of no more attractive salmon fishing ground than
this or Monterey bay, and in the vicinity are some
of the finest trout streams in California, Carmel
River running up into the Coast Range with
sixty-five miles of fishing, and entering the bay
near the old mission. Not far away is the Del
Monte preserve of twelve thousand acres for
sportsmen, well stocked and well protected, and
along the upper banks of the Carmel one finds
the Potrero, Garcia Creek, the San Clemente, the
Dionicio, the Cachagua, the Chupines, — all sug-
gestive that the salmon angler has but to row
ashore at the old Carmel mission, and in the
same day transfer his allegiance to the trout, the
gamy cousin of the salmon of the deep sea, and
wander through some of the most charming re-
gions of northern California, sylvan scenes so
opposite to those which form the background of
salmon-fishing that one may well doubt that the
limitless Pacific rolls and stretches away so near
that its voice blends with the song of birds and
the rustle of forest leaves.

Santa Cruz, an attractive town several miles
north of Monterey, is equally famous for its salmon,
and near one of the noblest forests of the world,
while the bay of Monterey is an attractive and

396 Big Game Fishes

prolific fishing ground, better known and more
often fished than Carmel. The salmon in its
habits presents many remarkable features — living
in the ocean in its adult stage ; taking to rivers
to spawn; impelled by a marvellous instinct to
seek the high waters of streams ; leaping high
falls ; swimming up cascades which would be
considered impossible had not the leap been seen,
photographed, and measured ; overcoming all ob-
stacles, to reach at last a spot hundreds of miles
from the winter home, to deposit their eggs only
to die. The movement of these fishes, their re-
markable ascent of streams, in fact, the complete
cycle of their lives, with their many conditions,
constitute one of the most fascinating pages in
the history of game fishes of fresh or saline
water.

CHAPTER XXVIII

GAME FISHES OF THE COLONIES

THE colonial possessions of this country, espe-
cially those of the Pacific, abound in a number of
interesting fishes which, when thoroughly inves-
tigated, will doubtless add to the list of large
American game fishes available to anglers. Very
little attention has been paid to angling as a
sport either in Hawaii or the Philippines, and as
in the present volume I have confined my de-
scription of catches to those personally made, I
shall pass them with but brief reference, and turn
to the game fishes of Porto Rico, all of which I
have brought to gaff or net.

About Honolulu the opah, referred to in a
previous chapter, is taken, and I have seen a
photograph of a large specimen of this fish
claimed to have been taken in these waters with
rod and reel. Dr. Jordan, who in 1902 made a
visit to Samoa and the islands, wrote me : " Game
fishing is almost unknown about the islands,

397

398 Big Game Fishes

although there are a great many fishes — probably
two hundred species — which take the hook and
might come under that head. There are several
large species of Caranx, but we are not sure
what any of them are." This latter genus in-
cludes the jacks or crevalle of our southern
waters, which undoubtedly would afford good
sport. An eastern angler, whose name I have
unfortunately mislaid, showed me a photograph
of a large fish which weighed at least one hun-
dred and fifty pounds, taken at one of the
Hawaiian Islands with rod and reel, which he
claimed was as gamy as the tuna. I recognized
in this fish a very rare and interesting species, one
specimen of which has been found at Santa Cata-
lina, which weighed about fifty pounds. Dr.
Charles H. Gilbert of Stanford University kindly
identified this latter specimen for me and wrote
regarding it : "I find now that it represents an
undoubted specimen of a form hitherto known
only from the Mediterranean and neighboring
waters (Luvarus imperialis). It is said to be
rare in its home waters, and is as yet unreported
from our Atlantic coast."

This fish bore a striking resemblance to the
"jack," but was very large and powerful, and if

Game Fishes of the Colonies 399

available to anglers would doubtless take its place
with the tarpon, tuna, and other big game of un-
doubted standing.

So far as the angler is concerned, our new
colony Porto Rico presents a field that can, as
regards game, be compared to southern Florida,
the environment being more tropical and charm-
ing ; but the conditions for fishing are in many
respects different and vastly inferior. Porto Rico
is about fifteen hundred miles from New York,
or it can be reached by train to Florida and boat
to Key West or Havana. It has a coast line of
three hundred and sixty miles, faces the north
bravely, and while tropical, is really cooler than
any other island of the group. Frederic A.
Ober has explored its waters and mountains
and painted its charms perhaps more vividly than
any other American. The island is deficient in
good harbors, San Juan being the best one on the
north, about which some good fishing is to be
had ; to the westward are found Puerto Real de
Cabo Rojo, Anasco, Rincon, Aguadilla, and others
available for the angler. On the south side are
Ponce, Jobos, Guanica, and many bays and inlets
in which the angler with North American tackle
will find solace and amusement. There is one

400 Big Game Fishes

peculiarity about the island, it is exposed on almost
every side to winds and as a result a heavy surf
prevails at localities which under other circum-
stances might afford excellent sport. The angler
will find numbers of professional fishermen at
San Juan, but no good small boats regularly
adapted for sport, sail-boats being used.

Among the fishes the robalo will interest the
angler — a gamy creature three or four feet in
length, very common here and referred to in a
previous chapter. A good ground for it is the Rio
Plato and the various lagoons, the fish affecting
shallow and smooth water wherever it can be
found. Near San Cristobal the jurel and cherna
fishing is excellent. The former, Caranx, is a
gamy fish though of small size, rarely exceeding
two feet in length, but very gamy, as I can testify,
having often taken it in Florida waters where
the conditions are more favorable, so far as wind
is concerned. The cherna next to the tarpon is
perhaps the largest game fish found here and
very common, large individuals weighing fifty or
more pounds. Equally as large, if not larger,
is the black grouper, common at many points
and a fine fish, especially when it can be found
in shallow water. Here is the familiar hogfish,

Game Fishes of the Colonies 401

now known as the perro perro, and often ignomin-
iously caught in pots, and there are a host of
bait-eaters, as doncella, a beautiful little parrot-
fish, chaetodonts, and many more. The Porto
Rican waters abound in parrot-fishes, found on the
coral reef, the cotoro verde, loro Colorado, and vieja
Colorado being particularly common, some attain-
ing a weight of twenty pounds or more. Among
them is found the familiar spadefish, here known
as paguala, tipping the scales from eight to
twenty pounds. The tarpon is a very common
fish about Porto Rico, but I cannot learn that
any one has ever taken it there for sport, and as
the flesh is very poor there is no incentive for the
local fishermen to catch the sabalo, as it is some-
times called. Barton W. Evermann, who is the
authority on the fishes of Porto Rico, and who
has made an elaborate and valuable report to the
government on the subject, entitled General Re-
port on the Investigations in Porto Rico of the
United States Fish Commission Steamer Fish
Hawk, in 1889, made some interesting discoveries
at Hucares relating to the young of the tarpon,
finding several young fishes ranging from two to
seven inches in length at the former place and at
Fajardo. I have made many attempts to learn

2D

402 Big Game Fishes

something regarding the breeding habits of this
fish, but beyond ascertaining that females taken
at Aransas Pass in summer bore spawn, could
learn nothing, fishermen at this point never
having seen the young. The angler visiting
Porto Rico will find another fine game fish,
the " ten-pounder," a cousin of the doughty tarpon
called here " piojo," " matajuelo real," chiro and
" lisa francesa," according to Evermano. For ra-
pidity of motion and remarkable acrobatic feats,
this fish stands at the head of all game fishes.
The leap of the tarpon is stupendous and im-
pressive, but it is deliberation compared to the
erratic and rapid rushes of the ten-pounder. I
can only compare the leaps of the fish to an an-
imated flashing beam of silvery light. The first
one I hooked dashed out of the water in every
possible position, fairly dazzling the eye. At
Aransas Pass this fish is very common.

The attractive yellowtail of Florida is found
here plentifully and known as the colirubia, a
delight giver with light rod.

A number of grunts, Hasmulon, are found in
Porto Rico, ronco, arraydo, corocoro, jallao, being
some of the Spanish names under which the
sailors' choice, the black grunt, striped grunt, and

Game Fishes of the Colonies 403

margate-fish of Florida are known ; but not much
can be said for their game qualities, at least in
my estimation. They are famous bait-eaters,
excellent pan-fishes, and among the loudest of
all the grunters, or " talkers," of which there are
many among fishes. I well remember the first
grunt I ever caught. It was such a good-natured-
looking little creature that I unhooked it care-
fully, feeling that its large and expressive eyes
were watching me with more earnestness than
is usual among fishes; and as I held it, it
began to grunt, so loudly that I surrendered at
once and tossed it overboard, quite convinced
that the extraordinary sounds were pleas for
mercy. Nearly all of the grunts are attractive,
even beautiful fishes, — the common grunt of
Porto Rico, Ronco arara, being one of the most
striking in its range and combination of color.
In some of the parrot-fishes the singular joined
teeth are blue or pink, and this quaint and
familiar grunt has the inside of its mouth colored
a vivid red ; and when hooked it comes pleas-
antly up with its mouth wide open, ready to
fairly grunt its way to liberty if the angler is sen-
timental or soft-hearted, as without doubt certain
anglers are.

404 Big Game Fishes

An excellent fish here is the pompon, Aniso-
tremus surinamensis, which attains a length of
nearly, if not quite, four feet, and bears a super-
ficial resemblance to the drum. Another species,
though small, calls to mind the porgy, the pro-
file being vertical, giving the "catalineta" an
appearance of solidity and strength. With it is
seen the " pluma," or jolt-head porgy, Calamus
kendalli, a lusty twelve or fifteen pound fish,
capable of making a vigorous fight. Its large
head, prominent eyes, and masklike face make
it a conspicuous form among the Porto Rican
fishes. Porgies have the faculty of expressing
their emotions with their dorsal fins to a certain
extent, recognized by those who have kept them
in confinement. I watched this fish in an
enclosed aquarium on the reef for a year. It
became very tame, would eat from my hand, and
in swimming invariably kept the sharp spines
of the dorsal fin flat upon its back ; but when I
approached, up they would go, and if I made a
very quick movement, they would stiffen out
like quills upon the fretful porcupine, forcibly
reminding spectators of the hair on a cat's back,
or the tail of a cat or dog.

The gamy white sea-bass and the weak-fish are

Game Fishes of the Colonies 405

represented in Porto Rico by the " corvina,"
Cynoscion jamaicensis. Many striking rays are
found about here, the list in all probability
being similar to that of Florida. One popularly
known as the eagle ray (SEtobatus) is a most
graceful and attractive creature, as I recall it,
literally flying ahead of my boat over shallow
lagoons on the reef, the back dark with vivid
light spots — a veritable leopard of the sea.
Its side fins move up and down with a singularly
graceful movement, the fish appearing to fly
along. Trailed behind this birdlike creature
is a tail like a whip-lash, longer than the
extreme width of the fish, a most dangerous and
effective weapon. Just above its base are from
one to three spines set one above the other, and
about six inches in length, a quarter of an inch
in width, and closely serrated. One in my pos-
session, a souvenir of the adventure to follow,
is a very good saw if soft wood is employed.
If this creature could by any means be con-
sidered a game fish, no one capturing it would
gainsay it, as a more gallant fighter does not
sail the shallow seas, and as a ground and lofty
tumbler, a leaper of high degree, it holds high
rank. The leap is a most graceful movement,

406 Big Game Fishes

and one of these fishes sprang into the air so
near my boat at Aransas Pass that I intuitively
dodged. Even the big manta, seventeen feet
across, leaps, and I have heard the thundering
crash of its fall or return, sounding like an
explosion on a hot summer night on the Florida
reef. One of my boatmen, Paublo by name, a
negro prone to the siesta at any and all hours,
was very fond of fishing, and frequently when I
was fishing for small barracudas from the beach
of the Florida Keys, and he had caught my bait,
he would fling down his cast-net, take from his
pocket a long cotton line, and baited, send it
swinging out into the channel ; then lying down,
crossing one leg over the other, he would take
a turn with the line about his big toe, and forth-
with fall asleep. On one occasion I heard his
yells, and looking back saw him on his back,
one leg in the air, being nearly hauled over-
board by a large whip ray. I have referred to
the whip as a weapon, and a most effective
one it was. In poling my dinghy over the
reef a companion, who was sitting in the bow
with legs overboard, was suddenly struck by a
ray which darted up out of the high weed, not
only cutting his naked legs, but lacerating his

Game Fishes of the Colonies . 407

foot across the instep with three deep cuts to
the bone, made by the serrated spines.

In Porto Rico the kingfish, or " sierra," occurs
with the Spanish mackerel and the great picuda,
and on the reef the moray, or "morena verde,"
an ugly creature often six feet in length. One
which I inadvertently brought into my boat in
Florida charged me so ferociously that I sprang
up the mast to avoid it, while my companion
went overboard, the water being shallow, leaving
the monster in full possession, which finally
made its way into the water again.

So far as mere angling is concerned Porto
Rico offers no advantage over Florida, indeed,
is not to be compared to it. The fishes are
about the same. On the reef of the latter the
weather conditions are more favorable, the heavy
winds which pile the sea in so continuously at
Porto Rico are lacking ; yet in both localities in
midsummer the angler may expect heat of an
intense and monotonous variety.

CHAPTER XXIX

BAIT AND GROUNDS

To the sea-angler the bait and often the
bait-catcher is an important factor to be con-
sidered, especially in Southern seas, on the great
reef which reaches out from Cape Florida and
trends to the west as though determined in ages
to come to enclose the Gulf of Mexico and make
it an inland sea. The bait-taker is an interest-
ing personage, and the collection of bait, at least
on the reef, a fascinating pastime. Paublo, his
naked black shoulders half covered by the cast-
net slung over them, the heavy sinkers or
weights — leaden beads — clanging as he strode
along the shore, his keen eyes on the watch
for mullets, was a most picturesque figure. The
newcomer would wonder who or what he was,
as in one hand he bore a huge cimeter-like
object with a cloth bound about the end as a
handle. With the cast-net he took mullets, —
bait for barracuda, jack, and amber-jack. With

408

Bait and Grounds 409

the "sword" he crept upon schools of small
sardines or "hard heads," which hugged the
shore, and which were intended to lure the gray
snapper to its death. Sighting a school, he
would drop the cast-net on the sands and wade
out into the water knee-deep, then coming
slowly in, apparently not moving, creeping upon
a brown spot six feet across, directly at the
surface. When within reach the cimeter was
raised, coming down with terrific force, cutting
through the school, and maiming thirty or more
fishes, all that were needed. At the upper end
of the lagoon, really the interior of a growing
atoll, where the water was shallow, the ripple
on the surface told of schools of mullets, and
the net was taken from his shoulders and
manoeuvred for several moments as he slowly
waded out in their direction. The cast-net
when spread out represented a circle from six
to ten feet in diameter. The circumference of
the circle was lined with lead beads or sink-
ers, each an inch in length, and from the cir-
cumference to the centre extended six or eight
stout cords which passed through an orifice lined
with leather; these met and joined; to this was
fastened another cord eight or ten feet in length.

410 Big Game Fishes

Such a contrivance was utterly impossible to
a novice, and in my novitiate I afforded the
habitues of this portion of the reef no little
amusement. I succeeded in catching myself,
throwing myself over, and nearly losing my
teeth by forgetting to let go at the proper mo-
ment. But in the hands of Paublo the casting
of the net became a scene worthy the brush of
an artist. The object was to toss the folded net
so that it would radiate over the school; and to
accomplish this he spread it out in some way
over his left arm, holding a portion of the edge
between his teeth and the coil of cord in one
hand. In this position, crouching, moving step
by step, stealthily, toward the school, he reached
a casting distance, perhaps eight or ten feet, then
would stop, give a slight swing to the left, a long
turn to the right, and with all his force launch
the net into the air ahead of him. At once it
assumed a circular shape, dropping upon the
school, the lead weights sinking it to the bot-
tom, holding the mullets in its toils. He now
approached and began a series of twitches upon
the cord, which imparted a like movement to
the radiating cords, which presently hauled the
sinkers together, completely enclosing the fish

Bait and Grounds 411

in a purse or bag, in which the entire catch was
easily lifted and hauled ashore.

The mullet, Mugil cephalus, is the most im-
portant bait fish in the Gulf region and is found
with another species, the silver-mullet, Mugil
curema, in vast numbers from the lower Florida
keys northward, — Biscayne Bay and Key, Indian
River, and the Gulf states all having their
quota, caught in seines and cast-nets at the
various points alongshore. The average mullet
weighs about half a pound to a pound, adults
reaching seven, eight, or even twelve pounds,
according to fishermen.

Fishes of various kinds constitute the common
bait of the Florida region, but on the outer reef
crayfish and conch were equally important. Be-
fore the singular destruction of the coral at Tor-
tugas, some years ago, nearly every branch and
head was the home of one or more crayfish, —
pronounced "craw," on the reef, really the spiny
lobster, Palinurus. They dug out the sand so
that their tails could be inserted, and backed in,
leaving their whips or antennae to wave to and
fro. It was an easy matter to grain them. The
grains was a two-pronged barbed spear not un-
like a fish's tail in shape, with a long, yellow

412 Big Game Fishes

pine handle. By going out upon the lagoon or
inner reef by sunrise the crayfish could be
caught, as at this time they came in and spread
over the reef, feeding upon the various kinds of
algae. So plentiful were they at times, that a
boat could almost have been filled if necessary.
This was the most killing bait on the reef ex-
cept for bonito, barracuda, and jack of various
kinds. Another bait used for red snapper and
grouper was conch, Strombus gigas, the rich
pink-lipped shell so common in collections.
These could be found crawling over the lagoon
in vast numbers, "hitching" themselves along
by their sword-shaped operculum. The Conch-
town of Key West in early days took its name
from the Bahamians and others, who, it was
supposed, lived more or less upon conchs, a diet
as tough as unpounded abalone. The method
of taking conchs was to pole the boat along, a
negro accompanying it, who jumped overboard
and threw the conchs in as fast as they were
sighted. They were opened with a hatchet by
cutting around the small end of the shell, upon
which the animal could be unscrewed. Owing
to its toughness this bait was in high esteem
among the professional fishermen.

CALIFORNIA HERRING

Clupea pallasi

SURF SMELT
Hypomesus pretiosus

Bait and Grounds 413

Mullet is the popular bait for tarpon and a
killing lure for almost any fish which preys
upon its kind. At Fernandina, Florida, fiddler-
crab is a valued bait, and I often drew on the
preserves on the way to the fort, where there
was always an endless supply, the struggling
crab being a dainty that drum, sheepshead, chan-
nel-bass, or sea-trout rarely refuse. At Aransas
Pass, shrimp, taken with a fine-mesh cast-net, is
a favorite bait for channel-bass, Spanish mack-
erel, and others.

In New England clam bait, both hard and soft,
is popular, and the title " high-tide clam-digger "
was a term of derision applied by an old beach-
comber of my fishing acquaintance to indicate
the stupidity of a "tenderfoot." Menhaden is
excellent bait for various fishes in this region. In
the Chesapeake crabs are so plentiful that they
are often used, the common edible crab preferred,
and various shellfish.

In California waters baits of several kinds
are used. Many fishermen use the meat of the
beautiful shell abalone, Haliotis, which is tough
and eaten only after being vigorously pounded.
The California crayfish, Palinurus, ranks next,
and is a killing lure, but already it is so rare

Big Game Fishes

on account of over-fishing, that it is an expen-
sive bait. At the islands, for trolling, the
principal baits for yellowtail are the California
herring, Clupea pallasii, and the California
smelt, Atherinopsis calif orniensis, — the latter
preferred on account of its firmness. The Cali-
fornia flying-fish, Exoccetus californiensis, is the
only bait in vogue for the tuna. It is caught
in gill-nets, and numbers are frequently found in
early morning in the fleet of fishing-boats and
upon the beaches where they have " sailed " to
escape the midnight raids of tuna and white sea-
bass. The flying-fish is migratory, arriving at
Santa Catalina in April, — sometimes earlier,
sometimes later, — spawning in Avalon Bay in
May and June. In July I have found the young
half an inch long. They resemble grasshoppers
in their attempts to "fly," hopping from the water
six or eight inches with fins extended, and remain-
ing on the surface like the gar. All reports to
the contrary, the flying-fish does not fly. When
alarmed it whirls its tail about like a screw, which
drives it from the water with great force. The
convulsive motion of the tail extends up the body
toward the head, imparting to it a wriggling
motion, which in turn imparts to the "wings,"

Bait and Grounds 415

fins, a tremulous or flapping motion, at the same
time they are " flapped " in an attempt to aid the
fish in getting out of the water ; but the moment
the fish clears the water the fins are fixed and
do not move ; they are mere supporters, the fish
being an animated parachute, or aeroplane.
The only motion the winglike fins have is a flut-
tering of the edges when the wind is strong and
ahead. The pectorals may be said to be locked ;
so are the ventrals, which also present a wide sur-
face and aid in bearing up the fish. The latter
moves until its inertia is exhausted, then the tail
drops until it touches the surface, whereupon it
is whirled furiously about again, forcing the fish
into the air; and in this way it can travel for
a fourth of a mile, then falling heavily with a
crash, not entering the water head first. The fish
has a very limited power of changing its direction.
I have repeatedly had them pass over my boat,
have been struck, and have seen them strike
others ; have watched the fish in passing a few
inches from my face, and have waved my hat at
it, all of which had no effect upon its movements
or the direction in which it was soaring. From a
large steamer I marked the course of flying-fishes
as they rose, and several struck it.

416 Big Game Fishes

The flying-fish is an excellent bait for yellow-
tail or white sea-bass, as well as tuna. Along the
California mainland, wharf fishermen fish for
small fry, using clams and the various crustaceans
found along the beaches, the natural food for
"surf fishes." Squid, if it could be obtained,
would be excellent bait for tuna, as in July I have
found the stomachs of tunas filled with squid ; and
as they stop biting very suddenly, it is due possi-
bly to the fact that they change their diet.

The various fishing-grounds for the great
oceanic fishes of this country are so well known
that it is hardly necessary to refer to them, but
for the convenience of the angler they may in
a very broad sense be divided into three
classes: the region from Maine to Georgia,
including the striped bass, bluefish, blackfish,
sheepshead, drum, etc.; the Gulf region, includ-
ing the snappers, barracuda, jewfish, groupers,
kingfish, channel-bass, hogfish, black grouper,
etc.; and the California region, including the
yellowtail, white sea-bass, black sea-bass, alba-
core, tuna, California sheepshead, and California
barracuda. Fishing-grounds for the first men-
tioned are found on various parts of the New
England coast. The islands south of the Cape

BAITED HOOKS

Bait and Grounds 417

— Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and others —
are all famous, especially Cuttyhunk and others,
many being preserves for striped-bass fishing. At
Fisher's Island, off New London, I have found
excellent fishing for blackfish and bluefish. Block
Island and vicinity is a famous fishing-ground.
In the vicinity of New York the various grounds
are well known, and professional fishermen can
be found all alongshore from Hell Gate to Fort
Hamilton, and on the Jersey coast; while in the
summer daily steamers take ardent anglers to the
fishing-banks. Old Point Comfort and vicinity is
a prolific ground, and at all the seaports — Beau-
fort, Charleston, Savannah, and Fernandina — the
angler will find more or less excellent fishing for
sheepshead, drum, and "sea-trout." At Fernan-
dina, in the mouth of the river, channel-bass and
sea-trout are found, and I have had good sport
at the mouth of the St. Johns with channel-
bass and sea-trout, not to speak of exhilarating
shark-fishing. Pilottown is on the north side ;
Mayport on the south, reached by boat from Fer-
nandina or from Jacksonville ; or a pleasant trip
is by small boat from Fernandina on the " inside."
From here south the fishing increases, and the
angler can now reach extreme Southern Florida

2 E

4i 8 Big Game Fishes

by rail and find palatial hotels alongshore afford-
ing creature comforts, a marked contrast to the
conditions which existed twenty-five years ago,
when Southern Florida was comparatively un-
known and the angler reached St. Augustine
from the St. Johns River by an uncertain mule
route, making his way to the Indian River as
best he could. The latter is one of the most
interesting and fertile regions in America for cer-
tain fishes, channel-bass, crevally, snapper, blue-
fish, sheepshead, sea-trout (Cynosciori), mangrove
or gray snapper, Spanish mackerel, and sawfish.
It is now readily reached by rail from New York
via Jacksonville and St. Augustine. It is not
a river, but a stretch of salt water one hundred
and thirty-five miles in extent, separated from the
ocean by a low sandy beach, and ranges in width
from a few feet, at Jupiter Narrows, to six miles
at Titusville. It is a shallow lagoon, with a depth
of from three to seventeen feet. It has several
inlets connecting it with the ocean, as Haulover
Channel, Indian River Inlet, Fort Pierce Chan-
nel, Baker Cut, and Garfield Cut. There are
several rivers running into it, as Gallie Creek,
Sebastian, St. Lucia, and Jupiter.

The bottom of this " river " is in the main hard

Bait and Grounds 419

and sandy, with some sandstone and coquina, well
covered with algae, — an ideal place for fish and
fishing. The temperature of the water in January
ranges from 59° to 65°. Along the Indian River
are a number of places, headquarters for the pro-
fessional fishermen, where the angler may obtain
information as to boats, boatmen, etc. Some of
these are Eden, Titusville, Eau Gallic, Cocoa,
Melbourne, Sebastian, Fort Pierce, Jensen, and
Stuart, all in Brevard County and on the line of
the Jacksonville and Indian River Railroad. Ti-
tusville, with a population of about one thousand,
is the principal town. Following down the coast
we come to Biscayne Bay and its many keys, and
from here the angler may make his way down the
reef and find a most interesting country at Key
West and the keys and channels to the north
and west. Key West has a large fishing fleet.
The Tortugas group can be reached by charter-
ing a smack, or by the government vessel. The
winters here are delightful, but in the long summer
the angler may expect intense heat and mosqui-
toes, — this pest not comparing, however, with
that of the Florida mainland shores and rivers in
the hot months.

The fishing localities of the west coast of Florida,

420 Big Game Fishes

more or less famous for tarpon, are well known,
and include Tampa, Cedar Keys, St. James City,
Charlotte Harbor, White Water Bay, Captiva
Pass, Homosassa, Punta Rassa, and others — all
reached via the railroad from Jacksonville. Other
resorts on the north Gulf coast may be found at
Pensacola and Mississippi Sound. The tarpon
country of the coast of Texas is reached via New
Orleans from the east and San Antonio from the
west, and from Galveston to Aransas Pass fine
fishing is to be had. The country calls to mind
the Indian River region, being protected from the
sea by a long sandy ridge. The town of Tarpon
is situated on Aransas Pass, reached by the Aran-
sas Pass Railroad to Rockport, where the mail boat
may be taken to Tarpon, or to Sport, the head-
quarters of the Tarpon Club of Texas. The cli-
mate at the Pass is excellent in summer, insect
pests are absent, and continuous breezes from the
Gulf make the angling particularly enjoyable.

The fishing at Galveston is worthy of special
mention. Here we find the Galveston Tarpon
Club, whose members have fine sport with tar-
pon, jack, Spanish mackerel, and redfish. G. E.
Mann, Esq., president of the club, writes to the
Forest and Stream as follows, which, as I have

CALIFORNIA SMELT
Athen'nopsfs califomiensis

BULL'S EYE, OR CHUB MACKEREL

Scomber colias

Bait and Grounds 421

never visited the grounds, I take the liberty to
copy : —

" There is many a man who, if he knew of it,
would be glad to come a thousand miles to
wrestle with a jackfish or shark or tarpon, stand-
ing on a granite rock six miles out in the Gulf
of Mexico.

" It is strange that so few fishermen know of
the fishing we have at Galveston. There is no
other place in America that deep-sea fishing can
be had for the rod and reel from a comfortable
footing on a flat rock, many of the rocks from
six to eight feet square, and so adjacent that you
can follow along for a hundred yards if you wish.
The jetties are some nine miles from the wharves,
just far enough to keep out the pot-fishers, yet
within an hour's run for a good launch. The
Tarpon Club is small and has only one boat, but
it is a fine seaworthy launch, carrying a dozen
fishermen. It leaves for the jetties every day at
one o'clock when the weather is suitable for
fishing, and nearly every day some of the mem-
bers go at four o'clock in the morning and get
back in time to do a day's work. We have an en-
thusiastic set of fishermen who are always glad to
welcome the stranger within our gates, who is of

422 Big Game Fishes

the rod and reel craft, and to give the best advan-
tages we can for fishing."

The coast of Louisiana abounds in localities
where the tarpon and other fishes can be taken ;
New Orleans having many ardent anglers who
are devoted to the rod and reel.

Los Angeles is the central point for anglers
going to the fishing resorts of Southern California.
The tuna grounds are at Santa Catalina Island,
twenty-five miles offshore, reached from San
Pedro, twenty miles by rail from Los Angeles,
by the Southern Pacific, Salt Lake railroads, and
an electric road, there being from one to three
steamers daily in summer and one in winter.
Avalon, the port of Santa Catalina, is three and
one-half hours from Los Angeles and has a
summer population of five or six thousand and
about fifteen hundred in winter. Hotels, cot-
tages, boarding-houses, and numerous professional
boatmen make this the best-equipped angling
resort in the country, comfort being considered,
there being no hot weather, mosquitoes, or pests
of any kind, winter or summer, and that essential
for tuna-fishing, — smooth water.

San Clemente Island, twenty-two miles distant
to the southwest, can be reached by chartered

Bait and Grounds 423

boat. It is government property and rented to
sheep herders, and permission must be obtained
to camp. The fishing is identical with all the
island resorts, only better, if we except the tuna.
Yachts can be chartered at Santa Catalina or
San Pedro for the trip to the islands of Ana-
capa, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, and
San Nicolas, or one can go from Santa Barbara.
All are private property, and there are no towns
and no regular connecting boats. Larco, a Santa
Barbara professional fisherman, takes parties to
the islands, which are large, picturesque, and
beautiful. The only comfortable way to make this
trip is to charter a commodious vessel, using her
as a base of supplies, and cruise about the islands.
Permission must be obtained to go ashore. Pro-
fessional fishermen will be found at San Pedro,
Long Beach, Redondo, Santa Monica, Newport,
Laguna, Coronado, and San Diego, who take an-
glers out into the channel for large fish. San
Diego is reached from Los Angeles by the
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, and
by a line of steamers from San Francisco, stop-
ping at Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and Re-
dondo. The coast line of the Southern Pacific
will take the angler to San Luis Obispo, where,

424 Big Game Fisbes

bass and other fishes are to be had, while at
Monterey and Santa Cruz in the summer great
schools of salmon are found. Along the coast
of Oregon and Washington are many charming
fishing regions and gamy fish, which if the great
halibut is excepted, which is always caught off-
shore, do not come within the scope of this
volume.

INDEX

Abalone, shell, as bait, 413.
Abeona minima, shiners, 186.
sEtobatus, eagle ray, 405.
Albacore [ Germo alalunga\ —

Fishing for, 200-209.

Food, 201.

Game qualities, 20 1.

Range, 201.

Season, 202.

Strength, 205.

Tackle, 202.

Value, 210.

Amber-jack [Seriola lalandi\ 149.
Angel-fishes —

Black, 355-356.

Family, 354.

Yellow, 356-358.
Angling, see Sea-angling.
Anisotremus surinamensis, pompon,

404.

Antony and Cleopatra story, 296.
Aransas Pass —

Jewfish sport, 304.

Shark fishing, 372.

Spanish mackerel fishing, 290.

Tarpon, 253, 256, 261.

Archosargus probatocephalus, see Bait-taker, 408.

Sheepshead.

Arion, dolphin story, 347.
Atherinopsis californiensis as bait,

414.

Atlantic, tuna range, Kingsley on, 54.
Avalon —

Angling resort, 422.
Sea-lion catch, 279.

425

Bait —

Barracuda of Florida, 91, 92, 96.

Blackfish, 276.

Black sea-bass, no, 116.

California baits, 414.

Clam bait, 413.

Collection of bait, 408-411.

Conch as bait, 412.

Crayfish as bait, 411.

Drum, 318.

Fiddler-crab as bait, 413.

Flying-fish as bait, 414-416.

Gray snapper, 36, 37, 43.

Groupers, 213, 220.

Hogfish, 1 1 8.

Jack, 173.

Kingfish, 283, 288.

Mullet as bait, 411.

Sheepshead, 327, 329.

Shell abalone as bait, 413.

Shrimp as bait, 413.

Tarpon, 237, 253.

Tuna, 59, 63, 414, 416.

Varieties of bait, 411-416.

White sea-bass, 20, 26, 27, 28.

Yellowtail, 140, 414.

Barracuda of California [Sphyrana

argented\ —
Fishing for, 99-102.
Food, 103.
Habitat, 103.
Spawn, 104.
Tackle, 102.
Weight, 102.

426

Index

Barracuda of Florida \_Sphyrana
barracuda} —

Bait, 91, 92, 96.

Curiosity, 91.

Description, 89.

Ferocity, 88, 90, 98.

Fishing methods and experi-
ences, 91-96.

Flushing, 92.

Food, value as, 97.

Game qualities, 88.

Giants, 98.

Habits, 98.

Range, 89.

Spawning, 90.

Tackle, 94.

Young, 95.

Channel- bass, see that title.

Sea-bass, see that title.

Striped bass sport, 277.
Bastard halibut \_Paralichthys call-

fornicus~\ 369.
Black angel-fish [Pomacanthus ar-

cuatus'] 35S-356-
Blackfish [Centropristes striatus]

277.
Blackfish [ Tautoga onitis\ —

Bait, 276.

" Chowder fish," 276.

Fishing, 276-280.

Food, value as, 275-276.

Range, 274, 276.

Spawning, 276.

Weight, 276.
Black grouper [Garrupa nigrita~]

216-221.
Black sea-bass [Stereolepis gigas] —

Bait, no, 1 1 6.

Color, 1 06.

Fishing for, 106-115.

Game qualities, 115.

Haunts, 105, 106, 108.

Length, 106, 107.

Black sea-bass {continued] —

Season, 108.

Species, 108.

Tackle, 115, 116, 117.

Towed by, 112.

Weight, 108, 109.
Bluefish [Pomatomus saltatrix\ —

Description, 158.

Family, 158.

Fishing for, 153-158.

Food, value as, 162.

Game qualities, 156.

Migration, 159, 161.

Number, 160.

Range, 159, 161.

Rod record, 157.

Spawning, 161.

Synonyms of, 152.

Tackle, 155.

Voracity, 160.

Weight, 157.
Blue parrot-fish \_Scarus ccerulem~]

338.
Boatmen, see names Long John,

etc.
Boats—

" Bull Pup " sloop, 323, 334.

Tuna fishing, 59.

Yellowtail fishing, 140.
Bonito \_Sarda chiliensis] —

Beauty, 294.

Range, 295.

Season, 295.

Sport, 294.

Bottle-nose dolphin catch, 348.
" Bull Pup " sloop, 323, 334.
Butterfly-fish [Lampris luna~] 348.
Butterfly-fishes, name for mariposas,

355-
Byron, dislike for angling, 268.

Calamus kendalli, pluma, 404.
California, Gulf of, white sea-bass
habitat, 30.

Index

427

California barracuda, see Barracuda

of California.

California crayfish as bait, 413.
California flying-fish as bait, 414.
California herring as bait, 414.
California sheepshead [ Pimelometo-
pon pulcher\ —

Coloring, 177.

Description, 176-178.

Fishing for, 181-183.

Food, value as, 183.

Game qualities, 182.

Range, 176, 179, 1 80.

Tackle, 181.

Weight, 183.

California smelt as bait, 414.
Caranx hippos, see Jack.
Caranx pisquetus, hard-tailed jack,

173.

Caulolatilus princeps, whitefish, 183.
Centropomus, robalo, 131.
Centropomus undesimalis, found on

Texan coast, 131.

Centropristes striatus, sea-bass, 277.
Chance in sea-angling, 14.
Channel-bass [Scianops ocellatus~\ —

Description, 187, 193, 194.

Fishing for, 191-193.

Food, value as, 199.

Game qualities, 198.

Names, 189.

Range, 188, 190, 198.

Size, 195.

Spawn, 199.

Surf- fishing, 196.

Tackle, 191.

Value, 199.

Cherna criolla grouper, 221.
Chief, grouper fishing, 216.
Chinook of Monterey [ Oncorhyn-
chus tschawytschd\ —

Fly-fishing, 384-386.

Habits, 387, 396.

Kipling's fishing experiences, 385.

Chinook of Monterey [continued] —
Season, 388.
Sport, 388, 390-395-
Tackle, 388-390.
Whitney, J. P., study and writ-
ings, 385, 386, 389, 391,

394-

Chatodipterus faber, see Mariposas.

" Chowder fish," blackfish, 276.

Clam bait, 413.

Cleopatra and Antony story, 296.

Clupea pallasii as bait, 414.

Colonies, fishes of, see Hawaiian Isl-
ands and Porto Rico.

Conch as bait, 412.

Coryphanida, see Dolphin.

Crayfish as bait, 411, 413.

Cuban hogfish, 128.

Cynoscion macdonaldi, species of
white sea-bass, 30.

Cynoscion nobilis, see White sea-bass.

Cynoscion parvipinnis, species of
white sea-bass, 32.

Deep-sea fishes and water pressure,

11-12.

Digestive organs of game fishes, 8.
Dog snapper [Lutianus jocu~\ 45.
Dolphin [ Coryphcenidai} —

Beauty of, 345.

Bottle-nose dolphin, 348.

Color changes, 346.

Description, 345-348.

Fishing, 342-347.

Game qualities, 13, 345.

Range, 343.

Size, 346.

Species, 348.

Tackle, 344.

" Don Juan," quotation from, 268.
Drum \_Pogonias cromis~\ —

Bait, 318.

Description, 311.

Drumming, 314.

428

Index

Drum [continued] —
Fishing, 3i7-323-
Food, 312.
Game qualities, 322.
Habits, 312.
Names, 312.
Range, 312, 314.
Scaling, 318.
Size, 311.
Spawning, 313.
Tackle, 317.
Value, 323.

Eagle ray [JStobatus] 405.

Eggs of game fishes, 9.

Elliott, Hon. W., sheepshead sport,

327-

Epinephelus drummond-hayi,
spotted grouper, 222.

Epinephelus morio, red grouper, 212-
215.

Evermann, B. W., fishes of Porto
Rico, 401.

Eye movement of halibut, 370.

Feast of the kingfish, 288.
Fiddler-crab as bait, 413.
Fishes, see Game fishes.
Fishing grounds, 416-424.

[See also names of 'places '.]
Florida barracuda, see Barracuda of

Florida.

Florida fishing grounds, 417.
Florida jewfish, see Jewfish.
Florida reef —

Bait, kinds of, 411.

Drum fishing, 318.

Groupers, 212.

Grunt, 315.

Mariposas, 350.

Shark fishing, 372.

Snapper sport, 33-49.

Tarpon fishing, 224.
Flying-fish as bait, 414-416.

Forests, submarine, 105, 178-180,

35*'

Framework of game fishes, 1-5.
Frenchman, tarpon fishing anecdote,
266.

Gaffing —

Kingfish, 284.
Tarpon, 264.
Tuna, 79.

Galeorhinus, tiger shark, 375.
Galveston, fishing resort, 420.
Game fishes of United States —
Albacore, see that title.
Angel-fishes, see that title.
Angling, see Sea-angling.
Barracuda of California, see that

title.
Barracuda of Florida, see that

title.

Blackfish, see that title.
Black sea-bass, see that title.
Bluefish, see that title.
Bonito, see that title.
California sheepshead, see that

title.

Channel-bass, see that title.
Chinook of Monterey, see that

title.
Colonies, fishes of, see Hawaiian

Islands and Porto Rico.
Cooking, 296.
Deep-sea fishes, 11-12.
Dolphin, see that title.
Drum, see that title.
Eggs, 9-

Fishing grounds, 416-424.
Florida jewfish, see Jewfish.
Gray snapper, see that title.
Groupers, see that title.
Grunts, see that title.
Habits, II.
Halibut, see that title.
Hawaiian Islands, see that title.,

Index

429

Game fishes of United States [con-
tinued] —

Hogfish, see that title. '
Jack, see that title.
Jewfish, see that title.
Kingfish, see that title.
Literature, pp. viii-x.
Mariposas, see that title.
Opha, 348.
Phosphorescence, 12.
Pollack fishing, 277.
Porto Rico, see that title.
Pressure of deep water, 12.
Reproductive methods, 9, II.
Robalo, 131.
Rock-bass, 186.

Scientific investigation by spe-
cialists, p. vii.
Sea-angling, see that title.
Sharks, see that title.
Sheepshead, see that title.
Shiners, 186.
Snappers, see that title.
Sockdolliger, definition, halibut

fishing, 360-364.
Spanish mackerel, see that title.
Spawning, 9-11.
Structure —

Deep-sea fishes and the pres-
sure of water, 12.

Digestive organs, 8.

Framework, 1-5.

Illuminating organs, 12.

Internal parts, 6-9.

Locomotive organs, 3-5.

Scales, 9.

Tarpon, see that title.
Triple-tail, 332.
Tuna, see that title.
Varieties in many seas, 279-280.
Vocal abilities, 315-317.
Whitefish, 183.
White sea-bass, see that title.
Yellowtail, see that title.

Garden Key —

Gray snapper resort, 34, 45.

Spanish mackerel, 290.
Gardner, boatman, tuna fishing, 79.
Garrupa nigrita, black grouper,

216-221.

George, N. M., tarpon catch, 240.
Georgia, sheepshead range, 329.
Germo alalunga, see Albacore.
Gilbert, Dr. C. H., identification of

Luvarus imperialis, 398.
Gilthead, ancient cultivation, 324.
Golden angel -fish, name for yellow

angel-fish, 357.
Gray snapper [Lutianus griseus~\ —

Appearance, 35.

Bait, 36, 37, 43.

Cunning, 41.

Fishing method, 39, 40.

Florida reef sport, 33.

Game qualities, 42.

Haunts, 44, 45.

Migration, 44.

Night fishing, 48.

Range, 44.

Species, 45.

Weight, 43, 44.

Young, 44.

Green snapper [Lutianus analis~\ 47.
Groupers [Serranidtz] —

Black, 216-221.

Red, 212-215.

Sport, tackle, etc., 212-222.

Spotted, 222.

White, 221.
Grunts —

Florida reef, 315.

Porto Rican waters, 402-403.
Gulf of California, white sea-bass

habitat, 30.
Gulf of Mexico, barracuda fishing,

88.

Gulf Stream, dolphin fishing, 342-
347-

430

Index

Halibut [Hippoglossus hippoglos-
sus'] —

Bastard halibut sport, 366-369.

Eye movement, 370.

Fishing, 357-368.

Game qualities, 360.

Hook used by Indians, 365.

Size, 364.

Sockdolliger, 360-364.

Sport in Southern California
waters, 278.

Strenuous sport, 365-366.

Tackle, 365, 366.

Weight, 364, 365.

Young, 370.
Haliotis as bait, 413.
Hamlet grouper, 221.
Hammerhead, fighting and strength,

377-382.
Hard-tailed jack, caranx pisquetus,

!73-

Hawaiian Islands —
Angling in, 397.
Luvarus imperialis specimen,

398.

Parrot-fishes, 339.
Herring, California, as bait, 414.
Hippoglossus hippoglossus, see Hali-
but.
Hcemulont common grunt of Florida

reef, 315.

Hofe, E. vom, tarpon catch, 240.
Hogfish \_Lachnolaimus maxi-

mus~\ —
Bait, 1 1 8.
Cuban, 128.

Deep-water forms, 127, 129.
Description, 122-127.
Fishing for, 122-132.
Food, 129, 130.
Game qualities, 124.
Haunts, 119, 128.
Migration, 129.
Monument to, 128.

Hogfish [continued] —

Names, 127.

Poison, 128.

Species, 127.

Tackle, 123.

Holacanthus ciliaris, yellow angel-
fish, 356-358.

Holder, C. F., leaping tuna, 58.
Holder, Dr. J. B., tuna specimens,

53, 54-

Horse mackerel, name for tuna, 54.
Howe, Dr. H. W. —

Gun camera, 373.

Tarpon fishing, 240, 271.

Illuminating organs of game fishes,

12.

Indian River, fishing resort, 418.

Jack [ Caranx hippos} —

Bait, 173.

"Beat," 164, 170.

Description, 172.

Feeding, 167.

Fishing for, 164-173.

Game qualities, 169, 172.

Haunts, 163, 171, 177.

Names, 170.

Porto Rican caranx, 400.

Spawning, 171.

Species, 173.

Synonyms, 170.

Tackle, 168.

Texan, 172.

Weight, 171.
Jenkins, W. S., tarpon migration,

230.
Jewfish [Frontier ops] —

Fight with, 305.

Fishing experiences, 298-303.

Genera, 304.

Kedging, 300.

Range, 304, 307-308.

Record, 305.

Index

Jewfish [continued] —

Run of, 304.

Season, 306.

Sewing mouth, 303.

Size, 302, 305.

Spawning, 306.

Status, 298.

Stories of, 299.

Tackle, 303, 306.

Texan, 304.

Weight, 305.
Jordan, Dr. —

Chinook fly-fishing, 384.

Samoa and Hawaiian Islands,

fishing in, 397.
Jovius, Bishop Paul, fish story, 309.

Key West, fishing resort, 419.
Kingfish [Scomberomorus regalis} —

Bait, 283, 388.

Beauty of, 285.

Feast of, 288.

Fishing, 282-285.

Gaffing, 284.

Game qualities, 283.

Giant, 287.

Leaps of, 283.

Size, 286, 287.

Tackle, 282.

Value, 287.
Kingfish, second [Scomberomorus

cavalld\ 286.
Kingsley, Atlantic range of the

tuna, 54.

Kipling, Rudyard, chinook fishing,
385.

Lachnolaimus maximus, see Hogfish.
Lampris tuna, opha, 348.
Leaping sharks, see Sharks.
Leaping tuna, see Tuna.
Lobotes surinamensis, triple-tail, 332.
Locomotive organs of game fishes,
3-5-

Long John," commander of the
" Bull Pup," 323, 334, 341, 353.
Loro, blue parrot-fish, 338.
Louisiana fishing grounds, 422.
Luminous fishes, 12.
Lutianidtz, see Snappers.
Lutianus analis, green snapper,

47-

Lutianus afiodus, schoolmaster, 50.

Lutianus ay a, red snapper, 45.

Lutianus griseus, see Gray snapper.

Lutianus jocu, dog snapper, 45.

Lu-varus imperialis, Hawaiian speci-
men, 398.

Mackerel —

Salt mackerel of Marc Antony,

296.

Spanish mackerel, see that title.
McLellan, I., poem, 169.
Mann, G. E., fishing at Galveston,

420.
Marc Antony and Cleopatra story,

296.

Mariposas \_Chatodipterus fabcr\ —
Family, 354.
Fishing, 351.
Game qualities, 354.
Range, 353.
Size, 353.
Tackle, 351, 352.
Mexico, tarpon fishing, 271, 272.
Mexico, Gulf of, barracuda fishing,

88.
Monterey chinook, see Chinook of

Monterey.

Mugil cephalus as bait, 411, 413.
Mugil curema as bait, 411.
Mullet as bait, 411, 413.

Nassau grouper, 221.

Oceanic fishes, see Game fishes.
Oceanic fishing, see Sea-angling.

432

Index

Old Point Comfort, sheepshead fish-
ing, 326, 327, 329-

Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, see
Chinook of Monterey.

Opha \_Lampris luna~\ 348.

Grata, S., gilthead cultivation, 324.

Palinurus as bait, 413.
Paralichthys californicus, bastard

halibut, 369.
Parrot-fishes —

Blue parrot-fish, 338.
Description, 336, 337.
Fishing, 333-338.
Hawaiian esteem, 339.
Poisonous, 339.
Pseudoscarus guacamaia, 339.
Pascagoula and its music, legend,

316.
Paublo —

Bait collecting, 408-410.
Gray snapper fishing, 38.
Jewfish sport, 300.
Kingfish sport, 282-285.
Siesta while fishing, 406.
Phosphorescence of game fishes, 12.
Photographing tarpon in air, 373.
Pimelometopon pulcher, see Califor-
nia sheepshead.

Pluma [ Calamus kendallt} 404.
Pogonias cromis, see Drum.
Pollack fishing, 277.
Pomacanthus arcuatus, black angel-
fish* 355-3S6-

Pomatomus saltatrixt see Bluefish.
Pompon [Anisotremus surinamen-

sis~\ 404.

Porgies in Porto Rican waters, 404.

Porto Rico, game fishes —

Conditions of fishing, 399.

Eagle ray, 405.

Evermann's report, 401.

Fishes in Porto Rican waters,

400-407.

Porto Rico, game fishes \con-

tinued~\ —
Grunts, 402-403.
Pluma, 404.
Pompon, 404.
Tarpon, 401-402.
Promicrops, see Jewfish.
Pseudoscarus guacamaia> parrot-fish,
339-

Rays, Porto Rican waters, 405.

Red grouper \_Epinephelus morio~\
212-215.

Red snapper \_Lutianus aya~] 45.

Red tail [Lutianus synagris} 50.

Reproduction of game fishes, meth-
ods, 9, II.

" Rip-raps," triple-tail specimen, 332.

Robalo [Centropomus~\ 131.

Rock-bass of California waters, 186.

Rod-fishing, 12-13.

Rods for sheepshead fishing, 328.
[See also Tackle.]

Salmon, chinook, see Chinook of

Monterey.

Salt mackerel of Marc Antony, 296.
Samoa, game fishing, 397.
San Clemente Island, fishing, 422.
San Jorgas Bay, white sea-bass fish-
ing, 30-31.
Santa Catalina —

Fishing resort, 422.

Halibut sport, 366.

Tiger sharks, 375.

Tuna fishing, 57.

White sea-bass catch, 18.
Santa Cruz, famous for salmon, 395.
Sarda ckiliensis, see Bonito.
Scales of game fishes, 9.
Scarus, name for blackfish, 275, 276.
Scarus cceruleus, blue parrot-fish,

338.
Schoolmaster {Lutianus apodus) 50.

Index

433

Sciccnops ocellatus, see Channel-
bass.

Scomberomorus cavalla, second king-
fish, 286.

Scomberomorus maculatus, see Span-
ish mackerel.

Scomberomorus regalis, see King-
fish.

Scombrida, see Tuna.
Sea-angling —

Artful discernment of fish, 1 7.

Bait, see that title.

Boats, see that title.

Byron, dislike for angling, 268.

Chance, element of, 14.

Courtesy code, tarpon angling,
276.

Fishing grounds, 416-424.

Gaffing, see that title.

Modern pastime, p. v.

Nature, anglers' love of, 118.

Rod-fishing, 12-13.

Season, 215.

Stories of ill-luck, 18.

Superstitions of sea-anglers, 14.

Tackle, see that title.

Trolling, see that title.

Varieties in many seas, 279-
280.

[See also Game fishes.]
Sea-bass [ Centropristes striatus~\ 277.

Black sea-bass, see that title.

Species, 277.

White sea-bass, see that title.
Sea-drum, see Drum.
Sea fishes, see Game fishes.
Sea-lion catch, 279.
Second kingfish [Scomberomorus

cavalla~] 286.
Seriola, see Yellowtail.
Seriola dorsalis, Pacific species of

yellowtail, 145.

Seriola lalandi, amber-jack, 149.
Serranidce, see Groupers.

2F

Sharks, 371-382.

Hammerhead fishing experience,
377-382.

Sport, 372-382.

Tiger shark, 375.

Sheepshead [Archosargus probato-
cephalus] —

Ancient cultivation, 324.

Bait, 327, 328, 329.

Description, 325.

Family, 325.

Fishing, 328-332.

Habits, 325.

Range, 326, 327, 329.

Rods, 328.

Size, 329, 330.

Spawning, 330.

Tackle, 328, 331.

Value, 324.

Sheepshead, Californian, see Califor-
nia sheepshead.
Shell abalone as bait, 413.
Shiners \_Abeona minima'} 1 86.
Shrimp as bait, 413.
Silver mullet as bait, 411.
Skeleton of game fishes, 1-5.
Smelt, California, as bait, 414.
Snappers \_Lutianidce\ —

Characteristics of family, 49.

Dog snapper, 45.

Florida sport, 33-49.

Gray snapper, see that title.

Green snapper, 47.

Red snapper, 45.

Red tail, 50.

Schoolmaster, 50.
" Sockdolliger," definition, halibut

fishing, 360-364.

Spanish mackerel [Scomberomorus
maculatus~\ —

Aransas Pass, 290.

Beauty, golden glint of fish, 292,

293-
Fishing, 289-292.

434

Index

Spanish mackerel [continued] —
Garden Key, 290.
Migration, 292.
Range, 292.
Spawning, 292.
Tackle, 291.

Spawning of game fishes, 9-1 1.
Spotted cero, name for kingfish,

286.
Spotted grouper [Epinephelus drum-

mond-hayi] 222.
Sphyrana argentea, see Barracuda of

California.
Sphyrcena barracuda, see Barracuda

of Florida.

Squid, tuna bait, 416.
Stereolepis gigas, see Black sea-bass.
Striped bass sport, 277.
Strombus gigas as bait, 412.
Structure of game fishes, see Game

fishes.
Submarine forests, 105, 178-180,

35*-

Superstitions of sea-anglers, 14.
Surf-fishing for channel-bass, 196.

Tackle —

Albacore, 202.

Barracuda of California, 102.

Barracuda of Florida, 94.

Black sea-bass, 115, 116, 117.

Bluefish, 155.

California sheepshead, 181.

Channel-bass, 191.

Chinook of Monterey, 388-390.

Dolphin, 344.

Drum, 317.

Groupers, 212.

Halibut, 365, 366.

Hogfish, 123.

Jack, 168.

Jewfish, 303, 306.

Kingfish, 282.

Leaping tuna, 59-67.

Tackle [continued'] —

Mariposas, 351, 352.

Sheepshead, 328, 331.

Spanish mackerel, 291.

Tarpon, 236, 237, 257-261.

White sea-bass, 24, 25.

Yellowtail, 139.

Tamisio, maigre fish story, 309.
Tampico, tarpon fishing, 271, 272.
Tautog, name for blackfish, 274.
Tautoga onitis, see Blackfish.
Tarpon [ Tarpon atlanticus'] —

Aransas Pass, 253, 256, 261.

Bait, 237, 253.

Courtesy code in angling, 270.

Description, 227, 228.

Fighting, 255.

First view of the tarpon, 223.

Fishing, 224-270.

Frenchman anecdote, 266.

Gaffing, 264.

Game qualities, 226.

Habits, 233.

Jenkins, W. S., on, 230.

Leap of, 239, 247, 248, 251, 272.

Mexican fishing, 271, 272.

Migration, 230.

Name, 228.

Photographing in air, 373.

Playing, 264, 265.

Porto Rican waters, 401-402.

Pumping, 264.

Range, 229.

Rapacity, 233.

Records, 240, 241, 252.

Scales, 233.

Season, 234.

Size, 233.

Skill required in tarpon fishing,
266.

Smallest, 231.

Spawning, 232.

Tackle, 236, 237, 257-261.

Texas, 231, 244-246.

Index

435

Tarpon [continued] —

Trolling, 253, 263.

Weight, 255.

Winter fishing, 271.

"Yucatan Bill," 373, 374.
Tarpon atlanticus, see Tarpon.
Texan Jack, 172.

Texas, tarpon fishing, 231, 244-246.
Tiger shark \_Galeorhinus\ 375.
Triple-tail \_Lobotes surinamensis]

332.
Trolling —

California barracuda, 99, 102.

Tarpon, 253, 263.
Tuna \Scombrida\ —

Bait, 59, 63, 414, 416.

Boats, 59.

Breeding, 85.

Charge of, 73.

Exciting experience, 79.

Feeding, 51, 69, 71.

Fighting abilities, 75-78.

Fishing for, 59-82.

Gaffing, 79.

Game qualities, 77.

Giants, 55, 78.

Hooking, 2.

Leap of, 72, 83.

Migration, 67.

Play of, 73, 77.

Record, 58, 66, 77.

Size, 53.

Tackle, 59-67.

Weight, 53.

Vocal abilities of fishes, 315-317.

Waddell, J. A. L., tarpon fishing at

Tampico, 271.

West Indies, hogfish range, 128.
Whitefish \_Caulolatilus princeps]

183.

White grouper [Epinephelus stria-

tus~\ 221.
White sea-bass [Cynosdon macdo-

naldi\ 30.
White sea-bass [ Cynoscion nobilis~] —

Appearance, 22-23.

Bait, 20, 26, 27, 28.

Food, value as, 29.

Habitat, 18, 21, 23, 26, 30.

Habits, 29, 30.

Length, 22.

Santa Catalina catch, 18.

Species, 23, 30, 32.

Tackle, 24, 25.

Weight, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30.

Young, 29, 33.
White sea-bass [Cynosdon parvi-

pinnis} 32.
Whitney, J. P., chinook fishing, 385,

386, 389. 39i» 394-
Winter, tarpon fishing, 271.

Xenocrates, scarus, 275.

Yellow angel-fish [Holacanthus cil-

iaris} 356-358-
Yellowtail [Seriola] —

Bait, 140, 414.

Description, 144.

Fishing for, 133-148.

Food, 147.

Haunts, 138.

Inshore, 138.

Relations, 144.

Rush of, 134.

Spawning, 145.

Species, 145, 149.

Tackle, 139.

Tameness, 147.

Value, 146.
"Yucatan Bill," 373, 374.

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