Fishiiig^ at Cataliua Island, Lozver Califorma. 



115 



of regaining' the line is slow and pain- 

 ful, and when you have brought your 

 fish alongside he is by no means con- 

 quered, but away he goes, the reel sing- 

 ing that sweet music that the true fish- 

 erman loves so well to hear. Your 

 game breaks water again and again in 

 his frantic efforts to escape, but if the 

 line is kept taut on him the strength of 

 the fish finally yields to his repeated 

 assaults upon it, and he is at last 

 brought to the boat, but the battle is not 

 yet over. You must not now mak-e the 

 fatal mistake of endeavoring to lift the 

 fish out of the water by the line. If you 

 do he is surely off. The yellow tail has 

 a faculty, possessed by no other fish to 

 the same degree, of freeing himself 

 from the hook if his head is lifted 

 straight out of the water. I have .seen 

 dozens of thein lost in that way, after 

 the hardest sort of a fieht. The fish is 



more safely landed with a huge iron 

 hook on the end of a stick (called a 

 gaff) in .such a manner that by a down- 

 ward or upward stroke it can be forced 

 into his body. 



In trolling, the barracuda are taken 

 in great numbers ; also bonita and the 

 albicore. I caught two of the latter 

 weighing upward of thirty pounds each, 

 with rod and line. They are a heavy, 

 dead weight fish, and pull like a yoke of 

 oxen, and the sport of catching them by 

 no means equals that of taking the- yel- 

 low tail. 



Deep-sea fishing at Avalon is of two 

 kinds. One you practice by anchoring 

 your boat near the rocks in from sixty 

 to ninety feet of water. You use a 

 heavy sinker, with as high as three 

 hooks, baited with fresh sardines, mack- 

 erel or po.ssibly albicore. In this man- 

 ner the rock bass, white fish, rock cod 



