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CORNELL
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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
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HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
viii
Cornell University
The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003640707
Fig. 1.
Salmon Fishing on a Rainy Day on the Hodder, England. (The Author), Frontispiece.
BY CHARLES
FREDERICK
HOLDER, LL.D.
Euigae AUTHOR OF “THE CHANNEL ISLANDS ee|
‘ OF CALIFORNIA” “BIG GAME AT SEA”
“THE LIFE OF CHARLES DARWIN”
“THE RECREATIONS OF A SPORTSMAN’? j
I BC AE,
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
PREFACE
HE present volume was designed to provide a well illus-
trated condensed account of the principal game fishes
of the world. So far as the author knows, such a volume has
not been given to the public, and the data can only be had by
consulting many different volumes, pamphlets, reports, and
monographs, found only in widely separated libraries.
Anglers frequently wish to consult a volume of this kind,
and I have often been asked if such a book, giving the essentials,
and what is popularly known as‘ up to date’ information on the
subject, is available. If the result of my efforts is found of value
and interest to anglers, travellers and sportsmen in various lands,
I shall be more than gratified.
It is evident even to the casual reader that to exhaust so
comprehensive and voluminous a subject as The Game Fishes
of the World, a number of volumes would be required, hence I
have endeavoured to confine myself to the prime essentials,
mentioning only those forms which have been recognized as game
fishes by anglers in various parts of the world.
Practically, all the desirable fishes have been referred to, and
more or less data relating to most of them given. If the curiosity
of the reader is aroused and more detail required, a brief biblio-
graphy has been appended in which will be found mentioned
works which describe the various fishes in a more comprehensive
manner ; works which can be found in the library of almost any
town or city in England or America, and all in the sumptuous
library of the British Museum.
In the preparation of this volume I have availed myself of
a wide personal experience in the United States, Canada, the
v
PREFACE
Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, a residence of
several years, winter and summer, on the outer Florida reef,
where the fauna is practically identical with that of the Bahama,
Bermuda, Lesser Antilles and the Caribbean Sea in general. I
have also observed some of the angling rivers of Western Europe
and the fisheries of the Riviera, and have had the delight of
standing on the banks of the Hodder, Ribble and Tweed, salmon
rod in hand. I know the charm and beauty of the Yure and its
grayling, though my actual experience is limited. Aside from
this, I have availed myself of all available sources of information
in America, the United Kingdom and Europe to make the volume
as useful and comprehensive as possible in so limited a space,
and if the angler misses some reference, as he undoubtedly will,
I plead guilty of having omitted it as a non-essential. Wherever
possible I have given my personal experience.
I wish to express my thanks and obligations to many British
anglers, particularly to Mr. R. B. Marston, Editor of the Fishing
Gazette and founder of the Fly Fishers Club, whose courtesies
have been unremitting. I have availed myself fully of his most
valuable journal, his books and those of the Amateur Angler.
My thanks are due to the British Sea Anglers Society for much
aid and for the privilege of attending their meetings, and for
courtesies from Mr. F. A. 8. Stern, Mr. F. D. Holcombe, Sir J.
Wrench Towse, Mr. L. J. Graham Clarke, Dr. I. Sefton Sewill and
others. Also to the members of the Fly Fishers Club, to Mr. F. M.
Halford and others for many courtesies in the Club, the views of
their wonderful collection of flies, the use of their library; and
warm hospitality when I was in England partly to obtain data
for my books. My hearty appreciation is also due to Mr. H. T.
Sheringham, the Angling Editor of the Field, to Mr. R. Thom
Annan, Mr. W. W. Simpson of Whalley, Mr. George Hodgson of
Hexton Manor and Mr. W. D. Coggeshall, resident members of
the Tuna Club in England, Mr. E. M. Mallett, Mr. G. A. Boulenger,
F.R.8., and many more.
Iam particularly indebted to Mr. C. H. Cook, ‘ John Bicker-
vi
PREFACE
dyke,’ whose Book of the All-Round Angler I found indis-
pensable.’ My warm thanks are due to Mr. F. G. Aflalo, the
founder of the B.S.A.8., for many courtesies and for the privilege
of quoting from his most valuable books on sea angling in many
seas, which he has sent me from time to time, in all, constituting
a library of sport of the greatest value.
My acknowledgements are due to the Glasgow Sea Anglers
Association for many kindnesses, and an opportunity to meet
anglers of that city. My thanks are due to Major Hills, at whose
country seat, Alburgh Hall, I saw the Yure and its grayling, and
to Mr. W. W. Simpson who enabled me to cast for salmonin the
Hodder and Ribble, and to Mr. R. Thom Annan for invitations to
fish his sea-trout river in Ross-shire and his salmon water inWales.
I am indebted to Prince Pierre d’Arenberg, President of the
Casting Club of France, for many courtesies, not the least being
a series of photographs of himself showing the first black bass
taken by the Prince in France, where he is endeavouring to place
angling on a firm basis.
My thanks are due to Mr. Cotter and Mr. Streeter of the Tarpon
Club of Port Aransas, Texas, Mr. Conn, Mr. Potter of the Tuna
Club, Mr. Chas. V. Barton of Los Angeles for data relating to the
shore angling in California, and to Mr. T. 8. Manning, Colonel
Stearns, Mr. Smith Warren,'and especially to Mr. H. Ormsby
Phillips for the photographs of his remarkable catches with light
tackle and permission to use them.
Iam particularly indebted to Mr. P. V. Reys, of Avalon, Santa
Catalina, California, for the admirable set of living game-fish
pictures of that region, uniquein every respect, and for the use of
several copyright photographs, and to Dr. B. F. Alden and his col-
laborator for the wonderful X-ray radiograph photographs shown
in the volume, and to Mr. W. Carter Platt for photographs used
inthe book. Iamindebted to Mr. James Horsburgh, Jr., of San
Francisco, for photographs of the Pacific Coast and angling lakes
and streams; to Dr. David Starr Jordan, Dr. G. Hart Merriam
for permission to use their books and reports, and finally to Mr.
+ vil
PREFACE
Hunt of Key West for the photographs of Florida fishes, among
the most admirable ever taken, and to Mr. George A. Weber
of the Laurentian Club and San Souci, Quebec, for many atten-
tions and permission to use his photographs of angling scenes and
places in Canada where we have fished together.
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.
July, 1913.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Satmon Fisuine mn ENGLAND . : : ' ; : : 1
CHAPTER II
THE GRAYLING : : : : : : ‘ : . 18
CHAPTER III
Some EncuisH Trout Streams ' . j F ' . 25
CHAPTER IV
Some Smatt Game Fisues or Eneiayp (Coarse FisH) . 34
CHAPTER V
Tur PIKES AND THEIR CoUsINS i ‘ j . 3 . 44
CHAPTER VI
Sea ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. . . F : 2 . 653
CHAPTER VII
Tue ToPE AND OTHER LEAPING SHARES . : : . . 64
CHAPTER VIII
Some Game FisHes oF INDIA . ‘ : ; : ; » 2
CHAPTER IX
Tue Santa Catalina IsLAaNnD SwoRDFISH. 6 ‘ ‘ . 85
i CONTENTS
CHAPTER X
THe Learine Tuna. .
CHAPTER XI
THE Lirtte Tunas. ‘ ‘
CHAPTER XII
THe TUNAPLANE OB KITE
CHAPTER XIII
Tur Buack Sea Bass AND OTHER LARGE FISH
CHAPTER XIV
THe Wuire Sea Bass aND WEAKFISH
CHAPTER XV
Winpows ror SEA ANGLERS
CHAPTER XVI
Tur YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER XVII
Tue Smautt Pacific Coast Sza FisHEs
CHAPTER XVIII
Some Game Fisues or Span, FRANCE AND PoRTUGAL
CHAPTER XIX
ALONG THE RIVIERA
CHAPTER XX
ANGLING In AUSTRIA, GERMANY AND THE ITALIAN LAKES .
CHAPTER XXI
Soms Game FisHEs oF THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
x
PAGE
98
111
117
125
134
143
150
162
176
185
189
201
CONTENTS
PAGH
CHAPTER XXII
THe Satt-WaTER JACKS . j : . : ‘ j - 208
CHAPTER XXIII
Tue SMALL Game FisHEes OF FLORIDA . : 7 5 . 216
CHAPTER XXIV
Tue BarRRacupa . 5 ‘3 ‘ . F . “ . 232
CHAPTER XXV
Tur BLUEFIsH, CHANNEL Bass AND StripeD Bass . ‘ - 238
CHAPTER XXVI
Tue Siiver Kine . ? - F A A 7 é . 248
CHAPTER XXVII
THe Paciric Coast SALMON . ‘ y ‘ F é . 262
CHAPTER XXVIII
Tue Ratinspow TROUT AND Its CousINS . s : : . 273
CHAPTER XXIX
Tue RainBow at Sea (STEELHEAD). , é : , . 288
CHAPTER XXX
THe Buack Bass . A 3 ‘ x : , 2 - 299
CHAPTER XXXI
Tur CANADIAN LAKES AND STREAMS : 4 : . . 310
CHAPTER XXXII
Tue American Cuarrs (Brook Trout) . i : : . 3819
CHAPTER XXXIII
Tun Rays : é ‘ F 5 : : : ‘ . 332
xi
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER XXXIV
Some Game FisHes of Arrica, AUSTRALIA, New ZEALAND AND NEW
SourH WALES . ‘ : 3 . . 3 ‘ . 339
CHAPTER XXXV
THe Game FisHEs oF JAPAN, CHINA AND THE PHILIPPINES . 845
CHAPTER XXXVI
THe Game FisHes oF Hawai F ‘ - : ‘1 . 3d7
CHAPTER XXXVII
Some Game Fisnes or SourH AMERICA . 3 : , . 362
CHAPTER XXXVIII
FIsHES oF THE BAHAMAS, BERMUDAS, JAMAICA, ETC. . S . 370
CHAPTER XXXIX
Somz Famous ANGLING Ciuss. : : , ‘ ‘ . 377
ApprnDix I. : : : ‘ : ; : : . 398
Aprenpix I] ; ; : j ; : : : . 400
InpExX . : ; ; Be i ; . : . 403
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
The Author Salmon Fishing in England . : Frontispiece
R. Thom Annan on the Tweed 4
The Edinburgh Salmon Club 4
R. Thom Annan Casting . 4
A River Wye Salmon ; 8
A River Wye Catch (two rods) 8
A Forty-three-pound Salmon ; Lo, : : 8
Colonel Robertson on the Wye : 3 . 12
Mr. Graham-Clarke on the Wye ; ‘ ‘ ‘ , . 12
Mr. Miller’s Forty-three Pounder. ; : : . 16
Stalking Trout F ; 3 ‘ , . 20
Grayling on the Wharfe . : ; : ; . 20
Netting a Grayling . : : : ; F : . 20
Spinning for Trout . ‘ : ; ; : : : . 28
A Dry Fly Cast. : : : : é : ; . 28
Radiographs of Trout. ‘ ‘ . 82
An Autumn Trout Stream (England) F . i ; . 40
A Lady Angler in England. ' : : . 40
Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Marston at Seavbonoual é , : . 48
Conger Fishing in England : : : : ; . 56
Mr. Murmann’s Conger . . 5 ‘ : ‘ : . 64
Mr. F. D. Holcombe’s Skate . j ' : : : . 64
Mr. Mignot’s Halibut ' : : . 64
The World’s Record Sword Fish Colton by Mer. acne , . 80
Sword Fish Catch of Colonel Dorsey and Mr. Sharp. ‘ . 88
The Florida’Sail Fish , , : . ; , ‘ . 96
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
The Xiphias at Santa Catalina Island. ; : ; . 100
The Leaping Sword Fish (Santa Catalina Island) . : . 108
The World’s Record Tuna (Mr. Ross) F ‘ : : . 112
The Start ‘ : ; : : 3 ‘ : . 116
Strike of Long-fin Tuna : , : : : : ~ » 116
Weighing Long-fin Tuna . ‘ : : ‘ ‘ : . 116
Having the Picture taken ‘ . ‘ 3 : . 116
A Black Sea Bass Catch (four ‘ash, : : ? : . 120
Kite Fishing for Leaping Tuna : : ‘ : F . 124
Leaping Tuna at Santa Catalina. : ‘ . : . 124
Kite ahead of Launch . : F : ‘ . : . 124
The Giant Saw Fish. ; ‘1 : 2 , : . 128
A White Sea Bass Catch (four ies , ‘ . 3 . 136
A Santa Catalina Record : . ; . ‘ : . 140
The Sand Bass 7 e . . . 2 : ; . 144
The Long-fin Tuna . : ; : ' : : , . 148
The Pacific Mackerel é : F ‘ F F ; . 148
The Yellow-fin Tuna d : : ; ; 3 , . 148
The Luvarus Jack . : : : ‘ : ‘ : . 148
A Lady’s Catch (Avalon Bay) . . s j : . 182
Mr. H. Ormsby Phillips Playing a Yellowtail - ‘ : . 156
Mr. Joseph Banning’s Nine-ounce Rod in Action . ; . 156
The Rod after Thirty Minutes : ‘ : . ; . 156
Going Home (a Fishing Boat) . 2 ‘ : : ; . 156
Mr. H. Ormsby Phillips’ Yellowtail . F : 7 , . 156
The Blue-eye Perch : ; : : : : F . 160
The Whitefish (Blanquillo) : F : : : : . 160
The Rock Bass 4 5 ‘ ' ‘ : ; : . 164
The Blacksmith Fish : : : : ; ‘ F . 168
The Roncador ; : i ; : : ; F . 168
White Perch . ‘ ; i i ; : , ; . 168
The Spot Perch : : : : 3 ‘ : ‘ . 168
The Surf-Fish . j : P : : ‘ : : . 168
The Striped Perch , ‘ : . é : ’ : . 168
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PACING
PAGE
A Nine-ounce Rod Catch of Barracuda . ; ; ; . 172
Naples’ Fishing Boats. : : : : : : . 176
Hauling the Seine (Mentone) . 2 : : ; : . 176
Angling at Genoa . : : i é : ‘ 3 . 176
The Huchen . ‘i ; , ; Z ' . 192
Baron Von Rummel in iaite cae é ; ; : . 192
Baron Von Rummel on the Traun . , : : : . 192
Red Grouper . , : : : ; : : ; . 216
Jew-Fish. : : F P : : : F F . 216
Sea-Trout ‘ F : ; : ? : : ; . 216
Mangrove Snapper . : : : : : : ; . 216
Hogfish . : P : : ‘ : é : ’ . 216
The Jack Z : s : : : : : : . 216
The Channel Bass . ‘ : : F : : : . 232
The Author’s Tarpon . : ‘ : : : i . 232
The Royal Chinook Salmon . ‘ ; : ; : . 232
The Striped Bass. ‘ ; j : : ‘ : . 232
The Florida Barracuda . “ ‘ ‘ ‘ : ‘ . 232
The Author’s Salmon ‘ ‘ : . 264
A Salmon Pool on the Williamson River, ‘US. A p : . 264
The Sprague River . ‘ : : : : . ‘ . 272
Angling on the Kern River. i ‘ , ‘ . . 272
Pelican Bay Trout . . ‘ . ‘ ‘ ‘ ; . 272
Lake Tahoe Trout . % ; : : ? . 272
A Silver Trout from Klamath Lake, ‘ : : , . 276
Land-locked Steelhead Trout . ‘ F ; ‘ F 288
Dolly Varden Trout a . ‘ ‘ : : ‘ . 288
The Cranford Trout : ‘ ‘ : ‘ : ‘ . 288
Lake Chelan Cut-throat Trout . é ‘ : . : . 288
X-Ray Photograph of Steelhead Trout . i : ; . 292
A Normandy Chalk Stream. ‘ : : ; : . 300
Netting the Prince’s Trout . : : ‘ : ‘ . 3800
Prince d’Arenberg . ‘ z ‘ F . 5 . 3800
A Pool on La Varenne, Ties és . . : ; . 300
xv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Black Bass and Wall-eyed Pike
A Lady Playing a Bass .
The Author at Lake Weber
Lake Wapizzagonk Pickerel
Side View of Giant Ray .
Hauling in the Ray
Lower View of Ray
Mr. Conn and his Capture
Claspers of Ray
An African Kabeljou
Black Sea Bass in Mexico
Major Frederick Russell Burnham sit the actin in 1 Mexioo
Mexican Fishes
Giant White Sea Bass
Spotted Bass .
The Rooster Fish
The Nassau Grouper
Gray Snapper .
The Coney <
The Florida Yellowtail
The Porgy
The Angel-Fish
The Schoolmaster
The Sheepshead (Florida).
The Yellow Grouper
The Yellow-fin Grouper
The Black Angel-Fish
The Yellow Grunt .
The Santa Catalina Island aie Club eabhouie
Mr. F. G. Aflalo Landing a Yellowtail
Mr. Jones with his Nine-ounce Rod in Action .
Mrs. Manning Playing a Yellowtail .
Mr. Murphy and the Gaffed Sword Fish ,
xvi
FACING
PAGE
304
320
320
320
324
324
324
324
324.
332
356
356
356
356
356
356
364
364
364
364
364
364
368
368
368
368
368
368
384
392
392
392
392
CHAPTER I
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
‘For often at night, in a sportive mood
He comes to the brim of the moon-lit flood
And tosses in air a curve aloft,
Like the silvery bow of the Gods, then soft
He plashes deliciously back in the spray,
While tremulous circles go spreading away.’
Anon.
N all probability, if any angler in any land should be asked.
to indicate the great game fish of the world, taken in fresh.
water, he would say without hesitation, the salmon (Salmo
salar). And the same angler, without question, would concede
the United Kingdom, all things considered, to be the most admir-
able setting for the picture. I have no doubt many American
salmon anglers, knowing the Canadian Restigouche, and other
rivers of the north and south sides of the great sea at the mouth
of the St. Lawrence, and the superlative gameness of the salmon,
might take exception to this; but having in mind the beauties.
of the English salmon streams, the marvellous system by which
the sport is conserved, the pride of the people in it, the splendid.
literature that has been developed by it, the poesy, song and
legend associated with it, and the type of men and women who.
indulge in it, on the highest plane of sportsmanship, I doubt
if the decision could be controverted, or that many true anglers.
would question the justice of it.
It requires no little temerity to criticize a sport so firmly
entrenched in the affections of a people, yet almost my first
word of praise of this sort is tempered by a criticism: the rivers
are too beautiful, too distracting for the angler with the ‘ artistic
I rT
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
temperament,’ and if one has not the latter he has little
interest or love for the real esthetic features of fly fishing. What
chance has an angler, especially an American, when casting
for salmon, on the Tweed, we will say, when a friend whispers,
“If you will cast your fly just over there, it will drop not far
from the spot where Scott wrote Ivanhoe.’ Or when casting
for salmon on the Hodder, or was it the Ribble? Father Irwin
of Stonyhurst said, ‘ You see the old bridge above us (the charm-
ing one I had been devouring with envious eyes)? Cromwell’s
army crossed that in the seventeenth century.’ And when my
friend Annan took me down the Tweed to another bridge, under
which salmon were lurking, that I might view its ancient beauty,
a bridge that Scott used, I forgot all about the salmon, the
Jock Scotts and other flies the gillie had made for me at the
Edinburgh Salmon Club, just as I missed the first salmon on
the Ribble thinking of its old bridge and of Cromwell’s army,
as my seventh great grandfather doubtless crossed it, as he
was one Edmund Johnson, a ‘ fighting parson’ in the army of
Cromwell.
How can a mere mortal concentrate his mind on angling on
such rivers as the Tweed, Wye, Ure, Derwent, Esk and others
where Nature has outdone herself in producing the most radi-
antly beautiful vistas of green, of forests and sweeps of upland
and lowland that blend and melt into the blue of the heavens
in splendid pictures, no matter which way one turns or looks ?
It is possible that I am too critical, but I submit that if I do
not land my salmon some time on the Tweed or Wye I have
at least given a reason.
With this symposium of seeming levity, or appreciation, I
approach the subject of the salmon, which, according to Walton,
is ‘ the king of freshwater fishes.’ As to the antiquity of salmon
fishing in England, no one knows. The early Britons, the
Anglo-Saxons and the Romans who held the country several
centuries, undoubtedly fished the salmon streams of England.
The salmon, it is known, has been fished with rod and reel for
2
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
at least two centuries, as Walton says, ‘ Yet sometimes he
will, and not usually at a fly,’ And when he refers to salmon
tackle, ‘ Note also that many used to fish for salmon with a
ring of wire on the top of their rod ; through which the line may
run to as great a length as is needful, when he is hooked. And
to that end some use a wheel about the middle of their rod, or
near their hand.’ This was in 1670 or thereabouts. But
Walton doubtless borrowed his information regarding flies
from Juliana Berners, who compiled or wrote a treatise on fishing,
which was published by Wynken de Worde in The Booke of St.
Albans, in 1486, over four hundred years ago. Referring to the
salmon she says, ‘You may also take him with a fly in like
form and manner as you do a trout or grayling,’ adding, ‘ but it
is seldom seen.’
No one can read the list of Juliana Berners’ flies and not be
impressed with the belief that flies were known and used for
salmon years, yes, ages before, for as R. B. Marston says in his
delightful Harly Fishing Notes, ‘Nothing but gradual evolution
extending perhaps over centuries could account for this list.
It is not necessary to quote Juliana Berners further, but her
treatise on angling is yet the soul of the modern high standard
in angling in England and America. This refers particularly
to the angler and should be framed and hung in every club in
the world :
‘ Also ye shall not be to ravenous in takyng of your sayd game, as to moche
at one tyme, which ye maye lyghtly doo yf ye doo in every poynt as this
present treatyse shewyth you on every poynt. . . . Also ye shall besye your-
selfe to nouryssh the game.’
It does not require much imagination to see the good Prioress
of Sopwell—Juliana—sending on Thursday to some monastery,
stationed, as the missions of California were, on or near a trout
stream, a demand for salmon, at which we can imagine the monks,
all anglers, walking down to the river to catch the fish. An
ancient canticle, handed down from the time, tells the story :—
3
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
‘The sun was setting and vespers done, the monks came one by one,
And down they went through the garden trim in cassock and cowl to
the river’s brim,
Every brother his rod he took, every rod had a line and hook,
Every hook had a bait so fine, and thus they sang in the even shine,
** Oh ! to-morrow will be Friday, so we fish the stream to-day !
Oh! to-morrow will be Friday, so we fish the stream to-day ! ”—
, Benedict.
If it was not the salmon season doubtless the Prioress and
the nuns caught pike, carp, trout, perch and tench from the
Priory pond.
Oppian in his Halieutica gave the Romans a treatise on angling ;
and that the Greeks were anglers Homer tells us,
‘Of beetling rocks that overhang the flood,
Where silent anglers cast insidious food,
With fraudful care await the finny prize,
And sudden lift it quivering to the skies.’
Alexander the Great was entertained by sages who told him
how the Macedonians caught fish with what they called a
‘hippurus,’ the first fly known. It was as large as a hornet,
looked: like a wasp, and when properly used, buzzed like a bee.
This, doubtless, was the origin of the wasp fly, and was used with
success on the river Astreus for certain ‘ speckled fishes’ of Aelian.
Flies are not referred to in the Bible, but in the prophecies of
Isaiah xix. ver. 8, we read, ‘ The fishes also shall mourn and all
they that cast angles into the brooks.’ This prophet must have
known an angler who had cast into a brook, lost his fish, and
who, like all anglers, ancient and modern, perhaps mourned
because the biggest fish ever hooked got away.
Salmon fishing is practically the same in England and Eastern
America. The fish is the same (Salmo salar); it takes the fly ;
the chief differences are that the rivers in America where the
best salmon fishing is found are larger, wilder, the conditions
more primitive, the distances greater, the fish possibly larger,
4
=
SE
Fig. 3. Salmon Angling in Scotland on the Tweed, on a Dark Day.
1. R. Thom Annan has a Strike. 2. The Edinburgh Salmon Club.
3. R. Thom Annan Casting on the Tweed. (Photo by the Author), p. 4.
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
more numerous and harder fighters than in the rivers of the
United Kingdom. Again the sport of salmon fishing in America
is of comparatively recent accomplishment. There is little
or no literature on the subject, compared to the scores of works
by English authors, and it is the exceptional angler who is a
salmon fisher; due to the fact that the best rivers in Canada,
New Brunswick and other localities are nearly all taken by
clubs or controlled. Notwithstanding this, America has had
in the past fifty years many enthusiastic votaries of the sport,
from Charles Hallock to Dean Sage, and its delights are well
known and highly appreciated. Beautiful scenery is an essential
quality of trout and salmon streams, and I fully believe the
indulgence in the appreciation of it constitutes at least half of the
sport ; hence it may be adduced that I am an uncertain angler.
Yet I do not believe that the salmon takes its tail in its mouth
and by releasing it suddenly, accomplishes its greatest leaps, as
did the ancients, nor do I use lob-worms scented with oil of
polypody for bait, suggested by Walton, though later on I shall
make the melancholy confession that I have taken many salmon
with sardines and some in a beautiful pool with a spoon; but
not until I had exhibited a Job-like patience with the fly.
The English salmon doubtless has the same habit as its
Canadian brother. In the winter it lies in deep water off the
coast, possibly not far from the mouth of certain rivers, and
there, in a splendid investment of silver, has the habit of a vora-
cious salt-water fish, preying upon the small fry of all kinds in
company with other predaceous fishes. In the spring it moves
inshore, and urged on by instinct to deposit its eggs in the
seclusion of the upper reaches of some river, it enters fresh water
and slowly proceeds on its way despite all obstacles—nets,
traps, poachers and scores of enemies—and accomplishes its
end; affording in the Atlantic and Pacific an example of per-
tinacity and indomitable persistence without equal in the animal
kingdom. It has even influenced man, who builds ladders
and runways, and steals its spawn that it may not become ex-
5
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
tinct. No subject has been more studied and written about,
and few subjects are so little understood.
Fresh water is essential to the production of the young. The
eggs will not hatch in salt water, nor will the newly hatched young
live in it. When the fish attain the upper reaches of the river,
jumping falls, dashing up inconceivable rapids, they select
gravelly shallows and deposit their eggs which are at once vivified
by the milt of the male.
The eggs are preyed upon by many enemies. There is
scarcely a fish that will not eat them, and but a small percentage
of the original deposit are hatched, in from eighty to one hundred
and forty days, more or less, depending upon the temperature.
The male and female salmon now return to the sea, in poor
condition, known as kelts, or spent fish.
The young at birth become victims to various enemies, from
trout, grayling, perch, even snakes in America. They are known
as parr. They moveslowly down the river, but remain in fresh
water for unknown reasons from one to three years. Half the
progeny of a single fish, it is estimated, leave the river at the end
of the first year ; two-thirds possibly of the remainder enter the
sea in the second year, and the small residuum leave at the third
year. The parrs are easily recognized as they are striped,
like the swordfish, with blue bars. The parr begins to change
as the impulse to migrate seizes it; the bars fade away or are
hidden, and the fish takes on a coat of brilliant silver, becomes a
smolt, and enters the sea—the winter home of its ancestors. The
sea acts like a saline elixir to the fish, and it may grow and
develop in an extraordinary fashion within a brief period. Thus
a smolt has been known to return to the river that it left in May
or June, in August, or by the first of September, weighing any-
where from two, or three, to ten pounds.
Such a returning fish is known as a grilse. It is now sexually
mature, and is on its way to the upper reaches of the river,
the same one or some more convenient stream, to deposit spawn,
which is accomplished in November or December. To follow
6
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
the history of such a fish, it returns to the sea a kelt, lives offshore
during the winter, preying upon herring or such fishes as it
follows, and other succulent game. This often gives it a remark~
able growth, so that in the following spring when it enters the
river, runs the gauntlet of poachers and netters, it appears in a
pool of some fortunate angler, on the Esk, we will say, a plump,
fighting, full-fledged, salmon weighing possibly twenty pounds,
that takes his fly and gives him the play of his life.
It is the knowledge of this experience, this survival of the
fittest, this extraordinary struggle to produce its kind against
all obstacles of man and nature, that gives the true angler the
high appreciation of this royal fish. It is this that has made
salmon fishing what it is in the United Kingdom, and when
one hears the criticisms of some would-be anglers that the best
fishing is bought, controlled by private owners or clubs in all
lands, it is well to remember that without these safeguards, or if all
the salmon rivers of Great Britain were thrown open to the public,
the fish in five years would disappear, and salmon fishing would
be a lost art and a legend.
There are of course many curious and interesting exceptions
to the life history I have briefly drawn, which would fill a volume
alone in their presentation and discussion. Some fish remain
in the ocean a longer or shorter time. There is an interesting
difference in the time of salmon in ascending the rivers of Great
Britain. If the river is polluted, like the Thames, and no river
should be polluted, they pass it by. In the rivers of Scotland
that flow into the German Ocean and Pentland Firth, the ascent
is easily made. In December and January there are fresh salmon
in the Thurso and Naver rivers ; also in the Tay ; but in York-
shire streams the ascent begins in July, August or September in
wet seasons. If it is dry and the rivers very low, it will be
delayed until the autumnal rains raise the rivers.
It is not believed by Dr. Jordan, the eminent authority, that
on the Pacific Coast the salmon invariably return to the same river
in which they were hatched, or where they have spawned. This
q
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
belief holds to a certain extent in England, and has resulted,
among many interesting experiments, in attempts being made
to introduce artificially propagated eggs from one river to another
on the principle of adding new vigour to a stock that habitually
interbreeds. The beneficial result of this, if I am not mistaken,
has been noticed in larger and better salmon.
An interesting incident on the Restigouche in. New Brunswick
tends to show that, in some instances, salmon do return to the
same stream, and will not, if interfered with. One owner of this
river built a dam on his water to force the salmon to spawn lower
down. The following year there was a great falling off in salmon.
In three years they had deserted the river, and when the pre-
sent owners leased the river and removed the dam, it took
five years to bring back the river to its original status. Among
other attributes, salmon, it would seem, have memory, though
of course they may have gone up the river and turned back;
but it is believed they did not enter in any numbers. Many of
these interesting experiments have been carried on in a period of
sixty years at the breeding establishment for salmon on the
river Tay.
We have, then, the salmon of twenty or fifty pounds, or the
grilse of ten, in the upper pools of some of the English rivers
in spring, summer, fall or winter, fresh from the sea and in the
finest condition, full of vigour and ready to take a fly, which is
made as alluring as possible by the various fly-makers of the
kingdom. Salmon tackle that is so alluring and fascinating
is practically the same in England and America ; that is, all the
old flies that have come down the years, have been perpetuated
in both countries : Jock Scott, Grey Turkey, Silver Doctor, Bull
Dog, Durnham Ranger, Routledge’s Fancy, Irishman’s Stocking,
Grey Doctor, Dun Turkey, Golden Pheasant, and many more.
‘A man that goeth to the river for his pleasure must understand
when he goeth there to set forth his Tackles. The first thing he must do
is to observe the sun, the wind, the moon, the starres and the wanes of
8
Fig. 4 Salmon in England.
1. From the Wye, April 10th, 1912, 453 lbs. male, 46} ins. in length, 26 ins. in girth.
2. River Wye, 2 rods, 12 fish, 140 lbs., largest 233 lbs. 3. River Wye, 43} lbs. male,
432 ins. in length, 26 ins. in girth p. 8.
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
the air ; to set forth his Tackles according to the times and seasons to goe
for his pleasure and some profit.’
So says Master Barker is his Art of Angling, written in 1653.
This tackle is the rod, line and flies, leaders,—subjects, texts for a
thousand books and sermons, and while it is taking coals to
Newcastle or holding the candle up to the sun, to describe it
to the reader, I may say that the line must be the best, Number
2 or 3, plaited oiled silk salmon line obtainable. There should
be thirty-five yards of this, and back of it a finer line perhaps to
fill the reel, a ‘ back line,’ used on many large reels. The leader
‘ trace,’ the unspun silk of the silk-worm, should be round, clear
and transparent, and from sixteen to eighteen inches long,
double or single. If you wish to make the sport easy and depart
from time-honoured usage, use an American multiplier ; but the
typical ‘English salmon reel should be employed, a plain click
reel at least three and a half to four and a half inches, outside
diameter, with a width of barrel of from one and a half to one and
three-quarter inches. One should read, for the particulars of
these details, the works of Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell, his Modern
Practical Angler and The Sporting Fish of Great Britain; the
hook, a Pennell, O’Shaughnessey or Limerick. In my own
experience the O’Shaughnessey is the best all-round hook in fresh
or salt water, but_of course open to discussion.
The rod is a most important factor, as an angler comes to
love an old one and to appreciate its record and gallant deeds.
My first suggestion would be to have the best and only the
best of everything. A typical rod might to-day be eighteen
feet in length, though I have seen and fished with one on the
Tweed of nearly twenty-two feet. On the Ribble the rod I used
was not over fifteen feet in length, and I found that with it, I
could cast a fly from Lancashire into Yorkshire. In point of
fact, with a five or six-ounce rod an angler can take a one hundred-
pound fish. I have taken seventeen, and twenty-pound yellow-
tails on my eight-ounce ten-foot split-cane trout rod, and could
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
have landed a fifty pounder; but it is too hard work. Major
Traherne’s rod was of greenheart, in three pieces, said by Dean
Sage to be but sixteen feet in length.
It is not my purpose to go into the minutiae of tackle. The
angler should go to the best tackle men in England and America,
and will be given the best advice. Always remember to buy a
rod, greenheart or split cane, that balances well and bends from
tip down equally andin proportion. There is the same something
in foils. I have several that do not balance, while another fits
the hand and ‘feels’ right. This feeling right is an essential
in a rod. The English streams are usually so small that the
casting is done from the bank, as on the Tweed. I recall my
first impressions of this delightful little river, about fifteen miles
from Peebles or at the Edinburgh Salmon Club. I was charmed
with its beauty, but confessedly amazed at its size. No name
was more familiar since boyhood, and I knew the old angling
song :
‘TwrEpD For Ever!
I
‘Let ither anglers choose their ain,
An’ ither waters tak’ the lead,
O’ Hielan’ streams we covet nane,
But gi’e to us the bonnie Tweed !
An’ gi’e to us the cheerfu’ burn
That steals into its valley fair—
The streamlets that at ilka turn
Sae saftly meet an’ mingle there.
I
‘The lanesome Tala and the Lyne,
An’ Manor wi’ its mountain-rills,
An’ Etterick whose waters twine
Wi’ Yarrow frae the Forest hills ;
An’ Gala too, and Teviot bright,
An’ mony a stream o’ playfu’ speed ;
Their kindred valleys a’ unite
. Amang the braes 0’ bonnie Tweed.
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
Ill
‘There’s no a hole aboon the Crook,
Nor stane nor gurly swirl aneath,
Nor drumlie rill, nor faery brook
That daunders through the flow’ry heath,
But ye may fin’ a kittle troot,
A’ gleamin’ ower we’ starn and bead ;
An’ mony a sawmont sooms aboot
Below the bields 0’ bonnie Tweed.
IV
‘Frae Holylee to Clovenford,
A chancier bit ye canna ha’e;
Sae gin ye tak’ an angler’s word,
Ye'll through the whuns an’ ower the brae,
An’ work awa wi’ cunnin’ hand
Yer birzy heckles, black and reid ;
The saft sough o’ a slender wand
Is meetest music for the Tweed !
‘O the Tweed! the bonnie Tweed !
O’ rivers it’s the best;
Angle here, or angle there,
Troots are sooming everywhere,
Angle east or west.’
‘Thomas Tod Stoddart.’
In some way I had pictured in my mind a large river, but
here was a little stream, completely across which I think I could
cast a fly. There was a gentle slope down to it, and its rippling
waters ran smoothly and quietly along through one of the most
beautiful parts of Scotland and a region of great historic interest.
There was a well-worn path along the edge, and from here I
watched my friend Annan cast with the fine long rod of his
fathers, and under his tutelage I crudely and clumsily cast my
first salmon fly ; something to remember all one’s life, a memory
to file away in the confines of the imagination, to be taken out
again and again.
The salmon angler has many casts, the Spey among others,
II
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
but the overhead or hand is, doubtless, the average used. The
fly is sent out over the water and drops thirty or forty feet, we
will say, at an angle of forty-five or fifty feet downstream. The
current swings it down and around in the are of a circle, the angler
dropping the rod slightly, keeping, if possible, the line from
bellying ; he anticipates a strike when it reaches the centre, and
from now on until it is trailing parallel with the shore. If nothing
occurs the angler casts again, moving on, and on, from pool to
pool. Suddenly the strike comes; the salmon hooks himself on
the steady strain and goes into the air in a splendid leap, giving
the angler the sensation that can not be described—a mild
angling delirium known only to anglers with the artistic tempera-
ment of the athletic type. All the tricks that fishes of all seas
are heir to this salmon tries. He leaps, he comes in, he rushes
upstream and down ; he sulks and defies the angler and the gods,
and at this time is pointed, head down, his powerful tail moving
to and fro, exactly as I have seen a thirty-pound yellowtail
when I attempted to lift him tail first, only fooling him by suddenly
giving him all the line. In from twenty minutes to a half:
hour the salmon comes to the net or gaff, his silver sides are
glistening in the sun. The achievement is accomplished.
‘ Nearly equal,’ to quote Lord Gordon, on Whyte Melville, to a
‘ fine run with the hounds,’ though this is hardly a just compari-
son. I have tried to compare my sensations as Master of Hounds
of the Valley Hunt Club during a hard run after the lowland
wolf and landing a salmon or some fine fish, but they are in a
totally different class; both joys complete, and perfect de-
finitions of true sport.
It is interesting to compare the methods of salmon fishing in
England and America. In the latter the streams like the Resti-
gouche, Matapedia, Upsalquitch, Nepisiquit are often so large
that the fishing is done from canoes manipulated by Indians or
white guides, the angler playing the salmon and going ashore on
some convenient ledge to land him. In England the fishing is
mostly from the shore, or from the river when wading—the
Iz
Fig. 2. Salmon Angling in Wales. The Wye.
1. Colonel Robertson Casting for Salmon in the Rapids at Glanrhos, Wales. 2. Gerald
Graham Clarke in the Rapids of the Wye—L. J. Graham Clarke Watching—Glanrhos. p. 12.
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
ideal condition. Some of the stories one hears in England re-
garding fighting salmon recall my tuna fishing, when to be towed
about for eight or ten miles, all the time fighting the fish, was a
part of the game. An Irish angler is said by Couch in his
Fishes in the British Isles, to have hooked a salmon that took him
three miles downstream in five hours, when, exhausted, he handed
the rod to a friend who kept up the fight eight hours longer, during
which the fish took him seven miles towards the sea, daylight
finding the angler breaking down while the salmon apparently
was as fresh as ever. The exhausted angler, in desperation, was
induced to sell his chance to a gentleman for a pound banknote,
and the fresh angler was taken four more miles downstream in
the following nine hours, followed by a wondering and constantly
increasing audience. At the end of twenty-two hours the rod
broke at the reel and the giant swam out to sea. I have heard of
a man being forced to swim half a mile downstream in an Ameri-
ean river, yet saving his fish, and volumes could be filled with
marvellous stories of the salmon.
I have touched upon that feature of salmon fishing in England,
Scotland and Ireland—the scenery. Rivers are delightful if only
' to walk down. The charming stretch of the Tees at Barnard
Castle, referred toin Nicholas Nickleby, its grandeur and beauties
in Westmorland, the Tweed, Eden, the Esk, Wye and others
mentioned in the chapter on trout fishing in England. What can
excel the delight and refined beauty of the Severn near Arley in
Shropshire, the Derwent near Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, the
Wye at Symond’s Yat in Herts, or on the reach of Mr. Graham
White at Rhadnor, Wales, a river I know my forebears fished prior
to 1650.
These noble, often exquisite streams were designed to aid
in the development of a great nation. They are humanizing
agencies in the attainment of culture and the higher esthetic
qualities of mankind, and it is lamentable that in all lands where
this noble fish takes a fly that laws can not be enforced to reduce
‘nets to the minimum, to make it a crime to pollute a river.
13
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Salmo salar attains a large size. I shall never forget the
models of this splendid fish I saw in England. A fifty-seven and
a half pounder has been taken. Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell
gives the record to a female of eighty-three pounds. Penant
refers to a seventy-four pounder. In 1789 a seventy pounder
was taken in the Thames near Falham. An eighty pounder was
netted in the Tay. TheSouth Kensington Museum shows one of
sixty-nine pounds from the Rhine. Fifty-one to fifty-four pound-
ers have been taken in the Shannon. The Tay has produced
fifty-three, fifty-one, and forty-nine and a half pound salmon, and
the Wye a fifty-pound fish. On the Tweed a salmon was caught
in 1886 in the Floors Castle water, by Mr. Pryor, Hylands Chelms-
ford, weighing fifty-seven and a half pounds, fifty-three inches in
length and twenty-eight and a halfinchesin girth. Inthe Fishing
Gazette I find the following : 1870, Mr. Haggard, in the Tay, sixty-
one pounds ; 1874, the Suir, Tipperary, fifty-seven pounds ; 1875,
Derwent, fifty-five and a half pounds ; 1877, in the Awe, Mr. J.
B. Lawes, fifty-four pounds; 1884, in the Dee (Floors water),
Mr. Pryor, fifty-seven and a half pounds; 1889, on the Mentoun,
Lord Polworth’s water, fifty-five pounds; 1892, the Derwent,
fifty-six pounds ; 1895, the Tay, Lord Zetland, fifty-five pounds,
the Eden, fifty-five pounds.
These splendid examples afford the reader some idea of the
possibilities of this noble fish, the ideal game of the gentleman
angler.
In every salmon stream there are ‘ casts’ or lies—places
affected by salmon where they make a temporary home or abiding
place. I have seen the same with trout, and it is an important
feature of the art to know and understand all about these places.
A friend who, it happened, was on a hill over such a pool in
Canada, saw four salmon poising low, side by side. A twig came
downstream. One salmon rose, seized it and carried it down-
stream, releasing it, then wheeling round took its exact place.
This was repeated several times. I have seen a rainbow trout
that seemingly had riparian and exasperating rights, behind
14
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
a certain stone in Feather River, California. I saw it there every
day for weeks, but it ignored me and all my inventions.
Among the quaint old customs that have come down to the
present day is salmon Sunday on Paythorne bridge, on the
Ribble, which I crossed in 1910. The bridge is about ten miles
above Gisburn. It is an old custom for the inhabitants of the
surrounding country to go to this bridge on a certain Sunday
(about November 20) and spend the day there watching the last
run of the salmon under the bridge. Thousands of people take
part in this queer pilgrimage, to the delight of the inhabitants
and the joy of the keeper of the neighbouring inn.
One of the most inspiriting sights in England is the parti-
cipation in the sport of angling by ladies. There is nothing more
inspiriting and health-giving for women than casting a fly or sea
angling with rod and reel. A fascinating account of an English
salmon stream and the enjoyment of the sport is given by Mr.
R. B. Marston in the Gazette of December 7, 1912. The lady
anglers referred to are Lady Bernard Gordon-Lennox, Lady
Evelyn Cotterell, Lady Amy Gordon-Lennox, Miss Ivy Gordon-
Lennox, the Countess Percy née Lady Helen Gordon-Lennox.
Mr. Marston says:
‘Of all the British waters there is none that has no much of the
character of a Norwegian salmon river as the Spey in the last seven miles
ofits course. Between Orton and the tide there is a fall of one hundred and
sixty feet, down which the river sweeps between huge banks of shifting
shingle with a force that adds greatly to the natural power of a salmon
when hooked. In this part of the river there is hardly anything that
can be termed a pool; nothing but a succession of swift, rough streams
with a little comparatively slack water along the sides and at the tails.
A fair proportion of the cast may be fished from the bank or by wading
deep-waist high ; and to accomplish this in a heavy stream over a bottom
covered with slippery, rounded stones requires some strength both of
body and nerve.
‘Such being the character of the Gordon Castle water, it would seem
at first sight most unsuitable for lady anglers ; nevertheless they do much
execution therein. Where wading moderately deep suffices, they are on
equal terms with the men; in places where the fish lie far out they are
T5
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
accommodated with boats, which the Duke and his male guests only use
for crossing the river.
‘And this brings to mind one of the most commendable features in
the management of this part of the Spey. Neither in spring, summer or
autumn does the Duke allow the use of any lure except the fly. The
sport obtained during February and the spring months in the water
from Fochabers Bridge upwards is sufficient refutation of the evil
doctrine that salmon will not readily take the fly in snow water and cold
weather. These conditions can be and are satisfactorily met by the use
of large flies; and who will challenge the supremacy of fly-fishing over
every other branch of the craft, provided that it is equally effective in its
results ?
‘ The five \ladies are all mistresses of the mystery of angling. They
can not only send out a good line in a nor’easter, but they have complete
command over their equipment, and none of them is likely to be involved
in the disaster which besets many a neophyte, who, having hooked a
strong fish, either forgets, or lacks the power of back and arm, to keep up
the point, and, allowing rod and line to be pulled into a horizontal position,
encounters the inevitable fracture.
‘Spey salmon are a noble race, numerous and steadily increasing,
owing to a timely reduction of netting, which is now restricted to the water
below Fochabers Bridge. The spring run used generally to be accounted
to consist of small fish ; but of late there has been an increase in the aver-
age weight. One day last February, two anglers, fishing opposite sides
of Alltdearg, hooked fish simultaneously. One called across the river
to the other that he would bet half-a-crown his fish was the heavier. He
lost his wager by a matter of eight ounces, the two fish weighing re-
spectively eighteen and eighteen and a half pounds.
‘The Gordon Castle water, being so rough and rapid, fishes well
even after prolonged drought. Indeed, in dry seasons, the display of
salmon in the lower pools is sometimes amazing after the nets are removed
at the end of August. A singular chance befell one of the ladies. She
was being rowed across the river when a twelve-pound salmon, fresh from
the sea, sprang out of the water into her lap. That fish never returned
to harry the herrings in the North Sea! A curious thing about the Spey
is that in some parts it looks so quiet, due to the fact that its surface
where you fish is usually a hurrying, dancing stream, unbroken by rocks
showing, and giving little indication of the wilderness of small rocks of
all shapes and sizes which strew its bed. I shall never forget fishing in
one of the pools on the Arndilly House water when the river was just
rising the least bit, and getting my right foot jammed against a rockina
strained position. The stream was too strong to push back against it
unless I could get my foot free. I went on casting my fly and hooked
16
Fig. 5.
Mr. Miller, who caught the 434-Pound Salmon. (Photo by W. Mollison). p. 16.
SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND
a good salmon, but the strain was getting exhausting. I was simply
obliged to let the fish take out line, or he would have pulled me over, and
some seventy or eighty yards below the fly came away. As I was winding
in I felt my foot slip as though some gravel had moved from under it, and.
to my great relief I could move it, and so get a firm footing, and gradually
push backwards until I could wade out.’
Among ladies who distinguish themselves on England’s
salmon rivers are the Duchess of Roxburghe, whose record for
the year 1912 was thirty-five fish in the short autumn season.
Thirteen salmon were killed in two days, the largest being a thirty-
two pounder, and the average eighteen and one-third pounds.
Lady Nina Balfour killed a thirty-two pound salmon, and, accord-
ing to the Gazette, ‘seldom had a blank on any of the thirty-
nine autumn angling days in Mentoun, while her guest, Lady
Bernard Gordon-Lennox, who in 1911 vanquished a forty
pounder in the Spey, had with the single hooks used on that fast-
flowing river eighteen salmon in five November days.’
CHAPTER II
THE GRAYLING
‘Very pleasant and jolly after mid-April.’
Walton.
FEAR that angling in England has too many digressions
for me. When I walked down the slope from Alburgh Hall
one fair day on my way to try a cast at the grayling in the Ure,
my host remarked, ‘ We are walking down an old Roman road,
and the ford the Romans crossed is where you can begin to
cast.’
It may seem inconceivable, but I lost sight of the grayling
and the attractive river that flows near Ripon and Fountains
Abbey through one of the most beautiful and interesting parts
of England. I can imagine nothing more attractive than this
little grayling river near where I followed it at Ripon, one of the
finest old cathedral towns in England, where the ‘ Wakeman’s
horn’ is still heard at eight o’clock. I saw it gleaming through
the arbours of verdure with their autumnal tints—a kaleidoscope
of colour. Isaw it in the open, and I left it to follow down its
little tributary, the Skell, on which I found one of the most charm-
ing of all ruins in England, or any land, the abbey church of
Fountains.
I fear I forgot all about grayling as I wandered among the
splendid ruins, the real history of England, but I came to myself
a while later when I reached Studley Royal, the seat of the Mar-
quis of Ripon, and saw the Ure, or one of its branches, murmur-
ing along through a veritable paradise of woodland and lawns.
As I stood on the rich green banks, bands of trout, and here and
18
THE GRAYLING
there a grayling, poised in the clear, limpid stream, or moved
in alarm as my shadow fell across the waters.
I have seen and crossed a number of rivers in England contain-
ing trout, grayling, or both—the Swale, Tees, Nidd, Wharfe,
_ Aire, Calder, Derwent—all a part of the system of the Ure, all
going to make the Ouse of the Humber, but the Ure is the only
one I have really fished for grayling, and it seemed to me the
most delicious little river that one could imagine in dreams, some-
thing to fall in love with, and to chasten with a strong affection.
Here I found a perfect demonstration of my own, but not original
theory of what constitutes angling ; not fishing alone, but all the
beauty and joys of beneficent Nature that fell to my lot. So in
angling on the Ure, if I had never seen a grayling or a trout I
should have esteemed myself the luckiest of anglers.
The Ure is essentially a Yorkshire river, and if you climb to
nearly half a mile near Shunner Fell in the wild regions between
Westmorland and York, you may find the head-waters of the
little river that rolls on, laughing, rippling to the sea. On its
way it picks up the Ribble, Beck, Hardraw Beck and Gayle Beck
above Hawes, and below many more. You may find grayling
almost anywhere, at Hawes, Bainbridge, Aysgarth, Redmire,
Wensley, and Masham, near which I recall some fine pheasant
shooting, Wensley and others. In nearly all these places are
angling clubs, as the Ripon Angling Club, the Askrigg Club and
the Wensleydale Angling Association.
The grayling is one of the most esthetic of fishes; a first
cousin of the clan of trouts, he looks like a herring at first glance,
but has a highly coloured dorsal fin suggestive of that of the
great sailfish of Madagascar. Jordan says, ‘A very noble game
fish, characteristic of sub-Arctic streams,’ St. Ambroise, the
Bishop of Milan, termed it the ‘ flower of fishes,’ and poets have
written of it from early days. The Canadian Arctic grayling
(Thymallus signifer) was discovered by an Englishman on the
Sir John Franklin Expedition of 1819, and was named by Sir
Jobn Richardson, who thus writes of it:
19
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
‘This beautiful fish abounds in the rocky streams that flow through
the primitive country lying north of the sixty-second parallel between
Mackenzie’s River and the Welcome. Its highly appropriate Esquimaux
name “‘ Hewlook-Powak,” denoting ‘‘ wing-like,” alludes to its magnifi-
cent dorsal, and it was in reference to the same feature that I bestowed
upon it the specific appellation of signifer, or the ‘‘ standard-bearer,”
intending also to advert to the rank of my companion, Captain Back,
then a midshipman, who took the first specimen that we saw with the
artificial fly. It is found only in clear waters, and seems to delight in the
most rapid parts of the mountain streams.’
Izaak Walton knew the grayling and speaks of him lovingly :
‘And some think he feeds on water-thyme for he smells of it
when first taken out of the water ; and they may think so with as
good reason as we do that the smelts smell like violets at their
being caught; which I think is a truth.’ Un wmble chevalier,
the French call him, and an old legend tells that the grayling fed
upon gold. Walton tells us (and what better authority ?)
that ‘ many have been caught out of their famous river of Loire,
out of whose bellies grains of gold have often been taken.’ In
describing the grayling he says succinctly: ‘ Very pleasant and
jolly after mid-April.’ Cotton calls the grayling, ‘one of the
deadest-hearted fishes in the World, and the bigger he is the more
easily taken.’ But Walton says he is ‘ very gamesome at the fly,
and much simpler, and therefore bolder, than the trout, for he
will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss him, and yet rise again.”
Another great English angler and author, R. B. Marston, comes
to the rescue of the grayling as follows:
* Note—Since I wrote this chapter, in which Cotton’s remark about
the grayling being a dead-hearted fish is referred to, I took a friend, a
salmon and trout-angler, who had never caught a grayling, to the Test.
His first fish was one of two pounds, which fought so well and so stubbornly
that, when I turned every now and then from my fishing to watch his
bending rod, I thought he would have no reason to call a grayling dead-
hearted. Later on, among a few brace of good fish I killed, was one of
two and a half pounds, which fought splendidly, compelling me to follow
him forty yards downstream and, for a time, spoil one of the best bits of
water fishable in a wild November north-easter. I was so warm from the
20
Fig. 6. Grayling Angling in England.
1. Stalking. 2. Good Luck on the Beautiful River Wharfe, in Yorkshire. 3. Netting
the Grayling. Photo by W. Carter Platt. p. 20.
THE GRAYLING
exertion of fishing and playing fish in such a gale, that I did not think of
the weather till I noticed the blue nose of my friend the keeper, who was
carrying my net: he shivered so that I sent him home.’
So much for the little grayling that by many authorities and
wise men takes its place among the game fishes of the world. His
natural range we have seen is the Arctic and sub-Arctic streams,
and so he has wandered, and been carried far a-stream until many
lands and rivers claim the flower of fishes. There is but one
genus, Thymallus, so called because the fish has the odour of
thyme, but there are five well-known species in different lands,
three of which belong to America.
The Arctic form, already referred to, attains a length of
eighteen inches, and is a most desirable game with a very light
rod. Another, the Michigan grayling, was first brought to the
attention of the world of anglers and science by the Dean of
American anglers, Charles Hallock, who told me the story years
ago. He sent a specimen to Agassiz. This is 7. tricolor. Its
home is in the streams of Southern Michigan where it once
reigned supreme. A town was named Grayling and became the
centre of interest for anglers. A more attractive little fish can
hardly be imagined, and to watch the sensitive and really
splendid dorsal rise and fall and flash in its regal colours in the
sunlight is, indeed, a privilege.
The back bears a rich olive hue; the lower surface is a bluish
white, while the fins seem to scintillate and glow in tints of pink,
old rose, blue, flashes of scarlet and purplish-pink. The side
fins are olive-brown tipped with blue; the ventrals striped in
brown and pink. Thelarge powerful tail is deeply forked. Over
all, like a sail, rises the splendid red dorsal, splashed or ocelated
in red, blue and purple, each framed in emerald-green.
In Montana is found a grayling that has been given the name
of the territory. It lives in the streams which find their way into
the Missouri River above the Great Falls, Deep River and
streams of the Little Belt Mountains, the Gallatin, Jefferson,
21
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
and Madison whose cool waters are peculiarly adapted to it.
Elk Creek, a tributary to Red Rock Lake, is a famous place for
them, and in April they may be seen in great numbers passing
up the Jefferson, according to Jordan, through Beaverhead and
Red Rock rivers to Red Rock Lake, which they pass for fourteen
miles, reaching the small streams which flow into it, there de-
positing their eggs. Dr. James A. Henshall, the distinguished
authority on fishes, stands sponsor for this American grayling.
He has successfully accomplished its artificial propagation and
considers it a fine game fish, the equal of the Brook or Red-throat
trout. These graylings readily take a small fly from May until
November, and range from ten to twenty inches in length and
attain a weight of two pounds.
‘And in this river be Umbers, otherwise called grailings,?
wrote Holinshed, in his Description of Britain, over three hun-
dred years ago.
The grayling, in all probability, finds its finest development
in England, five pounders having been seen, though Dr. Day is
authority for the story that a nine-pound fish was taken in
Lapland some years ago. The species common in England and
Europe in general, is T. thymallus. In the Ure I found it in
very shallow water. It spawns in April and May in the imme-
diate vicinity of its natural haunts. It has a wide range in
Europe, as far south as Hungary, and is highly appreciated in
Northern Italy and in Switzerland, where Gesner sounded its
praisesasagame fish. Itis caught in Siberia and Russia. In Eng-
land the fish is widely distributed, especially in Hampshire streams
where the dry fly is used. They do not lie at the surface, like
trout, but haunt the bottom and dash upward, turn, and in a
flash are at the bottom again, as I saw the brook trout in Lae
Weber, Canada.
Mr. Halford recommends for Test grayling, Wickham’s
Fancy, Red Tag, Orange Bumble, Adjutant Blue, and the Duns
on 000 hooks. The mouth of the grayling is very delicate, and
the fish deserves, and should have, the lightest and most delicate
22
THE GRAYLING
tackle. Criticism of the grayling is often heard in England and
America, the charge being that it decimates the trout, being an
egg eater. This is more or less true, but it depends upon the
trout. The Montana grayling and the cut-throat agree very well,
but between the grayling and the red-spotted trout there is.
war, and the result is fatal to the grayling. In England it is.
believed by many that the grayling is a menace to the German
or Brown trout. Listen to the dulcet names of some English
streams you may whip with delicate rod: the Wharfe, Swale,
Nidd, Tees, Rye, Derwent, Ouse, the Esk, Eden, North Tyne,
Till, Coquet and Dove. Here are some American streams ;
Toxaway, Altamaha, Ogeechee, Ocmulgee, Savannah, Nanta-
hala, Tugaloo. These are the Indian names of American laugh-
ing waters in the Southern states.
The Wharfe is a delightful little grayling river, which rises on
the green slopes of Cam Fell. Near Bolton Abbey and woods.
there is grayling angling, tinted with so rich and sumptuous an
historic flavour I am sure I never could hook a grayling there ;
it would be like the Ribble. At every cast I saw Cromwell, or
George Fox, Bishop Laud, Sir Harry Vane, Pym, and all the
crowned heads from Charles the First to James, who liberated
my sixth great-grandfather from the Tower and sent him back to
America with estates restored. In America the diversions or
digressions are beautiful scenery, splendid mountains, but when
historic lore is added at every foot one may be pardoned for
missing the game altogether.
At Pool, Arthington, Collingham Bridge, Boston Spa, Tad-
caster, Ulleskelf, and Ryther there is more or less grayling
fishing, and so in the towns on the Nidd, as Cattal, where the
Harrogate Angling Club holds forth, the Swale, Derwent and
other streams mentioned in bewildering number, and all char-
acteristic of the splendid reaches and perfect landscapes of Eng-
land.
I am indebted to Francis M. Walbran for the following inter-
esting list of flies he has tried on Yorkshire rivers, which are
23
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
especially commended for September and October: Bradshaw’s
Fancy, Walbran’s Red Tag, Rolt’s Gem, Rolt’s Sylph, Orange
Bumble, Honey Dun, Bumble, Quill, Bodied Water. Hen, Green
Insect, Green Aphis, Apple-green Dun, Silver Dun, Walbran’s
Pale Autumn Dun, Walbran’s Dark Autumn Dun, Cooper’s
Fancy, and many more. |
The grayling is an esthetic little fish, and to attempt to trap
him with anything but the lightest rod, line and trace is a crime.
Many a fish has been condemned unfairly, as the angler took the
game with a pseudo club rather than a rod. I have seen in-
dividual tarpon, tuna, and yellowtail that were a disgrace to
the term game. It is so with all fishes. There are exceptions
to the rule, but the grand average of the graylings gives the
sportsmanlike angler one of the finest and most beautiful of all
the little fishes of the laughing waters, and my object has been,
not so much to describe him scientifically, or to mention all the
rivers in England he loves, but to impress him, like thyme, upon
the reader’s attention, as like rosemary, he is for remembrance,
and ‘ Very pleasant and jolly after mid-April.’
24
CHAPTER III
SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS
‘The pleasantest angling is to see the fish cut with her golden oars the
silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait.’
Shakespeare.
CAN hardly explain to the layman (and to the angler it is
unnecessary as he knows all about it) the quality of my
delight when I first saw the radiantly beautiful trout streams
of England. Whether it was a sense of proprietorship, as my
ancestors on all sides fished these streams prior to 1656, or just
mere appreciation, I cannot tell. I have no doubt that having a
strong underlying appreciation for what England has done to
civilize the world, my inner consciousness had bridged the two and
a half centuries since my Quaker ancestors left England for
America, as missionaries. I am sure that all these forefathers
at some time were anglers, as a man could not be human and
resist the more than beautiful and alluring streams of England.
I am going to believe that they were, and that some of them saw
the Dove, and knew Walton and Juliana Berners, and all the
rest of that little band of honest anglers who have added to
the joy of living, by creating the purest and most delightful of
outdoor sports—angling with a fly.
Everything is old in England, and the ancient Britains, the
Romans, the early angling Saxons and many more races have
known England, its trout, salmon and grayling in the past five
or ten thousand years, and nowhere in the world has sport been
so well conserved, so dignified and made so completely a part
of the health of the race.
25
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
He who first cast a fly in English trout streams has left no
trace, but that the Romans fished here is well known, as they held
the land for several centuries. I recall a day spent in an old
Roman camp near Blackburn with W. W. Stimson, Esq., where
in an old well by the river Hodder had been found a marvellous
collection of Roman articles.
Theocritus, so rich in fishing pastorals, wrote of angling
two centuries before Christ and referred to flies, ‘the bait fal-
laceous suspended from the rod.’ Three centuries after Christ
Aelian described fly fishing among the Macedonians as tried in
the River Astracus. He refers to a bee-like insect and a ‘ fooled
fish’ that rises and seizes it. Speaking of flies, reminds me
that the most alluring spot I remember in connection with flies
and fly tying is one of the upper floors of the Fly Fishers Club
of London, where I fancy there is always a seat waiting for me.
There is a wonderful little library on one floor, where you may
see and read many angling works from the time of Walton down.
The most interesting spot is the fly room, where a member,
if seized with a feathery inspiration, may sit down at a table
and find in drawers at hand, every feather for any fly known,
from the Ibis to the Silver Doctor. More, there is here a collec-
tion of real insects from almost every stream in England, from
which flies are shaped or have been made; and the novice will
be amazed to see how unlike, and like, artificial flies are to the
real thing, and to observe that they are not flies at all.
Just who invented fly fishing is not known, but that it is a
very ancient art goes without saying, reaching far back into
antiquity. Doubtless, the Romans fished with a fly in England
ages ago, and the men of the stone age before them. The Ameri-
can Indian had never heard of the March Brown, or May-fly,
described by Juliana Berners, yet some of them fished their
radiant streams with a fly.
When fishing years ago near Big Meadows, California, on the
Feather River, I noticed here and there fluffy feathers of white
dancing in the breeze over the water, and beneath a clump of
26
SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS
willows. When I crossed the river to investigate, I found a strong
willow pole fastened to a tree, on the end of it a small but strong
line to which was fastened a bunch of white feathers concealing
a hook. This was a savage Royal Coachman, and I believe
Feather River was named from this custom, the taking auto-
matically of big rainbow trout being anancientone. The fly tying
art was at one time in the hands of a few specialists, men of
great individuality and invention, generally true lovers of sport
in the open and nature. Now, owing to the great demand for
flies, they are manufactured by wholesale, large establishments
turning them out, and cheaper ones imitating them, though as
yet, flies are not made by machinery.
Every angler has his favourite fly. Many years ago I fished
the St. Lawrence River for bass with Andrew Clerk, and his
favourite fly was the St. Patrick, which I think he invented.
I have always found it very alluring not only for eastern bass but
for western trout, and one of the most beautiful of all flies.
TI once found a fly maker in the Feather River country. He
fished all summer and made flies all winter while snowed in. I
shall never forget the pleasure of my anticipation as I came
down the road and read the sign on the little shop, as here I was
to stop, and the fly maker was to ‘ break me in’ to that particular
locality. It was the custom here when a large trout was taken
to lay it on a piece of paper and mark the outlines ; then the fly
maker would colour it, cut it out, and bearing the angler’s name
and the certificate, nail it on to the wall. The wall of this little
shop was well covered with mighty paper trout, a hall of pisca-
torial fame, where hangs, or did hang, a certain seven pounder
bearing my name, taken with a Royal Coachman in the month of
September.
Some of the most beautiful salmon flies I have ever seen
were made by the son of the head-keeper at the Edinburgh
Salmon Club on the Tweed. They were too beautiful to use,
and I carried them around with me a long time. I remember
taking them out once in a while to give them away, or to display
27
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
them as one would an uncut gem. In this way, I disposed of a
dozen or two St. Patricks and I fancy the Jack Scotts and Silver
Doctors went the same way. There are several fine fly tiers in
Treland and many in England and Scotland of national reputation,
while in America, Orvis is remembered with affection ; and there
are several men who are more or less famous, not to speak of
amateurs, as fly tying is an art if not an exact science.
Of flies there are no end, and all anglers have large collections
for one reason or another; but the fact remains that a few flies
seem to fill all the requirements. I have fished for days on
the Feather in California and the Williamson in Oregon, one of
the most beautiful trout streams in the world, and the most
prolific with big trout, and used but three flies, the Royal
Coachman, Kamloops and March Brown; but there are times
when the game is suspicious or arrogant, and then the angler
tries one after another.
What is more delightful than to listen to the theory of a dry
fly enthusiast, and watch his system of changes. He is just
being born in America, and Dr. Emlin Gill is the high priest,
having written a volume on the subject. I have always been
a pseudo dry fly fisherman by intuition—that is, I enjoy using a
wet fly, dry fly fashion, finding my greatest pleasure in casting
with one fly at the target made by the rise of a trout and with-
drawing the fly before it sinks.
But I am wandering from the trout and beautiful trout streams
of England. Thechief charm of trout fishing lies in the environ-
ment, and it is here that England shines, for her trout streams
are a joy to the lover of angling the world over.
Somehow, one is reminded of Turner when thinking of angling
in England, and there rises in my mind his picture of ‘ The Brook.’
I have spent much time angling in that little stream, com-
fortably seated in the Tate gallery, wondering if it widened out,
and whether it was a trout or grayling stream where it was larger.
I have mentioned in a previous chapter some of the streams
of England, and to my mind they absolutely fill the field of what
28
Fig. 7. The Trout Streams of England.
1. Spinning for Trout in Low, Clear Water.
2. A Dry Fly Cast. (Note the rise). Photo by W. Carter Platt.
SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS
should be best in a typical, ideal trout stream, possessing trans-
cendent beauties to charm the senses and lure the angler from
the mere killing. In nearly all you may take trout; but think
of the vistas and landscapes of the poet and artist that are to be
bagged on the Derwent, near Abraham’s Tor, the Severn near
Arley, Bridgenorth or Cam. What ineffable charm there is in
the castellated effect of Haddon Hall as the Derwent ripples on
in Derbyshire. Then the Wye, with which I have a speaking
acquaintance, and know about from delightful correspond-
‘ence with Mr. Graham Clarke, who lives on it; and whether
you see it in Breconshire, in the heart of a splendid rolling
country, embosomed in verdure, or sweeping by fair Ross in
Hertfordshire, where my friend Annan lives and fishes, it
is always the same—beautiful, appealing and strong in its
personality.
The Wye, I fancy, is a wild river, despite its pastoral views ;
that is, it belongs to the wild country, runs through regions given
over to wild life. It comes rippling on, is joined by the Marteg
and Elan not far from Rhayader, and here becomes rushing,
impetuous, a real river, famous for its salmon. Of all the rivers
of England, it is probably the least defiled, and from near Ross
it is a noble stream, with torrential flow that stamps it as one of,
if not the finest river in England for the angler or lover of nature
where grand and beautiful scenery are entwined with the best
of salmon and trout fishing.
What can be more charming than a sight of the Avon near
Salisbury, a pastoral scene, or the Wiley at Stapleton ; and what
memories does the Itchen at St. Cross, Winchester, and St.
Catherine’s Hill, conjure up of ancient worthies, honest anglers
and fervid love makers. The climax is reached in the Dove at
Dovedale, Derbyshire, where it creeps, deep in the verdure
between lofty cliffs, a veritable cafion, and is lost in mysterious
valleys far beyond, in the land of dreams and fancy. And there
is the Eden, near Carlisle and the Roman Wall, and as it flows
near Lazenby in Cumberland, one is enamoured of the beauties
29
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
of its sylvan glades and glens. Christopher North gives some
idea of this in the following:
‘I’m wrapped up in my plaid, and lyin’ a’ my length on a bit green
platform, fit for the fairies’ feet, wi’ a craig hangin’ ower me a thousand
feet high, yet bright and balmy a’ the way up wi’ flowers and briars,
and broom and birks, and mosses maist beautiful to behold wi’ half-shut
ee, and through aneath ane’s arm guardin’ the face frae the cloudless
sunshine ; and perhaps a bit bonny butterfly is resting wi’ faulded wings
on a gowan, no a yard frae your cheek; and noo waukening out o’ a
simmer dream, floats awa’ in its wavering beauty, but, as if unwilling to
leave its place of mid-day sleep, comin’ back and back, and roun’ and
roun’ on this side and that side, and ettlin in its capricious happiness to
fasten again on some brighter floweret, till the same breath o’ wund that
lifts up your hair sae refreshingly catches the airy voyager and wafts her
away into some other nook of her ephemeral paradise.’
It is an injustice to all these streams, these little rivers
in the affections of some anglers, to mention one and not all:
the Avon, Hamoaze, Dart, Erme, Tamer, Tavy, Eve, Thames,
Arun, Ouse, Rother, Trent, Wharfe, Nidd, Swale, Tees, Stour,
and so on indefinitely ; a region of delight to owner or angler
whose luck leads him into their particular sphere of attractions.
One cannot write of trout without thinking of Walton, who so
happily combined angling, the song of milkmaids and philosophy.
Walton presents a milkwoman with a fish, who replies: ‘ God
requite you, Sir, and we’ll eat it cheerfully, and if you come this
way a-fishing two months hence, a grace of God, I’ll give you a
syllabub of new virjuice, in a new made haycock for it.’
Here are Walton’s flies. He says to Venator:
‘You are to note, that there are twelve kind of artificial made flies,
to angle with upon the top of the water. Note, by the way, that the fitest
season of using these is in a blustering windy day, when the waters are
so troubled that the natural fly cannot be seen, or rest upon them. The
first is the dun-fly, in March : the body is made of dun wool; the wings,
of the partridge’s feathers. The second is another dun-fly: the body
of black wool; and the wings made of the black drake’s feathers, and of
the feathers under his tail. The third is the stone-fly, in April: the
body is made of black wool ; made yellow under the wings and under the
tail, and so made with wings of the drake. The fourth is the ruddy-fly,
30
SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS
in the beginning of May : the body made of red wool, wrapt about with
black silk; and the feathers are the wings of the drake; with the
feathers of a red capon also, which hangs dangling on his sides next to the
tail. The fifth is the yellow or greenish fly, in May likewise: the body
made of yellow wool ; and the wings made of the red cock’s hackle or tail.
The sixth is the black-fly, in May also: the body made of black wool,
and lapt about with the herle of a peacock’s tail; the wings are made of
the wings of a brown capon, with his blue feathers in his head. The
seventh is the sad yellow-fly, in June : the body is made of black wool,
with a yellow list of either side; and the wings taken off the wings of a
buzzard, bound with black braked hemp. The eighth is the moorish-fly,
made, with the body, of duskish wool ; and the wings made of the blackish
mail of the drake. The ninth is the tawny-fly, good until the middle of
June: the body made of tawny wool; the wings made contrary one
against the other, made of the whitish mail of the wild drake. The tenth
is the wasp-fly, in July: the body made of black wool, lapt about with
yellow silk ; the wings made of the feathers of the drake, or of the buzzard.
The eleventh is the shell-fly, good in mid-July: the body made of
greenish wool, lapt about with the herle of a peacock’s tail; and the
wings made of the wings of the buzzard. The twelfth is the dark drake-
fly, good in August: the body made with black wool, lapt about with
black silk ; his wings are made with the mail of the black drake, with a
black head. Thus have you a jury of flies, likely to betray and condemn
all the Trouts in the river.’
Then Walton gives his friend the best instructions to be had :
‘First, let your rod be light, and very gentle.’
The streams of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland abound
in trout of many kinds; in fact, nearly all kinds of trout have
been introduced with more or less success. An extraordinary
number of names are applied to them, as in other countries.
‘John Bickerdyke’ catalogues them for the angler as (1), the
chalk stream trout; (2), the moorland or mountain trout, taken
with a wet or dry fly ; (3), the lake trout, found also in the Thames ;
(4), the salmon trout. The chalk stream trout is the common
Brown trout of Germany, Salmo fario, famous in the annals of
the Test, Itchen, Wiley and Lambourn.
Salmo fario is also the mountain trout of England, and he is
found in the wild streams of the north of Scotland, the mountains
31
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
of Ireland and Wales. So too does the Salmo fario loom up as
the lake trout where he grows large and lusty, often a giant,
especially large fish having been taken in the Orkneys. A
twenty-nine pounder is on record from Lough Derg, known as
‘Peppers trout.’ Lough Ennel has produced a twenty-six
pounder, but whether ‘ gilaroo’ or ‘ferox,’ I know not.
English sea trout afford great sport, ranging up to twenty
pounds. The Thames trout is Salmo fario. When well fed and
conditioned he is fat, big, often ponderous, and from the first
of April to the thirty-first of August, the sport is excellent to
the patient angler. Scientifically, the Brown trout is Salmo
fario, and in Wales in the Rhymney there is a hybrid between
Salmo trutta and Salmo fario.
In England there is a representative of the American brook
trout known as the charr, saibling, sea charr, or ombre chevalier,
and technically Salvelinus alpinus. The charr is a beautiful
little fish, called torgoch in Wales. You can find it very generally
in the lakes of the United Kingdom, particularly in Loch Doon
in Argyleshire, Loch Achilty, Ross-shire, Loch Knockie in Inver-
ness-shire, the Taf, Dochart, Ericht and Fruchie. It rarely ex-
ceeds a pound in weight, ranging from a half to two pounds,
which suggests very light and gossamer-like tackle.
Loch Leven trout are as well known in America as in Great
Britain, and you may take an American Rainbow trout in the
Dove if you are very lucky. In years to come, the trout family
will be distributed over the world—a work almost accomplished.
I can imagine no purer delight than to wander along these
beautiful streams of England, casting here and there with the
daintiest of tackle, dropping a dry fly into the circle of radia-
tions formed by the rising trout. ‘John Bickerdyke’ says
that as a game fish he prefers the rainbow to the brown
trout. The rainbow does best, that is, he attains greater weight
in sluggish rivers, or where he does not have to keep continually
in motion, as the Williamson, in Oregon, where sixteen, eighteen
and twenty-pound fish are not uncommon.
32
Fig. 8.
Radiographs of Game Fishes (Trout). By Dr. B. F. Alden, San Francisco.
Showing skeleton, air bladder, etc. (Radiographed by Jean B. Sabalot). p. 32.
SOME ENGLISH TROUT STREAMS
Some of the record brown trout in England are a sixteen
pounder, caught at Chertsey Weir; one at Shepperton Weir,
River Thames, a twenty-three and a half pounder, was caught
with a spoon; a twenty pounder has been taken in the Kennett
in the nets of the Earl of Craven.
Trout fishing in England has produced wet and dry fly fishing,
around which is growing a literature of its own, and the en-
thusiastic dry fly fisher has added to the joys of life, even if the
point cannot always be seen. The most satisfactory catch I ever
made was in Canada, where my canoeman raced ata rise, and I
sent my fly thirty or forty feet and dropped it into the circle where
it was taken at once by what proved to be a two and a half
pound charr. This was the essence of dry fly fishing, but with a
wet fly, and I fancy I experienced all the joys of a dry fly angler.
The methods of taking trout are, alas! only too numerous
everywhere ; but I believe that there should be but one, the fly,
and but one fly. When the trout are not taking flies, when they
absolutely refuse, a minnow should be used, their natural food
in many countries. But it is not for me to lay down the law.
I am only venturing to suggest gallant treatment for a gallant
fish; and that to trap, or snare him with some of the awful
hook-lined ‘ contraptions’ found in many lands, is little less
than a crime. It is well, however, to bear in mind that we cannot
all go a-fishing when the desire seizes us; and that the man who
has but a day a year, should possibly not be hampered by the
ethics of conservation.
CHAPTER IV
SOME SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
(COARSE FISH)
‘ Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so.’
Walton.
HERE are some delightful old English customs relating to
the fishing rights of certain streams, which I heard one
night at a banquet of the Fishmongers’ Guild in honour of Lord
Eversley, who has done so much for the fishing interests in Great
Britain. One referred to certain rights at Oxford, and another
to Loch Maben, where the inhabitants have an annual ‘ Vendace’
fishing day in the neighbouring lakes, taking advantage of a right
to fish awarded them by James VII. The vendace is not known
in many places in Scotland, so I am told, being peculiar to the
Lochs in Dumfriesshire, in Derwenter and the Bassenthwaite
Lakes, having been brought from France by Mary, Queen of
Scots, according to the legend. The vendace is not a game fish,
living in the deeps of the lochs ; feeding, it is said, on certain algae
which impart to it a delicious flavour. This is but one of scores
of old customs the angler meets in England, relating to manor
and other rights, the privileges of certain streams, a subject,
which I imagine, of itself would make a most interesting little book,
as who would not like to join the people about Loch Maben on
vendace day ?
In strolling up the Thames in England in the direction of
Maidenhead, or along the Seine in Paris, the alien wonders what
34
SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
the hundreds of anglers are catching. Lord Granville Gordon
says in the fine work on sports in Europe, edited by Mr. Aflalo,
‘It often makes me smile to watch the Thames anglers on a
Sunday morning, sitting and watching hour after hour with a
quill float thrown out some yards from the bank in hopes that
a roach or perch may take a fancy to the worm on the hook.’
So then, itis roach or perch these Sunday anglers are trying for,
but if the truth was told, these scores of men are hoping for a big
pike, or a big Brown trout of ten pounds, that Mr. Somebody
of somewhere caught on a certain day in June in some year, no
one knows when.
If all anglers devoted themselves to the same fishes, they
would soon be exhausted ; but we are provided with a catholicity
of tastes, and it is well that scores of anglers like the perch and
dace and carp, as they certainly have a restful time in the attempt
to take them, and that is what anglers need. The majority of
these Sunday anglers on the Thames, and the Seine and Rhine
are doubtless hard-working people, who look forward to the day
with unfeigned joy. They need perfect and complete change
and rest, and what more restful occupation is there than angling,
and that particular angling described by Lord Gordon ‘ sitting
and watching hour after hour, . . . a quill float thrown out some
yards from the bank’ ?
Some of the cleverest anglers in England, inventors of mysteri-
ous and wonderful tackle, had their training on the Thames not
far from London; and I never think of it, but the story of Mr.
R. B. Marston occurs tome. Two London working men wandered
into that strange land, the country, and dropped into an inn
to get a glass of something, this being the only sport with which
they were familiar.
‘Why don’t you go a-fishing?’ asked the landlord.
But they had never fished, so the kindly host loaned them
his own rods and line with two wonderful balloon-shaped red
and green floats, the kind I fished with as a childin New England.
Reaching the water, they baited the hooks and cast out.
35
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Both fell asleep, but after a while one awoke, and seeing the
‘float’? gone, aroused his companion in alarm.
‘Hey, Bill, what d’ye think that ‘ bobber”’ cost?’
‘T dunno,’ replied his friend looking anxiously out over the
waters for his own, ‘Why?’
‘Why, the bloomin’ thing ’s sunk.’
I do not mean to infer that it is too peaceful on the Thames,
as one of the earliest pictures of my recollection was one by Leech
in Punch, showing two happy and contemplative anglers standing
in their punt and intently watching their ‘ float.’ Behind them
comes a long narrow boat rowed by two unconscious men, and
just about to strike them amidships. I think this picture bore
the legend ‘ Peace.’ The essence of angling is peace and patience,
and without it, the angler may as well give up, as an impatient
angler is impossible.
England has a large number of small game fishes in its lakes,
rivers and streams that are included in the term coarse fish ;
roughly, they include the pike, referred to elsewhere, the dace,
rudd, roach, perch, barbel, chub, gudgeon, eel, and several
more. An interesting fact is that these fishes have from the
earliest times received the closest attention from anglers; and
an angling literature has been built up about them and their
methods of capture, worked out with an almost inconceivable
minuteness of detail. This is most commendable, as I am a
protagonist of the principle that man, at least in America, works
too hard, plays not enough; and that anything, no matter how
trivial, that can be invented to force him out into the open air,
bring him into close contact with rivers, flowers, trees, sky, is a
distinct advantage, and fishing tackle and fishing methods do it.
My experience with the rudd has been confined to sitting
comfortably in the Fly Fishers Club of London, and with Messrs.
Marston, Graham-Clarke, Coggshall, Dr. Sewell, Mr. Stern and
others, admiring and wondering at the gigantic rudd on the walls
of this famous Club. I had never seen a rudd ; somehow it fascin-
ated me, and I hope some day to take one. Walton thought but
36
SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
little of the rudd, but he does pay his respects to the roach, a
cousin, in saying that ‘the roach is accounted the water sheep
for his simplicity or foolishness,’ and as for the rudd, he thus
flays him :—‘ But there is a kind of bastard small roach, that
breeds in ponds, with a very forked tail, and of a very small size,
which some say is bred by the bream and right roach; and some
ponds are stored with these beyond belief; and knowing men
that know the difference, call them ruds.’ Cotton comes to the
rescue of the roach and says, ‘ The roach makes an angler excellent
sport, especially the roaches about London, where I think there
be the best roach anglers.’ All this leads up to the oft-repeated
angler’s conclusion that an angler should refrain from criticising
the methods and game of a locality until he knows all about it,
as the fish never thought of as game in one country may be the
very acme of the sport in another.
John Bickerdyke calls roach fishing a fine art; and the little
fish, found almost anywhere in England, and represented by
the rudd in Ireland, is a most attractive little creature, a ‘ coarse
fish,’ yet a gallant Roman, one Leuciscus rutilus. It looks like
our ‘ golden minnow’ or dace, common as bass bait in the St.
Lawrence; a cousin known as the chub is very evident in the
Yellowstone Park. There is an attractive one in Japan, but none
of them are so ponderous and aldermanic as the British roach
with its scintillations of silver, its eyes, tail and fins flashing red,
and its back a steely blue, often green, blending harmoniously
into the molten silver of its sides.
This little fish soars up to three pounds in weight in favoured
localities, and hooked on a two or three-ounce trout rod ought
to make the rudd welkin ring. Well scoured gentles are the bait
the roach is most enamoured with, and he is ‘ chummed’ up, to use
an Americanism, with ‘ stewed wheat.’ This attracts the bands
of roaming roach and ensures a good catch. The art of roach
fishing might be made into a volume; there is ‘legering’ for
them, the ‘Stewart tackle,’ ‘Punt fishing,’ the ‘leger float
tackle,’ ‘ Nottingham fishing,’ a ‘ Ground baiting,’ and many more.
37
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
There is roach in winter and roach for the summer, roach in lakes,
brooks, meres, ponds and canals.
‘I pray you sir, give me some observations and directions
concerning the perch, for they say he is both a very good and a
bold biting fish, and I would faine learne to fish for him.’—The
Complete Angler.
Cheek by jowl with the roach in English waters is this familiar
American fish, the yellow perch, Perea fluviatalis, often a nuisance
in the St. Lawrence when black bass casting, but a fine little
fish on a very light (two or three ounce) ten-foot split-cane rod ;
and it has many admirers, being a table fish of the first class.
I have taken four or five pounders, and in England, while a
pound or two-pound fish is the average, certain giants, piscatorial
Daniel Lamberts, are occasionally found, weighing four or five
pounds. The perch is a beautiful fish with a large, splendid and
expressive dorsal, which he expands and lowers and talks with.
It is not particular as to bait, but live minnows lure it invariably,
and I have taken it in Canada, or on the St. Lawrence with a St.
Patrick fly. There are scores of ways by which the clever anglers
of England decoy the perch into the creel or boat, from legering
to the float tackle, or paternostering to the plain hand-line.
In America, the perch is considered the finest pan fish, and it
has a high commercial value. It can be taken at any time, with
almost any bait, from skittering with a frog or minnow, to a fly
or grasshopper ; but the best sport is obtained by taking it in
deep, cold water twenty or thirty feet, with a very light rod,
when the little fish will make a desperate fight for liberty, that is,
desperate fora perch. Dr. Jordan refers to eight or nine pounders
in European waters, and Thoreau writes, ‘ It is a true fish such as
the angler loves to put in his basket or hang on the top of his
willow twig on shady afternoons along the bank of streams.’
‘Perch, like the Tartar clans, in troops remove,
And, urged by famine or by pleasure, rove ;
But if one prisoner, as in war, you seize,
You'll prosper, master of the camp with ease;
38
SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
For, like the wicked, unalarmed they view
Their fellows perish, and their path pursue.’
I conceive the perch to be a game fish, as he has given so
much pleasure to thousands, men, women and children nearly
all over the civilized world. You can even find him as a fossil
in Oeningen, and almost everywhere in Hurope, Lapland and
Siberia. It is an Alpine climber up to lakes four thousand feet
in air in Switzerland, and is just as much at home in the brackish
waters of the Caspian and Baltic seas, or the shallows of the Sea
of Azof. In America, it ranges from Labrador to Georgia. It
does not seem to fancy Scotland north of the Firth, or the country
west of the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Day has written exhaustively
of the perch in England, and of the shoals found in the Norfolk
Broads.
They spawn in the spring, but at different times in different
waters. In America in May, or in the south, March or April.
In England and Sweden in April and May. In France and Aus-
tria, March to May. Frank Buckland states that a perch deposits
one hundred and eighty thousand eggs. Lacepéde raises this to
one million. Block gives it as twenty-eight thousand, and Abbot
as eight thousand. The cheerful angler may take a general aver-
age, and feel sure that the yellow perch is safe from extinction for
all time.
The literature of the perch is interesting, particularly in
England. The Saxons represented one of their gods standing
on the back of a perch, ‘emblematic of constancy in trial, and
patience in adversity.’
Drayton in his Polyolbion says :—
‘The perch with prickling fins against the pike prepared,
As nature had thereon bestowed this stronger guard,
His daintiness to keep.’
All the treatises on angling referin detail to the perch. ‘ The
perch with fins of Tyrian dye,’ and J. P. Wheeldon, an English
author, says :—‘ A gloriously handsome fish, the perch, when in
39
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
condition affords excellent sport, and is a deserved favourite with
each and every fisherman, be he young or old.’ Itis the ‘ partridge
of the waters’ according to Ausonius.
‘ Nor will I pass thee over in silence, O Perch, the delicacy of
the tables, worthy among river fish to be compared with sea
fish; thou alone art able to contend with the red mullets.’
Venner in his Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, 1650, tells us that the
perch is the equal of the trout or pickerel, while Frank Buckland
writes : ‘ Our friend, the perch, is one of the most beautiful fish
which it has pleased Providence to place in our waters.’ Lord
Lytton has doubtless fished for perch, as he tells an interesting
story about it in his My Novel.
The barbel, Barbus vulgaris, evidently does not believe in
Home Rule, nor has it any particular interest in the non-conform-
ists. I judge this, as it is not known in Ireland or Scotland.
Their stronghold is the Trent and Thames, where giants of eight,
ten, twelve, fourteen pounds have been taken by delirious anglers.
Mr. Jones of London, I believe, holds the record with a fourteen
pounder, taken from the lawn of the Swan Hotel, near Radcot
Bridge.
The barbel is an attractive fish, moustached like a cavalier,
with four barbules about its mouth. In India it is one of the
great game fishes to which I have referred elsewhere, the mahseer.
The species known as Barbus mosal in the highlands of India
attains a length of six feet and affords wild sporttotheadventurous
angler who follows him to the watery lair of his choice. ‘A
right good fish to angle for,’ says ‘ John Bickerdyke.’ It is also
known as the chevin, chevender and the large-headed dace, or
skelly, Leuciscus cephalus. It is caught in very much the same
way as all this group of coarse fish of England. It, too, avoids
Ireland and the north of Scotland, and for some reason Devon,
Cornwall and Norfolk.
The chub is a most complacent and sociable fish, imitating
its betters by taking a fly. The dace, daver, dort, is an at-
tractive, graceful little fish, beloved by anglers and especially
40
1. An Autumn Freshet.
Fig. 9. Angling in England.
2. Summer Angling
(Photo by W. Carter Platt).
. 40.
SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
by children in America, who fish for it and the sunfish with pin
hooks, or by heating the point of a needle and bending it into a
point quickly, obtaining a strong, small hook of any kind, as I
often did for very small game, especially sardines.. A dace at a
pound weight is an active fish, especially on a very light fly rod.
With the dace comes the gudgeon (Gobis) looking like a barbel,
but with two barbules instead of four. It is very common in
the Thames, taken after the fashion and forms successful for
roach. John Bickerdyke’s instructions for gudgeon angling
might well astound an American angler, as our methods must
on occasion excite the mirth of British anglers. He says: ‘ The
essentials are a punt, two rypecks, a rake the head of which
contains four or five teeth and weighs from five pounds to ten
pounds . . . some well scoured red worms and brandlings.’
Your American angler would hesitate at the ‘punt’ and stop
short at the ‘ rake,’ and if facetious, would suggest that it was to
comb the hair of a mermaid; but he would never suspect that
it was to cleverly rake the bottom when the gudgeons stopped
biting, to raise a cloud of mud, and give them a mulletean con-
dition they adore, as they swim to it in search of food, and the
sport goes merrily on.
The gudgeon is a humble little fish with no suggestion of
romance, but poets have, if not raved over him, not passed him
by. Pope says:
‘°Tis true, no turbots dignify my board,
But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords.’
The carp is certainly a game fish in India, but in America
even the big German carp of great weight is considered a nuisance.
In England the carp is taken up to twenty-nine pounds, but the
average is very much smaller. There are many other small fishes
in English waters that are taken with rod, reel and line and cleverly
designed tackle; which have their literature, their admirers,
and most of them are referred to and described by the father of
British angling, Walton. Such are the tench (Tenea), the bream
41
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
(Abramis) of three kinds : Pomeranian, Golden and Silver bream.
I am sorry to say I shall never take one, as I observe England’s
distinguished angling authority, Mr. Clark, says, ‘the bream
ean hardly be taken except between two p.m., or three p.m.,
and a mortal’s breakfast hour.’ The bleak (Alburnus), eels,
minnows, loach, ruffe, the lamprey, eel, pout, blue roach, powan,
gwyniad, shad and graming are others occasionally taken
in the waters of the United Kingdom.
When angling for lamprey, it is well to remember that An-
tonia, the wife of Drusus, owned a lamprey in whose gills Bite
hung earrings, and it was Martial who wrote:
‘ Angler would’st thou be guiltless ? then forbear,
For these are sacred fishes that swim here,
Who know their sovereign, and would lick his hand,
Than which none’s greater in the world’s command,
Nay more, they’re names, and, when they called are,
Do to their several owner’s call repair.’
I may add that I have an account of the most remarkable fish
in the world, and the largest on record, the Ribbon fish (Regalecus)
taken on the coast of Scotland, a ribbon of silver, with scarlet
plumes a foot or more high. When such a beautiful fish visits
a coast but once in a century, and is so rare that nearly every
catch is on record somewhere, the angler has but little chance to
try his skill and invention on it. But to show how lucky I am,
I have had four of these fishes brought to me when I happened
to be fishing at Santa Catalina in California. One six feet long
was alive, and through the courtesy of the owner of the Zodlogical
Station, I was allowed to have the fish photographed alive, and
in the water, through the glass of its tank, securing an excellent
_ Picture, the first known of the living fish.
At Long Beach, California, a specimen about twenty-five
feet long was found, washed in by the sea. As these lines are
written, I have received the report from Santa Catalina, that a
diver on a glass bottom boat saw a nine foot Regalecus in the kelp
42
SMALL GAME FISHES OF ENGLAND
forest, plunged over, dived down and brought it up, apparently a
tremendous fish story ; but a very easy matter as these fishes ap-
pear to be helpless in shallow water, and are at a disadvantage
when they climb the mountains of the sea and approach the shore.
If the sea-serpent is ever chased to his lair and landed, I think he
will be found to be a gigantic Regalecus, a band of silver, fifty
or sixty feet long, three or four feet high, with a ‘mane’ of
splendid crimson plumes three or four feet tall. If the angling
reader has sufficient curiosity to fish for this game, I have indicated
the way and means: equipped with a diver’s armour he can walk
along the bottom of the sea, and hunt for the most beautiful fish
in the world.
43
CHAPTER V
THE PIKES AND THEIR COUSINS
‘Our plenteous streams a varied race supply :
The bright-eyed perch, with fins of Tyrian dye ;
The silver eel, in shining volumes roll’d ;
The yellow carp, in scales bedropt with gold;
Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains,
And pikes, the tyrants of the watery plains.’
Y earliest interest in the Pikes came, I think, from an
English friend, who told me that he had seen a large pike
leap from the water and knock a young bird from an overhanging
limb, and then complacently devour it. I have also read in
certain veracious prints that a pike, or a big pickerel, seized a
certain calf by the tail and slowly but surely dragged it into
deep water; but it did not state that the fifty-pound pickerel
swallowed the one-hundred and fifty pound calf, though I am pre-
pared for almost anything, having seen a deep-sea fish that had
swallowed a victim a third larger than itself. And who has not
observed the ‘ gentle reader’ swallow fish stories of huge and
plethoric stature ? Beall this as it may, the pike or pickerel, has
an open countenance and a mouth of only too generous pro-
portions, so anything can be expected from it.
Williamson, who wrote in 1750 A Pocket Companion for
Gentleman Fishers, had a high opinion of the jack or pike. To
illustrate its savage nature, he tells a story of one that dashed at
a drinking mule, seized its lips, and doubtless did its best to drag
it in ; but the mule backed away and landed the pike. The author
refers to this as a new way of angling, and states that the owner
of the mule became ‘ master of the Pike.’ This author credits
44
THE PIKES AND THEIR COUSINS
the pike with a ‘ wonderful natural Heat,’ which enables it to
eat and digest anything. The mule was a clever angler, but I
cannot permit a British mule to defeat a Yankee cow which, I
was told, took a big pickerel in Lake Superior by wading into
the water and threshing her tail about, whereupon a large thirty-
pound pickerel dashed at it, became entangled in its long hairs,
and so frightened the cow that she turned and ran ashore,
dragging the fish into the farmyard where it was received and eaten
in triumph: not by the cow but by the cow’s owner. I could
tell how in Arkansas they fish for the pike by bending down a
seventy-foot pine tree, the pickerel releasing it when it strikes,
the tree tossing the fish half a mile into the back country. There
are other experiences which I might give, but it is not well to
boast of one’s country in a book to be published in Great Britain.
I have always held a suspicion that certain pike or pickerel
relish being caught. I fancy I obtained this impression, possibly
a libel, from one fish which when hooked came at me and almost
leaped into the boat. Yet the pike has some admirers. Beau-
mont and Fletcher in that ancient work The Faithful Shepherdess,
1611, writes :-—
“I will give thee for thy food no fish that useth in the mud,
But trout and pike that love to swim,
When the gravel from the brim
Through the pure streams may be seen.’
I have taken pickerel in the St.. Lawrence with a fly and
have seen a number which made a gallant fight.
The American pike has a wide range in North America, being
found in lakes, streams and rivers, a voracious ravenous fish,
playing havoc with its betters and ready to take a big spoon
and a mouthful of feathers on any and all occasions.
It ranges all over Northern Europe, England, Russia, and
probably in China and Siberia and south, at least as far as Con-
stantinople, and is at its best in England and Germany. Especially
in the latter, large and vigorous specimens have been taken,
while certain pike are supposed to attain great age.
45
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
In America there are numerous species, and the smallest,
about one foot in length, is found from the Allegheny mountains
east. This is Hsowamericanus. The grass-pike is a little larger
and has a range in the United States in the Valley of the Missis-
sippi, though in the upper and middle portions. In the eastern
part of the continent is found the Eastern pickerel, H. reticularis,
a larger fish of two feet and a weight of several pounds. This
is the common pike of the spoon, or caught skittering, and it
will take almost anything.
In the St. Lawrence and in nearly all fresh-water streams or
waters in the north of Europe, America or Asia, is found a large
pike or pickerel EH. lucius, that approximates a game fish. It is
essentially a big game fish, attaining a {length of four feet and
possibly fifty pounds. I have taken many of them, but never
a fish over fifteen pounds, and the average was less than ten. One
day when trolling in the deeper parts of the St. Lawrence for
muscallunge I lost all my spoons, when my oarsman contributed
a piece of his violent red shirt which proved an appealing lure to
the tribe.
It is an interesting fact that the pike is abhorred in certain
waters. When you are fishing for salmon in the Wye as an ex-
ample, or for muscallunge in the St. Lawrence. Yet if you are
from a pike or pickerel country it is interesting to meet them far
from home, Lapland, Kamtchaka, Siberia, and if you climb the
Tyrolean Lake of Halden, two-thirds of a mile above the sea,
there will be found a pike, yes, higher yet. A friend tells me he
caught one in Lake Reschen in the Tyrol, nearly a mile in the air.
Ifit so happens that there is nothing else to catch the pike becomes
at once a game fish.’
The lakes of Zurich, Neuchatel, Morat, Joux, the Black Lake
in Fribourg abound in pike.
Something about the pike attracted the ancients. He looked
wise, crafty and philosophic ; half hidden in the weed, imitating
it in colour, tint and marking. Lucullus, the gourmet of classic
days, called the fish Lucius.
46
THE PIKES AND THEIR COUSINS
‘Lucius obscuras ulva caenoque lacunas,
Obsidet : Hic nullos mensarum ad usas,
Fervet fumosis olido nidore popinis.’
The French, who are said to have had a pike over two hundred
years old, which wore earrings, and came to the ringing of a bell,
called it ‘Lus.’ In Italy it is ‘ Luccio,’ and it is very probable
that when the Athenians spoke of Lycus sixteen hundred years
ago they referred to the pike, the Wasserwolf of the Germans.
The Romans were masters of England several centuries. They
left little impression on the people, but the pike was called
‘ Luce,’ as late as in the time of Chaucer.
‘ Full many a fat partricke had he in mewe,
And many a Breme and many a Luce in stewe.’
In England the name became a symbol in heraldry, and here
doubtless we get the name Lucy, Luciusand many more. Shake-
speare refers in derision to the escutcheon of the Lucys, a fact which
the Baconians seemed to have overlooked in their attempts to
unseat the Bard of Avon by discovering that Lord Bacon, not
William Shakespeare, hated the home and name of Lucy.
In England’s lakes, rivers and ponds, as well as in America
or elsewhere, the pike, jack, pickerel, call him what you will,
is the Wasserwolf. He preys on any living thing from a duck-
ling to a swallow, and from a mouse to a frog. Everything is
game to this wolf of the pond that moves at night, hides in the
watery sedges, sneaks upon his prey and devastates and terrorizes
the world of the inland seas. I dare not venture on the size the
pike attains. It appears to be mainly a question of food supply.
Buckland said, ‘ From the days of Gesner down, more lies, to put
it in very plain language, have been told about the pike than
any other fish in the world; and the greater the improbability
of the story, the more particularly is it sure to be quoted.’
This of course refers to that time-honoured story of the pike
of the Emperor Frederick IT that was taken in 1497 in Hailprun,
Suabia. It was nineteen feet in length, and was so heavy that a
47
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
crowd of men bore it from the wrecked net. Close examination
of the monster showed a brass ring fastened to its gills on which
in ancient Greek was this: ‘I am that fish that was first put into
this lake by the hands of Emperor Frederick II on the 5th day
of October 1230.’ This illustrious pike was then two hundred
and sixty years old. The taking of this fish, the means of making
the Emperor known to history, was a crime against law and order.
He should have been returned to the water where he would now
be the proud Wasserwolf of Suabia and six hundred years or
more of age. Frank Buckland, beloved by Americans as well as
Englishmen, was more of a naturalist than angler. He lacked
the imagination of the latter, and accepted nothing that did not
‘come under his own personal knowledge.’ He has, however,
left us some accurate records of pike: thirty-five pounds, forty-
six and one-half inches ; seventy-two pounds, seven feet. Pen-
nell refers to pike of one hundred and forty-five pounds, taken
in Bregenty in 1862. The pike is a living lance, a freebooter
and pirate, or anything you may call him, even a fresh-water
shark ; but yet jack fishing is a sport and the fish is taken with a
float, paternoster, or by spinning, legering and trolling in England. ~
In America mainly by trolling, using a large spoon.
Walton gives a chapter to the pike and says he is ‘ choicely
good; too good for any but anglers and honest men.’ In his
invaluable Book of the All-Round Rgler, John Bickerdyke gives
the complete details of the methods of taking and propagating
the pike and many interesting stories about this fish, which has,
beyond peradventure, a strong personality. :
No matter what one’s opinion in private or public may be
regarding the pike or pickerel, American or English, there is one
member of the tribe above suspicion, a game fish of regal qualities
and proportion. This isthe much-named muscallunge of America,
Esox masquinongy.
‘Whence and what are you, monster grim and great ?
Sometimes we think you are a ‘‘ Syndicate,”
48
Fig. 10.
Sea Angling at Scarborough.—Mr. R. B. Marston and Mrs. Marston.
(Photo, Victor Hey, Scarborough). p. 48.
THE PIKES AND THEIR COUSINS
For if our quaint cartoonists be but just,
You have some features of the modern “ Trust.”
A wide, ferocious and rapacious jaw,
A vast, insatiate and expansive craw ;
And, like the “ Trust,” your chiefest aim and wish
Was to combine in one all smaller fish,
And all the lesser fry succumbed to fate,
Whom you determined to consolidate.’
Wilcox.
It is the king of the tribe; savage, a veritable wolf, having
all the savagery of the jack or pike with all the latter’s faults
eliminated. In a word, the fish is game in every sense of the
word, a hard-fighting fish that never gives up until it is in the
boat. Its home is in the great American lakes from which it
wanders into the St. Lawrence and the lakes and tributary rivers.
of these lakes and streams. It attains a length of eight feet and
a weight of over one hundred pounds in favourable localities and
conditions,‘but the average fish taken is, I believe, under twenty’
pounds, due possibly to the fact that the fish is eagerly sought.
and followed by the fresh-water anglers who enjoy the big game
of the sea. In appearance the muscallunge resembles a large.
pickerel. Nearer examination shows that there are differences,.
but the principal one is the black spots or tiger-like markings.
on the fish not found on the pickerel ; so there is no mistaking it.
In the young, the spots are round and black ; as the fish attains.
maturity they coalesce and form bands or stripes. It has all
the variety of the pike and a hundred times its courage. It:
spawns in the spring, the female depositing about two hundred
and fifty thousand eggs, which hatch in fifteen days.
Ihave had an unfortunate experience with these fish. I have
followed them, day in and day out, with incredible patience,.
but I have never landed but one, and that only of sufficient size
to enable me to say that I have taken a muscallunge. When
pressed as to its size (and there are persons who display this.
obnoxious curiosity) I try to change the subject to tunas or almost
anything; but I have hooked several and have seen several.
4 49
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
taken, so have a sense of proprietorship. In my pursuit of the
fish I used an eight- and ten-ounce rod, number E line, a multiply-
ing reel and a large one-hook spoon (spinner). The small fish
fight like a pickerel, and I thought the fish I took was one until I
saw its beautiful spots ; but the Jarger fish make a splendid play.
I saw a muscallunge on a friend’s line leap into the air and
shake its jaws, make fine runs in long lines, diving into the deeps,
swimming around, bearing off like a Mexican barracuda ; indeed
the muscallunge recalls this fish or specimens I have taken.
‘When hooked the boatman should pull for deep water, as, like
the yellowtail, it will rush for the weed and break the line. The
fish is a menace, due toits sharp teeth, and should be gaffed care-
fully and killed quickly. They are often shot when gaffed, before
being taken into the boat.
There is a second species of muscallunge, Hsox ohiensis,
found in the Ohio Basin and Lake Chautauqua, Mahoning River,
the Ohio River, Evansville and Conneaut Lake. It is a fish of
great value in commerce as well as in sport, and the State of New
York has propagated it with notable success.
This species is taken with a spoon and a live minnow. The
former method is very successful in September ; after this the live
minnow is the most satisfactory bait. Still another muscallunge is
the Hsox immaculatus, confined to Eagle Lake and various small
bodies of water in the northern portions of the States of Wisconsin
and Minnesota. It is easily recognized as it has no spots; in
their place are ‘ vague, dark cross shades.’
I have seen an extraordinary-looking pike from a lake in
Canada. Ihave never visited it, merely passing it on the portage
between two lakes, but one day I met two men with a string
of the fish which I at first thought were muscallunge; but they
had an extraordinary green colour, literally as green as grass,
but more metallic. The men told me they would bite as fast
as the spinner was thrown out, and the fish were so large that
they soon lost all their tackle. Taking these fishes affords in
America a singular combination of sylvan scenes, delightful lakes
50
THE PIKES AND THEIR COUSINS
and solitudes, out from the waters of which will spring on the hook
this lake wolf ; a devourer of trout, bass and every fish, to give
the angler literally the play of his life, on rod, reel and line.
Many anglers keep records of their catches, and the following
is the muscallunge record of Mr. F. G. King, of Waterford, Pennsyl-
vania, who fishes in Lake Le Boeuf, Erie County of that State.
The record was originally published in the Field and Stream.
This is interesting in showing the variety of bait, and that live
bait and large bait leads. The angler calls his system of angling
for this game fish ‘ plouting.’ The boat is rowed slowly from
fifty to sixty feet from the weeds, and the live bait slowly reeled
in and by the bow of the boat. It would be interesting to use the
Santa Catalina Tuna sled with this game. The boat or launch
could be kept away, while the sled would tow the bait along the
edge of the weed in which the game lies. -
Mr. King’s record is as follows :—
CarcH oF MUSCALLUNGE TAKEN FROM Lake Le Borur, WATERFORD,
Eris Co., Pa.
Year. Number. | Weight. | Largest. = Spoon. a Worms.
1900 . . . 48 2902 | 204 6 9 39 —
1901. wl 39 2803 28 7 16 23 |) —
902. —Cti.t«( 44 39455 | 44% 9 12 32 —
19038. ett 73 457438 | 28 6 16 56 1
1904 . . . 82 4782, | 28 6 40 42 —
1905... 58 4523 3633 8 16 40 2
Up to Oct. 13,
1906. . 93 5324 294 6 9 82 2
CatcH EACH MontTH.
1900—June, 6; July, 17; August, 2; September, 12; October, 11 ;
total, 48. 1901—June, 15; July,4; August, 8; September, 3; October,
5; November, 4; total, 39. 1902—June, 6; July, 8; August, 9;
51
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
September, 9; October, 8; November, 4; total, 44. 1903—June, 18;
July, 22; August, 16 ; September, 8 ; October, 8; November, 1; total,
73. 1904—June, 18; July, 21; August, 16; September, 12; October,
12; November, 3; total, 82. 1905—June, 7; July, 8; August, 19;
September, 10; October, 10; November, 2; December, 2; total, 58.
1906—June, 30; July, 33, August, 13; September, 11; October 13, 6;
total, 93.
In the same waters with the pickerel is found the Wall-eye
Pike (Stizostedion vitreum) representing the Pike Perches of the
world. It frequents the great lakes of America and their con-
fluents, and is sought for by anglers in the St. Lawrence (where
Ihave taken it), in Lakes Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Chautauqua,
of the State of New York, and many others farther to the south,
as far, even, a8 Georgia.
It is a frequenter of the bottom in deep clear waters, but
will take a fly readily, and is a game fish of the highest rank
when taken in foaming waters near falls or rapids. Black bass
tackle is adapted to it, though very long rods are advocated by
Dr. D. C. Estes, the authority, who made Lake Pepin, Minnesota,
famous by his advocacy of this game fish whose name recalls
the invective in Titus Andronicus, where Lucius vents his sarcasm
on the Goth :—
“Say wall-eyed slave, whither would’st thou convey
This growing image of thy fiend-like face ?”
52
CHAPTER VI
SEA ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN
‘It is not every man who should go a-fishing, but there are many who
would find this their true rest and recreation of body andmind. And having,
either in boyhood or in later life, learned by experience how pleasant it is to
go a-fishing, you will find, as Peter found, that you are drawn to it whenever
you are weary, impatient, or sad.’
From I Go A-Fishing, by W. C. Prime.
NY one who has had the pleasure of visiting the British Sea
Anglers Society rooms in London and listened to the
learned papers read and the scientific interest taken in the subject,
will realize that this particular department of sport (Sea Angling)
is being conducted with the same intelligence and earnestness
that has characterized all English pastimes, and given the British
Empire the first place among nations as a great conservator and
founder of manly sports.
The British Sea Anglers Society has over five hundred hon-
orary agents along its coast-line who report to its head-
quarters at Fetter Lane as to the exact conditions at any time,
so that fisherman’s luck has little to do with sea angling; all
that man and prescience can do to prepare the way for the angler
has been done, and it but remains for him to land his game.
The situation of England is peculiar and well adapted to
produce a great race of men as well as fishes, and to thoroughly
appreciate it, it is only necessary to follow its latitude, which
impinges Labrador in Canada, across the North Atlantic in winter.
By all rights we should find another Labrador where the British
Isles lie, but, even in winter, here is something different. Instead
53
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
of intense cold, it is, as a rule, the reverse, and in summer, instead
of the stunted and woebegone verdure of the Labrador latitude,
we find one of the garden spots of the world, unexcelled in its
rare and radiant landscapes, the joy of Constable and Turner ;
beautiful rivers and streams which havelured men and warriors
for a thousand years. The reason for this is the Gulf Stream,
which comes up the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of Mexico and
beyond, flows offshore on the American coast, not influencing it
materially, sweeping across the ocean and giving the British
Islands sufficient warmth from the Tropics to assure them a
climate more like that of South Carolina and Georgia than what
we might expect in the latitude of Labrador. This, naturally,
has affected the fishes, and we find in England a much greater
variety than in the same latitude in Canada, Russia, or any country
in the same latitude.
I think the features piscatorial which most impress the
stranger in England are the seriousness with which the people
take their sports, the marvellous number of books on angling,
which have been written from the time of Walton and Juliana
Berners down to to-day, and lastly, the extraordinary attention
to the details of tackle shown in the English books and the interest
displayed in every feature of the sport. This is shown in the press
devoted to angling. The journals I am familiar with have a
large personal following or clientéle, which discuss their wants,
likes and dislikes in columns and pages. Then there are numer-
ous firms devoted to tackle, bait, and this and that, to a much
greater extent than in America. But it is in the detail of tackle
that England shines particularly. As an illustration, I find
in the fascinating and useful work of ‘John Bickerdyke,’ the
Book of the All-Round Angler, what to me are amazing descrip-
tions of tackle of different kinds, which have been studied out
with the greatest care, in fact, the making of which and putting
it in practice is an exact science suggestive of the earnestness and
thoroughness with which Englishmen conduct all their sports.
If we go over the lists of books in the Fly Fishers Club, or the
54
SEA ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN
library of the British Museum, we find that there are literally
thousands of similar books of varying degrees of value, but nearly
all following out the altogether delightful pace set by Izaak Wal-
ton in giving the details of the sport in extenso.
After reading one of these books I turnto my simple fishing
bag or box, and wonder at its simplicity, its utter lack of colour
and imaginative values, and am filled with regret. I find no
‘ bobs,’ no ‘ snuggling tackle,’ no appliances for ‘ clod fishing,’ no
‘ paternosters,’ no ‘ gorge hooks,’ no ‘ legering ’ no ‘ paste,’ and a
thousand and one delightful things which are the objects of
vital importance in ‘the kit of the British sea angler.
Instead, I have two lines, a+ 9 for fish of fifty pounds and under,
a +¢ 21 for the giants, a nine-ounce rod for the smaller fry, a sixteen-
ounce rod for the tuna, etc., a few O’Shaughnessey hooks, with
long or short piano wire leaders, possibly of two sizes, a sinker
of two different sorts, a small and large reel, and that is all. In
a word, the average American angler has not the fund of detail
found in the British sea angler, and ‘John Bickerdyke,’ Mr.
Minchin, or Mr. Aflalo, would, possibly, find it a difficult matter
to write a book on American angling and devote much space to
tackle. Not that some Americans do not use many kinds, but
the great majority do not, and here it seems to me that we have
lost some of the esthetic charm of angling. I can explain perhaps
by observing that America is yet young, lacks homogeneity in its
sports. We have thousands of Greeks, Portuguese, Swedes,
Norwegians, Italians in our great ports, particularly in the south
and on the Pacific coast, introducing their boats and methods,
fishing as they did in their own country.
Again England has built up her angling literature and methods.
through a thousand years of practice. It reminds me of my first
impression of English towns and cities—they were finished and
_ had accomplished their end. So to an American particularly,
the detail of the British angler, the literature of the art of angling,
the thousands of books on all its phases, are delights, pure and
simple, whether it is the book of Juliana Berners, or the Miseries
55
'THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
of Angling, or.the definition of the Angler in the Tropics, ‘ sitting
in a Turkish bath holding a string.’
The sea fishes of England taken with rod and reel are the
‘cod, conger, pollack, coal-fish, bass, mackerel, hake, haddock,
halibut, plaice, whiting, pout, red gurnard, tope, ling, sea trout,
surmullet, skate, turbot, wrasse, and many more, a remarkable
variety of hard-fighting fishes when the latitude of England is
remembered ; a list that affords the finest sport, a sport that
has been worked out to its utmost detail, and reduced to a science
and a fine art by the gentlemen anglers of the scores of clubs of
England. For this reason, and the great variety of tackle used,
I cannot go into detail, and can but refer the angler to the great
leaders and students of British sea angling, ‘John Bickerdyke,’
Mr. Aflalo, and others, whose works teem with minute directions,
all tested by the personal experience of the authors who are not
only littérateurs, but experts and authorities.
The distances are so small in England that good fishing is
within reach of the residents of London at all times, as there is
not a month in the year that the sea angler cannot find some-
thing somewhere, while in New York rods are put away in
‘October and not used until spring and summer, unless one wishes
to fish in, or through the ice, a doubtful and predatory under-
taking anywhere.
In a general way, good fishing is found all around the British
Islands, either offshore, in the bays, from the rocks, in the
shallows, or in deep water. Ireland, particularly Ballycotton,
has earned a reputation for big congers and skate, and these
summer sports, as described at the British Sea Anglers Society
meetings, tell the story of fishing along the Irish coast. Brighton,
Newhaven, Eastbourne, Hastings, Seaford have flat fish or
whiting and pout, the latter on rocky bottom. At Eastbourne,
Lowestoft and Littlehampton the game bass may be taken—
one of the finest sea fishes in any waters while, in estuaries and
rivers one may take mullet.
The delights of gray mullet angling have been dwelt on by
56
Fig. 11. British Sea Anglers.
Amanda §. Grain, Esq., and Edward Meadlock. Conger Eel, 7 ft. 4 ins., weight 66 lbs, p. 56.
SEA ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN
Mr. T. W. Gomm in a paper read before the B.S.A.S. Mr. Aflalo.
with some friends took at Margate seven fish which weighed
about twenty pounds, one of which weighed three pounds;
while on another occasion Mr. Gomm and Mr. Francis Daunon
took at Margate jetty thirty-three mullet, the best weighing
eight pounds seven ounces. The mullet anglers use ten-foot
hollow cane rods and ground bait of bread paste. A silk line, a
slider float, and clickless or silent Nottingham reel, with a
Number 3 crystal hook completed the tackle. It only remains
to be said that the mullet anglers were artists in that peculiar
sport.
What fishes may be had every month in the year are as
follows, for which I am indebted to the late Mr. William Hearder
and Mr. Marston of the Fishing Gazette:
January.—Atherine (smelt), tub, piper, red gurnard, mackerel,
dory, skate, sharp-nosed ray, homelyn ray, sprat, anchovy, eel, ling, cod,
whiting, haddock, pouting, coal-fish, and all shell-fish. :
February.—Atherine (smelt), sprat, anchovy, ling, whiting, pouting,
dab, mackerel, eel, tub, piper, red gurnard, and all shell-fish.
March.—Mackerel, pouting, conger, atherine (smelt), thornback,
anchovy, sprat, dab, turbot, brill, and all shell-fish.
April—Scad, mackerel, conger, eel, atherine (smelt), thornback,
pouting, hake, brill, turbot, dab, and all shell-fish.
May.—Sturgeon, dory, scad, mackerel, thornback, conger, eel, bass,
surmullet, launce, pollack, hake, atherine (smelt), wrasses, turbot, brill.
June.—Breams in general, wrasses in general, atherine (smelt), sturgeon,
bass, surmullet, pilchard, thornback, pollack, hake, mackerel, dory, scad,
eel, conger, launce, sole, plaice, turbot, brill, mary-sole, flounder, halibut.
July.—Pilchard, herring, homelyn ray, sharp-nosed ray, skate, thorn-
back, launce, sturgeon, mullet, atherine (smelt), wrasses in general,
breams in general, surmullet, bass, pollack, lythe, hake, mackerel, scad,
dory, eel, conger, dab, brill, turbot, sole, mary-sole, halibut, plaice, floun-
der.
August.—Bass, surmullet, conger, eel, herring, anchovy, pilchard,
pollack, hake, tub, piper, red gurnard, wrasses in general, breams in
general, sharp-nosed ray, thornback, skate, homelyn ray, atherine (smelt),
mullet, sole, flounder, plaice, dab, mary-sole, halibut, turbot, brill, dory,
scad, launce.
September.—Sole, flounder, plaice, dab, mary-sole, halibut, turbot,
57
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
brill, conger eel, trout, launce, pollack, coal-fish, lythe, hake, whiting,
chad and breams in general, wrasses in general, bass, surmullet, mullet,
atherine, scad, dory, tub, piper, red gurnard, sharp-nosed ray, skate,
homelyn ray, sprat, herring, pilchard, twaite, shad, anchovy, and all shell-
fish.
October.—Plaice, sole, flounder, dab, halibut, turbot, brill, mary-sole,
mackerel, dory, surmullet, conger, wrasses generally, tub, piper, red
gumard, whiting, pollack, cod, haddock, coal-fish, hake, homelyn ray,
launce, pilchard, sprat, herring, twaite, shad, anchovy, mullet, atherine
(smelt), and all shell-fish.
November.—Anchovy, twaite, shad, herring, sprat, pilchard, wrasses
generally, tub, piper, red gurnard, sole, flounder, dab, plaice, mary-sole,
halibut, turbot, brill, dory, surmullet, coal-fish, hake, whiting, cod, had-
dock, pouting, ling, atherine (smelt), skate, homelyn ray, sharp-nosed ray,
and all shell-fish.
December.—Coal-fish, hake, ling, cod, haddock, pouting, whiting, tub,
piper, red gurnard, eel, sprat, pilchard, anchovy, dory, mackerel, atherine
(smelt), skate, homelyn ray, sharp-nosed ray, and all shell-fish.
As in other localities, the best months for the sea angler are
July, August, September and October. In July, pollack (which
I have taken with a fly) and bass. In August, pout, gray mullet
and bass. In September, bass, conger, chad and gurnard.
In October, cod, codling and silver whiting. Mr. F. G. Aflalo
gives every detail of sea angling in his excellent work, Sea
Fishing on the English Coast, and I note he says, for rocky
coasts use ‘ whiffling tackle,’ paternoster, chopstick, sid-strap.
When on sandy coasts, the tackle recommended is drift line,
leger, trot, long line, throw-out-line, which again suggests to
me the charm and mysteries of English tackle. To illustrate
the difference, in several years’ residence in Florida on the reef,
a wonderful fishing ground, I used but three kinds of ‘ rigs.’
One for bottom fishing, had a sinker on the end, and a foot above
it, one or two hooks, a foot-apart. The philosophy of this was
that the sinker lodged in the coral and held the line, and the bait
swung clear where the fishes could see it. My other line was
a cast-line, with a long light copper wire leader, a rod and reel
to the line of which a sinker could be attached, if necessary, for
trolling or dragging behind a boat. :
58
SEA ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN
At Scarborough (Yorks) the angler finds most excellent fishing
for bass, conger, mackerel, codling and others. Also at Filey,
Ramsgate, Deal, Dover and Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne.
On the south coast we have Brighton, Shoreham, Littlehampton,
Bognor, Selsea, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole, Swanage ; in
fact, at nearly all seaports there is some kind of fish or fishing,
more or less good, according to the patience and enthusiasm
of the angler.
In the present volume my object has been to present the
fish, not particularly the fishing grounds, but it can be said
that if the angler lays out the coast of Scotland, England, Ireland
and Wales into sea angling districts, and changes his ground on
every angling trip, he will have experienced some of the most
interesting sea angling in the world of sport, and have visited
some of the beautiful and picturesque regions in Europe. This
is particularly true of the west coast of England—TIlfracombe,
Tenby (South Wales), Isle of Man, Ramsey, Douglas, Peel, not
forgetting the Irish coast and Ballycotton, a place where good
anglers go before they die, to fight gigantic skates and congers,
two great sporting fishes, with the rod and reel.
I have not the temerity to venture where anglers tread, and
discuss British sea angling or the fishes, but I should fancy
that the bass, Labrawx lupus, stands as one of, if not the finest of
small sea game fishes, and specimens I have seen impressed me
that it is a fighting fish of the first water. ‘The bass decidedly
holds the highest place among those sea fishes which afford
sport to the angler,’ says ‘John Bickerdyke,’ so my American
“guess? (used by Shakespeare) was equal to the occasion. It
is a fine fish, having something of the appearance or shape of the
striped bass, or a monster yellow perch.
The bass has a wide range in European waters and affords
sport from England to the Tiber, and beyond, and has been
known from the early times. Archistratus called the bass of
Milet the ‘ offspring of the Gods,’ and at Rome it was esteemed
so highly that the young were called lanati (woolly), their meat
59
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
was so pure and white. Columella tells us that Marcius
Philippus taught the Romans to take the bass as a fine
game fish. Horace wrote of the bass, and in keen satire said
to the bon vivants of his day, ‘ Whence is it that your palate can
distinguish between the Tiberne basse and those taken at sea?’
Aristotle praised this fish for its cunning. {It was difficult to
capture, and both Ovid and Aelian must have observed its
cleverness, as they refer to it as burrowing in the sand to evade
the net. With this appreciation of the bass the Romans must
have been delighted when they landed in Britain to find that
the finest game fish of these waters was their own bass of the
Tiber, whose very name was given on account of its cunning.
The average bass-taken by English anglers ranges from two
to four pounds, and ten and twelve pounders are not uncommon.
‘John Bickerdyke’ mentions a twenty-seven pounder from
Brixham. The yare more frequently found in south and south-
western England, coming inshore in May, the larger fish leaving
in October. The expert bass fisher finds it in the surf, off the
mouth of rivers, on sandy bars, off rocky points, showing that
it is a versatile fish. One charm of the bass is, that it will take a
fly. A volume could be written on it and its cousins in various
parts of the world, everywhere a good hard fighting game fish.
Mr. Aflalo is loud in his praise of the bass, and one can read
his description of the catch he made one fair morning off Teign-
mouth of a thirty inch eleven and a fourth-pound bass that
fought a half hour before surrendering, and will heartily agree
with him that this is the king of game fishes of England’s sea-
coast. Some of Mr. Aflalo’s best bass weighed ten and one-
quarter pounds, eight and one-half, six, five and one-quarter,
four and one-half pounds.
I had hoped to have some bass fishing at Teignmouth, par-
ticularly when I was at Bristol, knowing of a good ground in the
estuary of the Lyn where it reaches the Bristol Channel, the
little town reminding one of Italy, but I was dissuaded by
torrential rains. I was too late, but I’stood on the highlands
60
SHEA ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN.
of Bristol and looked down on the beautiful water, and knew
that my forebears in the seventeenth century, one of whom lies
at Frenchay, not far away, must have caught bass on the coast
in the time of Cromwell.
The pollack is one of the finest of the British game fishes,
making a good fight on the rod. I have taken them witha fly
off the rocks on the New England coast, from five to seven
pounds, using an eight-ounce rod and breaking many tips. They
are caught off rocks in both countries, and in America, off, and
in the mouth of rivers. In Scotland the saithe or coal-fish ranks
high as a game fish with the Glasgow sea angler, and it will take
a fly.
The mackerel in English waters is full of life and vigour, afford-
ing the anglers with a light rod sport of a fine character. In
America this fish is taken trolling (dragging the bait astern),
but I have had my best and most satisfactory angling for them
in California ; in chumming them up; namely, throwing finely
chopped bait overboard, and when they were all about the
boat, casting for them with an eight-ounce rod and trout tackle,
using a small spoon or white bait, or even a white rag. I have
seen a school (sceole Anglo-Saxon) in the Atlantic at night that
looked like an acre or more of fire on the water, due to the
phosphorescence occasioned by the movements of thousands of
fishes.
The list of British fishes is a long one. The bream, chad,
conger, whiting, pout, and many more afford most excellent
sport if approached with tackle appropriate to the game. I
have seen an anglerin America catching a pollack with a tarpon
rod and line, yet reviling the fish as a poor fighter when he should
have used an eight-ounce trout rod. PkAynaiay Sa. Ses 2
Fig. 20.
Leaping Tuna, Southern California Islands. Taking them with a kite—imitating leap
of Flying Fish. Photo by Reyes. p. 124.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BLACK SEA BASS AND OTHER LARGE
FISH
‘But why, good fisherman,
Am I thought meet for you, that never yet
Had angling rod cast towards me?’
Moll Cutpurse (1611).
HE ardent trout lover or angler is rarely a devoted sea angler,
If pressed for a reason he will often tell you that the joys
of scenery, the radiant streams and meadows that reach away
to the sky-line, the flowers and Waltonian diversifications, are
entirely absent.
This may be true in some localities, but not in all, as the sea
has its gardens, its vales of peace, its meadows rich with algae,
its deep and abysmal cafions, its mountains and wealth of glorious
colours. In fact, as I close my eyes and pass in review the scenes
I have observed beneath the sea on the Florida reefs and on the
slopes of the great island mountains of Santa Catalina and San
Clemente, I can hardly conceive of anything more beautiful in
the fairest gardens of the land from California to England and
again to Mortola of Sir Thomas Hanbury on the Riviera, which I
hold in delightful remembrance.
Sea and land gardens are equally beautiful, but so entirely
different that they cannot be compared, and I confess that in
waters where there is nothing but fish, and nothing to see, mere
fishing palls on the imagination.
To me, one great charm of sea angling lies in the fact that.
in pursuit of the game the angler is led into the fairest and most
beautiful oceanic regions, where Nature is always at her best.
125
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
The very earliest writers and dreamers recognized this. The
fisher eclogues found place in the works of Sannazaro before
1503, and this author gave his contemporaries pastorals like those
of Virgil, except that they were of the fishes, anglers and the
sea. Theocritus gave us marine pastorals, and the Iliad abounds
in descriptions of life afield and refers to angling.
No waters are more beautiful than those of England if we
remember the sea anemones of the pools and think of them as the
animal flowers of the sea. This can be realized after a storm when
the sea-wrack is piled upon the sands, and the gardens of the
sea have been devastated. Every colour of the rainbow scintil-
lates in the sunlight and tells the story of the fishes.
Possibly in the semi-tropics, the water is clearer, at least it is
smoother, and in Bermuda the angler is regaled with real gardens
of the sea, inhabited by fishes which vie with the living flowers.
For many years I lived in the heart of a group of coral islands
of the same character as Bermuda, in the Gulf near Havana—
the Garden Key of the Tortugas group. Every day was devoted
to angling of some sort or description, varied with studies of the
reef, diving into its channels or wading along its streets and lanes
of coral at low tide. I was always impressed by the self-evident
fact that there were gardens of the sea, mountains covered with
verdure, plains, prairies, plantations, and diversities only to be
compared to those of the land. The colouring was particularly
beautiful, especially off the coral reef as it merged into deeper
water. Here the east wind sent a sea continually in, which had
piled up a line of dead coral rock a mile or more in length, and
bare at low tide—an island in embryo. Twenty or thirty feet
out beyond this was a famous fishing ground for a large variety
of fishes, which swam over aforest of radiant beauty. On calm
days when the sleepy swell was just sufficient to sway the gor-
gonian trees, I often drifted along the reef or waded out, waist-
deep, and cast my lure of crayfish, sardine or mullet into the
rialto of the fishes.
The bottom was covered with a carpet of weed of hues which
126
THE BLACK SEA BASS
appeared to have been painted by the setting sun in deep reds,
vermilion, pink, splashes of blue and yellow. From this grew,
apparently, countless reticulated fans and plumes of brown,
vivid golden-yellow, rose and lavender. These were gorgonias,
cousins of the corals, and as they waved to and fro, bending in
the mysterious inward rush of water, the change of tint and tone
was kaleidoscopic and marvellous beyond description. Some
of the fans resembling velvet, rose four feet from the bottom ;
beneath them were flat branches of the leaf coral in browns or
olives, taking countless shapes. Others were in the form of great
mounds, or hollowed out like classic vases in which brilliant
angel-fishes poised, or the gaily painted yellowtail or parrot-fish
hid.
At such time the gulf, as far as the eye could reach, would be a
sheet of glass, not a ripple disturbing its surface; and moving
out from the shore until the water was fifty or one hundred feet
in depth, it was so clear, so crystalline, that every object, even
to the delicate reddish shells on the gorgonias, could be seen and
the black echinii in the crevices, or the deeper black of the Cypreae.
No garden of the land had more beauties, while the myriads of
fishes carried out the idea of birds as they moved to and fro.
In various parts of the world large bass-like fishes are found
which resemble bass in shape if in no other way. There were
two dwellers in this garden of the gorgonias, of gigantic size;
one called the black grouper, the other the jewfish. One was a
heavy logy giant, often found in deep holes and crevices; the
other, the black grouper, in mid-water. The jewfish might be
called the hippopotamus of the sea, as individuals weighing one
thousand pounds have been taken. Theaverage is three or four
hundred pounds, and the large specimens, while they cannot be
classed as a game fish and are practically impossible to the man
with the rod, on ahand-line afford no little excitement. Ihave
taken them while shark fishing, and believed I had a shark until
the ponderous big-mouth creature came up the sands, the whole
party on the line.
127
‘
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
We frequently fished for jewfish when watching for turtles
on hot nights on the key beaches where every wave seemed to
ignite and sent its lambent flames hissing up the sand. At Port
Aransas and Galveston it is one of the sports to angle for jewfish
with the rod at night along the pass—a vigorous and athletic
pastime.
The black grouper or méro de lo alto (Garruza nigrita) is another
fish, and is taken weighing five hundred or more pounds. In its
smaller weights, one hundred or one hundred and fifty pounds,
it affords no little sport with rod and reel. Practically a deep-
water fish, it often came into the outer keys where they dropped
quickly into the channel, and at night frequented the great
lagoons to feed on the countless crayfish, which wandered abroad
at night, and other easily-caught game.
If we cross from the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of California
we shall enter the more or less restricted territory of a fine big
bass-like fish, the black sea bass (Stereolepis gigas), found in large
numbers at almost any locality in the Gulf and alongshore as far
as Monterey on the coast of California. Compared to the Florida
jewfish, this big game is a greyhound. Many of the male fishes
are finely proportioned and bear a striking resemblance, fin for
fin, to the ordinary big-mouth black bass, if we can imagine a bass
six or seven feet in length, and weighing four or five hundred
pounds.
The big bass has all the game qualities of the black bass,
though, naturally, it has not the quickness of movement, nor
does it leap under any circumstances ; but it will dart at a bait
so suddenly as to nearly demoralize the angler. I have fre-
quently in rapidly hauling in a whitefish, been startled by the
sudden and tremendous rush of this goliath of the fishes as it shot
upward, making a miniature maelstrom as it missed the fish,
turned and dashed out of sight.
This fish is extremely common at Santa Catalina Island, where,
from June until October it is an every-day catch with rod and
reel and a 24-thread line, so light that it is difficult to make the
128
Fig. 22.
Giant Saw Fish, taken with rod and reel by Mr. S. O. Vanderpoel, of New York, in Florida.
p. 128.
THE BLACK SEA BASS
layman believe the stories told at the town of Avalon. A large
individual, over one hundred and fifty pounds in weight, has, I
think, been taken with a nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line—
the light tackle originated by Mr. Arthur Jerome Eddy, of the
Tuna Club, the distinguished angler, fencer, author and playwright.
Up to 1886 the black sea bass was always taken with a hand-
line. The first one I caught was with a ‘ syndicate ’ of five anglers.
Mexican Joe, our boatman, hooked it and handed the rod to me.
I was satisfied in about five minutes, my arms being nearly
wrenched from their sockets, and passed the line to my companion
next to me, who succumbed in about the same time. We all
tried conclusions with this three or four hundred-pound fish, and
I fancy our laughing boatman landed it.
This was the preliminary in 1886. Later I landed many of
the fish, single handed, and one seventy-five or eighty pounder
on a nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line; not a remarkable fish,
as I thought it was a yellowtail. By a curious series of fatalities
I never succeeded in taking a large black sea bass with rod and
reel, nor did I take the first in this manner although I tried re-
peatedly. But I was compensated in being with a gallant officer—
General Charles Viele, of the Cavalry—when he accomplished
this feat, supposed to be practically impossible. While he was
being towed about by the fish I lost tips, rods and lines from the
anchored launch, the big game evidently enjoying themselves at
my expense.
My next trial was a failure. I hooked a fish, the colossal
sort that are never seen. At the strike the boatman cast off the
buoy, and away we went out to sea at about four miles an hour.
I was using a tuna sixteen-ounce rod and line of twenty-four
strands, which would lift a weight of forty-eight pounds, and I
put on forty-seven pounds of tension and pressure, as near as I
could estimate ; but I doubt if the giant ever felt it. My efforts
were so futile, I was so utterly unable to make any impression on
the monster, which was growing larger in my mind’s eye all the.
time, that presently my two companions began to make certain
9 129
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
remarks calculated to arouse one’s dormant energies, and I threw
all my strength into the contest and believe I did gain a few feet.
But I lost them very quickly, and we were still moving out to
sea, and the boatman was holding back with both oars, for we
were in a staunch heavy rowboat.
My friends now began to question my physical and mental
powers and qualifications for landing any kind of game, and I
was rapidly arriving at the conclusion that I had a real
monster that no one could land. When fully convinced that this
was the case, I handed the rod to one of my companions—an old
tuna angler—and sat back to enjoy his discomfort. He tugged
and hauled, looked surprised, then worried, while I made choice
and timely criticisms. But the fish kept on and on, apparently
unmoved, and at last, after a half hour’s struggle, either my friend
or the big bass broke the line. I doubtif either of us had lifted
him ten feet. He moved steadily on and on down the side of the
big mountain of Santa Catalina, and when the line severed he had
garnered nearly six hundred feet.
The black sea bass attains a weight of one thousand pounds in
the Gulf of California, but this fish, which we played for an hour,
must have weighed—what it weighed I leave to the reader’s
imagination. The black sea bass comes in from outer banks or
deeps in May or June to spawn, and is met with in schools at
times. Its favourite grounds are beds of long kelp that
rises up to the surface in water fifty or one hundred feet and
surrounds the islands of California and Mexico and some of the
mainland shores. Whereit actually spawns, or where the young
go, I have never determined, nor have I seen a young fish or heard
of any one who has seen one smaller than three or four pounds.
Where the very young go or stay is a mystery not confined alone
to the progeny of the black sea bass, but to most of the big game
fishes here. They come to spawn; the females are filled with
eggs; they return every year, but the young elude observation
in an extraordinary manner.
The big bass is a most graceful fish in the water and very social.
130
THE BLACK SEA BASS
It has no hesitation in coming up under a boat when four or five
lines are out, or to a wharf. I have watched it about my bait
in the deep green kelpian forests and on the side of the island
mountain of San Clemente, where it moved about coyly, glancing
at the bait from the side, as I have seen the gray snapper—one
of the cleverest of fishes—passing it by to turn and come back,
acting with great caution. When convinced that there was no
danger it took the bait between its lips for a second, then dropped
it and went through the operation again ; all of which explained the
nibbling I frequently had noticed at the strike, and showing the
angler should not strike immediately, but give line until the bait
is ‘surely taken.
In fishing with tuna rod, reel and line, the boat, a launch, is
anchored, and the anchor rope made fast to a buoy, as there is
no time to haul up. The bait is a live whitefish, or six or seven
pounds of albacore or barracuda. This is lowered to the bottom,
then hauled up three or four feet. When the strike comes it is
indicated by the slow click of the reel ; the boatman casts off the
buoy, the angler slacks away five, ten or more feet of line, and
does not strike until the line is moving rapidly away. Then he
gives the fish the ‘butt’ with all his strength; the response
comes in a terrific rush which with a hand-line would pull a
man overboard if he held on, and on one occasion almost pulled a
light, one hundred and twenty-five pound skiff I was in, under
water.
After several rushes the bass settles down into a steady swim
out to sea and into deeper water, while the angler endeavours to
stop him by ‘ pumping’ and other methods he may have at his
command. There is a great difference in the fishes. Some will
tow a boat a long distance and defy the angler. Others will give
in soon. But the average fish can be taken in from a half hour
to an hour. When it reaches the surface the bass is generally
hors de combat and presents an extraordinary appearance; but
it frequently makes violent rushes, tossing water over the boat,
and into the faces of the men.
131
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
The boatman now gaffs it with a long gaff, and after killing
it, a block and tackle are rigged and it is hoisted aboard the
launch and laid across the deck. This is still fishing, but the
fish can be taken by the method known in England as ‘ trailing.’
The big hook is baited with a live white-fish through the lip,
and a pipe sinker above sufficiently heavy to carry itdown. The
launch then moves slowly along ‘ trolling’ the bait in water fifty
feet deep, but near the bottom along the edge of the kelp
forest. This is called trolling, and nearly all the fishing here is
either bottom fishing or surface trolling, though when fishes like
the yellowtail are very plentiful the launch is often stopped and
bait, ‘ chum’ (ground baiting), cut up and scattered about to keep
the fish about the boat, the angler casting with his rod. At such
times the water is perfectly clear and the fishes can be seen.
The black sea bass is occasionally taken from wharves on the
mainland, that is, it is hooked, but the line is led ashore and the
monster bass hauled ignominiously up the sands.
The black sea bass does not rank with the tuna or swordfish,
but the Tuna Club recognizes it as a game fish and there are
cups and medals fished for each season. If one is in need of
exercise of a strenuous quality accompanied by excitement often
of a sensational character, the sport can be heartily and unre-
servedly commended. The great fish is interesting as it has so
restricted a range, being a Californian and Lower Californian fish.
The small individuals of one hundred or fifty pounds are very
fair eating. At some of the banquets of the Tuna Club such an one
has been baked entire, and brought in after the fashion of the
boar’s head in old England.
The rod records of the Tuna Club are carefully kept and some
are as follows : The largest catch of black sea bass, and the world’s
record, is held by Mr. L. G. Murphy. His bass, taken on the
southwest coast of Santa Catalina Island, weighed four hundred
and thirty-six pounds—a ponderous contribution to sea angling
records in California or elsewhere: The records of the club by
the year are as follows:
132
THE BLACK SEA BASS
\
Larezst Biack SEa Bass (Stereolepis gigas).
F. V. Rider, Avalon, Cal., season 1898 ; : . 327 pounds.
T. S. Manning, Avalon, Cal., season 1899 . . 372 33
F. S. Schenck, Brooklyn, N. Y., season 1900 f . 384 i
C. A. Thomas, Pomona, Cal., season 1901 . . . 384 be
H. T. Kendall, Pasadena, Cal., season 1902. 5 . 419 3
Edward Llewellyn, Los Angeles, season 1903 ‘ . 425 en
H. L. Smith, New York City, season 1904 . : . 402 =
L. G. Murphy, Converse, Ind., season 1905 . : . 436 3
C. H. Earle, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1906 3 . 372 33
C. J. Tripp, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1907 . ‘ . 427 55
Lloyd B. Newell, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1908 . . 380 -
R. C. Baird, San Francisco, Cal., season 1909 : . 3894 ss
Jesse Roberts, Philadelphia, Pa., season 1910 P . 3885 es
Judge J. S. Dempsey, Madisonville, oe season 1911 4304 _,,
S.:W. Guthrie, season 1912 5 . 427 -
Some large sawfishes have been taken with rod and reel in
Florida, the combat being exciting and dangerous. I have had
a large sawfish bury the ivory teeth which arm its long sword-like
snout in the soft wood of my boat, suggestive of what it would
have done had I been in the way. In hauling a sawfish alongside,
it has a disagreeable habit of suddenly raising itself on its tail,
or lifting its head out of water and striking to right and left.
One of the largest of these fishes ever taken with a rod was hooked,
played and landed by Mr. S. Oakley Vanderpoel of New York, near
Key West. Mr. Vanderpoel was fishing with a sixteen-ounce
rod and a twenty-four thread line, and for four hours and forty
minutes it was give and take for the mastery, the great fish
making desperate lunges and towing the small boat about in every
direction. When it was finally brought to gaff and triced up
alongside the gangway of the yacht, its proportions became
evident. It was fourteen feet one inch long, over seven feet
around, and estimated to weigh five hundred pounds. In all
probability, it weighed nearer one thousand pounds, as the scales
upon which it was weighed were limited to five hundred pounds.
The sawfish is a strange combination of shark and ray. Its
saw is unique in the armament of fishes, calling to mind the sword
of the swordfish.
133
CHAPTER XIV
THE WHITE SEA BASS AND WEAKFISH
‘His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye.’
Rape of Lwuerece.
N the quaint Praise of New Netherland, written by one Jacob
Steendam in 1661, he refers to the White Sea Bass family :
*You’ve weakfish, carp and turbot, pike and plaice,
There’s not a pool or water trail,
Where swam not myriads of the finny race.’
The weakfish belongs to the generic tribe of Cynoscion, of
which there are three species on the Atlantic coast. For two
centuries thousands of anglers in and about New York have
gone down the bay for them, from childhood to old age. The
American Field and Stream, devoted to the elevation of sport,
has just concluded a remarkable tournament in which it offered
valuable cups and prizes for large weakfish taken on special
tackle, the kind that means generous and fair play. In glancing
over the lists, I observe the following records, which show the
average size of the weakfish taken by anglers to-day: Owen
E. Houghton, Esq., nine pounds four ounces; Dr. Henry F.
Deane, eight and one quarter pounds; Walter E. Sawyer, eight
pounds four ounces.
The weakfish is known as the Squeteague, an Indian name,
the drummer, yellow-fin, squil, sea-trout, gray trout and other
names, from the Bay of Fundy to the coast of Florida, where I
have taken it at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. The various
species are found all around the Gulf, being chiefly known as
134
WHITE SEA BASS AND WEAKFISH
‘ sea trout,’ merely because they are spotted and bear a superficial
resemblance to this fish.
Mr, F. G. Aflalo, England’s distinguished sea angler, in his
Sunshine and Sport in Florida and the West Indies, says that the
* so-called trout or sea trout, is perhaps the most game of any
of the smaller fishes of Florida, and specifically at Useppa,’ and
he advises ‘an old trout rod and float tackle.’
It is a valuable food fish, and the weakfish (Cynoscion regale)
is considered one of the fine, though small, game fishes of the
Atlantic. Three and four pounders are the average, ten pounds
being not uncommon; while the record is a thirty pounder, that
being the maximum weight. The New York anglers look for
them with the bluefish in May when large schools arrive, and
then it can be found in various parts of the bay and along the
coast. The fish is a good fighter, quick in movement, and when
taken on an eight-ounce rod is a game fish in all the term implies ;
and conversely is helpless on the big billiard, cue-like rods
often used by anglers.
The weakfish has a penchant for crab bait, shrimp or clams,
and as they play on the surface and in the strong tide, the line
can be paid out—an ideal condition. In playing the weakfish
there is but one thing to remember, its }jaws are weak and
many fish are lost by the tearing out of the hook.
In colour the weakfish is given to silver, adapting itself,
darker or lighter, to its surroundings. Scattered over it are dark
irregular spots or blotches, some of which form into undulating
lines. It has two fine, expressive dorsals; the tail is large,
powerful and incurving; the lower jaw slightly protruding,
giving the fish an expression of determination. The eye is ex-
pressive and well proportioned. The lower fins often have a
slightly yellowish hue, and when freshly landed the fish is a
picture, animated, scintillant and beautiful. This is the weak-
fish you will find around New York and New Jersey; and the
Asbury Park Angling Club members, of which I have the honour
to be one, tell of notable catches.
135
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
On the New Jersey coast and in the Chesapeake Bay (where
I have taken it) down to Georgia and Florida, you may find
another weakfish, C. nebulosas, or the spotted sea-trout, on which
the spots are very pronounced. Along this entire country,
including Hatteras, it is one of the important food fishes. On
the Indian River of Florida it runs up to twelve pounds, and is
taken with a phantom minnow, spoon, or bait of a varied kind.
Another species, C. nothus, of a gray silvery tint, ranges in a
general way along the Georgia, Florida and Gulf of Mexico waters.
It has a dark, often blackish, lower jaw. The spotted trout is
very common at Pensacola and Key West, though I have fished
the Tortugas group about sixty miles west, winter and summer,
and do not recall it.
At nearly all of the places, and I recall ‘ Old Point ’ in Virginia,
the mouth of the St. John’s and St. Mary’s, these fishes are present
with the channel-bass and others; but in nine cases out of ten,
their game and fighting qualities are utterly lost, due to the use
of big poles or hand-lines in taking them. An eight-ounce split
jpamboo rod, with the reel above the grip, is heavy enough for
the average weakfish. I observe that Mr. Turner-Turner in his
Big Fish in Florida, refers to the ‘trout’ at Boca Grand as
taking a grilse-fly.
This interesting and valuable fish to the inhabitants of so
many American states has no representative in Europe; but
when the Panama Canalis finished, the way will be opened, and
the field of the Pacific coast presented for a variety of weakfish
angling that, to my mind, is not incomparable to sea-trout fish-
ing. Ina word, hére, and especially in California, is the ‘ spotted
trout’ or bluefish, Cynoscion parvipinnis, a radiant little fish
of six or seven pounds, which I have often taken at Santa Cata-
lina and along the mainland of California, and which is found
from this island south to Mazatlan, and in the Gulf of California,
where I have taken it near Guaymas. California is famed for
big things, and among them may be included its fishes, particularly
the game fishes of the weakfish family. Here we find them
136
Fig. 23. A Morning’s Catch of White Sea Bass (four rods),
italina Island, California. Average, 35 lbs. Photo by Reyes. p. 136.
WHITE SEA BASS AND WEAKFISH
known as the White Sea Bass, veritable monsters compared to
the little weakfish of the Atlantic. There are two species:
C. macdonaldi of the Gulf of California, which attains a length
of four or more feet and a weight of two hundred pounds, and
C. nobilis of Santa Catalina, which ranges up to one hundred,
though eighty pounds is the largest I have seen, and a fifty-three
or four pounder the largest I have landed with arod. The record
of the Tuna Club was taken some years ago by Mr. C. H. Harding
of Philadelphia, who caught a sixty-pound fish after a gallant
and graphic contest for supremacy ; and other notable catches
by Tuna Club members are as follows:
Larcsest WHITE SEA Bass (Cynoscion nobilis).
Edward M. Boggs, Oakland, Cal., season 1899 , . 58 pounds.
Wm. P. Adams, Chicago, Ill., season 1903. ; . 52 +
C. H. Harding, Philadelphia, Pa., season 1904 - . 60 re
E. C. Wilson, Denver, Colo., season 1905 ‘ ; . 36 5
1A. L. Beebe, Portland, Ore., season 1906 . ; . 34 ig
1Arthur J. Eddy, Chicago, Ill., season 1906 . : . 34 35
1Mrs. E. H. Brewster, Avalon, season 1907 . ‘ . 53 r
1§. A. Barron, San Dimas, Cal., season 1908. 3 . 40 A
1A. L. Beebe, Portland, Ore., season 1908 . ‘: . 40 5
2A. L. Beebe, Portland, Ore., season 1909 . . 463 ,,
1J. W. Frey, Los Angeles, Cal., winter season 1909-10 . 514,
1Benjamin Thaw, Pittsburg, Pa., season 1910 : . 44 5
1A. E. Eaton, Avalon, winter season 1910-11 5 . 38 Pr
1Guy Beddinger, Chicago, Ill., season 1911 . ‘ 44 $3
John B. Dempsey, Cleveland, Ohio, winter season 1911- 12 46 “i
These bass are liable, as the yellowtail and Caranz of Florida,
to a sudden madness or insatiate and overwhelming frenzy or
blood lust. At such times large schools will start at full speed,
sweep up the coast like a band of ravenous wolves, enter the bays,
as Avalon, driving small fry and even squids ten feet long before
them, and creating a panic in fishdom. At such a time they will
1 Taken under tackle specifications of Light Tackle Class.
? Taken under tackle specifications of Three-Six Class.
137
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
bite at any lure, even a white rag. I have seen a dozen boats
hooked on to these fishes being towed this way and that in Avalon
bay, men and women shouting and screaming as they hooked or
lost the game. Irecall seeing one light skiff being towed rapidly
from one side of the bay to the other, the sole occupant
@ woman, who held a stout hand-line on which was a white sea
bass that later on was found to weigh eighty pounds.
My own experience was no less laughable. Mr. Frank T.
Rider of Pasadena and I occupied a light flat bottom boat and
were standing, he in the bow, I in the stern, casting with our
rods. We both immediately hooked large fishes, Mr. Rider’s
rushing directly ahead, while mine surged off astern, so that we
presented the ludicrous appearance of a piscatorial tug of war.
If I remember correctly, we saved the day. Mr. Rider’s fish
weighed fifty-four pounds, and mine fifty-one. Mrs. Rider took
with her light rod several of these large and splendid fishes,
which departed as rapidly as they came.
The bass are, in a sense, night feeders, though I believe this is
true of almost all fishes. The bass devotes its nights to charging
the elusive flying fish. By standing on an elevation, at times the
little bay of Avalon can be seen a seething mass of phosphorescence,
as these fishes rush about, after the active fliers which come out
on the beach. Often a dozen will be found in the anchored boats
in the morning. Several people have been struck by flying fish
which were flushed by sea bass. On one occasion a lady I was
rowing turned to avoid a flying fish, which struck her in the back.
A woman sitting on the beach one night was almost thrown
into hysterics by having a flying fish, chased by sea bass, alight
in her lap.
These splendid white sea bass completely fill the imagination
of the angler as to what an oceanic game fish should be. They
recall the salmon; are long, slender, yet well proportioned,
sedate, dignified, with undoubted cunning, at times scorning all
the appliances of the angler.
In colour the fish is gray above, or olive in the water, but
138
WHITE SEA BASS AND WEAKFISH
out of it a splendid peacock-blue, almost iridescent, especially
about the head. The belly is a rich silver.
The Gulf of California species is plentiful near the bores of
the Rio Colorado. It enters the little bays or indentations north
of Tiburon, especially near Altar, following up the tidal bores to
feed upon the small fry. Colonel C. P. Morehous of the Tuna
Club informed me that he cast for them from the beach here and
took specimens that ran up to one hundred pounds. I caught
them in the lagoon off the Rio Yaqui, though not of this size,
and had some interesting contests with them along the picturesque
coast north of Guaymas. The Hon. C. G. Conn, who has made
the trip in his yacht Comfort from Santa Catalina to the Gulf
several times, is, doubtless, more familiar with this fish at its
largest size than any other American angler. His photographs
show some extraordinary fishes, both as to size and weight ;
bass that required heavy tackle, muscle and endurance to play
and bring to gaff.
It is more than useless to attempt to compare the game
qualities of various fishes, hence I can but say that the white
sea bass of the Santa Catalina Channel averages well with the
yellowtail. In several instances, I have taken five of these fishes
in a single forenoon, not one hundred feet from the shore of
Avalon Bay, each fish weighing fifty pounds, and each fish
giving me a play beyond criticism. Again, I have trolled and
cast over a school of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty pounders for days
and never had a strike. Still again, I have heard anglers say
that taking the white sea bass was like ‘ logging.’
The moral of all this is that no two fishes are alike, and no
two of any kind agree in fighting or other qualities. I have
fought hours with a tuna, and the following year saw a man,
who had never taken a fish larger than a trout, land a tuna in
ten minutes, a catch which convinced him that all thé stories
about the desperate playing of this fish were pigments of the
imagination. The explanation is that a certain fish may be sick,
starved, weak from spawning, or incapacitated for a struggle
139
’
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
for various reasons, while the next tuna, the following day, may
be a tiger and a devastator of tackle. This is true of all fishes and
the experience of all seasoned anglers. It is this very uncertainty
that makes angling what it is, and I hold that to see a school of
white sea bass of the largest size lying in the great kelp beds is
worth while, even if they will not bite.
This fish has been seen as far north as Vancouver, but this is
rare. At Santa Cruz it abounds and is taken in nets. The Bay
of Monterey is a favourite feeding ground; but the locality best
adapted for the angler is Santa Catalina, where the Tuna Club
displays some fine specimens, and collections of photographs of
the catches of fifteen or more years.
The fishes come in large schools in April or May, depending
upon the season. Their arrival is the occasion of a movement
of anglers from many places to Avalon, anglers leaving orders
with the Tuna Club to telegraph them on the arrival of the fish.
The tackle is the nine-ounce rod of the Club, a number nine line,
piano wire trace or leader, and a number 10/° hook, all of which
can be obtained at the tackle shops of Avalon. The bait is a
flying fish eighteen inches long, the bonne bouche of the white sea
bass.
I was drifting over the kelp beds of Avalon one day with Dr.
David Starr Jordan, President of Stanford University, and the
authority on the fishes of America, when suddenly we passed over
a school of big bass. We were passengers on a glass-bottom boat,
which some anglers affect, that they may see the fish, the strike,
and all that is going on. We were looking down through the
glass window, and as it magnified slightly, it appeared as if we
could almost touch the bass. They were about four feet in
length, forty or fifty pounders, floating or poising in the inter-
stices of the big vine—splendid and impressive pictures of dignity
and power.
They paid no attention to the boat, sociability being a char-
acteristic. We observed them a while and passed on ; but I stored
up the memory of the place and found it several days later.
140
White Sea Bass.
California.
"ae
Fig. 24,
393 lbs. ona 9-ounce Rod. By Dr. L. Putzel, 1911, in Avalo
n Bay,
p. 140.
WHITE SEA BASS AND WEAKFISH
As I trolled a flying fish by the spot I had a strike. I saw the
boiling water at the surface, the swirl, and sprang to my feet
and watched the subsequent proceeding. The bass had shot
up from below and seized the fish just forward of the tail. It
lay on the surface innocent of the hook or me, and worked the
bait about as a snake will a frog, trying to point it down its
throat head-first. Fully five minutes was required in this
operation. Meanwhile I stood ready and when the bait dis-
appeared and the bass started ahead, I reeled in the slack of
my line and struck, the little line humming in the sunshine like
the string of a lute.
Back came a violent blow as the bass shot ahead, bearing
off hard, tearing the line from the reel to the brazen song of the
click. Twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred feet gone before I
could stop the fish, and then it was but to change its direction.
I was standing, resting the butt in my leather belt, hence could
watch the play which was almost entirely on the surface. Several
times this fine fish completely circled the boat, and it was only
after a spirited contest of half an hour that I began to gain and
brought it alongside, to see it rush away one hundred feet or
more at sight of the gaff, and involve me again in the toils.
No fish could have made a finer fight, nor a more gallant play
for its life. When at last it came surging along the quarter on
short line, and I led it into the sphere of action of the gaffer,
who gaffed it cleverly directly under the mouth, held it for a
moment while it tossed the spray over the boat, I confess that
my triumph was tempered by more than a tinge of remorse.
‘The pleasantest angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream
And greedily devour the treacherous bait.’
One cannot but regret that so gallant a fighter could not have
escaped; at least it had every chance, a thread of a line,
that used for five-pound black bass in the streams of Canada.
The white sea bass often enter the Bay of Avalon and lie
I4l
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
beneath large schools of anchovies or sardines. I have seen
the same at Monterey. If the angler will cast an empty hook
into the throng, impale a live fish, then pay out line, in a moment
he willhave a strike. Apparently, the bass is unable to resist
the temptation of a live bait or a wounded fish. The Wilson
spoon is at times an effective lure for this fish, day and night,
when other baits fail. I have trolled for hours off the coast
and tried everything but live bait when hundreds of the biggest
bass were lying in the kelp in plain sight, yet never deigned to
notice me.
In Florida almost invariably I towed a four-foot, boat-shaped
car of wire mesh and wood with a door in the top. This my
boatman filled with live bait, if we were going to fish for cavally,
and it was always irresistible. If the boatmen of Santa Catalina
would adopt this plan, or build small wells in their boats, after
the fashion of Florida smacks, they would rarely draw a blank
with the big weakfish of the Pacific coast.
142
CHAPTER XV
WINDOWS FOR SEA ANGLERS
‘ ««T wonder why they have three classes of tickets in a glass-bottom fishing
boat,’ queried the tenderfoot, who had a third-class ticket. Just then the
anchor went down and the captain sang out: <“‘ First-class passengers, fish ;
second-class, bait hooks; third-class, clean fish.’’’
Avalon Ancient Story.
LASS-BOTTOM boats were not invented for anglers, but I
conceived the idea in 1862, on the Florida reef (as doubtless
others had before me), to enable us to find rare corals and the
rare queen conch in comparatively deep water, upon which I
would dive down and bring them up. At Santa Catalina Island,
California, an extraordinary fleet of glass-bottom craft has been
developed by the exigencies of the situation, and mainly used
to enable the passengers to examine the splendid sea bottom,
the floating gardens of the sea. Many anglers rent the small
glass-bottom boats and fish from them, sitting comfortably and
gazing down through the plate-glass window, so watching the
game as it approaches and takes the lure.
No picture of the imagination could be more beautiful than
these Catalina submarine gardens. They are well named, as
they are literal gardens of the sea, a band of green seaweed, of
infinite variety, size and shape, encircling the sides of a mountain
peak twenty-two miles long and from four to six wide which rises
from a base nearly a mile beneath the sea to an altitude of one-
half mile above it. The shores are precipitous and abrupt;
the zone of seaweed is just at the surface and encircles the entire
island. In the bays at the mouths of the cafions, as Avalon,
Descanso, Cabrillo and others, there is shoal water and a sandy
143
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
bottom. The most attractive picture the angler sees through the
glass-bottom boat is the maze of vines in blue water, popularly
known as kelp. These plants of the sea are of vast length, often
one or two hundred feet, with huge leaves which coil and writhe
in the current, lying on the surface at low tide or deeply covered
at the flood, but always the home and resort and protection of a
score of animals of the sea and many game fishes.
We may in imagination follow the angler in the glass-bottom
boat, peering down into the ocean through the plates of glass.
They slightly magnify, and as the boat moves along every object
upon the bottom is seen with great distinctness: delicate surf-
fishes of silvery hue, imitating the bottom, famous in that their
young are born alive; small flat-fishes related to the flounder,
or halibut, whose eye passes around so that in the adult fish both
are upon one side, the upper. We can see the delicate furrows
in the sand that the incoming waves carve on the bottom of the
sea. There is the trail of the trochus shell, a veritable submarine
plow, that deflects to avoid the attractive collar egg-case of another
shell. Deeper becomes the water, and we begin to see the diapha-
nous haze or colour of the sea, now a faint, tremulous green, or a
suggestion of blue. A school of frightened sardines dash into
view, eyes staring, black, white, a flash of silver, and they are
gone. Small kelp-fishes, sinuous and dust-coloured, are seen
on the bottom; a sea-anemone that would fill a saucer lies in
the sand, covered with bits of shell—a queer defence. Deeper
still becomes the water, and a series of ejaculations come from
the voyagers as into view merge the radiant gardens of the sea.
If a moving-picture machine were projecting its views into the
water a better idea of a novel moving-picture could not be
imagined, as every moment there is a change—new plants, new
fishes, strange animals, and the gentle waves aid in this, by un-
folding and folding the splendid verdure of the sea. It is indeed
a moving-picture, and each observer peers down into the home
of some of the most interesting and little-known of ocean wonders.
The boat is now within a few feet of the shore, the stern in
144
‘pri cd ‘sokoy Aq oft] wWorz 0,04
“URDO SYR ‘pue|s] VUT[eJED eJURG ‘sseg pues o4y “Gz “BIy
WINDOWS FOR SEA ANGLERS
water but two or three feet, the bow over blue water, so sharp is
the descent, and the observer sees that he or she is looking at.
the side of a submarine mountain, on the slopes of which is an
ocean forest, in which the sardine bait dangles. There is a gentle
swell, and as a wave comes surging in, it lifts the masses of olive,
golden and brownish weed, folding it gently toward the shore,
then sending it back undulating and coiling, to be repeated.
again and again. Every time this veil is lifted some strange fish
or animal is uncovered. Now it is a sea-slug, a huge black
animal, perhaps a foot long, with flapping, wing-like organs
over its back and short antennae or feelers. If this creature is.
disturbed it throws out a splendid purple ink in resentment,
which is irritating enough to stop any predatory fish. Over
almost every green, algae-covered stone lies another slug, the
holothurian or sea-cucumber, eaten by the Chinese. It is a
cousin to the star-fishes, and in it lives a little silvery fish, the
Fierasfer.
Under every rock with its investment of coralline, red, blue:
or yellow sponge, is seen a jet-black array of bristles en charge.
This is the black echinus, not the same fellow of Florida, but with
shorter spines, equally disagreeable, a living pincushion. Near
it are two long spines waving to and fro, telling of the crayfish,
green instead of yellow, as in Florida; in fact, the looker-on
at this marine moving-picture show soon becomes aware that
almost all the animals differ from those of the Atlantic or other
parts of the world. All this time the guide is describing the
wonders, and that he has the various points named, the ‘ Grand
Cafion,’ the ‘ Yosemite,’ etc., and gives to the various animals
weird and uncanny names, does not lessen the gaiety of the scene.
or situation. Sprawled over a rock is the octopus or devil-fish,
emitting its cloud of ink. Specimens have been seen on the.
coast with a radial spread of twelve or fifteen feet. Watch it.
poise and crouch, then send out one of its snaky legs or tentacles.
at a hapless crab. If the observers are very lucky they will see a.
cousin, the paper nautilus, which is found here at certain seasons.
ae) 145,
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
and one of the rarest and most interesting animals elsewhere. It
builds a shell of diaphanous material by holding up its two shell-
secreting arms, and in them secretes its soft shell, here depositing
its eggs. But the shell is not essential to it, being a mere cradle
for the eggs, and the argonaut will leave it and wander about,
and at times deserts it altogether. After a storm twenty of
these radiantly beautiful shells have been found on the island
‘beaches.
As the boat moves out into deeper water, dragging the bait,
the pictures change, and we now see a wonderful mosaic. The
huge leaves of kelp are massed, and through them bits of vivid
turquoise-blue, the colour of the ocean, appear more than or-
dinarily vivid contrasted with the greens of the kelp, ranging from
‘dark to light green, yellow and olive. The sun sends visible beams
and shafts of light down through the azure windows, so that each
delicate jellyfish and many minute animals, as Sapphirinae
and Salpae, stand out in brilliant relief, forming with the loops
and portiéres a charming scene, only to be imagined in the deeps
-of the Californian seas. Each leaf is a study, as it is ornamented,
silvered, with dainty corallines in fantastic shapes. Here are
crabs of red and green clinging to it, so deftly disguised by nature
that it is almost impossible to see them, having assumed this
colouring as a protection. Down through the windows, and the
interstices of the kelp, is a deep, blue mass, so vivid as to be
startling. The boat stops, and we make it out to be a school of
‘perch, lying so closely together that they appear to be a solid
mass of azure, their backs a vivid blue seen through the blue of
the ocean depths. The water is so clear here that one may see
the bottom in forty or more feet.
As the boat drifts on we see the rocks and realize that we are
looking down the side of a precipitous mountain. Here altogether
new creatures are seen; great crabs, huge sea-anemones, some
‘of smaller size and of a brilliant red hue, looking like straw-
berries. Wedged in the rocks isa small shark with a white spine
in front of each fin, one of the most ancient types, related to the
146
WINDOWS FOR SEA ANGLERS
Port Jackson shark. In a little sandy bay is a black corkscrew-
like object, the egg, Nature having provided this case to prevent
it from washing ashore. Almost from the start, in the kelp, but
never on the sand, we have seen a brilliantly coloured, orange-red
fish, the red angel-fish, so tame or inquisitive that it can be very
carefully studied. With it are many rock-bass with beautiful eyes,
and young blue-eyed perch, and on rare occasions the sand-bass.
Directly before us, seen as the kelp rolls away, and then only
when pointed out, is the most remarkable of all these fishes, the
big kelp-fish. Now you see it, now you do not, though it is
directly under your eyes, but so extraordinary is its resemblance
to the kelp that even the skilled observer loses this wonderful
mimic as it winds back and forth before his eyes. The reason
of this is that the kelp-fish assumes the exact colour of the weed.
It has a long fin and is mottled, just as are the leaves, with dashes
of white, resembling the corallines. This is sufficient in itself
to disguise the fish, but as though not satisfied, it hangs in the
kelp, head up, or down, in a perpendicular position, so its resem-
blance to a part of the leafis exact. Very like a bird itisin the
tops of these kelpian forests, one hundred feet above the bottom.
Like a bird, it builds a nest by winding a cord of eggs about small
bunches of weed ; the male, in brilliant nuptial colours, watching
over it and violently attacking other fishes.
Crouching amid the rocks we see two kinds of sculpins, with
large heads and extraordinary fins, wonderful mimics of their
surroundings. The fish with the bands is the convict-fish, a very
mild-mannered little fish. Projecting from some crevice will be
seen a sharp-nosed fish with mouth open, displaying snake-like
teeth. This is the local sea-serpent, moray or sea eel, which
attains a length of four feet; a most disagreeable creature when
taken into a boat, coiling and striking like a snake and quite as
vicious. This is an ally of the fish to which the epicures of old
Rome fed slaves, to improve the flavour. Up out of the blue depths
may come a ponderous form six or seven feet in length, a perfect
black bass, yet moving slowly and with certain dignity through
147
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
the great arches of kelp. This is the black sea-bass, peculiar to
California.
As we slowly drift along we suddenly come upon a school of
beautiful and shapely fishes. They resemble salmon, but are
darker above and silvery below. None are less than four feet in
length, and they weigh not less than forty or fifty pounds—a
sight for the angler. They are white sea-bass, one of the finest
game fighters of the region. If the boat drifts clear of the kelp
into blue water we may catch a glimpse of the most beautiful
of all the Californian fishes, the Dorado, or dolphin, a game fish
which attains a weight of seventy or more pounds. The long,
sharp-nosed fishes are barracudas. The sight of hundreds of eyes
as we drift over them is one to be remembered. The barracuda
invariably runs in schools while its Florida relative is solitary.
Coming up from the bottom is the attractive whitefish, and the
sheepshead, the latter fish with a massive, domed head of velvet-
black and white lower jaw, its body alternate red and black
stripes. This is a friendly and familiar fish. Its young are
blue and very attractive. If very lucky, and in the summer season
when the glass-bottom boat is crossing deep water from point to
point, the observer may see the fine Catalina swordfish, the most
spectacular of game fishes. When hooked he constitutes a whole
moving-picture, as he jumps forty or fifty times, in frantic and
fierce endeavours to escape.
In deeper water the bonito, the albacore and on rare occasions
a leaping tuna may be seen. Some years ago a school of large
tunas came into Avalon Bay, and those who chanced to be in
glass-bottom boats saw scores of them dashing away, while the
glass was fairly obstructed by flying fishes seeking the bottom
of the boat in terror. When the boat with a window drifts slowly
over greater depths the moving-picture show is often made up of
remarkable jelly-fishes. One, a white and lavender-tinted meteor,
has been seen in early spring with a train of tentacles estimated
at fifty feet in length. Often they fairly cloy the water, and
scores can be seen pulsating by. A remarkable black jelly-fish is
148
Fig. 26. Game Fishes of North America. (Pacific Ocean).
1. Long-fin Tuna. 2. Pacific Mackerel. 3. Yellow-fin Tuna. 4. Luvarus Jack.
Photo by Reyes, taken in Santa Catalina Channel p. 148
WINDOWS FOR SEA ANGLERS
to be seen, and in the summer if a small glass-bottom boat is
rowed offshore a short distance a veritable fiesta of these wonders
of the sea will be witnessed. Some are in chains or rings; others
appear like fluted vases, and every possible shape and figure may
be observed. If a more graphic scene is desired take the glass-
bottom boat at night and drift around the kelp beds. Then
all nature seems ablaze; myriads of worms, invisible during
the day, now come whirling to the surface and glow like lamps.
Every drop of water when disturbed is a blaze of light, and in
the depths a large barrel-shaped object, the Pyrosoma, is seen,
sparkling with blue light. Minute objects of all colours of the
rainbow flash under the glass, and the sea appears to be filled
with meteors, comets and rains of fiery matter—a moving-picture
staged in the dark recesses of the sea.
All this time we have been drifting on. The shining lure, a
fresh sardine, has dangled in plain view ten feet below the window.
Suddenly, up from the abysmal deeps of vivid blue, shoots a
‘meteor-like form in green, blue, yellow and silver. It is a fish four
feet in length, splendidly active. It darts by the lure and the
azure sea seems to open as it disappears, as in wild confusion you
grasp therod and attempt to stop the shrieking click. You have
seen through the window the yellowtail strike, and now the ques-
tion is how to land him.
149
CHAPTER XVI
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
‘Long as a salmon, if not so stout,
And springy and swift as a mountain trout.’
Innes Randolph.
OUR angler, ancient or modérn, does not give himself over
entirely to luck or chance. At a little town outside of
Herculaneum I noticed a wave of lava from Vesuvius perched
on the top of a stone wall, arrested in an extraordinary manner.
My cicerone informed me that the flow had been arrested by a
statue of the Virgin held up by the local priest. The simple
villagers took no chances, and not so far away, across the
Mediterranean beyond Sorrento and Capri, they bring out the
Virgin to propitiate luck in fishing. In Japan the angler or the
fisherman appeals to Ebisu, the god of the fishermen, whose
statue, holding a fish, you may see in all Japanese collections.
You may buy prayers to Ebisu in the shape of long red ribbons
of paper, which are to be burned to the god. In very old times
nearly all fishermen gave votive offerings. It may have been a
coin tossed into the fountain of Trevi at Rome, or a procession at
Messina or an offering of eels at the altar of the temple of Neptune.
To-day the votive offering is more often the salutation, ‘ good
luck!’ or the verse of Walton where Piscator says to Corydon,
‘Propitious fortune bless my floating quill.’
When one goes yellowtail angling, whether in a launch or glass-
bottom boat, no one wishes him good luck or serves up eels to the
gods, for the very reason thatif there is a yellowtail about, it is
more than a chance that he will take the lure, as heis the fish of
the people of Southern California, as the bluefish is to the dwellers
150
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
in the North Atlantic states. I have seen the bay of Avalon,
ordinarily as smooth as glass, turned into a miniature mael-
strom by seemingly ten thousand fishes, and all over twenty
pounders. They came in like a raging band of wolves and
tinted the waters of the beautiful crescent a golden hue. The
roar of the waters quickly attracted the attention of the towns-
people, and men, women and children ran for lines and rods,.
and then for the beach.
I was one of the fortunates who secured a boat and drifted
in the midst of the utterly frantic school that was driving a large
shoal of anchovies in upon the shore, charging into the mass,.
glutting themselves, killing from mere blood lust and frenzy,.
utterly crazed with excitement and lost to all sense of security as.
they surged along the surface to catch the small fry that made
loud splashes, the combined sound of which produced a roar
as of the sea breaking on some distant beach, while the waters of
the bay were converted into silvery foam, as though a weird
windless storm was tearing along the surface.
The yellowtails drove the anchovies in upon the beach where
they formed a solid mass into which the insatiate wolves, for
such they seemed, plunged. The anglers rapidly increased in
numbers, and casting out from the beach had strikes on the in-
stant, as the open water was alive with big fishes racing up and
down with the speed of light. In a short time twenty or more
yellowtails had been landed and were threshing about on the
beach, the situation being rendered more animated by the shouts.
and cries of the victorious anglers on beach or wharf or in boats,
and by the continual augmentation of numbers with fishing
tackle of all sorts and kinds. The anglers in boats were being
towed this and that way, the big fishes breaking the heavy
hand-lines, taking hooks, or fouling other lines. As I looked
downward as I played a fish I could see three or four lines be-
neath me belonging to other boats, all approaching ultimate
and fatal confusion.
I had landed in a short time three or four yellowtails, then
I5I
’
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
stopped to view the excitement, the result of this extraordinary
scene. Children stood, knee-deep, in the water throwing out
the small fry in pails. Anglers lined the beach, all endeavouring
to cast into the throng; as a consequence, the lines became in-
extricably fouled or entangled, and a war of words followed.
Big fish carried away lines or broke them. One man fell off
the wharf, partly jerked over by a big fish, yet swam, holding
his rod up, and ultimately saved the game.
For a half hour this extraordinary ‘run’ of yellowtails
continued, when they withdrew as suddenly as they had appeared,
passing up the coast, leaving the population of Avalon, dazed with
excitement, to collect and count the spoils, which, fortunately,
could be used and were shipped to Los Angeles. The fish that
gave this remarkable illustration of its fighting, game and
pugnacious qualities, is well named the yellowtail, but is known
also as the white salmon, to which it is not related. It looks
not unlike the chinook salmon, but is longer, more slender, and
graceful, an ideal fish in form and beauty of personal appearance.
It is from three to nearly five feet long, and ranges up to eighty
pounds in exceptional fishes; painted with the yellows of
California in old gold or lemon tints on its tail and fins, while
from head to tail is a brilliant yellow stripe, making it a marine
cavalryman. The upper portion is olive-green; the lower a
bright silver purely minted and without a blemish. The tail is
powerful and forked. The head large, jaws powerful, mouth large,
and the eye full and brilliantly coloured. The dorsal fin is long
and prominent, as its specific name dorsalis indicates.
Such is the fish of the people of Southern California, Seriola
dorsalis; a distant cousin of the mackerel-like fishes, a near
ally of the Florida amber-fish and the little striped pilot-fishes
found about sharks and large swordfishes. It has kinsmen in
numerous amber fishes in various parts of the world, as S. hippos
of Australia, the ‘Sampson fish,’ S. lalandi, of the West Indies
and east coast of Florida, and the big S. dumerili of the Mediter-
ranean. Ihave seen a photograph of a seventy-pound amber fish
I52
Fig. 27.
A Lady’s Catch. 28 Ib. Yellow Tail, by Mrs. M. C. Dickinson, Avalon Bay, Cal., U.S.A. p. 152.
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
from Hawaii, and the same fish is known as Ao in Japan. If
you wish to trace the ancestry of this splendid fighter a fossil has
been found in Tuscany that was once the bottom of some ancient
sea.
The yellowtail is found in its greatest numbers, at its best,
at San Clemente and Santa Catalina islands, ranging south to
Mazatlan and north to the bay of Monterey. It is migratory,
appearing in April and disappearing in December, though if
the winter is dry, mild and stormless, large numbers remain
about the islands, and I have taken them from the wharf at
Avalon every month in the year. Exactly where the myriads of
these big game fishes go in winter is not known, but I have seen
individuals taken on the grouper banks in seven hundred feet
of water in February; hence they may descend to deep water
or go offshore to some deep bank into
‘The vast unseen mansions of the deep
Where secret groves with liquid amber weep,
Where blushing sprays of knotty coral spread,
And glint the azure with a deeper red.’
While this California amber fish charges its prey in shoals, at
times, in the summer, it breaks up into small groups of four or
five up to twenty, not swimming together entirely, but associ-
ating together. So that if you toss over some bait four or five
fishes may be expected, showing that they are swimming to-
gether.
The tyro can catch the yellowtail providing he has the
strength, and they are caught daily at Avalon in summer by men,
women and children. Yet I have seen a woman almost pulled
overboard by a yellowtail, children jerked from the wharf, and
men thrown into the toils of the hysterical frenzy of inaction
known as buck fever to the extent of trembling, dropping the
rod, completely overwhelmed. This is due to the fact that the
rush of the fish and its continued struggles are almost irresistible.
In trolling the fish strikes on the run, the reel makes a blare of
153
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
sounds, and the rush down is a splendid example of power and
peculiarly characteristic of the fish. Zip-zip-zip! it will go,
each impetus tearing off feet and yards of line, and there is but
one thing to do—let it go. Then the fish will sulk like a salmon.
I have often looked down and watched a fish fighting on a friend’s
line, its side against him, head down, fighting every inch and
foot and fathom, often breaking away to take it all again, never
giving up.
I cannot better convey to the indulgent reader my own im-
pression of the yellowtail than to describe several days’ fishing
experience with it in May and in September. It should be said
that the yellowtail is so common, so always in evidence, that
it is taken as a matter of course, but I venture the opinion that
there is no fish in the sea of its size and weight, that is a better
or more sustained and courageous fighter. For this reason the
directors of the Tuna Club devote particular attention to it in
deference to these points with a view to prevent the over-fishing
of the free biter and to elevate its catch to a high standard, with
fair play as a basis. In other words, the yellowtail is a splendid
game fish, and the Club insists that its members, at least, shall give
it the advantage. Hence when an angler takes a thirty or forty
pounder on Tuna Club tackle he has accomplished something
worth the while, and preved himself an angler of finesse and
skill. The prizes are given in the chapter on Angling Clubs.
The tackle is of two kinds: (1) the nine-ounce rod. This was
devised by Mr. Arthur Jerome Eddy of Pasadena and Chicago,
and is sufficiently large to take a sixty- or seventy-pound fish in an
hour or so. It was with this tackle that Mr. Wm. H. Simpson of
Whalley, Lancashire, England, took the record fish of the Club,
sixty andone half pounds. This fine fish, which has never been
beaten, has been placed in the fish department of the British
Museum, with a replica of the rod and line ; (2) the so-called 3-6
rod. This was suggested by Mr. T. McDaniel Potter of Los Angeles,
a director of the Club, to render the capture of the yellowtail
more difficult. The 3-6 Club was organized to specialize the
154
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
tackle, but is a class of the Tuna Club. So many ‘ buttons’
and prizes may seem puerile and unnecessary to the seasoned
angler, but there is method in the madness. Thousands of men
visit the islands and nearly all fish. It isfair to say that fifty
per cent. have never heard of the ethics or high standards of
sport, or even dreamed that a fish should be given a fighting
chance for its life. Ifsuch men were not attended to, and taught,
they would go out with four or five hand-lines or small ropes and
their definition of sport would be to see how many fish they could
bring in. In 1886 this was the every-day disgrace of the most
beautiful sea angling region in the world. Boats went out with a
number of hand-lines and tons of yellowtails were brought in,
many to be hung up and photographed, then thrown into the
channel.
Listen to William C. Prime on this subject in I Go a-Fishing,
written years ago:
‘ There is always that distinction to keep in mind between going to get
fish and going a-fishing. There is no possibility of convincing the general
run of people that the old angler has his enjoyment in the going for fish,
and that the getting of fish is but a minor part of the day’s pleasure.
This distinction grows more and more marked as we grow older, The
young angler—I speak of young in experience, not young in years—the
angler who has not had many years of enjoyment in the gentle art, counts
much on the fullness of his basket, on the rivalry with companions, on the
glitter of his catch, when to appreciate the innumerable joys which dwell
on the banks and in the waters of the rivers and lakes, and which are
surely to be taken whenever one goes a-fishing. And therefore the old
angler has always a successful day, catching that which he went out to
catch with great certainty, and coming home with a load of beauty in his
heart, and beauty to talk and tell about, though there be not a fish in his
creel.’
It was to stop: this gross over-fishing, and to inculcate an
idea of sport as it is understood by civilized people, by gentle-
men, that the Tuna Club is organized for gentlemen, and it is
a matter of gratification to the distinguished men who joined
the Club, and lent to it their moral support, that a complete
155
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
and utter change has been brought about at this greatest of the
world’s angling centres. There is not a boatman at Avalon who
will provide a patron with a hand-line. Such an appliance is not
carried, and you must fish according to the fair and eminently
just rules of the Club or take a rowboat and row yourself. The
result is that the outfit of the men, the fine rods and reels, the
sportsmanlike lines, appeal to the novice and he tries for the
buttons or the various prizes, valued at several thousand dollars,
offered by the Club in all classes of angling. The result has
been, the Club has stopped the waste, inculcated a fine sports-
manlike feeling, and caused the adoption of a high standard,
that has been copied by allied clubs and associations all over
the country. The club considers this a step toward the con-
summation of the hoped-for conservation of the sea fishes, a
desideratum devoutedly needed all over America. I trust the
reader will pardon this digression, which will suggest that the
anglers of America and England have the honour of the sport at
heart, and that a killing is not the only object in view.
In fishing for yellowtail it is usual to use either a 6 /° or
10/° hook when the fish run to but twenty-five pounds, and
sardine bait with a short-swivelled piano-wire leader. If the
fish are running up to forty pounds, as they frequently do at
San Clemente, where Mr. Simpson took his sixty and one-half
pound fish, a larger hook is used, of the O’Shaughnessey type,
and the bait is a flying fish, which is about eighteen inches long,
weighing from a pound to a pound and a half. The line is
doubled for six or eight feet near the wire leader or trace. The
fish is gaffed, never netted, the gaff handle being five or eight
feet long and often fastened to the launch with a rope.
Such a bait is paid out from the multiplying reel, which holds
six hundred feet of line, until the eighty or one hundred feet is out ;
then the launch moves slowly alongshore, at times not one hundred.
feet from it, following the line of kelp with which the islands here
are surrounded. The ground is in the lee, and while twenty or
forty miles offshore, the water is smooth as an inland lake, pro-
156
Fig. 28. Yellow Tail Fishing. Light Tackle (6-0z. Rods, 6 Thread Lines).
Experts of the Tuna Club, California, U.S.A., Playing 25-pound Albacore and Yellow
Tail on 6-0z. Rods, off Cabrillo Santa Catalina, California.
1. Mr. H. Ormsby Phillips, of Pasadena, at a critical moment. 2. Mr. Joseph Banning’s
Rod after 30 minutes. 3. Mr. Banning playing «a Bonito. 4. Going Home—the
boatmen steering with long strings fastened to the wheel amidships. 5. Mr. Phillips’s
Catch with a 6-0z. Rod. (Photo by Mr. H. Ormsby Phillips and Mr. Banning). p. 156.
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
tected by the lofty cliffs or mountains. The water is a blue of
indescribable beauty and intensity, and filled with radiant jelly
fishes and other forms, and affording vistas into the halls and
parterres formed by the kelpian forests which, olive-hued, are
veritable palaces of the sea and through which the blue of the
ocean forms a splendid picture.
While passing the lofty cliffs which reach away up into deep
cafions, we may glance at the convenient equipment of the anglers.
If he is angling with 3-6 or very light tackle he wears a belt with a
leather socket in which he places the butt of the rod when he is
playing the fish, thus obtaining a fulcrum; or he may use @
flat-face rubber cap that fits on to the silver tip of the butt, and
which can be pressed against the body without trouble. If he
is using a heavier rod there is attached to his seat, between his
legs, a larger socket for the butt. This is really intended for
tuna, swordfish and black sea bass—a necessary fulcrum; but
it can be used for a large yellowtail.
When the strike comes, the engineer, gaffer and steersman,
who sits directly behind the angler (who are seated in comfort-
able chairs facing the stern), stops the boat and allows the angler
to play the fish to a finish, and generally in twenty minutes it is
brought to the gaff. If the fishes are extremely plentiful the
launch is stopped altogether and allowed to drift, while the
boatman tosses over sardines or anchovies and keeps the yellow-
tails about the boat, the angler casting for them with a short
line. Nearly all the yellowtail fishing is between Avalon bay and
Church Rock, within five or six miles, or about a large sea-lion
rookery. The fleet of twenty or thirty launches reaches the
ground in an hour or less; is always inshore near the rocks, and
generally, when the conditions are at their best, obtain between
eight and twelve yellowtails, averaging twenty-five pounds—
a satisfying bag.
While the yellowtail will come within a few feet of the boat,
and take a bait, and at times will take any lure, and can be
caught by the merest tyro, he is again a very Cagliostro of the
157
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
sea in cleverness and tranquil obliviousness to the wiles of the
angler.
In May, 1912, Dr. Gifford Pinchot, ex-U.8. Forester in the
Roosevelt régime, joined me at Santa Catalina and by nine
o’clock one morning we were fifteen miles up the island at: Ship
Rock, a peak-like rock which rises precipitously a mile off Cabrillo
near the Isthmus. The ocean was perfectly calm, and we had
no sooner arrived than we saw large yellowtails in or near the
kelp, and the moment a sardine bait sank twenty feet, not ten feet
from the Rock, we both had strikes. The boatman imme-
diately started the launch offshore and we held the fish to keep
them out of the kelp for which they willmake. Once well out he
stopped, and we played two of the hardest fighting fish any one
would wish to hook, and their desperate plays, rushes and surges,
threatening rod and line. The fishes gaffed, we moved in again
until the cutwater of the launch almost hit the moss-covered
rock down from which hung the weird but resplendent draperies
of the sea. The water was as blue as liquid sapphire, and clear
as crystal. Into it Felice José Presiado, which is Mexican Joe’s
real name, would toss a handful of anchovies, at which, out of
the depths, as though summoned by a genie, would come the
splendid golden-vestured forms of six or ten large yellowtails.
Over we cast with but ten or twenty feet of line out. Presto!
bang-zip-zee ! and the game was on, without the slightest delay.
I am not going to weary the indulgent reader by prolonging
this fantasy piscatorial, but we continued, experimenting with
all sorts of tackle and rods to observe the relative power of the
fishes, until we had landed fourteen, none of which weighed less
than twenty pounds and some I think ranged up to thirty pounds.
Every fish was a fighter in the best condition, and each one forced
us to play fifteen, twenty or more minutes, at a rate that would
have worn out any one not accustomed to it. As it was, I put
most of the work on my indulgent companon by shirking my share.
This was a typical day’s fishing. In September I found my-
self a guest of Judge Banning in his summer home at Cabrillo,
158
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
overlooking Ship Rock, and telling the story of our remarkable
luck. It resulted in my going out with Mr. J. B. Banning, Jr.,
and a young lady angler who was desirous to seeso animated a
scene. We had the Rock to ourselves. The conditions were
much the same as on the occasion related, though it was blowing ;
but in the lee of the big rock the water was smooth. Acting as
boatman, I tossed over a handful of anchovies, and with the
abandon which comes with successes summoned the game from
the deeps. I was eminently successful, as up out of the beautiful
water appeared six or more huge yellowtails, twenty-five and
thirty pounders. They came directly to the surface, not five
or ten feet from the boat, making the water boil, shooting here
and there, turning in graceful curves and picking up the ancho-
vies one by one—a sight for the gods, especially the Tritons and
those who go a-fishing. Quickly the anchovies were all eaten
and all that was left were the two delicious baits sinking lower
and lower.
It is needless to dwell upon this painful scene, but the facts
are, being patient and persistent anglers, determined to give
that young lady a fish, Mr. Banning and I fed those demure and
educated monsters from nine in the morning until one o’clock
in the afternoon, and they ate and ate and ate, very much as
‘A fisherwoman had chestnuts in her lap, and munched, and
munched, and munched.’
Taking the free bait, alongside, deep, at the surface, and in
every fashion, but never that I could see did they once glance at
the same bait that concealed the hook. There are times when
patience slips from the monument and scowls at grief, and I
can but draw a veil over the memory of this painful experience,
which has occurred more than once in the experience of every
angler, whether with yellowtail, trout, salmon or tuna, and which
illustrates the astuteness and cleverness and adds to the value
as a game fish of the famous yellowtail.
If this fish could be taken in shallow water it would have no
equal in the world, as it would have all the tricks of the salmon
159
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
excepting that of leaping, and twice its strength. But once did
I have the game insuch a location. This was at San Clemente,
where there is a wide ledge of shallow water between Mosquito
Cafion and the Hook at the east end. There is, perhaps, two
acres of water here of a depth of ten or fifteen feet. One morning
I discovered a big school of yellowtails well inshore. I made a
cast into the school, hooked a big one, and enjoyed its splendid
play on the surface for a half hour. At one time it had nearly
five hundred feet of line out in a splendid rush directly on the
surface. Then I stood up on the stern deck and having the fish
on a six-ounce rod, bade my boatman to go after it at full speed,
while I reeled.
So we played it, rushing this and that way. The moment I
got near it the fine creature would turn and dash up the coast
to the north, taking nearly all my six hundred feet by the time
we turned. Then we went after it at racing speed, shouting with
laughter and excitement, cheered on by the speetators in several
boats, and all in water as clear and smooth as alake. I nearly
had the fish before it discovered the game I was playing, then it
made a sudden rush past us and seaward, reached the edge of
blue water, and like a meteor, dashed down the side of the
submerged mountain into the depths from which I was forced
to ‘pump ’ it up—a startling contrast to the joy and excitement
of the few moments before.
At times when the yellowtail will not bite it can be taken by
lowering the bait to the bottom, and if the angler will take a car
filled with live sardines and tow it, using live bait, he may always
catch them. At least I have never known them to resist this
lure, though I am prepared to believe, so clever is. the fish,
that such an occasion might arise. It is said that sea fishes
are not intelligent, but I recall at least two exceptions: the
gray snapper of Florida, and the yellowtail or amber fish of
Santa Catalina; the finest trace cannot deceive them. As a
rule, the yellowtail will bite and it constitutes the largest and
surest catch in this region of great game fishes. Some of the
160
Fig. 29.
1. Perch in Hanging Gardens, Avalon Bay, California.
raphed from life by Reyes). p. 160.
2. White Fish, Southern California Islands. (Photog
THE YELLOWTAIL OF CALIFORNIA
rod records of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina Island are as
follows :
LarGest YELLOWTAIL (Seriola dorsalis).
F. V. Rider, Avalon, Cal., season 1898 : : . 41 pounds.
¥. 8S. Gerrish, Neahenn gales Fla., season 1899. . 2b BT 5
R. F. Stocking, Los Angeles, Cal, season 1899 : . 48 +
T. S. Manning, Avalon, Cal., season 1901 : . 33 i
Dr. Trowbridge, Fresno, Cal., season 1902. ‘ . 474 ,,
F. P. Newport, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1903 : . 46 Fe
H. Meyst, Chicago, Ill, season 1904 F i . 4 9
I. E. Pflueger, Akron, Ohio, season 1905 . - . 43 +4
1A. A, Carraher, Avalon, Cal., season 1906 . : . 381 ,,
1Edward C. Sacks, Butte, Mont., season 1907 - . 413 ~~ ,,
1t. W. W. Simpson, England, season 1908 . : . 602,
1¢, HE. Ellis, Spokane, Wash., season 1909 . : . 482 ,,
2C. G. Conn, Avalon, Cal., winter season 1909-1910 . 404 ,,
1Dr. B. F. Alden, San Trsineisnes season 1910 : 454,
1Mrs. Evelyne Garrett, Los Angeles, winter season 1910-11 45 ‘i
1 Morris, S. Phillips, Redlands, Cal., season 1911. . 42
1 Taken under tackle specifications of Light Tackle Class.
2 Taken under tackle specifications of Three-Six Class.
II 161
CHAPTER XVII
THE SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
°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.
HE game fishes of the Pacific coast of North America are
so large, and their capture on light tackle has attracted
so much attention, that the small fry are completely lost sight
of except by local anglers.
The long mainland beaches of California, in the majority of
instances without rocks or anything to relieve them, receive the
heavy swell of the Pacific, raised by a local wind incorrectly
called ‘ trade,’ which comes up about noon daily and by two
or three o’clock is a fresh, stirring breeze. Early in the morning
it may be dead calm, but by eleven or twelve o’clock this mysteri-
ous breeze begins. It is moderate in Southern California, but
after Point Concepcion is passed, in about latitude thirty-two
degrees, it is felt more severely.
This surf keeps off most of the fishes except at such localities
as San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Redondo, where fairly deep
water comes in near shore. But in the surf are found certain
fishes which afford no little sport, and from the lines of the rail-
way south of Los Angeles, and between it and San Diego, many
anglers will be seen either standing on the sands, like the New
Jersey anglers, or wading in and casting. The fish so caught is
very attractive, known as the kingfish or California whiting
(Menticirrus undulatus). Others, caught off sandy beaches
162
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
alongshore, are the yellow-fin, roncador (Umbrina roncador),
the California Roncador stearnst, also called the ‘ spot-fin croaker,’
from the spot or black ocellus at the base of the pectoral fin.
There is also a little roncador (croaker) in California, Genyonemus
lineatus. The roncador or yellow-fin has been taken by Mr.
T. McD. Potter outside the surf on sandy bottom at Silver Cafion,
Santa Catalina Island, and is one of the most beautiful fishes of
these waters; ablaze with golden-yellow tints, its fins a bright
yellow.
One might fish for some of these fishes forever with sardine
bait, and never catch one. They have a penchantfor clam bait,
abalone or crab, particularly the former, and by using a light
rod no little sport can be had. Herein lies the sport to be found
at many unexpected places—the tackle should be graded to suit
the game. To fish for roncador with fish bait at Santa Catalina
or San Clemente, or at the long beaches on the mainland, would
draw a blank; they must have the proper bait. To fish for these
four-, five- or six-pound fishes with a sixteen-ounce rod is to
draw a ‘ sporting’ blank—as they are slaughtered. A stiff trout
rod is more to the point, and with it the angler will find enjoyment.
This is true of many small fishes of the Californian coast.
The angler in trolling for yellowtail or white sea bass is often
annoyed by the rock bass, a fish which ranges up to eight or
more pounds, but averages three or four pounds. Ona heavy rod
this fish gives up at once; it is obliged to, and so has become
known asa pest. Ifthe angler will rig up a two- or three-ounce,
ten-foot split cane or bamboo rod with a light linen line, and fish
with a small sardine or asmall spoon, he will find fair sport with
these attractive fishes, whose name is legion, and which have the
most beautiful eyes of all the fishes—veritable gems, blue, green
and gold. The common name for these fishes is rock-bass. The
Green rock-bass, Sebastodus flavidus, the Black rock-bass,
S. mystimus, the Orange rock-bass or Rasciera, S. miniatus.
This is a very large and richly coloured group of fishes. Some
allied forms are called Groupers—rich red fishes, but beyond
163
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
the reach of rod fishermen, and taken with hand-lines in six hun-
dred feet of water.
Possibly the finest game fish of this region among the small
fishes is the Blanquillo or whitefish, Caulolatilus princeps. This
is peculiar to Southern California and found principally at the
islands, San Clemente being a favourite locality. When fishing
with Dr. Gifford Pinchot in 1910 we found a rock one day rising
to within ten feet of the surface then dropping to a great depth.
The side of this precipice was richly covered with weed, and
alive with fishes of many tones. The zone of thirty or forty feet
was evidently devoted to the blanquillo, as the moment the lure
reached this depth the strike came, and a slight jerk sufficed to
inaugurate the sport, that was always fast and furious. The
fishes were twelve or fifteen inches long and some weighed ten
or twelve pounds, giving on our little 3-6 rods sport of the finest
description.
There was but one drawback; it was practically impossible
to get the bait down without hooking a fish, and in a short time
it palled on us—an excellent illustration of the fact that while
angling is supposed to be the taking of fishes, if the angler catches
too many he loses interest in the sport. What makes anglinga
sport and saves it from market fishing, is the uncertainty and the
fact that nearly all fishes are capricious, and it rarely happens
that the angler catches more than he desires.
I took so many whitefishes that day on the side of that beauti-
ful mountain of the sea, up whose sapphire sides Queen Gulnare
might have appeared at any moment, that I have never felt
quite the same regarding a blanquillo since. Yet our consciences
were free as there were several Venetian fishermen of Los Angeles
near by, to whom all we could catch was a gift from the gods, a
fish panic being on, or rather a stringency, which I firmly believe
we alleviated.
The blanquillo is a demure fish, yet attractive in its quiet
colours. It resembles a dolphin somewhat, having a large high
head and a@ long splendid dorsal and ventral fin. Its colour is
164
(sokoy Aq afl] worz o}04q)
*RIUJOJITED) U1ay}NOS *
eurreyeg eyURS ‘sseg-yOoy.. OE “BLT
~ . pie tee
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
olive with flashes of blue and lavender. It is a most graceful
fish in the water and game in every sense if the angler will always
remember the light rod and generous light tackle. The best
fishing I have had with the blanquillo was when the current
(tidal) was running at San Olemente. By tossing out bait
the fishes were induced to come to the surface thirty or forty feet
astern of the yacht, and could be taken without sinkers.
The reader will be impressed by the fact that Southern Cali-
fornia has so many fishes peculiar to that particular region.
‘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.’
If Merivale had thrown the line at Santa Catalina for white-
fish he would often have taken a fish called the sheepshead, but
not related to the fish of that name in Florida. It has a pro-
digious head, well domed, like the swordfish ; in the males striped
black and red ; the under jaw vivid white, the lower jaw black.
The head is as black as velvet ; its eyes are red, and unlike those
of most fishes, are very moveable and have a fashion of roaming
around in a comical manner. The females are liable to be all
red or brown, or almost white, and do not have the big-domed
forehead or the stripes.
The sheepshead is taken in rocky places ; in fact, it prefers
such, but is fond of roaming into shallow water with sandy bottom,
and is a very curious and sociable fish. It will take sardine bait
when hungry, but prefers crab, crayfish, clam or ablone, and
- with its sheeplike teeth, projecting, sharp and stout, it is capable
of capturing any of this food. The ten or fifteen pounders are
fine fighters, and intersperse long rushes and runs with a variety of
manceuvres, calculated to try the heart of light rods and lines
which should be employed. This fish is very amenable to friendly
advances. I had an individual under view in an aquarium for
some months where it became very tame, and would poise and
165
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD.
permit the keeper to scratch its back, which suggests that there
is such a thing as tickling a salmon.
In these prolific waters, the heart of the Black Current of
Japan, that like a vast river of the ocean, flows down the Santa
Catalina channel, tempering the surrounding country, the watch-
ful angler is always being surprised at some new arrival or some
fish which by all rights belongs to the tropics, lower Mexico,
Hawaii or Japan. The rarest and most beautiful fishes of the
world appear to be fairly common here. I venture to say that
almost every opah, or ribbon fish (Regalecus) ever taken is a
matte rof record, and the well posted ichthyologist can tell you in
which museum each one is to be found. A twenty-five foot
specimen of the ribbon fish was picked up near Newport Landing,
and I have seen five or six at Avalon, and had the really wonder-
ful luck of seeing one alive and secured a photograph of it.
Another was seen by a diver from a glass-bottom boat. .The
men went down into the long kelp leaves and caught the long
sluggish ribbon of silver and brought it to the surface. It was
over ten feet in length, about a half inch thick, and six or eight
inches high, with a splendid series of vermilion plumes over its
head the dorsal spines.
In the Tuna Club at Avalon you may see therare Luvarus Jack.
Ihave never met a person who has observed the fish. It weighed
twenty or more pounds, was two feet high—a gleaming mass of
silver, with scarlet fins. More dazzling yet is the opah, which
resembles a sunfish in shape, but is a veritable moon, with a
wonderful and ethereal investment of colours, a disc of silver
veiled in old rose. The specimen in the Tuna Club was taken in a
net, but a Long Beach angler caught one when trolling in the
San Clemente channel. The opah and Luvarus are game fishes,
but this is probably the first one ever taken with a line.
These fishes, excepting the Luvarus and opah, are taken with
medium-weight rods, but there are many smaller fishes here
which should be fished for with five- or six-ounce rods. If this is
done, good sport will be the result. Under this head I would
166
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
include the Californian mackerel, which differs from the Eastern
form; a livelier game fish, but not so palatable. I have taken
these fishes on an eight-ounce ten-foot trout rod and had ex-
cellent sport, the two or three pounders making savage rushes,
and in strength comparable to four- or five-pound trout. The
mackerel are taken here from wharves, or from boats trolling, but
the most satisfactory method is to find the school, and lie off and
cast for them.
In shallow water is found a group of three little fishes which
are rarely caught in these waters as they are found mainly at the
islands where the big fishes fill the eye. When they are tried,
anglers overlook the fact that they have a very small mouth
requiring a small hook, and they do not take fish bait ; crayfish,
abalone or crab appealing to them entirely. They are the blue-
eyed perch, the blacksmith, and the so-called pompano, not a
pompano at all. The former attains a weight of six pounds, and
is a very muscular plump fish, with beautiful eyes. On a trout
rod it will surprise the angler by the wild rushes it makes, testing
a light rod to the limit. Here also is the long silvery jack smelt,
caught with the rod, calling to mind the bony fish ; the sea-trout,
or bluefish, really a Cynoscion, or squeteague. In the bays will
be found schools of lusty mullet, taken by some anglers with the
rod by means of dough, or some equally marvellous ‘ portions.’
From the literary deeps of some of the ancient authors
receipts of extraordinary baits can be had. Weare told by John
Williamson, Gent., to use pastes and various unguents, and he
drops into rhyme to impress it upon the memory thus:
‘To fish with nat’ral flies whene’er you chuse,
Observe the season, and provide for use ;
Observe the fish, as round for Prey they rove,
And take your Baits where best they seem to love.
For search all Nature, and this Truth you'll find,
Variety, that Mistress of Mankind,
Is not to Species, nor to Sex confin’d.’
Then we are advised to boil down the leg of a young kitten,
167
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
with wax and sheep-suet, mixed with bean or wheat flour. If
you wish to force a fish to bite try the following, by Monsieur
Charras, Apothecary Royal to the French king, Louis XIV:
Equal parts of Man’s Fat, Cat’s Fat, powdered Mummy, cum-
min-seed, oil of Anise and Spike, two grains of Civet, and Camphire.
Anoint the last six inches of the line with an ointment made of
these ingredients and it will be found irresistible : a Tear of Gum
Ivy is recommended, with half an ounce of Assafoetida. This
is said to be very fetching for gudgeons. Any of these baits
would not only arrest the attention of a mullet, but could be
depended on to arrest the attention of Banquo’s ghost.
The various towns of California, as Santa Monica, Redondo,
Long Beach, Newport, Huntington Beach, Naples, Ocean Park,
Venice and others have extraordinary piers running out into the
sea beyond the breakers. No commerce is expected, ships come
not nor do they go, except at Redondo; in fact, the more
elaborate the dock, the more debarred is it, apparently, from the
possibility of a ship landing there, though at one pier there is a
replica of the ship which bore Cabrillo, the discoverer, to these
waters. But this is bogus, being a restaurant and resting on
logs, like the ship ‘ Nonesuch’ of fable—‘ with-three decks and
no bottom.’
The explanation of these piers, with no hope or expectation
or wish for commerce, is that they are fishing or angling piers,
virtual villages in some instances of shops, built out into the
ocean. On some when the fish are running you may see two or
more hundred men, women and children, all fishing with long
bamboo rods for surf-fish, roncador, sea-trout, jack-smelt,
mackerel, croakers, and hoping for yellowtail, sea-bass and big
game which frequently come. No better evidence that there
is a love of angling among all peoples can be seen than in this
angling contingent, some of whom sleep on the piers Saturday
night, or hard by, to secure a position Sunday when all the
piers are crowded. It is free fishing, and on each pier is a shop
where one can rent or purchase rod, reel and line and all kinds
168
Fig. 31. Small Game Fishes (Fly Rod) of Southern California Shores and Island.
1. Blacksmith Fish. 2. Roncador (Croaker), 3. White Perch. 4. Spot Perch. 5. Surf
Fish. 6. Striped Perch. (Photographed from life, by Reyes at Avalon). p. 168.
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
of bait. Often great quantities of fish are taken, and the patience
of Ovid and Oppian is exemplified as a virtue of the ages.
There is a fine halibut taken on sandy bottom in Southern
California, the Tuna Club having a record sixty pounder; but
smaller specimens are the rule, taken in lagoons and at the
mouth of the island cafions. In deep water, but found at the
surface, in shoals or schools, is a beautiful little fish, the bonito.
I should call it the humming-bird of the sea, so radiant is it, so
bathed in myriads of colours and tints. It is a mackerel-like
fish, a cousin of the tunas ; very thick-set, but a type of activity,
its tail moving so rapidly that it can scarcely be seen. I have
taken this little fish within a few feet of the shore at Santa Catalina,
where it abounds in countless numbers. The most interesting
place to observe it is a mile off Avalon in the sapphire-blue of the
Kuro-shiwo. Here great bands of bonitos roam with the
albacore, and when the launch is stopped and the boatman tosses
over a handful of bait to attract the fish the sight is an extraor-
dinary one. The ocean is a vivid blue; dark when cloudy, a
light turquoise when the sun shines. Great beams of light can
be seen penetrating the deeps, illuming the myriads of iridescent
and translucent animals which fill every drop of this semi-tropic
sea. The result is that a wealth of weird and fascinating animals
are exhibited and seemingly magnified, their colours being
brilliant and beautiful beyond expression. Here are bands of
minute crustaceans of every hue of the rainbow, gems of the
‘dark unfathomed caves,’ so like the real gems that the name
Sapphirinae has been given them. Some are sapphires, others
pink diamonds ; here a group of rubies or emeralds ; others again
range from Kunzite to tourmaline, all so minute that when placed
under the naked eye they can scarcely be seen. Yet when
drifting in this cerulean sea it has the appearance at times of
having been dusted with gems.
Pulsating, into these living gems comes a living comet with a
head a foot or two feet across. Its colour is that of ice, variegated
with bands of dark lavender. Away from it extends a sweeping
169
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
tail fifteen or twenty feet in length, tinted, splashed with pink
and lavender. Other jelly-fishes as large as the closed fist are
turquoise of the more delicate hue, while here and there the most
delicate and radiant forms appear, from the classic shape of
Circe to the glorious Pyrosoma which illumines the sea at night.
Such are but a few of the forms which fill this blue sun-room of
the upper ocean, up through which the little bonito rushes, its back
coloured by the artist that painted the blue of the eternal deeps ;
a living tourmaline that is even more beautiful when caught,
its silvery skin blazing and flashing with ten thousand tints and
coruscations. Well can the angler hesitate to devastate the
sea. At least these delightful objects are among the compensa-
tions when the fish do not bite, as is sometimes the case.
There is another, the oceanic bonito, a larger, longer fish,
taken in the spring months off the islands of Santa Catalina and
San Clemente. It runs up to fifteen pounds and is a game fish in
every sense. When coursing these radiant seas in pursuit of
game of various kinds, the angler often goes several miles at sea
to the southwest of Santa Catalina in what he calls the ‘ doldrums,’
or a point where the wind dies down and is nearly always a dead
calm, due to the lee afforded by the island. Here great patches of
kelp often collect, under which at times are found the re-
splendent dolphin, Coryphaena hippurus. In the heroic poem,
‘The Shield of Heracles,’ supposed by some to be by Hesiod,
we read:
‘And in the midst,
Full many dolphins chased the fry and showed
As though they swam the waters, to and fro,
Darting tumultuous. Two of silver scale
Panting above the wave, the fishes mute
Gorged, that beneath them shook their quivering fins.’
This is the fish which changes colour so rapidly and presents
so amazing an appearance as it comes in. Montgomery in his
Pelican Island, says :
170
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
‘A shoal of dolphins tumbling in wild glee,
Glowed with such orient tints they might have been
The rainbow’s offering, where it met the ocean.’
The Tuna Club has a dolphin cup, presented by Dr. Mattison,
and recognizes the beautiful fish as one of the hard fighters of the
sea, comparing well with the yellowtail. I have seen them
caught off the Santa Catalina ‘doldrums,’ and lying on the
deck, I gazed down into the deep blue water and saw this
golden-green harlequin of the sea come slowly up on Mr. Potter’s
line, changing colour from green to yellow to old gold, blue and
other hues—a marvellous spectacle. I have taken the Atlantic
species from among the sargasso weed patches not far from
Bahama, and in the Gulf Stream, and know it to be a fine game
fish. But it has never been my good fortune to take one in
California though I have hunted the seas many days.
Another rare fish at Santa Catalina, game in every sense, is
the Lady fish, Albula vulpes, that has been taken here and at
Santa Monica two feet in length. It is a singular appearing
silvery fish that performs many strange antics when hooked.
Approximating the English conger, taken by the members of
the British Sea Anglers Society, is a murray, common in South-
ern California, also called the Conger eel (Gymnothorax modaz).
Specimens over six feet in length and weighing forty pounds
have been taken. It is a ferocious appearing fish and coils like a
snake, and looks like one.
The California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea, is one of the
commonest of the small game fishes, arriving in vast schools
early in the spring, and breaking up. It is taken with rod and
reel near shore. Its maximum size is about fifteen pounds.
On a light rod it will often make an interesting play, but call-
ing to mind the fresh-water pickerel.
The Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus sierra, is taken at
Santa Catalina and San Clemente occasionally, but is not com-
mon. Equally rare is the Pomfret, Brama raii, while the
171
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
California pompano, Peprilus simillima, is very common at
times at Santa Catalina near Seal Rocks. Other small but
common fishes often caught are ‘Johnny Verde,’ Paralabrax
_nebulifer, the spotted Cabrilla, and the Medialuna, the latter
particularly common at Santa Catalina and a fine game fish
of three or four pounds when caught on a trout rod. A small
hook is necessary, and the fish will not take fish bait unless very
hungry ; crayfish, clam or abalone (haliotis) is the lure of its
choice. I have found Long Point, five miles from Avalon, an
especially good place for this attractive blue-tinted little fish.
There are a number of small sharks on the Southern Cali-
fornian coast which afford the same sport as the British tope.
One known as the leopard shark, very common in Catalina
Harbour, attains a weight of sixty pounds and leaps when hooked.
The young bonito sharks, caught in the open ocean, four or five
feet in length, are also game worthy the name, and leap high and
well when in the toils.
The list of small fishes of this locality, which could be fairly
included under the head of game fishes, is very large, suggestive
of the sport available to the angler who does not care for the
more strenuous exercise with the greater game. I am indebted
to Mr. Charles V. Barton of the Tuna Club for the following
data of the small shore fishes, on which he is an authority :
‘The principal game fish of Southern California waters taken from
shore or pier with hook and line are the California surf-whiting (Menticirrhus
undulatus), the yellow-fin and the spot-fin croaker (Roncador stearnsi).
‘The California surf-whiting, by reason of its gameness and superior
excellence as food, leads all the rest in the fancy of the Southern Cali-
fornia light-tackle angler. It ranges from a quarter of a pound to ten
poundsin weight. Eight and a half pounds is the largest registration on
the records of the Southern California Rod and Reel Club. It is an ex-
tremely powerful fish, living as it does in or near the surf, and its body is
shaped so as to withstand the crash and pressure of the breakers. Its
principal food is the sand-crab, so called, which burrows in the wet sand
and is washed into the water by the receding rollers.
‘ The flesh of the surf-whiting is firm, sweet, and dainty, and is preferred
by many to that of any other salt-water fish. This fish is also known
172
LI d BIUIOPTED “BUl[eyeD ePULS
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SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
locally as “‘ surf-fish ” and ‘‘ corbina,” but called erroneously by the
Mexicans “ scarbina.”
‘The best specimens are taken by casting from the beach into the surf,
though the larger proportion of anglers fish from the pier. Beach fishing
necessitates wading into the surf, making a very hard day’s work. Tackle
used is the regulation nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line, though many
use a six-ounce rod and six-thread line. Recently some anglers have
brought the four-ounce rod equipped with a six-thread line into use.
Any lighter line frays quickly in the flinty sand.
‘ Large clams or sand-crabs are used for bait, and hooks ranging from
number five to number two according to the conditions. Three hooks
and a three-ounce sinker are commonly used.
‘The California surf-whiting fights hard, never giving up so long as
an atom of strength remains. It is also “‘ foxy,” and the inexpert angler
finds that there is many a slip between the strike and the landing. It is
a past master in the cunning art of freeing its mouth from the hook. It
is a finny foeman worthy of any angler’s skill. The surf-whiting is taken
from Mexican waters up to Santa Barbara, although few are taken
north of Santa Monica bay.
‘ The yellow-fin, though not a roncador or croaker, is in many respects
a second cousin, at least it is a game fish, but has not the endurance or
smartness of the surf-whiting. It goes as high as five or six pounds in
weight. Itis taken in the surf, or directly back of the breakers, as a
usual thing, though many contend that it is a deep-water fish. It runs
in schools, and has a liking for coming in with the evening flood-tide to
feed on sand-crabs. It strikes “like a house afire,” but tires faster than
the surf-whiting, and is apt to hook itself more securely.
* The warm months are best for catching both the surf-whiting and the
yellow-fin, though a few are taken the year round. The yellow-fin
seem to go to deep water during the cold months; the surf-whiting is
seen in great numbers in winter but it is loath to take the hook.
‘The spot-fin croaker (Roncador stearnsi) really and truly “ croaks.”
It has a large black spot at the base of the pectoral fins, whence its name.
It goes as high as fourteen or fifteen pounds in weight. The largest
taken with hook and line in recent years weighed a little over twelve
pounds. The croaker is a powerful, dogged fighter, and the big fellows
strain light tackle to the limit in heavy surf and near the barnacle-
incrusted piles of the piers ; but it is not in the class of the surf-whiting.
The spot-fin croaker is edible, but does not rank with the surf-whiting,
pompano, sea-trout, and others that might be named.
‘The yellow-fin roncador (Umbrina roncador) is a beautiful fish, and a
livelier fighter than its cousin the spot-fin croaker.
‘ There is also a fish called locally the china croaker, with a broad black
173
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
band across one shoulder ; but it is neither as large nor as plentiful as the
spot-fin. All the croakers are taken the year round in the breakers,
back of the breakers, and in the bays. The same tackle is used for yellow-
fin and croakers as for the surf-whiting.
‘Pismo clams, a large quahaug clam, are used chiefly for bait in
angling for all the varieties named in the foregoing ; sand-crabs are used
in the summer when the shells are soft. The surf-whiting and the croaker
bite equally well on either, but the yellow-fin (likewise the sharks) are
partial to sand-crabs. :
‘Many pier fishermen fish almost exclusively for the smaller fish,
such as mackerel, pompano, smelt and herring, which call for long cane
rods and half a dozen very small hooks. Pompano bite best on shark
or craw-fish bait, while mackerel are partial to the flesh of their own kind.
‘Rock-bass, halibut, and in season, sea-trout, are also taken from the
piers. The sea-trout, which is nothing more or less than a young white
sea-bass, running from one to six and eight pounds, is best taken with live
sardines for bait. Halibut run from two or three pounds up to thirty
and thirty-five pounds.
‘ Several varieties of sharks and stingarees are numerous in Southern
Californian waters, particularly durmg the warm months. While they
are not classed as game fish are very apt to seize the angler’s bait, and
they put up a very interesting argument, and are great tackle smashers.’
Affecting the rocks and the great kelp beds is the Atka fish
(Pleurogrammus), common among the Aleutian Islands where
it is called Atka mackerel. Dr. Jordan says that when hooked
in water over twenty feet deep it comes up readily, but as soon
as it sees the boat, dashes away and makes an extraordinary
fight for liberty. His ship was out of provisions, so nine men
began to fish for the Atka mackerel. In four hours they landed
five hundred and eighty-five fish, or seventeen fish per line per
hour, all of which were used by the crew. The fish averaged
about two and one-half pounds each, and were. beautifully
coloured. The dorsal was large, calling to mind that of the
whitefish ; the pectoral fins very large, the body yellow, with
jet-black cross-bars.
Allied to them is the blue-cod, which I have taken at Santa
Catalina nearly four feet in length and weighing thirty or more
pounds. It is a large, long, slender savage-looking fish, the
174
SMALL PACIFIC COAST SEA FISHES
inside of the mouth of my catch a vivid blue. I succeeded in
keeping this fish, or another, alive, placed it in a tank, and
secured an excellent photograph of it. The cods, tom-cods,
codlings, hakes,'are common catches in the northern waters of the
Pacific coast.
There are several hundred fishes very little known that could
be included in a rational and liberal definition of a game fish of
sea, river or lake, which could be mentioned in this connection,
all found in Atlantic or Pacific, United States or Canada, and the
Gulf of Mexico, showing the wealth of material for the angler or
the consumer of fish.
175
CHAPTER XVIII
GAME FISHES OF SPAIN, FRANCE AND
PORTUGAL
‘Oh! not in camp or court
Our best delights we find,
But in the far resort
With water, wood and wind,
Where Nature works
And beauty lurks
In all her craft enshrined.’
Stoddart.
T was Eben G. Scott who said, ‘The forest, the ocean, the
desert, these are where exhausted Antaeus renews his
strength at the touch of mother earth; the sky, the winds, the
waters, the trees, the rocks, the stars, these are the counsellors
that feelingly persuade him what he is” How true this is every
true angler knows, and knows well, whether he is
‘Wading down some purling brook in June,
Where the mountain laurel and the wild rose is just abloom,’
or breasting the strong winds along a rocky shore, or following
up some deep cafion in the mountains where the soft wind whispers
in the pines a requiem that fills the air with incense. It matters
little where the angler is, he is sure to possess that love of the
open, of the uncontaminated, that enables him to renew his
strength at the touch of wind or waters. The angler sees things
that no one else can. He has a second and a third sight ; inani-
mate things in their deepest perversity are often a joy; and he
revels in the fact that all the good things of nature are his to
enjoy and to own. I know not how it is with the gentle reader
176
BOE Selon) Not a ee
Fig. 33. Angling in Italy.
1. Fishing Boats Coming Into Naples. 2. Hauling the Seine at Mentone. 3. Surf
Fishing at Genoa. p. 176.
SPAIN, FRANCE AND PORTUGAL
or the fierce critic ; but to be happy, man must have this capacity
of wholesale enjoyment, of seeing something in all things. I
am aware that this is at times called the artistic temperament,
this seeing things that apparently do not exist, but never-
theless, I believe it is worthy of cultivation and is a strong
factor in the evolution of man from savagery to civilization.
This occurred to me in France one winter day, when I
watched a group of anglers fishing in the Seine, where they
had to keep moving or the line would freeze to the rod. Again
in Rome when I stood and watched a freezing angler cast into
the muddy waters of the Tiber; and again on the Riviera at.
Menton, on the Italian line, men and boys were fishing for echini,
eating them au naturel, and happy.
Often at Biarritz, France, the rocks are seen lined with sea-
anglers armed with rods of extraordinary length, some being
forty feet long, or twice the length of a salmon rod. Vicomte
Henri de France states that although many of these sea.
anglers have reels they prefer not to use them. The line,
about as long as the rod, is sufficient for all purposes, and when.
the rod is raised the fish and the four hooks come in much
quicker than if reeled. In fact, the rod is so cumbersome that.
two hands are necessary to handle it.
It is difficult to find a land where there is no fishing. If such
does exist, man soon comes to the rescue, as in the case of Argen-
tina, whose inland waters a few years ago had no finny game ;,
now, thanks to the official camaraderie of England, Germany, and
America, it has whitefish, quinnat salmon, brook trout, lake
trout, blue-back salmon, silver salmon, steelhead, rainbow trout,
land-locked salmon, Atlantic salmon and European brown trout,
four million two bundred and sixty thousand four hundred
eggs having been placed in its waters between 1904 and 1909 with
most satisfactory results.
In a previous chapter, I have referred to the fishes of the
Mediterranean as having an extraordinary resemblance to the.
fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, an item of interest to the angler.
12 177
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
If I am rot mistaken, Spain and the shores of France and Italy
along the Maritime Alps are neglected by the expert sea-angler
and without cause, as here is a wonderful field for the man or the
woman with a rod; a visit to the markets of Marseilles, Naples
and Genoa proved it to me. If the fish are not biting in Italy,
the angler can go and look at them, alive and beautiful, in the
Naples Aquarium; and learn about the wonderful work of
Dr. Dohrn in the Zodlogical Station where are living fish pictures,
more beautiful than can be described. Here the angler can
survey the field and try conclusions, as I did, with a morose but
determined electric ray.
In going south from England with angling in view, Spain
should not be disdained, as beyond the Pyrenees, in the romantic
valleys of Navarre, there are trout streams more than alluring,
whether it is the Bidasoa with headquarters at the Palacio
Reparacea, Oyeregui, Provincia de Navarra of the Marqués
Eugenio Uztariz, for he is not above giving good service to good
anglers; orthe Minhoor Rio Ason. There is not so much angling
red-tape in Spain. You must take out a licence, but it costs
only five peseta, with the stamp of the Governor of the province
‘thrown in.’ Spain is a land of romance and fine rivers, and
the Bidasoa, from the mountains to the sea, is an ideal trout
stream. It flows along, now peacefully, now breaking into
rapids, through historic valleys, where there are trout not over
one pound in weight, but excellent as hard fighting game. As
for sea fishing, all the ports in the Bay of Biscay provide it from
sea-bream to mullet ; and the towns, as San Sebastian, Santander,
Renedo, Riradeo, Oveles and San Vincente on the bay, are
extremely picturesque. They also abound in clever fishermen,
many of whom have never seen a rod or a fly.
Among the trout streams from San Sebastian and Bilbao is
the Deva, the country calling to mind Southern California and
its snow-capped Sierra Madre and Sierra Nevada. Among the
rivers are the Anson, Esla, Douro, Ebro, from the mouth of which
you can see Majorca, which I saw one night in the haze, long to
178
SPAIN, FRANCE AND PORTUGAL
be remembered. Indeed, all the south coast reminded me of
California. On the north coast is the Nalon, and there are
countless rivers, as the Orbigo, Cares, Mimho and Navia, which
rise in the Caribbean mountains, and abound in trout.
Santander is an interesting province on the Anson. The
angler may make his headquarters at the little town of Ampuero,
which Mr. Walker M. Gallichan, an English author and angler,
owns by right of angling discovery, as here one day in early
spring, he astonished the natives by taking samlet and many
trout with a fly, and hooked a two pounder. That it is an attrac-
tive water is evident from the fact that he compares it to the
Yare, which I have fished for grayling; and which seemed, to
me, at least, near Alburgh Hall, the home of my host, a most
beautiful river. ‘The average weight of the trout in the
Anson,’ says Mr. Gallichan, ‘is one-half pound ; but the strength
and gameness of the fish are astonishing, and I would rather
catch these lively half pounders than fish double their weight in
certain English and Welsh rivers.’
The Anson would bea good salmon stream were it not for the
netting in its pools, and the fact that the Alcalde of Gibaja, who
owned the salmon rights, sold them at auction at one time, hence
the fish are ruthlessly slaughtered. Medium-sized blue dun,
partridge and green flies are very taking on the beautiful river,
with its quaint and primitive Basques, as yet unspoilt. This
river is famed for its sea-trout, possibly steelhead or sea run of
the brown trout. The best season is in March, while the salmon
are most plentiful in the summer and the brook trout in February.
Other good Spanish trout streams are the Besaya in the
province of Santander, with the town of Torrelavega as a base
‘and the Pas, where at Renedo, one can find good service. The
angler who has fished in Colorado will find a counterpart here
in climatic curiosities, as the rivers are liable to sudden and
extraordinary rises, due to a rain up on the divide or in the
mountains. In all the north of Spain in early spring, the angler
may expect changes, and sudden showers, and should go pre-
179
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
pared. Many little rivers can be found in North and Central
Spain and in Portugal, well worth the adventure with rod and
reel, the Douro and upper reaches, the Minho, Mondego, Tagus,
Zatas, Guadiana and the many streams rising in the Sierra
Morena, Sierra Toledos, Sierra Guadari and Sierra Estrella being
more or less alluring to the angler.
The reader proposing to angle in Spain will do well to read
Wild Spain, Bush and Chapman, The Angler’s Diary, published
by the Field, and Travel in Spain, by the enthusiastic angler and
delightful writer already referred to, Mr. Walter M. Gallichan.
Angling in Spain has its compensations, as some one has said,
in its scenery, the wild and beautiful mountains and interesting
people, and the sea-angler especially will find by following along
shore through Portugal around to the ports of the Mediterranean,
many localities where sport may be had of an exciting character.
At certain places the tuna is taken, and the Mediterranean is the
headquarters of the greatest tunny fishing in the world, especially
at Palermo, where thousands of fishes are taken with huge
nets, the hauling of which, filled with the big fish, is a spectacle
to remember. Here too, is the great Atlantic swordfish, Xiphias,
which comes here to spawn, and is followed by the Italians, a
lookout being stationed on a tall mast to sight the fish, the men
rowing and invoking the saints for good luck. So far one of
these great swordfishes of four hundred pounds has not been
taken with a rod; but Dr. Gifford Pinchot, the founder of
American forestry, has played one for some time in American
waters, and will, I am confident, ultimately land one. Several
have been hooked at Santa Catalina, but they were of such size
that the launches could not get under way before the reel was
stripped. There is a real element of danger here, as this sword-
fish is as ugly as a rhinoceros, and charges with as little reason ;
hence, when this sport is established, non-sinkable launches
should be used. The long series of casualties from this source
recorded by Professor G. Brown Goode will justify the caution.
The sea-angler particularly will find on the north coast of
180
SPAIN, FRANCE AND PORTUGAL
Spain practically a virgin field, easily reached from Southampton.
The coast is cut up with many bays, indentations and fjords, all
of which afford sport of some kind, according to Mr. Walter M.
Gallichan, who has made a special study of this new fishing
ground. According to this author, tuna of large size are taken
off the mouths of the Portuguese rivers, or, to use his exact
words, ‘of fabulous weight.’ Sea-trout up to seven and eight
pounds are to be had in Galacia, in tide waters, a noble game.
Here, too, are fine bass and big pollack, grey mullet, which appeal
to many anglers on light tackle.
Mr. Gallichan states that the best centres for the sea and
river angler are Ribadeo, a little village at the mouth of the River
Ko, Vivero, Ferrol and Puente de Eume. For the lover of sea-
trout angling, he recommends Corufia, Corcubion, Pontevedra
and Vigo. The latter is particularly preferred, as it is the port
of several lines of English steamers. Here one can find twenty
or thirty kinds of fine fishes, many of extraordinary appearance,
as the Merluza. The congers here are large, and the bass can
be taken on salmon rods with a fly, especially off the Isle of
Cies. A spoon is also used for bass and sea-trout.
Into Vigo Bay the Berdugo river flows, and its mouth is a
famous place for sea-trout. For sea angling, the angler is adyised
to bring heavy tackle. Mr. Gallichan says regarding the important
factor of reaching this place, ‘The cost of a holiday in Spain
would not amount to more than a holiday in Scotland or Ireland,
if the angler’s wants are moderate. The sea voyage in summer
is delightful, and the Royal Mail ships touch at Cherbourg and
Corufia on the way to Vigo. Fishermen who dislike a sea passage
can travel overland in about forty-eight hours, via Paris, Irun,
and Venta de Bajios to Corufia or Vigo.’ I may add that the
prospective angler in Portugal or Spain will find this author’s
book, Travel in Spain, invaluable, not as a guide only, but for
its literary charm. :
France has suffered from poaching and indiscriminate fishing
for years; and if the Republic will heed the requests of its
181
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
distinguished anglers, as Prince d’Arenberg, President of the
Casting Club of France, the fine sporting rivers of France will
soon come into their own, as years ago they abounded in trout
and salmon. Such was the Chateaudin (Finisterre) that, once
filled with fish, is now practically empty ; and France imports
from six hundred to seven hundred thousand kilogramms of
salmon, worth twenty million francs, in seven years. Despite this
extraordinary neglect on the part of the French, they are most
enthusiastic anglers; and on summer days, holidays or Sundays,
fifty thousand anglers swarm the banks of their beautiful rivers.
No country has more beautiful summer streams, and those of
Brittany have passed into song.
Of special charm are the rivers Scorff and Ellée and the
Quimperlé, ‘which reach the ocean near Poulda.:' The latter
was once famous for its salmon, which were netted beyond the
limit of patience ; yet M. Paul Gaillard tried an experiment with
the adjacent streams, and in ten years brought up these rivers to
the standard of any in Scotland, affording him one hundred and
thirteen salmon one season, and thirteen in a single day. The
streams became famous for their trout, the result of the stopping
of poaching, re-stocking and intelligent care. If this was tried
in all the French rivers, a great national asset would be revitalized
and added to France.
The lover of trout fishing will find the rivers of Brittany
delightful in every sense ; and if the trout are scarce, the angler
may solace himself with the thousand and one charms of this
fascinating country. With sea angling it is different, it is of the
best, and the sea-angler should make his headquarters at Quim-
perlé Pont, Scorff and Pont Oven. Trout, grayling, salmon,
pike, perch, club and sturgeon, tunny, and many more are the
attractions on river and sea coast.
The salmon flies of France are darker than those used in
England, but the English flies are used. The trouble with France,
doubtless, is that, as also in America, the ignorant politician
attempts to make votes with the ‘ people’ by winking at poach-
182
SPAIN, FRANCE AND PORTUGAL
ing ; classing all those who would conserve the fisheries as ‘ aristo-
crats, millionaires, etc.’ To defeat this, France will have to
educate the people as to the value of sport to a nation; but
more important, the educated men, the aristocracy of France,
should enter politics and curb the ignorant. Then every river
in France would be a part of the national income, and a valuable
asset to the State and people.
Many of the French rivers are delightful, and those between
Brest and St. Malo are mostly free. In Brittany the angler will
find fair trout fishing near Guinzamp, Lannion, Huelgoat, St.
Nicolas du Pelem, Pontrient. Sea angling is good at St. Malo,
pollock, conger, bass, particularly at the mouth of the Rance,
plaice, bream, and nearly all the fishes common in English waters.
If one would see the real sea anglers of France, he should go to
Boulogne, whose fisherfolk eulogized the town in the famous.
lines :
‘Bright jewel of the Channel wide,
Bird of the soft and snowy breast,
Better belov’d than all beside,
Poised lightly by the wave’s white crest.
Boulogne! ’*Tis thou whose beauty rare
With every other nation vies,
Whose maidens innocent and fair
Reflect the heavens in their eyes!
Since all thy soldiers
Are brave and gay,
And thy daughters’ glances
Drive peace away.
So lovely city, thy spell divine
Thou castest on me, my heart is thine!
There are beauteous cities
Wherever I stray,
Famous and fruitful,
Sunny and gay;
But frowning I turn me
Away from them all.
Boulogne ever wooes me
With siren call!’
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
From here starts the finest equipped fleet of market-fishermen
in Europe, including over five hundred vessels and six thousand
men and boys. The fishes are soles, bass, cod, smelt, whiting,
pollack, mullet, cod, eels and many more. It is a most interest-
ing experience to take a trip with some of these fishermen or
trawlers, and learn of the chances and risks taken by the toilers
of the sea to supply the market with fish.
184
CHAPTER XIX
ALONG THE RIVIERA
‘“*T'was where o’er the sea
Delicious gardens hung, green galleries,
And marble terraces in many a flight,
And fairy arches flung from cliff to cliff,
Bewildering, enchanting, .. .’
T is not well to become wildly excited regarding the angling
possibilities of the Riviera. I remember when going from
Paris to Marseilles having with me what tackle the porters in
Paris had not devastated or broken. I intended to fish all along
the shore—Marseilles, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Menton, and so on to
Italy ; but I fished Marseilles from a cabriolet most comfortably.
I had an abundance of time, so devoted myself to a psychological
study of the driver, whose ingenuity in lengthening out the
drive, isolating me on places where the drawbridge went up, and
taking me to the points I did not wish to see, were more than
remarkable.
The fish market was interesting, but most of the game was
brought in from the outer waters, and I found that almost every
mile of sea coast was zealously dragged day and night with
seines ; between times men and boys hunted for all kinds of sea
game and poached on the rivers. Lax game laws, or none, over-
netting, have destroyed the opportunities of the man with the
rod, though at certain localities where deep water comes in-
shore, a8 at Biarritz, there is some sport. The fishing-boats
with their lateen-sails are extremely picturesque. I watched
them from the old church Notre Dame de la Garde at Mar-
seilles, where there is one of the most interesting collections of
185
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
offerings of various objects by resident fishermen and seamen in
Europe—compensations to the angler.
The most remarkable fishery in the world, however, is found
in the Mediterranean. I refer to the tunny fisheries at Sicily,
where vast nets are used to entrap the great fishes, the catch
being an event well worth witnessing. It has its headquarters
at Sicily where the tunny attains a weight of one thousand
pounds. Every year the largest fish is presented at. the shrine
of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of Sicilian fishermen; and
generally"brings them good luck. The first tunas of the season enter
the Straits of Gibraltar in April. They are known as the ‘ Tunny
of Arrival,’ and are very soon sighted by the fishermen of the
Balearic Islands and in a month reach Sicily. The big school
which comes up from the South African coast divides into three
general parts; one goes south by Tunis and Algiers, reaching
the Adriatic and even the Bosphorus; the second and largest
follows along the north coast of Sicily, passing through the
Straits of Messina, and is taken as far east as Syracuse; while
the third school reaches Corsica and Sardinia. It is from this
school that the supply of tuna for Genoa and Naples comes.
The coming and going of the tunny is as uncertain as at
Santa Catalina ; hence the saints are invoked, and their statues
carried through the streets, the men appealing to them in song
as they follow. Sometimes the big schools are preceded by
young fish weighing from twenty to fifty pounds. The tunny
comes to the quiet waters of this sea to spawn, as it does to the
lee of Santa Catalina. By July they disappear. They some-
times remain in these waters, as at Santa Catalina, California,
all the year round, and from now are taken until October off the
coast of Spain and Portugal, where they are called the ‘ Tunny of
Return.’ No one knows where they winter.
The tunny in an economic sense is the salmon of the sea.
When they are reported from the Balearic Isles, which I recall
with deep pleasure, the invocation to the saints begins, and the
nets, miles in length and valued at ten thousand or more dollars,
186
ALONG THE RIVIERA
are taken out and set, like an elephant fence, to guide the tuna into
the camera di morte. The tunny is like a London cab-driver ;
he invariably turns to the left, and many Sicilians will be found
who for this reason think the great fish is blind in the right eye.
The nets are arranged on this principle. When as many tunas
have entered as can be managed, the ‘ gate’ is closed and the
net is hauled, forcing the fish to the surface where they are
killed, and the net set again. The fish are sent to the canneries
and some to the markets. An enormous sum is invested in this
fishery ; and you may buy tunny or tuna in almost any city
in the world, though now some of it comes from the waters of
Santa Catalina ; but in this case it is the long-fin tuna or albacore.
One firm, the Florios, have millions of francs invested in the nets,
and in good years clear two million francs.
Several members of the Tuna Club, among them Mr. H. St. A.
Earlscliff of Santa Barbara, have visited these grounds and
endeavoured to take these tuna with rod and reel. Mr. Aflalo
has tried them, making a special trip to Madeira, as it were,
intercepting them there; but so far, if I am not mistaken, but
few have been landed with a rod, nor do I understand that they
will bite, at least this was the experience of Mr. Eazrlscliff, to
whom Iam indebted for this information, who advises Palermo as
an angling headquartersin May. The trip from Naples to Palermo
by boat or train is made in one night: and I can conceive of no
more beautiful trip than the one I made from Genoa to Naples by
sea, passing Sardinia, Corsica and the beautiful islands near
Naples, Ischia and others.
Many interesting experiments are being made with American
fishes in Italy by Giuseppe Besana of Lombardy. Rainbow
trout, chinook salmon, brook trout, black bass, sunfish and
others have been placed in the small ponds of the Piscicoltura
Borghi at Varano. Of these, the sunfish has done better than
desired, doubtless, and the rainbow is doing well; also the
black bass, which promises a treat to Italian anglers in a few
years when the splendid fishes are well established.
187
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
One of the most charming vistas I recall in Italy was from
my hotel in Genoa, where I saw the jagged peaks of Corsica or
Sardinia rising in the crimson haze of an Italian sunrise, which
reminded me that there were trout to be taken in the old
home of Napoleon.
The Golo is the largest trout stream, rising back of Corte in
the high and rugged country, and reaching the sea about twelve
miles from Bastia. It is made up by the Basco and Tartagine.
I left Italy just before the best season, February 9, before the
winter snows had melted. Like all the trout streams in Spain,
France or Italy, it has been poached and netted beyond reason,
yet there are trout ranging from a fourth of a pound to two
pounds.
The point of departure of the angler should be Ponte Leccia,
where the Hotel Cyrnos serves man and beast, and is often filled
with English and American anglers. The best angling is the
stretch between the bridge at Ponte Leccia and the Station.
There is also good fishing in the Tartagine, a tributary of the
Golo, and in the Asco and Gravona, the latter reaching the sea
a mile or two south of Ajaccio,'an interesting place. Still another
little trout river is the Liamone, which rises near Monte Retto
and its tributaries, Crussini and Fiume Grosso. By the end of
March the trout fishing is at its best here. Into the Gulf of
Valencia near Propnano runs the Rizzanese, abounding in small
trout.
188
CHAPTER XX
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY AND THE
ITALIAN LAKES
‘I have two or three hobbies: I have given a long life to the collection
and study of early illustration in books. I have devoted a good deal of time
to the study of ancient art. I have filled my house with a collection of
pottery and porcelain. I live, when in town, among these associations, but
all my life, my heart, is shut up in my rod case, until I get away from town,
and then it escapes and enjoys its beating.’
M. C. Prime.
From letter to Mr. Robert B. Marston.
HE angler in Europe has a most fascinating field. Perhaps
he is in the Black Forest, with some of the famous anglers of
the Fly Fishers Club of London, or of the Casting Club of France,
which Prince d’Arenberg has made known over the world;
or it may be he is on the placid, radiantly beautiful waters of the
Italian lakes, or among the countless lakes, rivers and streams of
Alpine Austria. Everywhere the angler is more than compen-
sated by the splendid scenery, if angling luck is against him. For
anglers the Tyrol offers many attractions ; and there is a region
of lakes and rivers near the city of Salzburg, called the Salzkam-
mergut, lying partly in Upper Austria and partly in Styria, which
for its game fishes and fine scenery appeals particularly to
British and American anglers. It is a wild and splendid Alpine
country, uncontaminated by the public, yet provided with inns
and hotels, so the angler may enjoy the sport in comfort, or
rough it as he sees fit.
The best season here is from the middle of June to September,
earlier or later, depending upon the season. The waters are
mostly controlled by the government ; and Austria is to be con-
189
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
gratulated that the Emperor and his officials long ago recognized
that angling is a national asset of prime importance. They
have conserved the fisheries, stocked the streams and lakes with
the best fishes, and are reaping the reward of an influx of wealthy
anglers, which means the taking of large sums to the region,
which find their way to the working classes, and where it is most
needed—a consummation devoutly to be wished for in all lands
where there is fine scenery and sport, all of which is ennobling
and expanding to the dweller and to the visitor.
In this wonderful maze of mountains, calling to mind the
scenery in British Columbia, we find several large lakes, as
Toplitz, Traun, Hallstatter and Grundl; including with the
associated streams about two hundred miles of carefully pro-
tected and preserved streams under the control of the State.
Here you may see that remarkable thing—a professional fisher-
man using a fly. He has no streams for net fishing, the waters
being kept for the angler, who knows that millions of young trout
and grayling have been introduced for his benefit. The lakes
also abound in pike and big lake trout.
In entering this region, it is necessary for the angler to obtain
a licence, which goes to the Forestry Service, and the details of
which are entered in the Fishing Book. The fee for fishing all
over the country in any season is about five dollars American, or
£1 English, equivalent to 24 K.; or for two fishing grounds 75 K.;
three, 90 K.; four, 105 K.; five, 120 K., and so on. Aside from
this, there is the regular licence fee or certificate amounting to
11 K. 20 h., which is much less than the hunting and fishing
State privilege in America.
No angler objects, knowing that the amount is used to pre-
pare the rivers for him and keep them well stocked. The sports-
man may, if he desires, take out what is known as a ‘ general
sport ’ licence, covering eight grounds. This will cost 168 K., or
£7, or $35.00. This is obtained from the direction of the I. and
R. Department of Woods and Forestsin Gmunden. The licence
is for the streams only, and should be carried to show inspectors on
190
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY
demand. All this sounds formidable, but spells good fly fishing for
alltime. If France and other countries would protect the fisheries
and permit such clubs as the Casting Club of France to outline
a conservation policy, they would find the result most beneficial,
@ new national asset would come into being. The poacher and
the professional net fisherman are the enemies to be considered,
and when it is remembered that these people are biased by
ignorance and avarice, it is evident that for their own benefit
they should be controlled and forced to abide by the laws that
intelligence and forethought dictate.
The conditions of angling here will naturally surprise the
visiting angler, yet he has the sport; all the fish the angler takes
belonging to the State, the sport alone goes to the man with the
rod. The State demands that the angler shall take a guide or
gillie, whose compensation is set at 1 K. 60 h. to 2 K. per half day,
and 3 K.to 4 K. for a full day. The guide is a skilful fly fisher,
and it is his duty to see that his patron secures a good catch and
every convenience.
It is his official duty to net the fish, and to place them in a tub
or vessel of water which he carries ; in a word, secure them for the
administration. The reason for this claim by the government,
is that the fish are extremely valuable here, and they are a
possession of the State. This does not mean that the angler
cannot take away any of his fish, as he can have them all
by paying the gillie for the State the market value of his
catch, less twenty per cent. This can all be arranged in ad-
vance by the angler taking a day ticket and paying a special
fee of 10 K. or 14 K., supposed to cover the purchase price of
an average catch at that time. In this case, the angler need
not take the official fish receiver, and can place his catch
in a creel and carry it off.
I would advise taking the gillie, as it is certainly a novel
experience to have a good guide who is thoroughly posted, and
who wheels along the bank of the stream a portable aquarium
containing the catch, alive and fresh at the end of the day. There
IQI
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
is a piquancy about this that must appeal to one. The laws
are extremely fair and just. Thus, if an angler pays his fees, and
there is a terrific rain or flood and his fishing is ruined, the money is
refunded. In fact, angling in Austria is very delightful and
interesting from its very antipodes of similar sport elsewhere.
Listen to this, which I take from the official book : —‘ The Forest
Administration will do everything in its power to advance and
to protect the interests of amateur fishermen, and will on request
give information and advice as to the best accommodation avail-
able.’ What more would a reasonable angler desire? Would
that every real trout stream in America could be closed to every-
thing but fly fishing.
The angler in the Tyrol should apply for his licence several
days ahead by letter or telegram, and when he arrives, he will
find it ready ; so there will be no waste of time. Prepared with
licence and equipment, one is ready to enjoy the really wonder-
ful country where the lakes are gems in their settings of green.
Traun Lake is particularly beautiful ; a cleft in the moun-
tains, which wind about it, and rise from it precipitately.
The little town of Hallstatt is a delight in itself, well paying the
angler if he did not see a fish. Gosan Lake recalls Lake Louise
in the Canadian Rockies, especially as it is seen in Henry Joseph
Breuer’s famous masterpiece, looking up the lake with glaciers,
or vast fields of snow on the distant mountains.
The fishing in the Traun extends from the mouth eight
miles up-stream, and abounds in fine trout of over a pound
weight, and ranging up to seven. The best fish is a cross be-
tween Salmo fario and S. lacustris. Two-pound grayling have
also been taken from this water, and nowhere can more delight-
ful fly fishing be found than this, where the art loved by
Walton has been known for many years. The flies reeommended
are March Brown, Red Spinner, Fern fly, Orange sedge, Wasp
fly, Governor, Alder fly, May fly, and August Dun. The big
trout, like all trout, have a penchant for live minnows. In
this part of the country one meets, or should meet, Mr. Anton
Ig2
Fig. 34.
1. Huchen, 46 lbs., taken in the Inn River, Bavaria, by Ludwig Deiglmayer. 2. Baron
Walter Von Rummel, Pike Fishing, in Austria. 3. Baron Von Rummel, Trout Fishing
in the Traun, Austria. p. 192.
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY
Hoplinger, who is the lessee of the fishing from the Government,
and who provides gillies, guides, boatmen and everything, even
to flies made on the Traun for the delectation of these fine trout.
At the end of Traun Lake is the famous Ebensee angling
ground of about eight miles, with delightful little villages here
and there. The Red Spinner, March Brown and May fly are
said to be very killing here. There is also a fine stretch at Aurach
near Gmunden. The river is about twenty-five feet wide, and
abounds in such grand scenery that the angler may be pardoned
if he forgets all about such non-essentials as trout and grayling.
Traun is a splendid Alpine Lake covering six thousand one hun-
dred and fifty-eight acres, and Hallstatt is a noble piece of water,
sure to beguile the angler, and fascinating not only for its fishing,
but from the fact that it abounds in ancient Celtic and Roman
remains. A radiant little river, the Hallstétt-Traun, flows into
Hallstatt Lake near Obertraun. It abounds in half-pound trout,
and two and three pounders are sometimes taken. A two and a
half-ounce split cane or bamboo rod is used. While fishing here
one is surrounded by eternal snows, and the water is pure, clear
and icy—all conditions favourable to making hard-fighting, good-
conditioned fish.
Toplitz Lake is among the natural gems of the region. Here
one is not obliged to take a gillie, but all trout and pike taken
belong to the Administration. ine fishing grounds are found
near Aussee, Mitterndorf, and the sport in the Kainisch-Traun
is sure to be the best in Europe for big trout, 8S. fario. No net is
allowed to profane these radiant waters. The fly alone lures the
trout, twenty to forty in an afternoon, two pounders not being
unusual, so I am told on excellent authority. The Salza, near
Mitterndorf, affords fine sport, there being at least fifteen miles
of good water, seven of it being nearly thirty feet wide.
I can but mention the main aspects of this beautiful angling
region, which one should approach with angling reason, taking
things as they are, not finding fault because the rules and regula-
tions are not like those of England or America.
13 193
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Other lakes which are beautiful and well stocked are St.
Wolfgang, Mond Lake and the Atter, also the Teichl River, Upper
Austria, Gleinker Lake and many more. Salzburg, with its
central hill and charming surroundings, is one of the most attrac-
tive cities in Europe from almost any standpoint. It is the capital
of the province, and may be made a charming headquarters
from which to go a-fishing to almost all points of the compass.
It is the heart of Austria and Austria’s angling. InSt. Wolfgang
there is a variety of game, lake trout, chub, trout, pike, charr,
perch, barbel, bleak, coregonus. The fishing here is controlled
by Mr. Johann Hoplinger, from whom privileges can be obtained.
This mention of the names of private parties controlling the
fisheries may appear strange, particularly to American anglers,
who claim as tax payers the right to fish anywhere in state or
government lands.
In California a movement is on foot to enable the public to
fish in every stream, public or private, that has been stocked
at the expense of the State, which means the whole people. I
agreed with this myself, with the proviso that the only lure per-
mitted should be flies. The average fisherman is after pounds
and numbers, and cares little for the esthetics of the sport, or
the fact that he should leave something for a friend on the
morrow ; hence fly fishing has few charms for him. The rights
to certain waters are purchased or rented from the Government,
principally by hotel-keepers, who in turn care for them in the
interests of their patrons, all of which in the end is to the advan-
tage of the angler.
Zeller Lake should be visited by the angler for its mountains,
which are capped with snow and ten thousand feet high, so that
in casting your Royal Coachman, it is lost in the reflection of a
snow-bank of the Kitzsteinborn. The Tyrol has in round num-
bers thirty-seven hundred miles of trout and grayling streams,
and its lakes and ponds cover an area equivalent to twelve
thousand five hundred acres, about which are some of the most
beautiful and picturesque resorts in Europe. In contemplating
194
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY
fishing this region the angler would do well to write to the Landes-
verband fiir Fremdenverkehr in Innsbruck for a little book which
is issued gratis—The Tyrol Fishing Book. This contains all
the minute details which lack of space prevents in a volume of this
kind. Ausserfern is the name of a district which extends to the
frontier of Bavaria, and abounds in fine angling lakes and rivers.
‘About half a mile above the sea, we find Lake Achensee, the
largest lake in the Tyrol; and to fish here, the angler must
apply to the monastery of Fiecht, near Schwaz, that owns the
lake fisheries. There would seem to be a double chance here:
the angler could get his licence and confess his sins of exaggera-
tion to the good monks. Good waters near here are Schwarzsee,
and in St. Johann, Koéssen, St. Ulrich. The Thiersee near the
beautiful town of Kufstein has excellent trout fishing ; and in the
lower Inn River you may take that greatest of trout, the Huchen,
that is known as salmon and by many names. A fine photograph
of one, which weighed forty-six pounds, is here shown, taken by L.
Deiglmayer, for which I am indebted to Baron Walter von Rum-
mel, with whom I had the pleasure of fishing at Santa Catalina.
The hucho, huchen or rothfisch is a great trout-like fish that
has been seen weighing nearly one hundred pounds. It is com-
mon in many streams, particularly the Danube. It differs from
the true Salmo in the vomer being without teeth, and in general
appearance it differs materially from the brook trout Salvelinus.
It attains a length of three or four feet, is slender, and looks, in
the smaller specimens not unlike a wall-eyed pike, again like a
grayling without the big dorsal. It has a depressed, pike-like
snout, and teeth that are devastators to delicate gut. In colour
it is often a brilliant silver, with small black spots dotted par-
ticularly over its upper surface. It is a good food fish, and in its
best condition a hard and splendid fighter, and well called the
“German salmon,’ as it certainly in a way takes the place of this
great fish. America and England could introduce this noble fish
to advantage and its ally in Japan.
The huchen has been more than once compared to salmon,
195
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
especially the one taken in the Danube and its Alpine tributaries.
The season for the Red-fish, as it is also called, is in autumn and
winter far into December ; when the waters are low and clear, the
summer months are equally good, and of course, most delightful.
The spoon is the bait par excellence, and of a size for a possible
fifty pounder. When it strikes, the huchen goes into the air
with a splendid leap of often three feet, and at once begins
a battle royal with the angler who, if he has to play the fish against
the stream, will soon realize that he has met his match. There
is a Fishers Union in Vienna (K. K. Osterreichische Fischereige-
sellschaft) 1., Schauflergasse, which issues licences and permits
for huchen angling in its private preserves in Langenlebarn
and Muckendorf, but fifteen minutes by rail from Vienna, from
which all information regarding the huchen and its haunts and
the angling chances may be obtained.
In this vicinity is the Paznaun Valley with the wild river
Trisanna, the Pitz Valley and the glacier-fed Pitztaler Ache, and
the Oetztal running through the Valley of Oetztal, abounding
not only in chub and perch, but in hard-fighting Rainbow trout
from America. Magnificent scenery characterizes this region.
The Grossglockner, the radiant glacial lake, Monte Cristallo in
the Dolomites, the Ortler, and who does not know Meran, nestled
in the heart of the Tyrolean mountains with its streams abound-
ing in grayling, char, pike and trout weighing from six to seven
pounds ?
So one might spend the summer angling and loitering and
doing nothing, which means looking at the scenery; angling
down the Adige from Bozen, coming to the Italian-speaking
part of the Tyrol, and finding the lakes of Toblino, Malveno and
Lago di Garda, the finest and largest of the Upper Italian Lakes.
It is here that you cast a fly in Austria and reel your trout into
sunny Italy, as Garda is on the line. This beautiful lake, a type
of all, contains char, trout, tench, perch, eels, carpiono, in all
nearly thirty kinds of fish. Then there are lakes like dreams,
Caldonazzo, famed for its pike, Levico, Lago di Serraza, and
196
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY
many more, for descriptions of which and the fish, I can only
refer the reader to the little booklet already referred to and
obtainable at Innsbruck. I have always been fascinated by
Turner’s ‘ Palace of the Caesars,’ a dreamy, nebulous picture
of a splendid palace, and when you see Gastein over the foamy
fall and against the deep green hills, you will know what I mean.
There is a charm in searching for new and unexpected angling .
regions ; and in this part of the world, the man with a fly-rod
will find an extended field. There is Dalmatia, Carniola, Mon-
tenegro and Ragusa on the Austrian Riviera. One of the fine
rivers of Austria is blue Isonzo, which has distractions in the
shape of grayling, and a forty-pound trout with a ‘ marbled
skin,’ the average being from six to twelve pounds. The record
for 1910 was a fourteen pounder. May Fly and Red Palmer are
given by local anglers as the most killing flies for May and June,
and Black Palmer for September. Near Karfreit on the Isonzo,
there is a delightful stretch of water, and a bridge, the ladra,
well worth the time to cross and admire.
In Styria there are many fine Alpine streams and lakes worthy
the angler’s attention, as Lake Putterer, and the river Enns, near
the Benedictine Abbey, dating back to 1074, Then there are
the lakes of St. Georgner, Mareiner, the River Olsa, where the
owner of the fisheries is the Parish Church.
The patrons of the Austrian Tyrol or the Italian Lakes cannot
control the climate, and rains may come and discourage the
angler as they do in all places; but if the angling is not up to
its best level, there is always the scenery of this wonderful land
of Europe.
The streams of Germany are stocked with various kinds of
trout and small fry, often affording excellent sport.
The Oos where it flows through Baden abounds in trout, and
the late Leonard Finletter amused himself by feeding them from
his seat ina hotel restaurant ; stone trout and brown trout being
the varieties which took his bits of meat and bread. All of which
Suggested a trip to the Wutach River at Tiengen, about four
197
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
hours by train from Baden where he had excellent sport, using
a Montreal or silver Alexandria fly, and a Coachman later in the
day. Mr. Finletter took large grayling and trout here, which
he told us about later at the Tuna Club, and also about the
delightful angling Inn, at which he found congenial spirits, the
Golden Ochesen at Tiengen.
In writing of trout fishing in Germany, I am reminded of the
celebrated case of the anglers of the Frankfort-on-the-Oder.
From time immemorial they claimed the right to fish in the
stretch in the Oder from Furstenberg to Garz. In 1510 when
Joachim I. was Elector of Brandenburg, he was induced by the
Bishop of Lebus, through fear of the Church, to give the Bishop’s
people a sole fishing right in the Oder from the Garz-Castrin
boundary to the Frankfort-Lebus boundary. The Frankforters
protested and in 1511 went to law with the Lebusers, and in one
hundred and eighty-six years, or on June 24, 1697, obtained a
decision, their children and their children’s children inheriting
the claim after the fashion of a Kentucky feud. The decision
was fought down the centuries, until 1911 when the Supreme
Court of Germany decided in favour of the anglers of the Lebus.
This is the proverbial angler’s patience.
If the angler finds himself in the Belgium and Luxemburg
Ardennes, there are trout to be had. Salmon are taken at.
Remonchamps, and at Aywaille and Angleur, not far from Liége,
In the Pyrenees, Mr. Charles A. Payton, a distinguished British
angler and member of the British Sea Anglers Society, stated that
the Pau district, the streams of Yeaux, Chaudes, and Gabas, the
lac d’Aule, above Gabas, and Louvie abound in trout. Good.
fishing is to be had not far from Cologne at Kyllburg in the
Hifel, trout, grayling and chub being the game to expect.
Some very large trout are taken in Chiem Lake, near Rosen-
heim, Bavaria. One particularly I recall, taken by J. A. Koosen,,
was three feet six inches long, and weighed over thirty pounds.
This was the biggest trout that did not get away, so the veracity
of anglers is sometimes preserved inviolate.
198
ANGLING IN AUSTRIA, GERMANY
In Austria the Rainbow has been successfully caught for a
quarter of a century, and many streams are stocked with them,
also with brook trout. The black bass is also doing well in
Austria, according to Mr. Von Pirko, President of the Imperial
and Royal Austrian Fishing Society.
The Rhine run of salmon is important, and as the river flows
through several countries—Switzerland, Germany, Grand Duchy
of Baden and Holland, they all obtain some benefit from it, but
mostly professional fishermen; in a word, there is nothing to
compare with the English salmon rod fishers in any of these
countries.
There is good trout fishing in the waters of Belgium, though
many are not free, or are private fisheries. If the river is free, a
licence can be taken out at the nearest post-office. Some salmon
are found in the Meuse, and trout in the Ambléve and in the
River Oarthe. The trout are confined to the rivers which drain
the provinces of Liége, Namur and Luxemburg. The cool rivers
of the Ardennes have been stocked with the Rainbow trout, which
is also found in the ponds of La Hulpe, Court St. Etienne,
Groenendael. The barbel occurs in the Meuse, and specimens
have been taken weighing seventeen pounds. Bream and pike also
occur, and in Holland the canal of Vernengen is known for its
large pike. There are a number of other fishes, as the grayling,
in the tributaries of the Meuse, the sauger or pike-perch. As for
sea fishing, in Belgium little attention is paid to it, though anglers
are seen on the piers at Blankenberghe, Ostend and Nieuporto.
The huchen, previously referred to, ascends the Danube in
March and April to its headwaters to spawn in the Zeller or
Tyrol, half a mile above the sea. There it is taken with a spoon
or fly, but the largest numbers are speared by the natives in the
shallow waters of the upper streams. One of the interesting
lakes in Styria, Schwarzensee, has for four centuries been held
by the monks of the monastery of Admont, who on feast days
and during Lent use the preserve to seine the trout. The native
Styrian boat used here is quaint and artistic. It resembles a
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
long dug-out, low in the water with a rising bow ending in a point,
the rail elevated in sections fore and aft, the keeper propelling it by
a paddle.
The lakes and rivers of Switzerland abound in about fifty
species of fish. The salmon can be taken in the Rhine below
the Schaffhausen Falls and in the Oar. The Rainbow trout has
been introduced with success, and the brown trout is taken in
Lake Geneva, Neuchatel, Zurich and Constance. Here we
find the pike, also in Lake Morol, Lake of Joux and the Black
Lake of Friborg. Char and grayling are also taken, and the
gigantic eel-fish known as Wels is found in some of the large
lakes, as Bienne and Lake Constance, where fishes eight or ten
feet long have been taken, weighing from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred pounds.
The Russians care little for angling as a sport, and practically
the only clubs are composed of Englishmen. The lakes abound
with fish, and in the Caucasus the streams afford fine trout
fishing. The Laba and Zelentchonk rivers are particularly fine
trout streams. Lake Goktcha in the Southern Caucasus has a
game fish, Salmo ferox; while the Ural and Altai streams afford
good grayling fishing, the fish being especially large, four or
five pounders being taken. In Kamschatka the Pacific salmon
abound, but they do not take the fly. The sauger or zauder,
a pike-perch, is common in the south of Russia. Two species
are known in the old world, and nearly everywhere it is valued
in the market and as game.
200
CHAPTER XXI
SOME GAME FISHES OF THE
SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
‘A Birr! a whirr! a salmon’s on,
A goodly fish! a thumper !
Bring up, bring up the ready gaff,
And if we land him we shall quaff
Another glorious bumper !
Hark ! ’tis the music of the reel,
The strong, the quick, the steady ;
The line darts from the active wheel,
Have all things right and ready.’
Stoddart.
HE limited salmon fishing in England and Scotland has
practically forced many lovers of this particular sport to
look to other fields ; and when, in the last century, a wandering
English angler discovered that the finest salmon rivers in the
world, so to speak, were in Norway, there was a movement in that
direction. In a remarkably short period, England had secured
the cream of this field of sport and still holds it, to the general
benefit of these fisheries.
Sir Henry Pottinger says: ‘ Out of about three-score of first-
and second-rate salmon rivers situated between latitude fifty-eight
degrees and seventy degrees from Christiansand on the south coast
to Pasvig on the Varanger fjord, two-thirds are permanently held
by Englishmen, and the remainder are chiefly in the hands of com-
panies or private owners who let to Englishmen by the season.
Very few are retained by Norwegians for their own fishing.’ It
will be seen that the natives care little for the sport, preferring the
money inrentals. They cannot fish the best of their own streams
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
if they wished, and the outsider who visits Norway for the salmon
fishing, finds that the cream of it has been taken, and that all
he can get is an inferior pseudo-salmon river of very uncertain
tenure as to fish, or he can rent from a private owner, or one of the
Salmon River Companies, which demand high rentals.
In a word, the English have it, and they deserve it by right
of original discovery, for all they have done through centuries
to make sport what it is and to educate the people to love out-of-
door pastimes.
A few years ago the fishing in Norway was difficult to reach
and there were few comforts; but to-day good steamers cross
the North Sea, and every convenience is to be had in the way
of houses and food. Some idea of the angling here can be had by
selecting the river Alten, which has about thirty miles of good
fishing water, well adapted to casting a fly. The fish average
about twenty pounds, and four rods can take in the season about
ten thousand pounds of salmon. The river is controlled by one
Englishman.
The river Namsen is divided into eight beats and affords its
owners magnificent sport, occasional fishes making fifty pounds.
The fishing here is done from a boat, which is worked in a zig-zag
fashion across the stream, so that the fly or spoon reaches every
part of it. In rivers of the second class, each rod is supposed
to take from eight hundred to one thousand pounds of salmon.
Nearly all the rivers here differ or have some peculiarity : thus
the Aar6 is famous for its large fish, sixty pounders having been
taken. Theriver Leirdal is not a ‘ boat river ’ and can be forded,
or the angler may cast from the banks.
It is a singular fact that most of the Swedish rivers are worth-
less. For some reason the salmon entering them will not take a
fiy, and it is said to be due to the brackish condition of the water.
A few rivers which flow into the Kattegat and the Baltic are good
salmon streams, and are owned by Swedish anglers.
While the limitations of the present volume restrict me to the
most essential details, I may refer to a few Norwegian rivers. The
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THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
Gula, ‘ Child of the bright and stainless snow,’ is an interesting
stream, though not of the best. It rises near a wide snow-
field, drawing from a vast area, and runs its tempestuous course
of fifty miles before it is lost in one of the most attractive fjords
of Western Norway. It is of peculiar interest, as mid-way it
forms two great lakes, ten and fifteen miles in length.
In the lower reaches there are many falls and rapids; one
fall is fifty feet high and the salmon pass around it by a ladder.
If this was in America, the fall would have been blown up long
ago, and converted into a rapid, so that many salmon could go up
and the value of the river enhanced. As it is, the Gula affords
to two rods in June and July about one hundred and fifty salmon
and two hundred grilse. The largest salmon on record weighed
thirty-two pounds, and the average was thirteen and one-half
pounds, sport that should satisfy any one. This fine second-
class stream is, we are told by Mr. Charles Thomas Stanford in his
A River in Norway, a fly river; not only this, but you can cast
and do not have to drag the fly across the stream, or troll for
the fish. Trolling with a fly, it would appear, comes into the
class of spoon or dead-bait fishing.
Fly fishing means to cast and drop a fly then recall it imme-
diately. I should call ‘ harling? ‘ trolling,’ and I note that Mr.
Stanford makes the point. But ‘harling’ or towing the fly
across the river is absolutely necessary in many Norwegian
rivers, if salmon are desired. In this way I took my salmon in
the Williamson in Oregon in 1912. A fly would never be taken,
so I fell from grace and used a spoon.
The fishing in the Gula begins the first of June, where the
temperature of the water is forty-eight degrees. The water
below the fall is fished first, as the principal run up the ladder does
not begin until July. A certain ‘ Leivik pool’ is the best. The
lower stream is very attractive: a low beach for casting on one
side, and a precipitous wooded-precipice on the other, and far
away high mountains with lines and patches of snow lingering
into summer. By following up this river, one is led along beauti-
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
ful reaches, and through regions that are a delight whether the
salmon or grilse are biting or not.
As to flies—Jock Scott, Durham and Black Ranger, Black,
Silver and Blue Doctor, Dusty Miller and a few more are sufficient.
Other rivers of more or less charm are the Namsen, but to be
fished by ‘ harling’; the fine salmon-producing Laerdal that has
given its owner one hundred and forty-seven salmon in thirty-three
days, not to speak of grilse—seventeen hundred and seventy-seven
pounds in all; the Orkla, the Rauma, Sundal, Alten, Reisen
and. Tana.
As to the angling rank of Norwegian rivers, I am indebted to
Inspector Herr Landmark for the following: He estimates the
value of the salmon and sea-trout in an average year as 1,462,000
kr. The Tana ranks first with an average of 59,945 kr., then the
order is Laogen River, Gula, Orkla, Namsen, Mandel, Nisser,
Topdal, Laerdal, Drammen, Voss, Vefsen, Stjordal, Figgen and
Haa. The richness of this country in salmon streams can be
realized when, eliminating the purely trout streams, there are
one hundred and sixty salmon rivers.
The English angler pays about 300,000. kr. per annum to
Norway in leases, and 74,000 kr., for other expenses. In all, they
probably spend for their angling two million kronen a year ; asum
greater than the total value of all the salmon and trout fisheries
of the country. Yet the salmon killed by the angler is an in-
finitesimal fraction of the fish that enter the rivers.
The trout fishing in Norway is excellent, also in the Jemptland
lakes of Sweden. The lakes of Norway afford good sport,
especially the Veigvand, Landjevand, Tinhélen and Hardanger
Vidden lakes. Nearly all the Scandinavian rivers are trout
streams, and they are generally free, or the fishing can be had for
a small sum. The Jemptland lakes are noted for their large
trout, and in some is found a large char, Coregonus arcticus.
The Scandinavian coast-line abounds in fine sea angling, if one
cares for fish of the kind. In the lowland lakes are found pike,
perch and a variety of small fry.
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THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
Many anglers are now turning their attention to the streams
of Iceland, and some large fishes have been taken from the streams
in this home, but a few years ago, of the great auk.
In the Isle of Mull rivers, as the Forsa, Aros, and lochs Ba,
Frisa, Assapol and Mishmish, there is excellent salmon and sea-
trout angling. Mr. J. H. Clive, who knows the ground well,
advises a single fly, No. 9 Limerick hook, Silver Doctor,
Alexandria, or Jungle cock. This for the rivers; for loch fish-
ing, Soldier, Palmer and Zulu.
If one is hunting for trout fishing in out of the way places, he
will not be elbowed at the Lofodon Islands, which afford excellent
sport, especially Ostvaago, one of the outer islands. The fishing
in the Grundfort Fjord is said to be excellent, both with a minnow
and March Brown fly, the fish ranging up to six and nine pounds ;
and there are salmon, grilse, sea-trout and ‘ bull trout’ of eight
or nine pounds. The best fishing on the mainland is to be had at
the end of July, and on the islands the last of June. On the
mainland excellent places are Senjen, Hindo, Lango and Ando,
Ofoten and Salten fjords. The best flies for Nordland are said to
be the Orange and Partridge, while Jock Scott and ‘ Stevenson’
are often used.
A day’s catch is given as follows : two salmon, twenty-five and
eleven and one-half pounds ; eighteen bull trout, grilse and sea-
trout weighing eighty-eight pounds, the largest trout a nine and
one-half pounder; good for Nordland or anywhere else. The
sea-trout angling is especially good at Kirkwall, Orkney, where
not long ago Mr. G. T. Arthur showed a creel of forty-one fish
weighing forty-seven pounds, the largest fish weighed about five
pounds.
It is not to be understood that because the Norwegian
streams and rivers are controlled by the English that no fishing
can be obtained by the public. There are hotels which have
fishing for their guests, and there are many beats which can be
had from responsible agents in London. The following will afford
an idea of the expense of salmon fishing in Norway: Thus in the
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Mandal, near Christiansand, South Norway, one may rent the
Nodding Beat of about four kilometres with a farm-house of
ten bedrooms and good conveniences for 200 kr. per month. In
1912, in June, July, August and September, this beat afforded
one hundred and fifteen salmon, three hundred and sixteen
grilse, two hundred trout, amounting to two thousand three
hundred and eleven pounds. One may rent the Hague
Beat from August 1 to September 14, for $1,000.00 or
£200. The Oislebo Beat, six or seven kilometres in length,
both banks, house with eight bedrooms, can be had for 160 kr.
per month, or $1,000.00 for Juneand July. The Fuglesvedt Beat
of four kilometres on this river, with a six-bedroom house near the
river, can be rented for £150 for June and July, or £80 for
August and September. Other beats are the Lovdal from
Kaaland to Kleveland Bridge, three to twelve kilometres, both
banks ; accommodations at Lovdal, June and July, $1,000.00;
August and September, $500.00. The Klevelands Beat is
available August 1 to September 30, for $1,375.00. The Bjae-
land Beat of four kilometres, char fishing, trolling for salmon
in Manflo Lake, may be had for £40, or $200.00 perseason. The
beautiful Foss Beat on the Mandal can be rented by the season
for £60. All these beats have comfortable and commodious
houses, and while practically every inch of all good rivers is held
for rent or lease, good angling is to be had, and the prices are
not exorbitant.
Tuna or tarpon fishing either in Europe, Canada or America,
is, I should say, more expensive. The famous beats on the Nam-
sen range from four to eight kilometres, and as fifty-pounders
are not uncommon, the rent is somewhat higher but never ex-
travagant. Prices range greatly. One beat that gave eighty-
three salmon in June and July, 1912, can be had in 1913 for
£550, or a beat of three miles, large farm-house, can be had in
June and July for £275. Such a beat could be taken by a party
of friends, divided up, and the expense reduced to the minimum.
This beat produced in 1911, from May 21 to August 7, one
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THE SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
hundred and one salmon, thirty-eight grilse, in all amounting to
one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three pounds.
Fine beats may be had on the Orkla, a boat-fishing river ;
some famous ones being the Aarlivold, Dragset, Lo, Dombu.
On the Gula fine beats are, Gulfos, Vold, Rogstad, Langletet.
On the river Stjordal the best beats are the Hegre, Lerfold, Foro,
Floren-Kringen. Other good streams on which beats may be
had are the Etne, Aaro, or one may take a combination in the
Sundal Valley of the Nyheim and Lindal where there is salmon,
trout and lake river fishing and reindeer hunting. The Aargaard
River in the Namsen Fjord, the Frafjord River, Famous, the
Hyen, Tromsoe Amt, Nordland, Vefsen, Atran, Nordfjord, and
many more, to reach which the angler takes the Wilson Line of
steamers from Hull to Trondhjem, or Christiania, and by rail
to the former. The angler can make all arrangements in London
for the rent of beats, from some reliable agent, as Lumley &
Dowell, Lumley House, St. James Street, and doubtless there
are many others.
There is an abundance of free trout fishing in Norway, as at
Sivertsen’s Sande, Sondfjord, Red Hotel, Nordfjord, Liland’s
Hotel, Bolken.
The beautiful trout streams of Finland have been referred
to. In North Finland, at Kajana, there is excellent fishing
for trout, grayling, etc., the season beginning the twentieth to
twenty-sixth of June. Fifty miles from here is Vaala on the
Elea River, with salmon and sea-trout.
In Iceland the season begins June the first, and lasts until
the first of September. There is fine salmon fishing within
three miles of Reykjavik. Jock Scott, the Doctors, Silver Gray
are favourite flies for Iceland, and the angler should remember
that Iceland is not an ice land in summer. It is within nine
hundred miles of Edinburgh and there is a regular line of steamers
from Leith to Reykjavik. There are snow-capped mountains,
glaciers; but for the angler in search of salmon, grilse, brown
trout and char, there are flower-clad valleys, radiant green hills,
air pure and scintillant and the nightless day.
207
CHAPTER XXII
THE SALT-WATER JACKS
‘O Florida, thou poem of the States,
Thou coral garden where the warm sea sings,
‘Tis sweet in dreams to drift beyond thy gates,
Like voyagers old who sought immortal spring,
*Neath golden skies impearled with ibis wings,
Afar from crystal season’s lines of blue,
And cloudy conifers of ice and snow,
And with the double sense of beauty view
In things we feel the things we are to know,
And almost hear the palpitating strings
Of life harps lost in answering numbers play.
Would that my song could like thy bird songs flow
Like wingéd poets to the sun-land true!
Sweet would I sing, O Riviére du Mai!’
Hezekiah Butterworth.
MONG the oceanic fishes there is a group which for con-
venience may be termed the Jacks. They are found in
many seas, but, as a rule, in the warmer temperate zones, north
and south. It was of Melanthus that the poet wrote :
“I quaffed full bowls in a capacious shell,
Ye Gods if earthy men thus live and drink
Give me the land, the sea’s a worthless sink.’
Some of the jacks I have seen in Florida might have penned
these lines, as I have watched them take to the land in their
fierce rushes, dashing far out on to the beach, to slowly struggle
back again. This was the jack or crevallé of Florida, of which
Mr. Izaac McLellan wrote :
‘Swift speed crevallé over that watery plain,
Swift over Indian River’s broad expanse.
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THE SALT-WATER JACKS
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.’
Their fierce nature was well illustrated by these rushes on
certain keys of the Florida reef, where I have often joined in
the mélée. The jacks, in spring and summer particularly,
run in shoals of many thousands, and when seized with a blood
or hunger lust, go mad, lose all timidity, and like an army of
some oceanic Mahdi, rush on the shoals of sardines and drive
them on to the beaches, presenting a scene of havoc and slaughter
difficult to believe if one has not been in it.
At a certain key we always attended these ‘beats’ to
watch the struggle and to aid the fishermen catch jacks. The
warning was a deep but loud roar, and a crashing of fishes on
the water—a sound that had a definite meaning to all who
heard it, and which could be distinguished a mile or more on a
hot still day. These were summer seas when the Gulf was a
disk of steel, its normal condition, and while hot, there was a
charm difficult to describe, as here were the gardens of the sea—the
‘ Gulfs enchanted where the siren sings and coral reefs lie bare.’
The reef was the top of a coral mountain, and vast legions
of fishes climbed its heights from the abysmal regions where
there was little or no life, like birds, to live and feed on the
literal gardens along its slopes.
Following up one of the ‘ beats’ one day, we presently saw
it—a mass of foam on the clear surface, as though a volcano
had suddenly burst forth, and the sea was seething and boiling.
When we reached the spot the jacks had driven a large shoal
(or ‘school’ as they call it in Florida) of sardines on to the
beach of Long Key (Tortugas), where they formed a windrow
of fishes several feet in width, a solid animated mass, with
14 209
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
backs out of water, while for ten feet outside of that, the water
was black with the sardines and rapidly becoming red, due to
the carnage. We hauled the dinghy on the beach, and I waded
into the mass to catch some of the jacks. The school was
evidently made up of several thousand, and they would dash
into the sardines with such force that they went completely
through them, and high and dry on the sands where my man
caught them by the tail and threw them up higher.
The sardines paid no attention to me; fear of a deadly type
had seized them, and they merely hugged the shore and went
down, as the fierce living tempest charged into them, mowing
them down, killing from a mere blood lust. ;
The market fishermen wanted jacks, so we entered into this
battle, and as the big fish swarmed about my legs, striking me,
I caught them by the tail and tossed them out onto the sands,
that were soon a writhing mass, most of them having gone
ashore of their own volition. For twenty minutes or half an
hour this wonderful rush and pandemonium continued; then
the jacks drew off, like an army, and left a long line of blood
along the sands, and dead and maimed sardines to tell the story,
upon which gulls and brown pelicans and man-of-war birds
began to feed.
Hither with a hand-line or rod and reel, the jack or crevallé,
Caranz hippos, will afford a remarkable illustration of strength,
and it should be taken with the rod trolling, or by casting with
live bait. The nine-ounce rod of the Tuna Club description is
eminently adapted to the occasion ; and few, if any fishes of the
sea make a better struggle for freedom. In six or seven years,
winter and summer, on the outer Florida reef, where my father,
an army officer, was stationed, years ago, I had many a bout
with those splendid fishes, that gave no quarter, nor did they
ask it, but fought to the finish.
The jacks of the crevallé type are extremely common in
nearly all tropic and semi-tropic seas, though their place appears
to be taken in California (so far as the angler is concerned) by
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THE SALT-WATER JACKS
the yellowtail, a cousin of the amber-jack, which has many of
the characteristics of the typical jacks. It is common in Florida,
and is found very generally in the West India Islands. It has
been taken on the American coast north of Florida, but it is an
exception; the grounds of its choice being the warm waters
of the south, where small fry abound in unlimited quantities.
Tn Florida it appears in greatest numbers in the summer months,
ranging from five to twenty or even more pounds.
Another jack is known as the goggle-eyed jack of Bermuda,
‘and very generally throughout the West Indies. Still another
jack, Carangus latus, has a world-wide range from America to
South America and the Indian Ocean. Its common name is
jurel. Another species, the Cuban jurel, is common about that
Island, and affords excellent sport. Here, too, is found that
extraordinary jack, of thirty or forty pounds, known as Hynnis
cubensis, and another species, H. hopkinsi, of the Pacific coast, near
Mazatlan.
There are a number of smaller allied fishes which are game
in every sense, if taken with appropriate tackle, as the Runner
({Caranx crysos). Nearly all of these jacks ‘ beat,’ the sound of
the carnage in the semi-tropics arousing man and bird. Mr.
‘W. H. Gregg in referring to it says: ‘I have heard and seen
all the above movements of schools of mullet in the Indian River ;
many times their rushes, when pursued by porpoise, sharks
and crevallé, sounding like distant thunder or artillery.? The
‘pompano of the Indian River country, eastern Florida, bears a
close resemblance to the jacks, and is a cousin. It attains a
weight of from five to eight pounds, though the average is
much less; and if I am not mistaken, I have seen a thirty
pounder taken in a seine at Tortugas. A drawing was made of
this fish, and it corresponded to the typical pompano.
Almost every angler has had an experience with jumping
fishes, and Ihave had many a pompano leap into my boat, not
to speak of mullet, gars and many more ; but the little pompano
is an adept. Mr. Gregg tells of a pompano that sprang into the
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
engine-room of a steamer. I know of a pound and a quarter
flying fish that leaped aboard the ocean-going steamer Hermosa
in the Santa Catalina Island Channel, and landed in the bar,
to the destruction of glass ware.
If the angler can find a good locality in Florida where he
can fish for the big jack from the shore, he should not miss the
opportunity. Sucha place fell to my good fortune at Long Key,
not the famous tarpon and swordfish locality of the upper reef,
but at the Tortugas group, sixty miles west of Key West. Here
on the east side of the Key the jacks would beat almost every
day in summer. At such time I would wade out a few feet on
the south side and cast my sardine into the blue channel, that
like an artery wound in and out among these gardens of the sea.
It would not be long before I would have astrike, and what a
strike! It was a condensed tuna, taken on the rush, with a bang,
smash, and if you did not have affairs—line, reel, etc.—in shape,
something would give, and then would begin a fight worth while,
the rod bending to the breaking point, the jack making great
characteristic side runs, and a splendid exhibition, as I gradu-
ally backed in and played him in the shallows within reach of
the negro’s grains in lieu of gaff.
To interpolate, there is a feature of the fishing in Florida
that was particularly fascinating to me, and I observe that the
late Mr. Arthur St. John Newbury in his charming book on
Florida fishing, gives a picture illustrating it. This is bait
catching. There are somany fishes to catch here, with so many
varied appetites, that the tyro will often fail because he innocently
attempts to force an impossible bait on a fish. Some fancy
crabs; others fish. One will take sardines or hardheads ;
another takes conch, or crayfish or shrimp. The taking of this
bait is a fascination, or was to me. Many an early morning at
sunrise, I was on the shallow lagoon, grains (spear, with two
short prongs) in hand, to take crayfish. Or later followed them and
took them where their whips appeared, as they lived beneath
every coral head or bunch. Or we drifted along, diving for
212
THE SALT-WATER JACKS
conchs, the beautiful big pink-lipped shell, a famous bait for
red snapper, grouper, grunt and many more, and a bonne bouche
to many Bahamians who ate it in the olden days, and so were
ealled Conchs. Conch au naturel will hardly appeal to one,
but conch, well pounded, as with abalone, makes a chowder not
to be despised.
The most esthetic bait catching is with the cast-net. An
old negro servant, or boat caretaker, of my father’s, in the army,
made me a small cast-net suitable for a boy of twelve or thirteen.
I became skilful with it in a short time, and spent many an hour
stealing upon mullets and casting for them. There is something
very graceful in this, especially to see some of the tall negroes
step along with the cast-net between their teeth and held to
the left, creeping upon a school of mullets, so intent in burrowing
in the mud, so concealed by it, that they cannot see the impend-
ing danger. All at once the fisherman stops, moves his body to
the left, to get a swing if the net is heavy, whirls it to the right,
and then from the left, swings it so that it opens out six or eight
or more feet, and drops like an umbrella upon the unsuspecting
fish that are effectually caged.
At the Tarpon Club, Port Aransas, Texas, my young bait
catcher had a duplicate of my small cast-net. It was not over
four feet across, and the weights were light. When I proposed
to go for Spanish mackerel or channel bass, he would run down
to the beach, dash into the water and cast his net as he went, so
catching the shrimp bait necessary for this game. In California
the crayfish are too deep to grain, so are taken in traps, while the
abalone is prised from the rocks by the aid of a glass box and a
long-handled gouge. The Japanese go down in armour, walk
along the bottom and filch them.
Among the jacks, though only a distant cousin to them, is the
amber-jack of Florida, one of the finest of the Atlantic coast
fishes. It resembles the California yellowtail, but is longer,
thicker or more bulky, attaining a weight of over eighty pounds.
The average fish weighs about twenty-five pounds. This is
213
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Seriola lalandi. It is taken in great numbers at Palm Beach
and along the Florida coast. They are often caught trolling
from a launch ; but for rod and reel fishing, unless the launch is
small enough to move about quickly, a row-boat is advisable.
A nine-ounce, seven- or eight-foot rod is long enough for this
game, using a belt with a butt socket. A good multiplying
reel is a necessity, a long, piano-wire leader, with several swivels
(the winged swivels of Mr. Newbury are excellent), and a 10/°
tarpon hook, or a smaller one if live bait is used. The amber-
jack is not particular as to bait; but a live mullet or bluefish
makes still fishing very alluring, and when trolling from a sail-
boat or launch, squid or dead bait is acceptable. To my mind, the
most fascinating method is to ‘ still fish’ with live bait, or, if
possible, approach a school of small fry, beneath which the
amber-jacks are lying. Mr. Gregg in his valuable book, How
to Catch Fish in Florida, describes an instance. When on leaving
the Royal Poinciana, his attention was attracted to a school
of fish near the pier. It was a school of bluefish, and baiting
their hooks with small pieces of mullet, they hooked a bluefish,
which in turn was taken by the game they were after, the amber-
jack beneath. Mr. Gregg hooked a number before he landed
a fish, as they allcame at the dock and cut the line, an experi-
ence I have often had with the yellowtail at Avalon.
An enthusiastic angler, burdened with the symptoms of an
artistic temperament is liable to think that every fish is the
best and fiercest fighter. So while I have had no extended ex-
perience with this fish, I have a most alluring impression and
memory of those I have taken; and if there is anything more
soul-stirring (in fishes of this size) than the first rush of a forty-
pound amber-jack, I do not know it. The imperious smashing
departure, the high staccato of the reel—a real shriek—from
the click, the sense of power and strength the fish gives you, are
all elements which go to make up a great game fish. I refer
now to a fish taken from a small, well-handled boat, where the
oarsman can keep you facing the game, and you are playing it
214
THE SALT-WATER JACKS
with a fairly light rod from the boat. There are situations where
the sailboat must be employed ; but I have had such disastrous
happenings, attempting to get a boat up into the wind before a
bluefish or other big fish takes all the line, that I am opposed
to it on strictly moral grounds. I once fished in this way witha
friend, who was very desirous of becoming a writer, but always.
regretted that it was impossible, as he had a very limited voca-
bulary. After seeing him try to land a bluefish from a cat-
boat in a fresh breeze, with a stupid skipper, I found myself in a
position to assure him that if a limited vocabulary was all that
stood in the way of his ambition, he need have no fears.
The amber-jacks have a wide range. Some of the species
found over the world are, S. zonata, dumerili, mazatlana, fasciata,
rivoliana, falcata, and I think there is a huge fellow at Hawaii
that has escaped the eagle eye of the specialists.
In size the amber-jack ranges beyond one hundred pounds.
I have seen such a fish or a picture of it from Hawaii. Arthur
St. John Newbury has a record of a fifty-two and a half pounder,
which was four feet three inches long. Palm Beach has some
fine amber-jacks. Mr. Wm. L. Green has taken an eighty-one
and a half pounder. Mr. J. T. Caldwell of New York exceeded
this in 1905 with a ninety-two pound fish, taken with a twenty-
one thread line. Mr. Green’s catches are as follows: thirty-four
pounds, forty-two and a half pounds, sixty-seven and a half
pounds, sixty-seven pounds, and eighty-one and a half pounds.
These are the giants of the tribe, but there are many more,
as the smaller allied forms, which are game fishes in every sense ;
delight givers, which can sometimes be taken with a fly and a
trout rod. The amber-fishes do not reach England, but some
of the finest jack fishing is found beneath the British flag, in
various parts of the world.
215
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
‘Yo-ho, yo-ho, and away we go,
Away o’er Biscayne Bay.
With a larboard side and a starboard side,
And off at the break of day!
We trimmed our craft both fore and aft,
And sped on the flowing tide ;
With a jolly crew and mountain dew
We cast all cares aside,
Our boat did laugh at the briny chaff,
A gallant craft was she ;
A school of porpoise passed by,
A-swimming lustily.
A leopard shark played tag with our bark,
A sea-cow chewed her hay ;
On a limestone rock a crocodile crocked
“Three cheers for Biscayne Bay !”
A flying fish flew ‘midst our merry crew,
A dog-fish barked with glee,
As we chewed the tail of a youthful whale,
And growled at a stingaree.’
Anon.
LMOST any one would like to fish with the man who wrote
these jingles, as it is evident the poet not only knows
‘how to fish, but knows what to take to preserve the peace. No
systematist stickling for mere truth and veracity, but an old-
fashioned angler, of an ancient vintage. If the fish the lady
catches is light in weight, and a cause of sorrow and tears, he
sees that it is loaded with sinkers; he has seen the crocodile,
even at sea. He went to school with the sea-serpent, and is a
blood relation of a merman ; and as for romance, he will tell you
216
Fig. 35.
Game Fishes of Florida. (Photographed from life, by Hunt).
1. Red Grouper. 2. Jew-fish. 3. Sea-trout, 4. Margate Fish (Snapper). 5. Hog-fish.
6. Jack (Cavalle). p. 216.
/
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
how the sirens enticed him on to a reef where all hands, including
himself, were lost. In a word, he is a man of imagination, ready
at a moment’s notice to see anything, of any size, shape, or colour.
He is a philosopher; he knows that if he did tell the truth no
one would believe him, so why worry? Why not revel in the
delights of the imagination ?
Almost every angler knows such a man, who makes life longer
and jollier for himself, and shorter for the fishes. I have fished
with such an angler not far from Biscayne Bay, down the keys,
and the reference to the dog-fish ‘ that really did growl at a
stingaree ’ reminds me of days of delight we had in fishing for the
small fishes of the Florida reef—the dog-fish that growled,
grunts that grunted, porcupine fish that hissed and clicked,
and stingaree that was growled at, the leopard-shark, and many
more, all the familiars of the great reef, the advance guard of
Florida, now bounded and cemented into a spinal cord by the
new railroad by which the angler can go aboard in New York in a
snowstorm, and awake, if he sleeps long enough and not longer
than the average angler cares to sleep, and find himself in the
Tropics, on the great fishing grounds of the Gulf of Mexico.
Such is the vogue of the big game fishes in California and
Florida that one almost loses sight of the many small ones that
afford the wandering angler such pleasurable sport. Florida
in particular is the home of countless fishes ranging in weight up
to six or eight pounds, or even ten, which are delight-givers in
more ways than one. To some a fish must appeal to the shade
of Lucullus; to others the game is played under the banner of
St. Zeno alone; but for you and for me a happy combination
is desirable, the fish must be ahard fighter and a generous pan-
fish as well. Most of the fishes referred to in this chapter come
under this head.
Florida and California, especially in the southern part of each
State, are, in all probability, the most famous fishing grounds
in the civilized world. It is not fish alone that makes good fishing.
I have seen fish biting about certain keys in Florida in August,
217
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
taking the bait, or anything, so readily, that it was murder ;
yet so far as sport was concerned, one might as well try to go
a-fishing with Charon on the Styx; it was hot beyond expres-
sion, boiling, steaming, and I had to tumble overboard every little
while to cool off. One has to be an enthusiast to find enjoyment
under such conditions. In Southern California I have seen big
game fishes pile into a little inlet at San Nicolas Island—a melan-
choly spot, ninety miles from Avalon—pile in such numbers
that they took line, sinkers, anything. But it was eternally
blowing here; the air was filled with sand and spume, and the
very winds conspired to drive one out. In a word, fishing, angling,
without some of the comforts, is a sad travesty. One ought to
have good weather, smooth waters to play big game, and clear
waters for smaller fry, that one may enter into the full enjoyment
of the sport.
This is what has made the waters of Santa Catalina famous,
not to speak of Bermuda. The conditions at the former are ideal ;
eighteen miles at sea, and twenty miles of practical lee. The
same may be true of San Clemente, twenty miles still further
out, in September, and at Monterey, from 6 until 11 a.m., when
it begins to blow, and the scene changes.
The average angler does not see the best fishing of Florida,
as it ison in the summer. He fishes for tarpon in the early
spring, amber-jack and others; but it is in summer, when the
sun is overhead, and long, hot days give a dead calm for weeks at
a time that the sport is at its best, yet often seething, sizzling.
I have fished the Florida keys every month in the year, and a
number of summers, and they are far more comfortable than
the; mainland regions, the heat being tempered by the winds,
the mosquitoes not so evident. In fact, the climate of Key West
and the lower reef is of the best.
In California the sea-fishing is in summer, or from March
until December, and the angler rarely finds a day too hot for
comfort on the water. In midsummer in California the nights
are often too cool to go out on the water with comfort, this
218
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
attractive feature of the East is eliminated, but it means cool
nights for sleep. On the Gulf coast of Texas, as at Aransas and
other passes near Corpus Christi, the heat is in force in August
when angling for tarpon, but there is little discomfort out on the
water where there is a constant breeze coming in over the Gulf,
a breeze that is piling up the sand dunes and blowing the
mosquitoes into the bay.
The big fishes of the Florida Reef and the peninsula region
that appeal to the angler are the barracuda, black grouper, the
sword- or sailfish, amber-jack, tarpon, kingfish and its cousin,.
and several more—you can count them on the fingers of two
hands ; but when it comes to the small fry, there are seemingly
myriads ; the grunts, a motley, bespangled, throng, the familiars.
of every shoal, reef, or mangrove lagoon; grunts (and they do
grunt) in red and yellow, grunts in gold and silver, grunts in black
and white, and their cousins ad infinitum. When everything
else fails the grunts are there, you cannot miss them, and it can
be said that fried grunt would have been commended by Lucullus
himself. ‘Grunts and grits’ mean something in Florida.
This feature of the grunt covers a multitude of sins of omission,
as it is only by a fierce tug at the imagination that the inter-
esting little ‘ nibbler’ can be considered a game fish, though on
a two- or three-ounce split bamboo rod he will make the welkin.
of the reef ring for a limited time.
One cannot live long in Florida without hearing of the
snappers. He will see a red snapper fisherman who sends his
catch to New York or Havana. These are taken in deep holes.
or at certain places in the Gulf, on hand-lines, and do not afford
much sport except of the hand-line variety. But there is another
group of snappers that, to me at least (and I know them well),
are among the most beautiful of all sea fishes; not for their gor-
geous colours or flaming tints; as the parrot-fishes, the coral
or paradise-fishes, which live with them around the coral heads,
are far more brilliant; but the snappers are beautiful in the
sense of artistic richness, dignity, purity, and simplicity of
219
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
colours which are often, as in the gray snapper, of the plainest
description. This radiant fish is the Lutianus griseus of the
scientist, the Pargo prieto of the Cuban, and plain snapper of
the Conch, the gray snapper of the angler merely because he
looks gray when compared to his twenty or more generic cousins.
In shallow water he is gray, adapting himself to the colour of the
mud or sand, but when in greater depths he comes up, if he
comes at all, brilliant in reddish-copper hues. The gray snapper
looks gray, but he is really green above; the middle of each
scale is black, the edge white with dashes of colour here and
there, making it a fish that appeals to the artist.
It has a high dorsal, a large powerful tail telling of fighting
spirit and the strength to back it up; a gem-like eye, and perfect
proportions. At first glance one would say the gray snapper is
@ long, graceful, small-mouth black bass ; but it is more graceful,
more attractive, and with many times the strength and fight-
ing quality. The fish, doubtless, is found all over the West
Indies, and, where I have caught it on the Tortugas reefs,
ais one of the cleverest of all fishes and the most difficult to
eatch.
On the large, growing, atoll-like key where I fished, a stranger
might have hunted for gray snappers a month, and never
found them, as they rarely consorted with the brilliant host
that was found inthe open. I knew an old wreck near Garden
Key ; what it was, or where it came from, no one knew. I found
it by accident at a very low tide, the entire skeleton of a big
ship, blown in by a hurricane or wrecked by the old buccaneers.
As I peered down through the placid waters I saw, not ingots from
what might have been an old galleon, but scores of snappers,
hanging, poising in mid-water like birds. And such snappers !
ranging from five to ten and doubtless twenty pounds. Their
dignity was their chief characteristic. Other fishes dashed
at the conch or mullet bait, but the gray snappers never moved ;
they did not deign even to look at it, and one might have fished
for them an eternity without success.
220
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
1 T had many experiences with these dainty fishes before I
caught them, and they are worthy the best and lightest tackle—
asix-or eight-ounce rod nine or ten feet long, with a six-thread
line, a long fine copper-wire leader, and small 6/° hook, and the
old-fashioned O’Shaughnessey, if you please. This baited with
crayfish, sardine or small fishes, I found very alluring, and a ten-
or fifteen-pound snapper on this tackle is a joy indeed. Their
rushes are magnificent, there is no other word for it, and they
are kept up, this way and that, in and out, now rising to the sur-
face, to dash down, come in, and play all the tricks known to
clever fishes. I believe a large gray snapper on fair tackle has a
greater individuality than almost any fish I know. You may find
him around docks, a little way off, or old wrecks, or about man-
grove stumps that have been blown out into lagoons.
The young are ready biters and beautiful little creatures.
It is a satisfaction to the angler to know that his catch is edible,
and no better table fish swims along the radiant groves of the
Florida Reef. Jordan gives the salt Indian River, and Jack
Channel Key West, as good fishing grounds, and I fancy all the
wrecks along the coast are the homes of this fish.
Very similar to the gray snapper is the dog snapper, L. jocu.
Above, it is olive in colour, the sides are often red or old-rose,
the cheeks red. I have caught this snapper weighing at least.
twenty pounds from a boat off the Garden Key Reef, using tackle
not much heayier than a short eight-ounce black bass rod. But
-here the comparison ends, the silk enamelled line of the bass
angler will not do.
Another radiant snapper is the schoolmaster, DL. apodus,
or Pargo amarilla; also the silk snapper, LD. vivanuis. A long
powerful snapper is better known as the Pargo criollo, or mutton
snapper, L. analis. I have seen specimens which must have
1 It should be remembered I am describing the gray snapper of the
Tortugas group, the extreme outer keys, sixty miles beyond Key West.
The snapper of Key Biscayne and Long Key may be a very different fish on
the line.
22L
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
-weighed thirty pounds at Bush Key where the channel came in
near shore and dead coral was piled up by the sea.
All these snappers came into the sandy lagoons to feed at
night, when we often caught them in seines in localities that
Knew them not during the day. One night with mullet bait I
hooked a fish here which towed my light dinghy about for nearly
aan hour before I could land it. I hooked it hardly three feet
from the shore, where the fish was doubtless hunting for crabs ;
but its fine rush, and my flying leap into the boat to savemy
dine, will long be remembered.
The vivid red-tailed Lane snapper, LD. synagris, is an attrac-
tive fellow. The average fish of the markets weigh two or
three pounds, but specimens weighing ten or twelve pounds
are known to anglers. Any one who knew Key West in the
seventies will recall ‘ Paublo,’ who sold snappers, and his cry,
“Snappers an’ Rabirubia, yallertail an’ snappers!’ To eat
“ yallertail,’ is one thing, to remember, and to catch it another.
The Florida yellowtail is a beautiful little snapper-like fish with
abig yellow tail, a yellow stripe, ablaze ofsilver and yellow ; an
alluring fish about ten or twelve inches long, often two feet, and
ranging up to five or six pounds. It deserves very light tackle.
I could always find it on the reef, just beyond the surf in a grove
of brilliant gorgonias and corals, in company with angel-fishes
of various kinds. It has none of the shyness or clever qualities
of its cousins the snappers, but will take conch or fish bait, and
can be caught at any time, being a very democratic and innocent
little fish; hence it will not surprise one to learn that it is a
fine table fish and one most in evidence. No fish of its size makes
‘a better play on an eight-ounce split bamboo or cane. Tosee a
yellowtail flash through a coral grove on one’s line and bending
rod is a revelation. Nearly all these fishes are taken in traps
or on heavy hand-lines, hence their game qualities are never
‘suspected except by the few well-equipped anglers who go down
the Florida Reef.
For yellowtail we often rowed out from Garden Key, across
222 .
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
the big lagoon, passing beds of branch coral which stretched
away for miles, entered a little five-foot channel through the
reef, if the sea was low, and anchored in about fifteen or twenty
feet of water. Here was a wealth of game. We were fishing
for yellowtails, but caught almost everything ; now a flat high
angel-fish, or a richly-coloured Chaetodon, ablaze with blues
and yellows—a veritable butterfly of the sea. Then would
come a yellowtail, next a porcupine fish covered with spines,
which expanded like a balloon the moment it reached the surface
and floated away upon it. Then a moray, spotted like a tiger,
coiling likea snake. Most of these might be considered vermin,
but some are true game fishes, particularly some of the so-called
angel and parrot-fishes. Of the former I would give the palm
to one called the black angel-fish, Pomacanthus; an extraor-
dinary creature, one of a score of scaled angels. In shape it is
high or elevated, its extraordinary fin or fleshy hump making it
still higher. The general colour is gray, with black or dark
spots; the mouth a vivid white.
The young are striped with white bars; but the older they
grow the grayer they become. The large ones are two feet
long and will average six or eight pounds. The very shape of
the fish is suggestive of qualities of resistance, and the suggestion
isnot imaginary: The mouth of the angel-fish is so small that
an extremely small but very strong hook is required ; a number
six-thread linen line, a short leader or trace of very fine copper
wire, and no sinker. The rod should be a stout eight-ounce split
bamboo cane, or greenheart, about seven or eight feet long.
With this and crayfish bait you are equipped. You might fish
for them a year with a yellowtail hook and never hook them
because they cannot take it in, or with a delicate hook, as they
bite it off with their ivory-like teeth.
In the home of the angel-fish there are countless other fishes
quicker of motion, and the chances are that you will catch
many grunts and yellowtails before the dignified, slow-moving
black angel takes the lure. So you cast, and as the throng rises,
223
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
jerk your bait away from the quick swimmers, or better, toss a
handful of bait some feet away to attract them. The slow
dignified angel-fish is left behind, and casting your lure in his
direction he takes it in the deliberate fashion. The body, or about
one-third of it, including the head, is a vivid yellow; the mouth
is blue, the gill edges and part of the dorsal and ventral fins
vermilion, while the central portion is velvet-black—a most
striking arrangement of colours not to be mistaken. For hours
I have drifted over the homes of these radiant creatures, watch-
ing them through the water glass, and it would be difficult to
adequately describe the remarkable colours of these fishes, of
these gardens of the sea, that seem to be parrots, so far as
plumage goes.
Tf in drifting over these gardens of the reef you chance to
have a two-ounce split bamboo and a fly hook you can try a
lesser-sized band of angel-fishes, called coral-fishes, or Chaetodons.
They are the tourmalines of the sea, gems of many colours,
scintillating and blazing like real gems in the clear waters of
the reef, standing out in sharp relief against the red, yellow,
lavender, and brown sea-plumes. These dainty fishes in yellows
and blues, splashed and striped, are game, if the very lightest tackle
is used.
Just as the parrots of the tropical forests seem designed to
lend beauty and brilliant colour to the bizarre foliage of .these
regions, so the parrot-fishes of the tribe of Scarus are the birds of
the tropic seas. Lacépéde says: ‘ Le feu du diamant, du rubis,
de la topaz, de ’émeraude, du saphir, de ’améthyste, du grenat,
scintille sur leurs écailles polies, il brille sur leur surface en gouttes,
croissans, en raies, en bandes, en anneaux, en ceintures, en
zones, en ondes; il se méle 4 V’éclat de lor et de l’argent, qui
y resplendit sur des grandes places, les teintes obscures, les aires
pales, et pour ainsi décolorées.’
Badham recognized their beauty and wrote:
‘While blazing breast of humming-bird and Io’s stiffen’d wing
Are bright as when they first came forth new-painted in the spring,
224
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
While speckled snake and spotted pard their markings still display,
Though he who once embalm’d them both himself be turned to clay,
On fish a different fate attends, nor reach they long the shore
Ere fade their hues like rainbow tints, and soon their beauty’s o’er.
The eye that late in ocean’s flood was large and round and full,
Becomes on land a sunken orb, glaucomatous and dull ;
The gills, like mushrooms, soon begin to turn from pink to black,
The blood congeals in stasis thick, the scales upturn and crack ;
And those fair forms, a Veronese, in art’s meridian power,
With every varied tint at hand, and in his happiest hour,
Could ne’er in equal beauty deck and bid the canvas live,
Are now so colourless and cold, a Rembrandt’s touch might give.’
All the classical writers refer to them. Numa called them
‘prains of Jove,’ and Aristotle dwelt upon their beauties and
believed they are the only fishes that sleep at night, as note his lines :
‘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.’
It is not the beauty of the fish, but its qualities as a hard
fighter that I would refer to, and doubtless few anglers have
played them, as their mouths are small, their teeth, after the
fashion of the bird parrot, more like bills, only of seeming ivory
or china, and the ordinary small hook, that naturally would be
selected for them, is easily nipped off, as a macaw will bite a wire.
The hook must be very small but very stout, a number six linen
line and a rod of six ounces, six or seven feet long, or better, an
eight-ounce rod, ten feet long, stiff enough to lift a sulking fish.
With this equipment, and crayfish bait, we may approach the
parrot fish, which is scorned by the marketman, who takes it
because he cannot help it, in pots or traps set for something else.
It is seen at times with the band previously described, but,
like the angel-fish, is slow and dignified, and does not rush at the
bait with the yellowtails and grunts, but lurks in the shadow of
some resplendent yellow sea-fan, where it will bend its body, as
does the kelp-fish of California, then suddenly moves away
rapidly, using its pectoral fins and not its tail.
15 225
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
One hot day I anchored my dinghy : near a clump of coral
heads, hollowed out like gigantic vases, and began to fish, cast-
ing out into water fifteen or twenty feet deep, but so clear that I
could see the smallest fish. The climatic conditions were not
enticing. It was August, and the heat was so intense that every
now and then it was our custom to drop overboard, or sit on the
rail with feet swinging in the water. The fishing ground was
on the outer reef not seventy miles from Havana. I could see
fishes of all kinds, and a dozen or more brilliant blue parrot-
fishes, known as the sea turquoise, Scarus caeruleus, being of that
colour. By tossing bait to the right and left I attracted the
attention of the bait-eaters, and. had for a moment the parrot
fishes to myself. After repeated trials I hooked one of the largest.
Knowing the parrot-like beaks of the fish, I handled it with care,
but confess that its first rush amazed me. I saw it distinctly,
and estimated its weight at fifteen or more pounds. I had
hooked larger fish that bent my rod with less vigour. As soon
as it felt the hook it came to the surface with a bound, turned,
and dashed out of sight, my delicate line melting away as though
by magic, the little reel singing a barcarole of its own com-
posing.
The fish took two hundred feet of my line before I rounded
it up, then, doubtless, it turned its broad side and fins against me,
and bore away and sulked like a salmon; nor could I move it
for a few moments, though I tapped on the rod and tried a variety
of {time-honoured schemes, the line trembling, a peculiar thrill
coming up, adding to my excitement. Suddenly by its own
volition it started and dashed around in half a circle, not allowing
me to gain an inch, and again it took a stand ; then started again,
and came scurrying in, I reeling at the top of my speed, only
to see the living turquoise dart by the boat not ten feet distant,
and when the line came taut the reel fairly screamed, as all the
line gained, and more, went hissing after the fish.
1 Any very small-keeled rowboat in Florida isa dinghy. If flat-bottomed
it is a skiff.
226
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
Tf a trout or a salmon had made such a play the angler would
have been enthusiastic beyond measure ; but here was a despised
parrot-fish, that no one would eat, a public and private nuisance,
but certainly of value to the angler. How long I played the
fish, or how long it played me, I do not remember, but it was
certainly more than half an hour before I reeled it alongside my
dinghy and watched it, lying prone on its side, rolling its eyes
at me inanunfishlike manner. That was long ago, but the jaws
of the fish, which I have as a trophy, are still as blue as turquoise.
There were in these waters a number of these sea-parrots.
One, the Loro verde, a beautiful dark green fish, a splendid fighter,
that could break an ordinary hook with ease, and fight and defy
the angler with extraordinary displays of pugnacity, and sud-
denly at the net or gaff, turn over and roll its comical eyes, of a
strange colour, at you, when of course you let him go. Some of
these sea-fish attain a length of two or three feet, and a weight
of nearly thirty pounds. I am confident that one I took with a
hand-line, called the old wife, or Vieja fish, weighed all that, but
I did not weigh it.
Their colour is a fascinating study. Thus if the fish is blue,
its bony jaws are blue. If green, they are green; the teeth
‘seemingly have coalesced, forming a peculiar beak, so powerful
that they can easily bite off a branch of coral or any equally hard
substance. They, apparently, are found all over the world in
tropical seas. Some are eaten, but in Florida the colours sug-
gested copper to the natives and Conchs, and they are not used
to any extent, and I do not recall that I experimented upon
them myself, or upon myself with them.
The chub, or Chopa blanca, was one ofthis throng that,
apparently, has never been discovered as a game fish, but a
‘royal little fellow, and not so little after all, as specimens I took
-tipped the scales at ten pounds, and could be compared only to
the parrot-fishes as hard and desperate fighters. Possibly it is
because, when taken at all by tourists, they are caught with large
hand-lines of the size used for red snappers, with a big sinker,
227
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
when the little fish is entirely outclassed. The tourist to Florida
or Bahama generally falls into the hands of a professional fisher-
man who scorns the rod, and does not carry the tackle of the
angler. But chub-fishing with an eight-ounce bamboo or green-
heart rod and a number six line is a diversion that would have
warmed the heart of Walton, or even the solemn anglers of old,
who despised the fishes of the sea, or the poet who wrote:
‘TI love not Angling (rude) on Seas—
Fresh Streams my Inclination please,
Whose sweet calm Course to Thought I call,
And seek in Life to copy all;
In Bounds (like them) I fain would keep,
Like them, would (when I break them) weep.’
America has the conger up to eight feet from Cape Cod to
Brazil, but it is not fished for. The lady-fish, Elops, and the
ten-pounder are small silvery fishes, the former two or three
feet in length and weighing in large specimens ten pounds.
Both of these fishes are remarkably active leapers and eagerly
sought by sea-anglers. In Western America, at Mazatlan, there
is a fine Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus sierra, which affords
the natives an excellent food fish and the local Americans and
English fine sport. The Petos is a fierce and active mackerel-
like fish found rarely at Cuba and the Florida Keys. I recall
but one. It is the Aconthocybium solandri of science. It attains
a length of five or six feet and exceeds one hundred pounds in
weight. It is taken trolling off the channel between Cuba and
Key West and Tortugas, and on tuna tackle would make a great
play.
Cubans have a fish known as the Escolar (Ruvettus pretiosus),
also found in the Madeira, and I believe I saw one at the Azores.
It is also not unknown in the Mediterranean. The Cubans con-
sider it a great game fish, but they troll for it for the market, and
call it ‘ a-scellaring.’ The fish ranges up to one hundred pounds,
its season following that of the swordfish. The little pilot-fish of
the shark (Nauerates), when about a foot long canbe caught. I
228
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
have kept a twelve-feet shark about my boat for half an hour by
dropping overboard a sack containing several ancient groupers.
It was an interesting sight to see this threatening monster come
up out of the azure depths with his staff of three or four remoras
and several pilot-fishes. As they hove in sight my boatman
would toss over some ‘ chum ’—ground conch or crayfish—and by
casting I frequently would hook the pilot-fishes that fought like
yellowtails—their distant cousins.
Off the North Atlantic occurs a large amber-jack-like fish,
Seriola zonata, rarely caught with light tackle. The mackerel
sead, Quia Quia, is a brave little fish in Florida, and the two-feet
saurel (Trachurus) on the Pacific Coast. The Silver Jack
(Carangus guara) is two feet long, and many of its tribe are
active game fishes of the open sea off many shores. The Permit, or
big pompano, is a giant caught rarely on the Florida reef up to
nearly thirty pounds. The little pompano is one of the most
beautiful leapers in the kingdom of the sea. I have watched them
in the great lagoon of Texas when channel-bass fishing. They
leave the water, then when in the air three or four feet they turn,
offering their broad sides to the air, and slide away to an extra-
ordinary distance. One day three or four landed in my boat;
when a school is alarmed it is a beautiful sight.
A fine game fish is the robalo or snook (Centropomus) ; there
are about fifteen species of them in salt and brackish water. It
is fairly common in the sandy lagoons of the Florida reef where
I have taken it. In Surinam specimens four feet in length have
been caught. There is particularly good sport trolling for the
robalo in the mouths of the rivers at San Juan, Porto Rico, and,
according to Jordan, anglers take itin therivers Rio de la Plata,
Manati, and the Rio Grande de Arecibo.
Comparable in a way to the English bass, is the sea-bass
(Centropristes) of the North Atlantic, the common fish of the
anglers who go out on special angling steamboats to the banks
from New York every day in summer. It ranges down to
Florida, lives in deep water, and is taken up to four pounds on
229
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
hand-lines, though I have taken it with a rod in Long Island Sound.
There are several relatives of this fish—the rock sea basses that
are good game on the line. They are also known as squirrel
fishes.
The Triple tail (Lobotes) at twenty or thirty pounds is a hard
fighter, due to its broad shape, that forces the angler to believe
that he has a fish ten times its size. I have taken this fish in
the Chesapeake Bay not far from the capes, and so far as I know,
it is not a common catch anywhere. Along the Atlantic Coast
the fish known as porgies afford no little pleasure to a score of
admirers. They belong to the tribe of Calamus, and there are
twelve or more species from Florida and the West Indies. You
cannot fish in Cuba without hearing of the Pez de pluma, and in
Key West the Conchs ‘conjure’ with him. The jolt-head
porgy grows larger than the others. I once hooked one that was
at least three feet long and must have weighed thirty or more
pounds. He was so large that two remoras doubtless thought
he was a shark as they were riding with him, hard and fast,
their black shapes in strong contrast to his striped gray sides.
He took my crayfish bait, also my line, but I had a good look
at him. A somewhat similar fish is the sheepshead (Archosargus)
that ranges up and down the Atlantic Coast, and I have taken
it in the St. John’s River and in the St. Mary’s when fishing for
sea-trout.
The sheepshead weighs three or four pounds, but leviathans
have been taken up to ten or fifteen pounds. This is the great fish
of the people and in the markets of the South and Gulf of Mexico ;
a good food fish. Few fishes fight harder than this high-domed
little fish. He fights and protests until he is in the boat, and
often makes a desperate resistance at the surface, splashing the
water over the angler. The sheepshead has a dignified stately
manner of swimming that is very impressive. These fishes live
on crustaceans and mollusks, and the ease with which they will
bite off a poor or slender hook is ludicrous. No better illustra-
tion of what a little fish can do on light tackle can be given than
230
THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA
in the beautiful broad-shad (Xystaema) of the Florida reef,
referred to in the chapter on barracuda fish.
The big drum (Pogonias) is a hard-fighting fish. I have taken
it on the New Jersey Coast, and on the Florida reef, though
rarely. The fish is a striking creature, with large stripes, remind-
ing one of the sheepshead, a high dorsal fin and very small lower
jaw. It is high and heavy, and presents a formidable fight on
light tackle. One weighing one hundred and forty-six pounds
was taken at St. Augustine, Florida, some years ago, and thirty
and forty pounders are not uncommon, though the average fish
seen in the market is far below this. This fish makes an extra-
ordinary noise, I have heard it at a distance of one hundred feet.
During a hunting trip in Florida I took a large drum, and told
my man, a Cracker, to clean it. To my amazement, he nailed
its tail to a yellow-pine log and scaled the fish with a hoe. The
scales of this fish are used in decorations and in the manufacture
of baskets of a more or less melancholy character and design.
There is scarcely any limit to the game fishes of the American
coast, below latitude thirty-three degrees, and scores of small fishes
of from two to five or more pounds are never heard of by the
average angler. The tautog (Tautoga ornitis) is always in evidence
as a good game fish on the New England coast. Off New York it is
called the black-fish. I have had excellent sport with it at Fisher’s
Island, Long Island Sound, with rod and reel. From some rocky
vantage ground the angler can cast his lure of lobster or clam into
deep-blue water and enjoy sport of arare kind. The fish has been
taken three feet in length. The wrasses, to which this fish
belongs, are legion, and many of them, including the New England
‘cunner,’ particularly the Nahant variety, are fine little game
fishes. On the Pacific Coast the coal-fish {(Anoplopomidae)? is
taken at times by anglers, especially about the Straits of Fuca.
It resembles the pollack in general appearance.
In Canada and Alaska in the North Pacific a number of game
fishes occur, which afford satisfactory angling from the sporting
point of view. Among them are the ‘greenlings.
231
CHAPTER XXIV
THE BARRACUDA
‘One (like a Pirat) onely lives of prizes,
That in the Deep he desperately surprises ;
Another haunts the shore, to feed on foam,
Another round about the Rocks doth roam,’
De Bartas.
"FNHE name recalls a radiant picture of dead calm water
merging into the horizon, soft winds, glassy seas, coral
keys, topped with bay-cedar, with clouds of gulls hanging in the
air. I see visions of the brown pelican lumbering along, fol-
lowed by the laughing gull which alights on its head and snatches
its prey. I see the fierce man-of-war bird, plunging down out
of the sky. The dorsal fin of a man-eater cuts the deep blue of
the channel ; a big loggerhead thrusts his head up and breaks the
perfect glass-like surface, and I hear the distant murmur of the
sea where the blue river of the Gulf Stream laves the dead coral
rocks of the outer reef. All these, are features of the home of the
wolf-like barracuda, as I once knew it on the extreme outer
Florida reef.
There is a great difference in fishes in different places, both in
habit and other directions. Ihave never seen a tuna leap after it
was hooked ; but I have seen a kingfish leap with a hook in his jaw,
though not often ; which, I fancy, no one else has observed, as it is
not the habit of the fish. I once placed myself on record as saying
that the brown snapper is the cleverest fish in the sea; but I
have seen a statement that an angler on the coast of Florida took
snappers with any bait. All the barracudas I ever caught, and I
have taken many at Tortugas, gave me the impression of great
cleverness, as nearly all were taken where I could see them in the
232
Fig. 36. Rod Catches of Big Fish.
1. 63-Pound Channel Bass, Corsons Inlet, N.J., U.S. 2. The Author's Texas Tarpon.
3. 41-Pound Striped Bass, by Mr. J. M. Gentle, N.Y. 4. Chinook Salmon, Monterey
Bay, California (Pacific Salmon). 5. 54-Pound Barracuda, Long Key, Florida. Pp. 232.
THE BARRACUDA |
water, three, four or five feet deep ; and the sport, to me, being
in the amount of skill required to lure the fish into taking my
bait. On the other hand, my old guides, a Seminole Indian and
a Conch, who had lived all their lives on the reef, took the largest
barracudas in a manner so simple as to be laughable; yet it
became a delight to me. The men considered it a waste of time
to troll or fish for the big barracuda, because he was so curious
that they could easily ‘grain’ him. The small fish, up to six
or eight pounds, were found in the shallows, where I took them
by wading out to them, and casting either with a live bait or a
dead one, chiefly the former, using a little shiny, silvery fish
known locally as a broad shad (Xystaema cinereum), but having
no particular relationship to the shad of bon vivants.
This little bait fish had, at least to me, a strong individuality.
It was found in shallow waters, two, three or four feet deep, and
on white sandy bottoms where it literally dissolved into its
environment. It had a very peculiar habit of swimming in a
straight line a foot or two, then stopping and poising, perfectly
still for a few moments, then moving ahead again, staring with
its big eyes, a very curious and comical little fish and a victim
to the cruel and rapacious wolf-like barracuda of five to eight
pounds, which lived in the same fish city on the sandy floor of
the reef.
I could always take the shad with a pin hook and crayfish
bait, as it has a very small mouth, and when used as live bait
was a perfect lure to the barracudas. In angling, I would wade
along until I saw a fish twenty or thirty feet away, which was
always crouching close to the bottom and perfectly quiet like a
pickerel ; then cast my bait ten feet ahead and in front of it;
gradually drawing the bait nearer and nearer until the barracuda
saw it. It then became a fascinating study to see this clever
mimic of the white sand take its prey. It was deliberation typified,
to the limit of patience and exasperation, moving slowly forward,
pushing the struggling bait with its pointed torpedo-like muzzle.
Then it would back, to move forward again, seemingly scrutiniz-
233
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
ing the bait, but always in the most prosaic and dignified fashion.
This would occur many times, until finally, in ten or fifteen minutes,
the barracuda seemed to have satisfied its curiosity, or to have
played with the terrified lure to its satisfaction, when it would
suddenly grip it with its wolf-like teeth by the end of the tail, and
slowly rise from the bottom. During this performance there were
no sudden or violent motions. The barracuda appeared and
acted like an automaton, moving slowly off. Then it shifted the
fish about, head down, as a snake will a frog, and gradually it
would disappear, the barracuda moving perhaps eight or ten
feet during this time.
I was always a spectator of this tragedy, gradually creeping
up, reeling in, so that by the time the tail of the shad disappeared
down the mouth of this muscallunge of the sea, I had a taut line
and struck. Straight, like an arrow from the bow, the fish would
dash away to the shrill barcarole of the reel, then when the
resilient rod held it, circling round me, bearing off in a gallant
fashion to continue the fight until I had backed into the shore
of Pearl Key which I often used as a base. I never saw a thirty
or forty pounder in the shallows, but through the reef a mysterious
blue artery-like channel cut its way, and here, or on the edges,
the big barracuda poised, and was lured by trolling, or by the
method I have suggested, which was a brazen appeal to the
curiosity of the fish.
The Seminole would go out in his light dinghy, armed with
his grains, a small two-pronged, barbed spear, which fitted with
a socket into a long slender, bending yellow pine pole at least
ten or twelve feet in length. To the grains was attached a strong
cod-line of one hundred feet which led up and was held in the
hand. I took my seat in the bow, facing the stern, ‘ a looker on
in Venice,’ while he tossed over the line, about four feet long,
to which was fastened a white rag. With the grains in his right
hand, the barracuda hunter then began to scull the boat
silently along, there being a row-lock astern for that purpose.
The barracuda is doubtless possessed of courage and curiosity,
234
THE BARRACUDA
as it pays little attention to a boat, and is at once attracted to the
rag, and swims after it. I had seen nothing but the picturesque
figure of the fisherman sculling with a peculiar rhythmic motion,
holding the long grains balanced in his right hand, his gaze fixed on
the indigo-blue of the channel just astern. Suddenly he motioned
to me with his head. I crept towards him and looking over his
shoulder into the water, I presently made out a barracuda of
large size, at least five or six feet in length, its large, black, saucer-
like eyes presenting an extraordinary spectacle. The fish paid
no attention to the dinghy or to the figure of the man.
It would come up to within four feet of the oar, then turn
and sheer off, showing its silvery side, then going about on the
opposite tack, disappearing a moment, to come up suddenly
so near the oar as to almost touch it. It was a most fascinating
spectacle; next to seeing a fourteen-foot hammer-head shark
come up near my swinging legs as I sat, on one occasion, on a
yacht’s rail. As I looked, the fisherman silently dropped the
oar, took the pole in both hands, and as the barracuda turned to
the left, he threw the grains into it with such perfect effect that
the handle bounded back, and I caught it as the great fish rushed
away with all the force of a shark, making the line hiss through
his calloused hands. This fish towed the dinghy about and
around, and made a most gallant fight.
It was a long time before I could make even a presentable
imitation of this game, and I spent many an hour stabbing the
water fruitlessly before I succeeded in hitting a barracuda, then
was nearly jerked overboard in my excitement. This man did
not always use the rag in gaining the barracuda, but could entice
a fish within reach of his grains by the clever use of the sculling
oar, which was an imitation of the movements of a propeller.
The very large barracudas were not common here, but they
could be found when hunted for. At Long Key Camp up the
reef, they are a common catch with rod and reel to-day, and few
fishes make a better fight for liberty either on a number twenty-
one line or spear. In appearance the barracuda looks the part of
235
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
a sea pike. He has large knife-like teeth that suggest a shark ;
and if the tales one hears are true, the barracuda is a dangerous
fish. Jordan says : —‘ It is as fierce as a shark, and is sometimes
very dangerous to bathers.’ I know of but one instance of an
attack that I can credit. A Conch was nick-named ‘ Barracuda,
as he had been badly wounded by one of these fishes. For
several years, I and others, often three or four times a day, swam
in a deep channel that was known to be infested with barracudas
and sharks; but we were never attacked. No one who has
landed a barracuda and seen its pugnacious jaw, its large tusks
and enormous mouth, but would hold it in respect. Among
the upper Florida keys, the fish is generally taken trolling from
a launch or row-boat, and is often found in shallow water or
along the passes or the edge of a channel, where from a row-boat
it can be angled for with a live bait, mullet or some attractive
silvery fish.
There are several species of these fishes. That of California
is very different in habit, running in schools often so thickly
packed that in looking down upon them only black eyes and
pointed noses are seen. The schools are of such vast size, that a
few years ago the great bay of Santa Monica was apparently
filled with them. At certain times the schools break up, and the
fish are found near the rocks at Santa Catalina, singularly enough
within a line cast of a large herd of sea-lions. Here the barracuda
is trolled for from launches with a nine-ounce rod and a number-
nine line and sardine bait, or with a spoon. They rarely exceed
five feet in length and fifteen pounds in weight, while the Bahamian
barracuda is six feet long and tips the scales at fifty or more
pounds.
It is said that to be a perfect game fish, both fighting and
edible qualities are necessary. The barracudas meet both re-
quisites, and if the angler will eat his five or six-pound barracuda,
which he has taken at Long Key Camp with an eight-ounce fly
rod, broiled at once, he will find it among the best edible fishes
in Florida. The same is true of the Californian fish. Few lovers
236
THE BARRACUDA
of sea-food know what good fish is. On an ocean liner somewhere
in mid-ocean, I was attracted by the word bluefish on the menu.
It was, of course, cold storage fish and had lost its flavour entirely.
On my last bluefish expedition, not a thousand miles from Fisher’s
Island, Long Island Sound, I was awakened in the morning by the
jumping of bluefish in the box as the cook received them alive
from a fisherman who had caught them but a few moments before.
They were broiled at once ; not an hour had passed since the bluefish
was alive and swimming, and it was a dish for the gods. Another
fine game fish, the pollack, becomes so soft in a few hours, often
minutes, that it is unfit for food, according to the ethics of the
epicure. In Key West, and especially Cuba, one often hears that
the barracuda is poisonous, but this is a tradition. One of my
old fishing companions, a professional, insisted that all Cuban
fish were poisonous on account of the copper in the water.
The big barracuda is Sphyraena barracuda. It ranges from
Brazil to the Bermudas. There are several species : one (S. ensis),
in the Gulf of California, and off Panama; another, about two
feet in length, 8. guachanche, is found with the big barracuda; a
small species is found about Cuba, the picadilla; another still,
8. borealis, ranges from Cape Fear to Cape Cod. The European
species resemble the Californian form very closely.
237
CHAPTER XXV
THE CHANNEL-BASS, BLUEFISH AND
STRIPED BASS
‘And, as he darts, the waters blue
Are streaked with gleams of many a hue,
Green, orange, purple and gold.’
OME fishes suggest calm and gentle waters, caves of the deep
ever undisturbed, where the kelp lazily sways to and fro in
tideless seas, and the shades of carrageen scintillate in iridescent
glories; others again tell of fierce seas, of deep-blue waters, of
rushing foam and spoondrift, of excitement and the quick high
pulse. Here we find the bluefish, a dashing cavalier of the sea,
to be found a mile or two off the surf in New England, while the
striped-bass are brousing alongshore and rushing into the back
water to seize luckless prey—crab, lobster, octopus, or any-
thing else. The bluefish, channel-bass and striped-bass are the
swaggering muskateers of the sea, and the bluefish is the piscatorial
D’Artagnan, a born fighter, who fights and destroys for the very
love ofit. Thelate Professor Spencer F. Baird, said : ‘ There is no
parallel in point of destructiveness to the bluefish among the
marine species of our coast.’ When the bluefish sweeps north
out of the unknown and mysterious winter-land of many fishes,
it is a marauding army.
I once was trying to find a school of tuna off the Atlantic
coast of America, near Boon Island Light, on the coast of
Maine. My boatman fished for cod and halibut, and I with a rod
for tuna, which never came. At times he would take cod and
haddock as fast as he could haul them in; but one day, in the
very vortex of a fishing frenzy, when he bid fair to fill the boat,
238
THE BLUEFISH AND STRIPED BASS
the fish stopped biting, and the hooks were taken. ‘ Dog-fish,’
soliloquized the fisherman, and putting on new hooks with a wire
leader or snood, he began to catch dog-fish or sharks, about two
or three feet long, and in a short time nearly loaded the dory.
They filled the water, and were starving. They had just arrived,
and anything and everything was game. Isaw them bite at oars,
tear the canvas of a sail, try to eat jellyfish, and if a man had
fallen overboard, and not been rescued at once, he would have
been torn to pieces in a few moments by this ravenous band of
sea-wolves.
Just as vicious, but not so powerful and cannibalistic, are the
bluefishes. They leave a train of murder and sudden death in
their trail, and in the words of Professor Goode, can be compared
only to animated chopping machines. He estimates there were a
few years ago a thousand million of them alongshore ; and if each
bluefish ate ten small fish, a low estimate, the total consumption
in a season would be ten thousand million a day. A fish with
such an appetite could not fail to be a foeman well deserving
the attention of the angler; and possibly no fish of its size, on
the Atlantic coast, has given so many people so much sport.
The bluefish attains a weight of ten or fifteen pounds, and is a
cousin of the mackerels. As its name intimates, it has a rich
cerulean tint above and silver below—a dazzling combination.
It is generally taken from a fast sailing cat-boat by trolling with a
heavy hand-line, a strong hook and almost anything for bait, a
bone jig being effective.
The bluefish swings along like a meteor and strikes the bait
side on, nearly jerking the tyro out of the boat. At the signal
the skipper pushes the helm hard-a-lee, and as the little craft
comes up into the wind the angler has an opportunity to play the
game, that always and invariably makes the fight of its life, and
never knows that it is defeated until too late. Bluefish parties,
a cat-boat filled with men, women and children, have been the
vogue south of Cape Cod near Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard,
Wood’s Hole, Nantucket and other localities from time im-
239
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
memorial. The fun or sport becomes fast and furious in a stiff
wind, with the white caps flowing.
Some years ago, I endeavoured to introduce rod fishing for
bluefish at the entrance of Long Island Sound; the experiment,
while successful, was very fatal to tips and lines. The skipper
in the majority of instances could not get the boat up into the
wind quick enough to save the line. Rod fishing for bluefish
has, however, been followed at Newport and other localities ; and
I have fished for them along the Jersey shore in the surf after the
fashion of channel-bass fishing. This method is also followed
at Montauk, Newport, Barnegat, Monomoy, and other localities.
The bluefish is a game fish in appearance, long, well-pro-
portioned, with a powerful tail, a solid powerful head, eyes
striking, alert ; you could tell at a glance that here is game of the
very best quality. To science the bluefish is Pomatomus saltatria,
a name given by Linnaeus. The Yankee of the old time was
fond of boasting, and in the West there is still among other
offenders, the word ‘ booster... Every booster is supposed to
claim that his town is the best, offensive to some, laughable
to others. If a booster was to describe the American bluefish
he would do it in this way: ‘ The bluefish can jump higher,
come down quicker, dive deeper, and stay under longer, eat more
in less time than any fish on the globe.’ Along the Jersey coast
the bluefish weighs five or six pounds; in Florida waters from
three to six, and sometimes fifteen pounds. His cousins are
found in many seas, and he is awideroamer. You may, if you
are lucky, take the bluefish in the Mediterranean Sea, the Malay
country, in Australian waters under another name, at Natal, the
Cape of Good Hope, and off Madagasgar. Strange to say, so far
as I know, it has never had the curiosity to follow up the Gulf
Stream to Ballycotton, and afford the gallant anglers of the
British Sea Anglers a taste of its metal. In a word, it is not known
in the European Atlantic, nor does it visit Bermuda. If there
is a caprice the bluefish is not guilty of, fishermen have not dis-
covered it. It can never be depended upon to follow any very
240
THE BLUEFISH AND STRIPED BASS
definite réle ; but it is to-day the best sea fish on the American
coast of North America, and when broiled half an hour from the
sea, a gift from the gods.
The striped-bass (Roccus lineatus) ranges from Labrador to
the delta of the Mississippi, and on the Pacific coast from the
Oregon line indefinitely north and south, though rarely to Santa
Catalina, a number of specimens having been taken in Alamitos
Bay, Los Angeles County. It ascends the rivers to spawn, and
is found in the Potomac as far as Little Falls, where I have
fished for it; is taken up the Hudson beyond Albany and very
common at Fishkill, where I have seen fishes of the largest size
taken through the ice in February. In the Connecticut, it reaches
Hartford, and anglers on the St. Lawrence have taken specimens
as far up as Quebec; doubtless, it goes far beyond. Strange to
say, it is not a migratory fish, being found at any time, winter or
summer, in the regions of its choice. This, and the fact that it
bites readily, and is easily taken in nets through the ice and in
other ways, and at any time, explains its disappearance in many
regions, where it was once a prominent figure and a dominant
note.
Like many fishes of wide range, the striped-bass passes under
many pseudonyms. Striped-bass is the name north of the
Delaware, but south of that point it is known as the rock-fish.
Under any name, it is equally a gallant and hard fighter, and a
most beautiful fish never to be mistaken or confused with anything
else. The general tone is olivaceous; the back may have a
bluish tint, the sides newly minted silver grading into the purest
colonial, or flake white, on the slightly pendulous belly. Along
the sides from head to tail, are six or eight rows of closely con-
nected spots which form stripes, and lower down three smaller
ones, so that the effect on the eye is of a splendid, indeed, dazzling
silver fish with pronounced ‘stripes. Its head is large, even
ponderous ; its mouth capacious, that of an omnivorous feeder ;
the eye large and well-proportioned.
This bass spawns in the spring—May, or sometimesin April—
16 241
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
depositing its million or more eggs in fresh or partly fresh water ;
evidently being able to adapt itself to salt or fresh water, going
up large rivers in vast schools, apparently following the shad,
smelt or other fishes. All summer it may be found in the ocean,
and here it attains its most splendid development, five feet or
more in length, and a weight of one hundred or more pounds.
On the appearance of winter, it approaches the bayous, back
waters and tidal rivers ; and as I have said, can be taken through
the ice at Fishkill and higher up, the water of the Hudson being
salt or very brackish here.
A peculiarity of the striped-bass is that it is caught under so
many conditions. You may fish for it in the heaviest surf, or
in quiet bays, in the mouth of rivers, off rocky points where the
sea comes in with a sullen roar and leaps high in air, in brackish,
seemingly impossible waters ; on mud flats, as at the mouth of
the Sacramento, and again near sod-banks—a habit of certain
rainbow trout when they can find them. All this requires
different tackle at different times, and the bait the bass will
take is legion. The largest fish are taken in salt water; but the
habitué of the inland water rarely runs over ten or twelve pounds
and can be taken on an eight-ounce rod and a nine-line.
In 1868 I found occasionally good striped-bass fishing at Old
Point Comfort, and especially off the Rip Raps, the fish entering
the Chesapeake, the Potomac and other rivers, finding abundant
food in the swarm of crabs which in the spring and summer
covered the bottom and became ‘shedders’ on the flats of
Hampton and Newport News. One of the delightful features
of the striped-bass is the fact that it will, when young and found
far up the fresh water streams, take a fly: a Royal Coachman,
Ibis, St. Patrick, and Alexandra. On a black-bass rod the fish
will be a revelation to the angler.
The striped-bass was formerly taken in great numbers on
the coast of Massachusetts south of Cape Cod, where on Pasque
Island, not far from New Bedford, one of the notable fishing
clubs of America has its grounds; but there has been a great
242
THE BLUEFISH AND STRIPED BASS
falling off in numbers, so far as the angler is concerned,
Fortunately it was introduced into the mouth of the Sacramento
some years ago, and has increased in numbers until it has become
one of the game and food fishes of the Californian coast. The
striped-bass is found in fair numbers south of New York, and
is a favourite fish with the members of the Asbury Park Fishing
Club, who in 1912 took seventy-nine striped-bass, ranging from
thirty-eight pounds down. Many were taken at night.
The striped-bass attains a weight of from fifty to seventy
pounds. I have seen fishes of the largest size taken through
the ice of the Hudson in mid-winter. In the Atlantic, it is found
on rocky shores, and at the clubs of New England, piers were
built out over the water from the rocks which were drawn for by
the club members. Seated here, with the gaffer on the rocks
below, the angler cast out beyond the breaking waves, using rod
and reel and half of a lobster’s tail as bait. When the strike
came the battle was on, and amid the flying spume, in deep blue
water, it was a gallant game played between angler and fish.
To-day, the best striped-bass angling on the Pacific slope of
America is found on the flats at the mouth of the Sacramento
River, above San Francisco. It is interesting to note that the
striped-bass has migrated five hundred miles down the coast,
specimens having been taken as far south as Santa Catalina
Island. The bass requires a river of size, as it is a denizen of
both fresh and salt water ; and whether it will use the small rivers
of Southern California is a problem unsolved.
In nearly all countries prototypes of fishes can be found, and
in America the striped-bass well represents the ‘ bass’ about
which the great English authorities on angling, Mr. Aflalo and
Mr. Clark, are so enthusiastic. The following are some of the
striped-bass records of the Asbury Park Club compiled by Mr.
Streeter. The fishes were taken with rod and reel in the surf at
Asbury Park and vicinity by casting from the beach or from
piers and stands built out into the surf:
243
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
Year. ee — iCenahe Wane May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct.
Ib. oz. Ib. oz.
1900 | 47 9 193 8 12 — 180 8 2 3 _
1901 | 46 4 193 |10 11 Il 81 59 11 13 19
1902 | 27 8 33 {11 8 1 6 14 4 8 —_—
1903 | 31 4 22 |14 0 1 8 2 9 2 —
1904 | 34 0 103 |10 12 _— 72 23 8 _ _—
1905 | 41 12 78 9 0 1 55 11 11 — —
1906 | 41 4 73 7 #7 1 12 38 17 5 _
1907 | 29 8 24 6 8 1 7 6 10 — —
Highly appreciated as a game fish is the channel-bass, found
up and down the Atlantic coast for long distances. I have had
fine sport with this fish in the mouth of the St. John’s River,
Florida, in the St. Mary’s between the States of Georgia and
Florida, and in the pools or holes of the great lagoon within Aransas
Pass, near Port Aransas, Texas. Here I fished with a light rod
with shrimp bait, and it was often taken in such shallow water as
to seem impossible. The channel-bass has a clever and alluring
set of names, as the red drum, spot, red-fish, pescado, Colorado,
bull red-fish, sea-trout. I have fished for it from New York to
Mexico, and it changes its name as you go south. There is but
one species, the eyed-bass (Sciaenops ocellatus), a very attractive
fish with a black oval spot, a domino spot at the base of the upper
lobe of its tail, by which you may always know it. It combines
all the qualifications of a game fish; is a hard desperate fighter
on the rod, and a most abundant and excellent table fish when
young. It is an attractive fish, like the striped-bass, which is
white with vivid black longitudinal stripes, and has a grayish
silver tint with a wash of rich coppery-red. Itis taken in various
ways, one of the most interesting of which is to cast into and
beyond the surf, using clam or fish bait on the bottom. But I
have had excellent sport in exactly the reverse; fishing with
mullet bait at low tide in the mouth of the St. John’s River,
244
THE BLUEFISH AND STRIPED BASS
where the current was so swift that it kept my bait at the surface.
I spent two months once fishing at this point, where the sharks
are fed with shad, and a variety of game dispels the monotony
of sand dunes that, if left alone, soon efface the works of man.
While the channel-bass is taken all along the shore, the best
ground for it is in the region along the New Jersey seaboard
affected by the members of the Asbury Park Fishing Club.
At certain seasons, the members can count on the arrival of the
fishes almost to a day. Some idea of the size of the rod and reel
catches of New Jersey can be had from the following tables :
CuaNNEL-Bass RecorD, SEPTEMBER, 1912.
Barnegat City and Vicinity.
Ib. oz. Ib. oz.
12. H. W. Gilbert . . 27 8] 18. R. Wiechert . . 33 O
13. Hoffman Allen . . 29 O| 18. F. H. Skidmore. . 22 0O
13. H. C. Rydell. . . 20 Oj] 21. Edw. Cramer . . 48 0O
14. H. C. Rydell. . . 30 0] 22. Robt. A. Tuch . . 29 6
14. C. W. Feigenspan . 32 0| 24. W. Conklin . . . 32 8
14. C. W. Feigenspan . 22 0 | 24. A. V. Freeman . . 28 0
16. W. N. Applegate . 24 0 | 24. Fred Miller . . . 22 O
17. Hoffman Allen . . 20 0 | 24. Albert Alches. . . 32 O
17. G. W. Fenimore. . 24 0 | 24. Albert Alches. . . 37 8
17. T. K. Skidmore . 28 O| 24. G. Hatfield . . . 40 O
17. A. F. Edgecomb . 28 12] 25. G. Hatfield . . . 31 0
17. M. F. Stealton . . 30 8] 25. J. M. Gentle &. Yo PQ. <0
18. F. Kimbacker . . 24 0] 25. W.Hencken. . . 38 O
18. A. V. Freeman . . 34 0] 25. P.L. Evans. . . 46 0O
18. M. F. Stealton . . 29 12
Seaside Park.
13. J. J. Yates . . . 25 0|19. Mrs. Stewart. . . 23 8
13. J.J. Yates . . . 24 0/20. Jack Clayton . . 26 8
19. W. N. Applegate . 22 14/20. Jos. G. Skirm . . 28 8
19. A. Allen, Jr.. . . 24 13/20. 3. J. Yates . . . 25 0
19.L. J. Brown. . . 22 12/21.3.J.Skirm . . . 23 0
19. L. J. Brown. . . 29 15/27. V. de Wysocki . . 30 0
When hooked in the surf this bass affords a splendid fight,
245
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
often taking the angler a half mile up the beach, and in and out
before it can be mastered. I once worked nearly an hour with a
fish on the St. John’s and had it within thirty feet of where I was
standing, waist-deep in water, when one of the largest sharks I
have ever seen bit the bass in two, leaving me the head which
told the story of a forty pounder ; at least there was no one to
dispute it, and I did not lose any time in getting ashore. The
beach or surf angler often sees the game he is playing out-lined
on the face of a comber—a splendid spectacle.
The tackle in vogue is a good sixteen—or over—ounce rod, nine
hundred or one thousand feet of No. 21 line, and a 7/° hook, a two-
or three-foot leader. A four-ounce sinker is generally used ;
and if you wish to appeal to the channel-bass, use ‘ shedder
crabs,’ though ‘moss bunker’ is an excellent substitute. The
angler should use the rod belt described. One of, if not the
largest channel-bass was taken by Mr. J. Cowthorn at Corson’s
Inlet, New Jersey, the fish weighing sixty-three pounds.
The famous fishing points are Corson’s Inlet and the water
from Barnegat City to Seaside Park. After November the bass
are on their way to Florida, where the sport may be taken up
on the Indian River or in the Gulf.
The record fish of the Field and Stream Tournament for
1912 were: 1st prize, by Robert R. Bridges, Williamston,
N.C., U.S. A., weight forty-four pounds, length forty-five and one-
half inches, taken at Topsail Inlet, North Carolina, mullet bait.
The second-prize fish weighed forty-two pounds, and the third,
thirty-nine pounds.
Some idea of the size of the channel-bass taken along the
Atlantic Coast can be had from the following tables of records of
the Asbury Park, New Jersey, Fishing Club. The fishes were
taken in the surf with rod and reel at Barnegat City (Barnegat
Inlet) and Harvey Cedars, in the months of June and Septem-
ber. I am indebted to R. H. Norris, Secretary of the Club,
and to Mr. L. P. Streeter of Chicago and the Tuna Club, for the
interesting and valuable data.
246
THE BLUEFISH AND STRIPED BASS
Yor | BERR | teen, | eel | See | tee
Ib. Ib. lb.
1897 8 40° 226 28-2 5
1898 30 30 666 22-2 8
1899 37 46 993 268 7
1900 30 30 698 23-2 3
1901 45 49 1,103 24-7 7
1902 55 50 1,249 27-7 13
1903 118 47 1,398 29-7 14
1904 111 45 3,245 18-9 22
1905 67 49 3,001 27-0 23
1906 65 46 1,859 27-7 ll
1907 — 44 1,673 25-7 28
1908 se 46} om ses —
247
CHAPTER XXVI
THE SILVER KING
‘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,
And with his flaggie fins doth seeme to sweepe
The foamie waves out of the dreadful deep.’
Edmund Spencer, The Visions of the World, 1591.
MONG the angling experiences which have made the greatest
impression upon me is my attempt to photograph a tarpon.
It appeared to be a very simple operation when studying the
beautiful photographs taken by Dimock and others, but possibly
these are taken when the tarpon is held on a short hand-line not
far from the boat, and given no chance, while the photographer
sits in another boat directly opposite, and snaps the agile silver
king as he goes, mad and terrified, into the air. I have a photo-
graph, taken, I fancy, in this manner, in which the tarpon’s
mouth and gills are open so wide that I can see the country
through them.
I tried none of this ; expert photography is too much for me,
the subjects in all my pictures are without feet or heads, or have
a dazed appearance, so I generally employ a professional. But
this time I attempted to photograph my own tarpon.
It was at Tarpon, Port Aransas, Texas, before the days of the
Tarpon Club, which made me an honorary member, I think,
for my skill in photographing clouds. I fished this pass in
August, the best season, when the water was alive at times with
tarpon rolling over and puffing at the surface. My boatman
was Mateo Brugen, an Austrian, a character who had decided ideas
248
THE SILVER KING
about taking a one hundred and fifty-pound tarpon into a one
hundred and twenty-five-pound skiff, which he exhibited in
strong language. On this occasion I explained to Mateo that
I had two objects in fishing at Tarpon and crossing the hottest
part of the United States for three thousand miles. One was to
demonstrate that I could take a tarpon with a ten- or twelve-foot
rod, which I had had made for the purpose, and which weighed
without the butt about ten ounces. Another was to photograph
my tarpon in the air.
To accomplish the latter I had several private rehearsals with
Mateo. I explained that I would hold my kodak between my
knees as I fished, facing the stern, and when the tarpon had
climbed into the empyrean to a sufficient altitude, I would
thrust the butt of my rod backward to him under my left arm (as
he was sitting directly behind me), then seize the camera and snap
the fish. This appeared on the surface to be a very simple proceed-
ing, and everything in order, we pulled down the narrow pass
along the stone jetty.
The tarpon angling in Texas or the west side of the Gulf of
Mexico, is all done in the passes. The coast is low and has,
extending alongshore for many miles, an inland sea or lake or
river, formed by an offshore narrow island of sand, from one to
twenty feet in height. In some instances these islands are very
large, and many miles in length; again they are very low, and
are flooded in gales. The inland sea or river is from three to
five miles wide, and to reach Tarpon and the Tarpon Club one
sails down this river from the little town of Rockport ten or
fifteen miles. This inland sea finds its way to the Gulf at ebb
tide through certain narrow openings, and the one I was fishing
is known as Aransas Pass, the little town of Tarpon or Port
Aransas being directly on it. The prevailing wind in summer
appears to be from the southeast or directly into the pass, and
when the tide is running out, it works up a heavy roll, but is not
dangerous; in fact it adds to the exhilaration when one is
playing a tarpon in the air.
249
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
We had rowed possibly a half mile when I had a strike, a
sudden steady pull. I slacked away, remembering the hard jaw
of the fish, then struck home. Up into the air, not fifteen feet
from me, went a great silvery mass, scintillating and glistening
in the sunlight like molten silver. Mateo, taking no chances, had
pulled the skiff around with a jerk at the oar, so that I first saw
the fish directly in front of me hitting the air like a steel spring ;
then I certainly saw it over my right shoulder six feet up, and
then it came down to go up again and deluge us with spray.
‘He look pleasant all right,’ whispered Mateo, wiping the
spray from his face and handing memy sombrero. ‘ Why didn’t
you tak eem ?’
Thad forgotten all about the camera, and my fish was making a
series of leaps across the pass, while the camera had rolled into the
bottom of the boat where it went off in disgust, taking a picture
of Mateo’s bare legs under the seat. I soon had the ‘ Yucatan
bounder,’ as Mateo christened the fish, stopped, though it took
two hundred feet of line, and up into the air it went, slamming
that awful tail at its open mouth just as you have seen a crocodile
or alligator attempt to toss its game between its jaws. Several
men have been killed with this terrible tail of the tarpon, and I
can well imagine how it can be done, as the scales are as hard as
steel. Mateo backed after the fish, which was now headed for
the heavy surf near the wreck of an old steamer, where later
my friend Streeter was carried and capsized but landed his fish
after a gallant struggle.
There were big sharks here, for which Mateo and I had a hearty
respect, so I stopped the run and held hard with my thumb on
the pad while Mateo pulled. This checked the fish, which turned
and swung around in the great arc of a circle, leaping in splendid
fashion, flashing in the sunlight, a most exhilarating spectacle.
It soon had us in the surf on the opposite side of the jetty, and
it took another half hour with my long rod to bring it back into
the channel. Here it sulked, broke away, went into the air,
dashed under the boat and forced my boatman to whirl about
250
THE SILVER KING
on a pivot; then, about three quarters of an hour after the
strike, I brought the silver king to the side of the boat. I called
for the gaff. Mateo looked aghast at the big rollers which
threatened to stand usonend. Mateo was game, but he hesitated,
and the gaffer who hesitates is generally lost.
‘Gaff him, quick!’ I shouted, holding the six-foot fighting-
mad mass of animation with great difficulty, as it displayed an
evident desire to come aboard.
Mateo hesitated a second. I fancy he was putting up a
prayer, as I learned later that here no one took their fish into boats ;
they beached them—the proper thing to do. But Iwas taking no
chances in a mile-pull, as I did later when I broke my long rod. So
Mateo gaffed the tarpon and slid itinto the boat. I have heard of
‘ ground and lofty tumbling ’ at the circus, and am sure that the
dozen or more tarpon anglers about us enjoyed this short impro-
vised act. Mateo gripped my tarpon, as he evidently was obliged
to do or be killed, and the two fell down into the bottom of the
boat, while I dodged the flying tail and sweeping muzzle, oars and
other articles which appeared to go up into the air like a fountain
of solids to the tune of spartan oaths. That we did not go over-
board in the mélée was a miracle; but Mateo managed to put
his knife into the gills of the game while sitting on it, and rose,
covered with gore, but triumphant.
I should explain that I was anxious to secure this tarpon as it
was just the right size for my study, and I have it hung at about
the height I think Isawitjump. I can always laugh when I look
at it, recalling how it threw us into the air with oars, gaffs, bailers,
mullet box, tackle, lunch, camera, everything. I can also
remember Mateo as a good boatman, with an extraordinary
vocabulary ; at least we got the game. Every day we fished, but
I held the fish and Mateo towed us to the beach. In one of
these expeditions the fish made a sudden rush and broke my
special rod.
Tarpon angling in America is, at least in Florida, practised in
early spring, as the weather is uncomfortably warm after May or
251
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
June. But at Aransas Pass I fished in August and found the
fishing grounds in the pass very comfortable and Tarpon Inn,
the only one, a hospitable place frequented by anglers from all
over the world. I had very good luck at Aransas, which is not
far from Galveston, a fine locality for angling. The tarpon,
or silver king, makes its winter home on the Mexican coast at
Tampico, where, in the Panuco river, the finest sport can be had
with this big fish in January, February and March. In the
spring the fish migrates, moves north in great schools, follow-
ing, a8 a rule, the coast line, entering all the passes, doubtless,
up to New Orleans. Another migration, much smaller, goes
directly across the gulf to Cuba, and so on to the Florida Keys
and up the coast. But the islands, as Garden Key, sixty miles
west. of Key West, where I fished many years, do not get many
tarpons ; in fact they are, or at least in my day were,rare. By
March or April the fish have reached the mainland coast of Florida
and afford sport to anglers from all over the world at Palma
Sola, Long Key Camp, Miami, Boca Grande, Indian River Inlet,
Charlott Harbour Fort Meyers, up the Caloosa River, Captiva and
other places. The tarpon travels far. I have seen specimens
taken in a net off Coney Island, N. Y., in July. It enters the
St. John’s river, but I never landed one there. A large tarpon
leaped aboard a steamer in 1875.
At Aransas all the fish are taken trolling with mullet bait
which is caught by the men with a cast-net. The rods used were
six or seven feet in length, sixteen or more ounces, of noibwood,
greenheart or split bamboo, the typical tuna rod of to-day. The
line was anything from a number twenty-one up, with a
breaking strength of forty-two or more pounds ; that is, a twenty-
one line would lift a dead weight of forty-two pounds.
When I returned to California and related my adventures at
the Tuna Club several of the members decided to make the trip,
among them Mr. L. P. Streeter of the Illinois Central R.R. Mr.
Streeter is a veteran angler, having caught everything that can
be caught in America, and he proposed to go to Aransas and take
252
THE SILVER KING
a tarpon with the Tuna Club nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line,
the latter having a breaking strength of eighteen pounds. This
was believed impossible by many, though not by me.
Mr. Streeter’s appearance at Aransas Pass was heralded
with some good-natured joking at his having come from the Tuna
Club of California to tell old tarpon fighters how to fish. But
Mr. Streeter wore the coveted blue button of the club which told
that he was one of about sixty men up to that time who had
taken a one hundred-pound tuna with rod and reel, and the tuna
was, unquestionably, the hardest fish in the world to catch. I
am indebted to Mr. F. L. Harding of Philadelphia for a copy
of a letter from Mr. Streeter in which his experience is briefly told.
The letter originally appeared in the Forest and Stream of New
York, and is most interesting angling history, as it marks a
revolution in tarpon fishing:
‘I now have for you news of real interest. Yesterday, June 25, the
sea calmed down somewhat and I determined to try the experiment of
landing a tarpon on nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line. I lost the first
fish on the jump. The second I hooked better ; he carried our skiff across
the Pass (Aransas), then out over the South Shoals. Our craft almost filled
with water and it was found necessary to beach her. Then I fought the
fish at a distance of over eight-hundred feet away out on the outer
breakers. My line parted. The time of the strike to losing the fish was
fifty minutes.
‘ After resting a half an hour, we returned to the jetty, put out in
another boat and ere long were hooked up to another tarpon. I managed
to keep this fish away from the South Shoals. He made jump after jump
in rapid succession, but by careful work I managed to work him over to
the beach. But here a new difficulty awaited us: he refused to enter
shoal water. We had no gaff, but I whipped a large shark hook (or rather
instructed the boatman to do it) upon a spare tip, thus improvising a light
gaff. Forty-five minutes after hooking I had a magnificent fish five feet
nine inches in length glistening in the sunlight at the boatside. The rod
was an ironwood of standard nine-ounce weight and nine-strand line.
‘I attach great credit to my guide, Samuel T. Bromley, few if any,
would have stood by me under such strenuous conditions.
‘Last evening a few of the gentlemen present organized the Aransas
Pass Tarpon Club. To qualify, members must catch unaided a tarpon
not less than four feet six inches in length on nine-ounce rod and nine-
253
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
thread line. The following officers were elected : President, L. P. Streeter ;
first Vice-President, W. B. Leach, of Palestine, Texas; second Vice-
President, A. W. Hooper, Boston, Mass. ; Hon. Secretary, J. E. Cotter,
Tarpon ; Corresponding Secretary, J. E. Pfleuger, Akron, Ohio. These
gentlemen with L. G. Murphy, of Converse, Ind., and 8. C. Smith, of
Long Beach, Cal., form the Board of Directors. The others have yet to
qualify, and I have no doubt will at an early date. Dr. Charles F.
Holder was made honorary member. Says Mr. Harding: ‘ This is
making history. No one familiar with sea fishing can fail to assent that
nothing in recent years has been so revolutionary. The sixty-five pound
tuna caught at Avalon on light tackle is not to be compared with it. Mr.
Streeter will have national congratulations upon so astounding a feat.’
This was in 1907, and the Tarpon Club, organized by Mr.
Streeter on the heels of his catch (as the Tuna Club was organized
by the author the day following his catch of a one hundred and
eighty-three pound tuna) entirely revolutionized tarpon fish-
ing. The club accepted the standard of the Tuna Club, and
used light tackle for which, and to encourage a high standard of
sport and fair play to the fish, prizes of value were offered. The
donors were L. P. Streeter, A. W. Hooper, Will H. Dileg, W. EH.
Jones, L. G. Murphy, J. E. Cotter, F. C. Boschen, and others.
The increase in light tackle catches is well shown in the
following, for which I am indebted to Mr. J. E. Cotter, Hon.
Secretary of the Tarpon Club at Port Aransas :
CoMPaRISON OF SEASON’S CatcHES ON Nivz-Ovunce Rops, Ning Ling.
1907.16 Tarpon, comprising 1-:2% of total catch on rod and reel.
1908.—35 Tarpon, comprising 50% of total catch on rod and reel.
1909,—297 Tarpon, comprising 41-1% of total catch on rod and reel.
1910.—397 Tarpon, comprising 49-4% of total catch on rod and reel.
1911,—473 Tarpon, comprising 65-8% of total catch on rod and reel.
Houpers or SEAson’s RECORDS.
Length of Fish.
Ft. in.
1907.—L. P. Streeter, Pasadena, Cal. . 5 9
1908.—A. W. Hooper, Boston, Mass. . 6 0}
1909.—L. G. Murphy, Converse, Ind. . 6 6
1910.—A. W. Hooper, Boston, Mass. 6 7
1911.—Mark Sarazan . . 6 4}
254
THE SILVER KING
All anglers, whether lake, river or sea, will see the point in
this estimate. It means that the catch and waste or injury of
fish is reduced to the minimum and that the sport is enhanced
and elevated to a science.
As a spectacular catch with rod and reel, the tarpon ranks
next to the Santa Catalina swordfish, which outjumps it ten to
one; but the big tarpon and the biggest swordfishes are poor
jumpers. The record for number of tarpon in a day is held by
Mr. L. G. Murphy, of the Tuna Club, who has taken twenty-five.
The world-record fish for weight in Florida was taken by Mr.
George, two hundred and thirteen pounds. The sensation of the
angler when the tarpon of best condition goes into the air can
hardly be described. Few men can view it or experience it with-
out a sense of exhilaration, and I have seen a strong man
utterly undone and panic-stricken by the action of a fish seemingly
over his head.
The tarpon angler now has three distinct places to fish: Florida
in the early spring; Tampico in the winter; Aransas Pass
in summer ; and Florida is by no means impossible in summer.
Being nearer, Florida has been a favourite for British sea-anglers,
and many have made fine catches here, notably Lord Desborough,
Mr. and Mrs. Turner, and Mr. F. G. Aflalo, the founder of the
British Sea Anglers Society and author of many classics on
angling all over the world. Mr. Aflalo made his headquarters at
Useppa Island. The season during his visit began here April
21, and ended May 19, during which six anglers took one hundred
and twelve tarpon, thirty-three of which were over one hundred
pounds. In 1903 the catch was three hundred and thirty. Mr.
Aflalo’s catch was :
April 30. . . . 85 pounds) May 4. . . . 47 pounds.
May 3. . . . 108 i 5 Bs a =e =» 40 3
So Gane si ian 2208 3 io! Gk. Gite ag SLB i
» &- 2. . . 86 . Bir ee ar ee 8S 3
er Le. Sst 286 i jy Pee a we oe TO 5
mw Gr = @ & 68 oy » 415 117 95
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
May 15. . . . “T0pounds. May15. . . . 80 pounds.
2? o? = ier 60 3D 92 ” = a * * 80 ”
140. —C—,, > ere we oe SS ode
This is eighteen tarpon in about two weeks. If there is any
difference between the tarpon of Texas and those of Florida I
imagine the Texan fishes average larger. The season in Texas
is a long one, including spring, summer and autumn, and one can
find tarpon fishing at some locality in Florida all summer;
especially at Long Key, on the new railway, the fishing is excellent.
The fish and the sport are interesting for various reasons. It
is a giant herring and looks the part, its extraordinary jaw giving
it a cynical appearance, while its eyes are so near the end of the
muzzle and the top of the head that one doubts its intelligence.
Its wonderful investment of big silver scales are a most attractive
feature. They are three inches across in the six and seven-foot
tarpon, so like molten silver dollars that when I landed a big
fellow, I had some of the scales pressed flat and dried, wrote the
weight and length of the fish on them, added a stamp and sent
them to friends all over the country as post-cards.
The rules of tarpon fishing are extremely pliable, and you may
fish for it in various ways. Iused a Vom Hofe reel (costing fifty
dollars) and capable of holding six hundred feet of line (valued at
three dollars). This reel had a single brake to prevent over-
running, and a leather pad to press on the line with the thumb ;
so I caught the fish with my thumb. I took all my tuna years ago
in this manner, and it was painless, as at the end of three or four
hours the thumb had no feeling. At that time we believed in
fighting the fish and pulling againstit. Now the Vom Hofe reel
is a masterpiece with several patent brakes, and has reduced
tarpon fishing toa gentle artfor game of all kinds, as one can
adjust the reel to any tension, and the game once hooked is sure
to wear out first.
In the discussions the angler will hear much about this and
that hook and a variety of opinions. I useda10/°. O’Shaugh-
nessey, with a piano-wire leader, longer than the fish, and when I
256
THE SILVER KING
did not, I doubled the line for six feet as it is liable to chafe off.
The leader, to my mind, should have several swivels, and a short.
chain at the hook is a clever idea, as when the tarpon is in the air,
thrashing from side to side, endeavouring to throw the hook at
you, the wire is apt to kink, which is in the nature of a tragedy...
Before going tarpon fishing the angler should consult some
first-class dealer, as Edwin Vom Hofe, Abbey & Imbrie, or
Mills & Co., New York, who rank with Hardy, Farland, Milward,
and others in England. One can fish by day or by night, but
the latter is a dangerous pastime, as the fish of the man ahead is.
liable to land in your skiff and throw you out, which has occurred
in the day-time. I have seen tarpon jump on the Florida.
reef at night, turning the sea into a maelstrom of blazing light, due:
to phosphorescence. I have caught them with live mullet, with
very ancient mullet, and on one occasion was tempted to seize:
one in my hands as I crept up within two feet of where it was
lying perfectly quiet on the surface.
The tarpon has been taken with a spoon, and on the bottom
with bait, but trolling would appear to be the method best adapted.
to so large a fish, when it is necessary to have the boat free on the
instant.
There is much mystery about the young of the tarpon. For
years no one had seen a small one; finally one was reported from
Porto Rico. But the life history of the tarpon is yet to be
written. This is true of many fishes. The young seemingly
disappear at once, only the adults being known.
Tarpon fishing in Florida and Texas lacks, in a sense, the
charm of really beautiful surroundings, though to me there
is a certain fascination about both localities. In Texas I often
wandered about at night and skirted the great sand-dunes with
the coastguard. The wind was always blowing from the same
direction, and as far as the eye could reach down the coast
toward Mexico there was a mass of silvery light, a weird, uncanny
phosphorescence. The roar of the waves was a deep and solemn
requiem, adding to the weirdness. In the moonlight I could
17 257
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
see countless spirit-crabs scurrying along, and everywhere the
sand was moving noiselessly up into the lair of the dunes
which took on strange shapes and forms. Along the shore where
the moonbeams played was a dark undulating line of algae,
richly coloured sea-fans, gorgonias, shells of many sorts, and the
filmy satin-like shapes of the fairy Physalia or Portuguese man-
of-war. Mingled with all these were countless bits of sponge-
like pumice thrown up by Mont Pélée at the destruction of
Martinique.
Offshore, countless tarpon lay, and prowling about the schools
were big sharks, the only living creatures that will eat tarpon or
can capture one.
In Florida the conditions differ. The tarpon is still found in
passes, but there are islands covered with thick luxuriant verdure,
the mangrove and palm. There are countless strange and
beautiful birds, and an abundance of animal life. But, after
all, the angler who is really after tarpon has no time to indulge
in rapsodies on scenery ; the fine fish will keep him sufficiently
occupied.
The following lists compiled for me by Mr. L. P. Streeter will
give some idea of the tarpon angling at Useppa Island :
Usrppa Istanp (Fta.) Tarpon REcorp.
Condensed Statistics from Official List of Rod and Reel Catches by guests
of Usmppa Inn.
Season of 1902. From March 30 to ey 30 inclusive.
Number caught . 7 183
Number rods to above catch 5 ‘ ‘ 24
Total weight do. 2 3 : . 12,138-5 pounds
Average ,, 5 é ¢ % ‘ 66:3 ,,
Largest % ‘ 7 é ‘ . . 178 a
Smallest ‘ i 30 55
Season of 1903. From March 5 to May § 31 inclusive.
Number caught . : : 338
Number rods to above catch ‘ . s 43
Total weight do. F is ‘ 31,263-5 pounds
Average ,, 5 : ‘ - ; 92:5 4,
Largest é . F . ‘ ‘i 177 ‘3
Smallest : é 5 = . P ‘ 9 3
258
Average
Largest
Smallest
THE SILVER KING
Season 1904. From March 16 to sa 21 inclusive.
Number caught : . ‘
Number rods to above patel:
Total weight
bed
Season of 1905.
No record as hotel was not in operation.
Season of 1906. From April 21 to May 20 inclusive.
Number caught ‘ 3 F ‘
Number rods to above catch
Total weight
Average
Largest
Smallest
2
do.
”?
do.
29
Season of 1907. From March ‘VW to May 8 inclusive.
Number caught , ‘
Number rods to above catch
Total weight
Average
Largest
”?
Smallest
do.
22
48
22
3,874 pounds
80:7 4,
152 5
40,
113
11
10,068 pounds
89-1,
165 3
18 ”
86
16
7,861-5 pounds
914 =,
173 3
40 2”?
I am indebted to Mr. J. E. Cotter, Honorary Secretary of the
Tarpon Club, Port Aransas, Texas, formerly Tarpon, for this
data relating to their annual catches :
a Theo beeen Mar. |April. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov.
ft. in.
1903 | 7 74] 987) —}/—}]—]}]—}]—}—]—J—-—f—
1904 | 7 10 659; — | — | —} — Jf —t—}—f{—t—
1905 | 7 1 1|1,534] 39 | 21 | 164 | 424 | 273 | 375 | 119 | 43 | 76
1906 | 7 34 11,573 | 52 | 73 | 238 | 503 | 261 | 212 | 86 80] 68
1907 — ;1,805}| 49 | 61 | 196 | 403 | 211 | 204 71] 83 | 37
1912 | 185 up} to Jully 21.
Mr. A. W. Hooper of Boston at this date had taken thirty-
five tarpon; Mr. L. G. Murphy sixteen.
Mr. Alfred Beebe, a valued member of the Tuna Club, has
259
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
made a study of angling problems in America, and his data
relating to personal experience with tarpon at Aransas Pass, is of
value and interest. It is as follows:
ARANSAS Pass, TEXAS,
Tarpon.
Tip of rod, 6 oz.; length, 5 ft.
Time—June, 1909. Tackle [Bt 14 inches.
Line—Standard 9 thread linen.
General Data. Tarpon Hooked, Played and Lost.
Days of actual fishing . . 154 | Hook thrown out byjumping. 7
No. of strikes from tarpon . 72 » pulledoutlaterr. . . 5
Of these, hooked and played 38 Torn off by sharks. . . . 10
43 brought to gaff . 12 Leader (piano-wire) aka 1
Tarpon strikes, perday. . 46 | Lineparted. . . - . 8
» hooked and played, Broke away in gaffing . 1
per day . . . 25 pee
» brought to gaff, per 27
day ... 0-8 | Gold Button fish (5 ft. 6 in. or
more) hooked, played and lost 10
Note.—A Tarpon is counted as struck, only when seen (by a jump); as
hooked, only when fast for 2 jumps or more.
Tarpon brought to Gaff.
Size. | Time. Remarks. Size. | Time. Remarks.
ft. in. | min. ft. in.| min.
4 0 5 — 4 8] 15 | Silver button fish
4 4 2 _— 5 03 55 Do.
4 4] 10 — 5 2! 25 : Do.
4 6! 15 | Silver button fish 5 3 | 45 Do.
4 6! 17 do. 5 44 5 Do.
4 8 5 do. 5 7| 40 | Gold button fish
Note.—Those tarpon landed in very short time (five minutes or less
completely exhausted themselves by a rapid series of high jumps.
260
THE SILVER KING
The following list will afford some idea of the tarpon angling
at Tampico. The fishes are taken with rod and reel in the
Panuco River. The best season at Tampico is that comprising
the months of January, February and March. The torrential
rains of summer make the water muddy, but by October it
begins to clear and the tarpon come in from the Gulf, and accord-
ing to Mr. A. M. Poindexter, a veteran tarpon angler of Tampico,
by November they will be found at the entrance of every small
affluent of the Panuco. The fishing continues until the middle
or the last of June. The record tarpon at Tampico, according
to Mr. Poindexter, is seven feet two inches, weight two hundred
and two pounds. It was landed by Mr. H. W. Wilson, the
British Consul General at Tampico. The following are some
of the yearly catches at this point, or the winter fishing :
Szason 1905-06. December 1 to May 1 . . 1,287 Tarpon.
% 1906-07. 33 a 5 . 1,518
- 1907-08. yi is : . 1,585 3
55 1908-09. = - 3 . 1,382 5
‘ 1909-10. af 5 5 . 1417 3s
261
CHAPTER XXVII
THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
‘Nec te puniceo rutilantem viscere, Salmo
Transierim, latae cujus vaga verbera caudae
Gurgite de medio summas referuntur in undas,
Occultus placido cum proditur aequore pulsus.
Tu loricato squamosus pectore, frontem
Lubricus et dubiae facturus fercula coenae,
Tempora longarum fers incorrupta morarum,
Praesignis maculis capitis, cui prodiga nutat
Alvus, opimatoque fluens abdomine venter.”}
Ausonius: The Moselle, 97-105.
LL anglers know that, as a rule, the Pacific Coast salmon
will not take a fly; also that their habits are totally dis-
similar to those of the Atlantic Coast or Europe. But one day
hearing that the Link River at Klamath Falls, Oregon, was alive
with salmon, on their way up the river, I determined to
give them the benefit of the doubt and make the attempt to
take one with a fly. I was towed to a little river by Captain
John Griffith’s launch; then Tom Littlefield, my boatman and
guide, started to row me into the little river, so charming that
I hope many of my readers may some time see it, and that Dr.
Henry Van Dyke may some fair day add it to his famous collec-
tion of ‘ Little Rivers.’
I fancy you would never find it if not told exactly where it is,
1 ‘Nor will I pass thee, O Salmon, blushing with thy red flesh, the roving
strokes of whose broad tail are borne from the middle of the stream to the
top of the water, at such time as the hidden lash betrays itself on the calm
surface. Now, clothed in scaly armour, slippery as to thy fore part, and able
to constitute a remove for a most excellent dinner, dost bear keeping fresh
for a long time; thou art conspicuous with thy spotted head; thy full
paunch trembles, and thy belly overflows with abdominal fat.’
Literal translation by Houghton.
262
THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
as its mouth is scarcely one hundred feet across, and the stream
turns so quickly and so many times, and its shores are so lined
with willows, aspens, and various fragrant shrubs and grasses,
that I did not see it until we were fairly within the gates, and
hailed by the Modoc Indians, at camp in a little nest where the:
trees had been cut down by the beavers.
The Williamson empties into Klamath Lake about three or
four miles northeast of Eagle Ridge, Upper Klamath, and winds.
about in a marvellous fashion, sixteen miles or more, through
the Klamath and Modoc Indian Reservation; then reaching
the highlands, it continues on and ends upon the slope of Mt.
Mazuma not far from Crater Lake, in the interim receiving several
branches, chief of which is the Sprague. The latter is a little river,
and almost anywhere a good angler could cast from one side
to the other ; and it is so well wooded along its borders with tule,
willow, cottonwoods, wild corn and various bushes, that the
fishing, in the main, must be done from a row-boat.
We began fishing at the mouth, where the water changed.
from an old-gold hue to a deep mahogany, which reflected the:
splendid colours of the autumnal tints. The Indians had several
big salmon and trout hanging beneath the trees, and grunted a.
laconic welcome, as the river is theirs, or runs through their
reservation. I first used a big St. Patrick fly; then a March
Brown, then a Royal Coachman, casting faithfully up the reaches.
of the stream, so radiant in colours, so insistent in turning and
providing new effects and vistas, from the faint nebulous rim
of Crater Lake to the snowcap of Mount Pitt, that I should have
been satisfied had I not taken a fish.
I cast beneath the bushes into the golden-red shadows along
the white tips of willow that the beavers had cut; out into the
middle of the stream, and as we approached the turns where the
little river widens out into pools, we stood off, and I did my
best casting, as to length or distance, frequently not even disturb-
ing the divers and mud hens, or a flock of mallards. I placed a.
fly on almost every foot of the stream to faithfully prove that
263,
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOBLD
some Pacificsalmon will take a fly ; but the only rises I had were
of snipe, which went whistling over us, or beautiful magpies
which were continually flying laboriously across the little river
as though to display their abundant plumage, and as I was looking
at the water I saw them upside down. After several hours of
this I surrendered and replaced the fly, I was then trying,
with a Wilson spoon—a concession to the inevitable—and
began to troll, that is I paid out one hundred feet of line
and my boatman rowed slowly along, the lure being six inches
below the surface.
‘The generous gushing of the springs,
When the angler goes a-trolling,
The stir of song and summer wings,
The line which shines, and life which sings
Make earth replete with happy things,
When the angler goes a-trolling.’
Stoddart.
I was using a Divine-made eight-ounce split bamboo or cane
tod about ten feet long, a tapered oiled-silk line I had purchased
of Hardy in London in 1910, and one of his trout reels ; so it was
not salmon tackle in any sense. We made the change near the
mouth and rowed slowly upstream. I was sitting facing the
stern on a board placed across the rails—a Santa Catalina fashion
—amy boatman regaling me with the wonderful catches of trout
he had seen made here, when without warning I had a strike
which almost took the rod out of my hands, as at that particular
second I was following a magpie upside down across the little
river.
The fish hooked himself, so violent was the rush, and in a
second of time I was torn from a Waltonian contemplation of
nature to the vigorous play of a salmon fresh from the sea. I
hooked the fish in a large pool ; his first rush took fifty feet of line,
to the blare of the English click, then I checked him hoping to
see him leap. But he was aking of the sulkers and never showed
264
Fig. 37.
1, The Author’s Salmon, on Trout Tackle. 2. The Salmon Pool, Williamson River,
Oregon, U.S.A., Altitude 4,500 Feet. The Mountain, 9,000 Feet. p. 264.
THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
himself, making a series of rushes up and down, in and out;
then taking a position in a deep eddy, defied me.
I had caught a seventeen-pound yellowtail with the eight-
ounce rod, though I had the reel above the grip, and now the
reel was at the end, and when I tried to reel I merely reeled
the tip and first joint into the black river ; the only way I could
offset this was by giving line. I reeled and gave line several
times, but the salmon was laughing at me, and so, I fancy, was
Tom, my guide. Things in some way were reversed, and it
gradually dawned on me that I was being played by the salmon.
So I told Tom to row off, and when we reached a spot one hundred
feet distant I began to reel.
The reel rallied nobly and lifted the fish, which dashed around
in a great curve, then came at me with such rapidity that I
could not take in the line on my single action reel and was sure
he was off. I stripped the line in with my left hand, coil after
coil, as the river bank here abounded in branches cut and dropped
in by beavers, and the salmon displayed a too-evident desire to
run along this chevaux de frieze, when the lightest touch on my
green tapered line would have severed it. The fish came racing
up to the boat, saw me, and turned, dashing away, and taking
thirty feet of line through my thumb and forefinger until he
was exhausted. Then I called on the eight-ounce rod, which
displayed its resiliency by taking to the water.
We went through this performance several times, and as it
was a very warm day, and I had been playing the fish forty min-
utes, I began to suspect that my rod, and even myself, were
outclassed by this doughty fish. I recalled an argument I had
with my friend Annan on the Tweed; I taking the ground that
the English salmon rod was unnecessarily long and stiff. How
I wished for that very rod, or something that would move this
colossus of the pool! How pitiable my trout rod appeared trying
to hide its head, and its entire length, for that matter. How
Annan would have enjoyed my confusion! I tried every ex-
pedient from rowing off, to rowing over the fish; but he was,
265
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
apparently, as fresh as ever, and I was reluctantly compelled to
acknowledge that my theory of a medium-weight trout rod was
not adapted for this fish ; at least, with the reel at the end of the
butt.
But I did not give in at once. I temporized with the enemy,
in the language of the ring, playing for wind literally; and I
confess that I needed it, as the effort to hold the impossible rod
was work of the hardest kind. At last, after nearly three-quarters
of an hour, playing and being played, I told Tom to row inshore.
I landed in a little beaver clearing where I stood a moment, then
began a new attack. Sometimes the rod had a gallant bend,
again it would point directly at the game, but in fifteen minutes
I had the sulker coming, and as he shot along the bank I held him
and called for the net. The moment the salmon saw it, he dashed
off twenty or thirty feet, and tried to sulk again. Time and
again I brought him to the bank, and as many times missed him,
We had no gaff and the net was a small affair for trout of a few
pounds. But eventually I held him and Tom lifted him in, a
blue-back, spotted grilse of twelve pounds fresh from the sea.
Not a large salmon; not half the size of the one an Indian in a
dugout held up to us, which must have weighed twenty-five
pounds. But I confess that a small fish never before had so
much sport with me, and all due to my faith in trout rods for
salmon. Even now I contend that with the reel above the grip
I might have made a fair showing, though my long slender tip
was outclassed. When I fish again for salmon on the Williamson
I shall have a rod that will at least lift a fish from the bottom of
the pool.
On another day my wife hooked a salmon of unknown size
in the old Indian pool twenty miles upstream at the first rapid.
After a battle of twenty or thirty minutes, when bringing it to
the gaff, it made a rush around the stern and broke the line, a
melancholy ending of a gallant contest. This salmon had entered
the Klamath River above San Francisco and, doubtless, was a
member of the big school that lies in Monterey Bay in July and
266
THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
August, feeding on the vast schools of anchovies, where I have
angled for them.
At Monterey there is a salmon cannery devoted to the exter-
mination of the salmon. July, August and September finds many
anglers at Del Monte for the salmon sea-fishing. The angler
may go out in arow-boat or ina launch, the tackle being a rod
similar to that described for yellowtail, a stiff nine-ounce rod
being all thatis sufficient. The bait is a sardine or smelt, and
as the fish generally lie thirty or more feet below the surface a
detachable sinker is used, which comes off at the strike and per-
mits the angler to fish at ease. Atfirst the boatman will hunt
for the salmon, using a large hand-line and a heavy sinker, and
once the school is located by a catch, the angler may begin fish-
ing with his rod, which consists of trolling with the lure twenty
or more feet down, though at times the salmon are at or near the
surface.
The country in the vicinity of the bay of Monterey is of great
interest. On the north are the redwood forests and some of the
largest of the Sempervirens, this being the southern limit. Here
are the towns of Santa Cruz, Capitola, with their little rivers, the
American, Soquel, and San Andreas, charming trout streams where
[have angled for rainbow trout five miles from the mouth, fished
for steelheads in the laguna and for salmon offshore; all in
one day or an afternoon and the following morning. On the
south side of the bay is the old capital of California, Monterey,
and the town of Del Monte, and its hotel, which stands in a park
of several hundred acres and includes a game preserve, and the
upper Rio Carmel—a delightful little river which empties into
Carmel Bay near the ancient mission. The mornings are smooth
here, despite the fact that the bay is practically an open road-
stead. The salmon fleet, augmented by ten or twenty anglers is
on the ground by seven o’clock, or earlier, and the sport is on in a
short time.
The salmon is the chinook, and in its best condition, full
of fight and ranging up to fifty pounds, affords excellent sport.
267
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
I have never seen a salmon leap here, but am told that they do.
Several which I took rose to the surface and the water boiled
about them. The sport can be compared only to yellowtail
fishing, the play of the salmon much resembling that of the
yellowtail. But it has several hundred feet of water beneath it;
hence will go down and sulk if allowed. In September, or late
in August, the salmon move north and enter the Sacramento,
Klamath and other rivers which lead them hundreds of miles
from the ocean never to return, as all Pacific Coast salmon
die after spawning. Ihave referred particularly to the chinook
salmon as I believe it is the best game fish; but it is but one
in @ number of commercially valuable salmon of the coast.
The average rod ‘catch was twenty-five or thirty pounders,
and the morning catch of the anglers often equalled thirty or
forty fish running up to fifty pounds. The fishing lasts until
eleven or twelve o’clock when the strong inshore wind begins
and ends the sport of the rod fisherman, so far as comfort is
concerned. ,
There are five distinct species of salmon on this coast: the
king salmon or quinnat (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha), already re-
ferred to, which I have taken in the Williamson River of Oregon
and in the Pacific Ocean at Monterey; the blueback salmon
or red fish, or sock eye (O. nerka), which attains a weight of five
or eight pounds; the silver salmon, or coho (0. milkischitsch),
with a maximum weight of five or eight pounds ; the dog salmon,
calico salmon, chum or saké (0. keta), which reaches a weight of
ten pounds; the humpback salmon, or pink salmon (0. gor-
buscha) ; a little salmon of five pounds, and the Masu (O. masou).
Nearly all these salmon, in the localities in which they are found,
doubtless will afford some sport to the angler with a spoon or
bait. But there is nothing to compare with the fly fishing of the
Atlantic salmon, though I question if an angler could have better
or more spirited game than I did on the Williamson, and had the
fish been played with a heavier rod it certainly would have
afforded sport comparable with that afforded by an English salmon.
268
THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
No more extraordinary subject in the history of fish and
angling is presented than the life history of the above-mentioned
salmon. Dr. David Starr Jordan has made it a careful study
and has shown some startling and extraordinary facts. But it
may be said that the king salmon is the game fish par excellence,
and it will be found all along the Pacific coast, particularly
at Vancouver, where very large specimens are taken with the
spoon and bait. The angler will always hear of fly fishing, and I
recall a very courteous invitation once received from an English-
man in Vancouver, the lure being that I should be shown some
salmon fly fishing. Ialso recall, if I am not mistaken, that Mr.
Kipling enjoyed the fly fishing for salmon on the Klackamas,
an Oregon river.
The king salmon and the blueback have a spring run up
the rivers, while all the rest, according to Jordan, ‘run’ or go
up to spawn in the fall. Ordinarily the salmon live in the ocean,
probably off the mouths of the rivers or near at hand, and they
appear to move up the streams—the Sacramento, Klamath,
Columbia, Fraser, Nass, Skeena, Stickeen, Taku and other
streams in a more or less regular order. The chinook first ;
then the blueback, silver, humpback and dog salmon. It is
believed that the first to enter the rivers are those which make
the longest journeys. Thus the quinnat or king salmon, which
we have seen at Monterey and Klamath Lake, travels up the
Yukon to Lake Bennet—a distance of two thousand two hun-
dred and fifty miles from the mouth of the river, while the
red salmon is known to swim to ‘ Forty Mile,’ over one thousand
eight hundred miles from the Pacific.
Thereis a remarkable difference in habit. Thus the fine king
salmon, which may weigh from twelve to one hundred pounds,
enters the large rivers which rise in melted snows, while the red
salmon, Dr. Jordan tells us, will enter only rivers which pass.
through lakes. The great chinook spawns at the head of
rivers; the red salmon in small streams that flow into lakes.
The other species mentioned do not swim long distances, but
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
enter small rivers and spawn in them. Fishes of many sizes
are seen in the streams at the same time, and in the Fraser River
in the fall, Dr. Jordan found fully developed salmon as small as
eight inches, but not showing the sexual hooked jaws found in
older fishes. The salmon average larger in the northern rivers.
Thus the average weight in the Columbia River of the quinnat
is twenty-two pounds, and fishes of sixty, eighty and one hundred
pounds are taken. In the Sacramento, which reaches the ocean
at San Francisco, the average salmon is sixteen pounds. It is
believed that the very large salmon are those individuals which
for some reason have failed to spawn and have in some way avoided
the fate of all spawning fish here, which is believed to be death.
The fish perform feats of remarkable valour in jumping
falls in all rivers, and their persistency is often pathetic.
‘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
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.’
In early days in Alaska they frequently filled the rivers in places
in an almost solid mass, and at certain falls the bears congre-
gated to catch the salmon that missed the jump and fell out upon
the rocks. On entering the rivers it is supposed the fish do
not feed, but I have seen a salmon chasing small fry in the
Feather at Big Meadows—a long distance from the sea. The
stomach contracts, and theoretically, and in the greater number
positively,! the salmon does not feed, and the explanation of their
1 In certain rare instances food has been found in the stomach of a
spawning salmon.
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THE PACIFIC COAST SALMON
taking a spoon, is, that it is in obedience to the eating habit, or
that they are annoyed.
When the quinnats reach the spawning grounds at the head
of the river they are badly injured, cut and worn. They pair and
the male forms a smooth place or nest in a gravelly spot where the
eggs are deposited. This accomplished, the tragedy ends by
both fishes, weak and emaciated, drifting slowly downstream,
tail first, and sooner or later dying. The eggs hatch in about
sixty days, and the young remain in the vicinity until the spring
freshets when they, doubtless, go down to the sea, remaining
there until the fourth year when they re-enter the nearest river
as adults, where, if small, they are known as grilse.
The range of salmon up and down the coast is interesting.
The king salmon, or chinook, ranges south to the San Buena-
ventura River on the borders of Los Angeles county, or in lati-
tude thirty-two degrees. Dr. Jordan has observed all the species
in the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, ‘ all but the bluebackin the
Sacramento and all the waters tributary to Puget Sound.’
There is a great difference in the appearance of the salmon at
times. In the early spring all are silvery, and the big chinook,
or king salmon, I have taken at Monterey were beautiful objects
resembling molten silver. As the spawning season approaches
they lose the silvery hue, and the flesh, a salmon-red, becomes
paler. But, like rainbow trout, some may be red, and some
white, without apparent reason, although anglers and habitants
have many ingenious explanations—food, temperature, and
others. As the season advances the male changes; the tip of
the lower jaw is prolonged, both jaws become strangely hooked,
and there are often extraordinary changes. The blueback
turnsred; the head green. Thedog salmon assumes a dark-red
tint, with black bars, while the quinnat takes on a dark or black
hue. In the spring when they enter the streams they are silvery,
in the late fall they appear distorted andjweird caricatures of
their former selves.
The value of the salmon fisheries per annum in Alaska
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THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
amounts to nearly two million pounds. Dr. Jordan does not
believe the salmon have any special instinct which induces them
to return to the river from which they originally came. He
believes that the young descend and remain about the river, or
not more than thirty or forty miles distant, and that their return
to that particular river is due to the fact that it is the nearest
and most convenient. Once in the stream, they seem to play about
for some time, then enter the channel and swim steadily upward.
It is estimated that the salmon in the Sacramento make two
miles in a day; in the Columbia three. But the spring run of
salmon in the Columbia make four miles, as an average, and, of
course, ten miles and more to enable them to reach the extreme
points given.
The angler with the rod in visiting the Pacific coast of North
America should not fail to include the splendid chinook, king,
or quinnat, call it what you will, in his itinerary, either off
Vancouver, Canada, in the many rivers, or at Monterey, where in
the bay of Monterey or that of Carmelo, it may be taken under
most interesting and agreeable circumstances. If the angler
finds his way to Upper Klamath Lake just over the line in Oregon,
he should try the little Williamson with a Wilson spoon and a rod
of something over eight ounces and
‘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.’
, Isaak Walton.
272
Fig. 38. American Trout Streams.
1. Sprague River—Home of Big Rainbow Trout. 2. Roaring River, Branch of Kern
River. 3. Rainbows from Pelican Bay, Klamath Lake. 4. Lake Trout, Lake Tahoe,
California. (Photo by Tebbetts) p. 272.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE RAINBOW TROUT AND ITS COUSINS
‘I would. . . fish in the sky whose bottom is pebbly with stars.’
Thoreau.
HERE is something, some peculiar charm about angling
which arrested the attention of great men, thinkers and
philosophers ages ago. Perhaps they were attracted by the:
fact that Glaucus was changed into a sea deity that he might be
near the fishes.
Long before Christ, Theocritus was writing poems on things.
piscatorial. Homer knew of the delights of angling, and the
astonishing philosophical discussions of Athenaeus refer to the:
art. Many of the Greek and Latin classics have reference to.
fishing and contribute to the fisher eclogues.
Sannazaro in 1503 wrote pastorals in the vein of Virgil, but:
pastorals of the sea and fisher folk.
In the Odyssey we read:
‘As when an angler on a jutting rock,
Sits with his taper rod and casts his bait
To snare the smaller fish.’
Fishes appeared in the ancient drama, as those of Epicharmus.
(490 B.c.). The‘ Clown and the Fisherman’ Sophron took from.
Epicharmus, but he originated ‘ The Tunny Catcher.’
Many of the Sicilian poets sang of fish and angling. The
romances of the ancient Greeks include frequent references to-
anglers and angling, and if we were to attempt to write the
history of the poesy of angling, the idylls of anglers, or what may
be called the pastorals of the fishermen, we would, doubtless,
18 273
THE GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD
be amazed at the material accumulated before Walton, who en-
deared himself to the anglers of the world by presenting his more
than delightful philosophy of angling, teaching men that it was
the gentlest of arts, a pastime for gentlemen and gentlewomen.
If I were to wish a trout lover good luckI could not do better
than to wish he were with me as these lines are written. From
@ commodious log hunting lodge at Eagle Ridge I look down on
the crimson surface of Klamath Lake just over the California
line in Oregon, America. Silver trout are leaping everywhere.
I cannot raise my eyes that I do not see one, or the swirl of circles
as he comes down, and the crash and smash on the water is
constant. The lake is wide and shallow, nearly thirty miles
long, with extensive snipe, curlew and duck marshes through
which run beautiful little rivers which rise in springs of great
size and coldness. The little spring-fed streams, as Odessa,
Crystal and Spring Creek, are radiant in beauty of foliage;
beside these there are several rivers, as the Williamson, Wood
and Sprague, which flow into the lake and abound in charms which
unfailingly appeal to the lover of nature.
Away on the northern horizon is that wonder of the world,
the hanging lake of Mazama, a liquid sapphire over a mile in
air, the home of rainbow trout, really a vast crater filled with
‘water; a crater as perfect to-day as when made in the past.
All this region is famous for its big rainbow trout.
We pushed off one morning, the launch towing the small
boat, dropping meand my boatman about ten miles up the Wil-
liamson, a winding river famous for its fly casting and scenery.
Never was a Royal Coachman or Klamath fly cast into such
glories of colour, tint and shade as here. On the third cast there
came a response; @ Stiffening of the line, a quick bending of the
Tesilient rod, and the game was on. I was using an eight-ounce
split bamboo rod and tapered oiled-silk line, and was filched of
one hundred feet in the first rush of this unknown, which went
into the air, hurling the spray, to come down with a crash that
awoke the dormant echoes, and brought out a half cheer from an
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RAINBOW TROUT AND ITS COUSINS
old Modoc squaw who sat on the bank watching this fish play
me. We were directly below the rapids, and the splendid trout
would course around the pool, go into the air, then plunge to the
bottom, giving me the battle of my life, with trout. Slowly it
came in, and time and again it dashed away at the sight of the
net. It was only taken at last by a sort of angling miracle, the
hook holding by a mere sliver. Tom Littlefield, my boatman,
weighed it, and pronounced it an eight-pounder.
Anywhere else this would have been an extraordinary event,
but an eight-pounder was no rarity here, and Colonel Gay of
San Diego, who is smoking on the lodge veranda, has a record of a
nineteen and one-half pound rainbow. My best rainbow was
a ten-pound fish, and a nine-pounder hangs in the Tuna Club
to prove another story.
The following day I took fourteen rainbows in this river.
The largest weighed seven pounds and none below three or four
pounds.