ii6 



TJie American Angler 



and sheepshead, all good eating fish, are 

 taken in great quantities. The rock 

 bass are also taken while trolling, and, 

 with rod and line, make the best of 

 sport. 



The other deep-sea fishing is done as 

 follows : Go straight out to sea until you 

 reach five to six hundred feet of water. 

 Anchor, and drop a line baited as stated 

 above. Should you hook a twenty- 

 pound fish at a depth of six hundred 

 feet, you would not feel any movement ; 

 hence the rule is to drop your line and 

 in ten minutes pull it up. The fish thus 

 taken are sand dabs, which resemble 

 pompano, and groupers, a fish running 

 as high as six to ten pounds in weight, 

 almost as red as gold fish, with huge 

 mouths and eyes, and otherwise shaped 

 very much like a rock cod. When the 

 grouper nears the surface his eyes burst 

 out of his head, and often his bladder 

 will fly out of his mouth. This results 



from its being suddenly relieved from 

 the immense pressure to which it is sub- 

 jected at the bottom of the sea. If 

 dislodged from the hook in fifty or even 

 one hundred feet of water, it immedi- 

 ately comes to the surface, without 

 power of returning to the bottom. The 

 grouper is a fish of great delicacy, and 

 is especially esteemed for chowder. 



But the great sport to be had at Cat- 

 alina is in catching the June fish, com- 

 monly called the Jewfish. This monster 

 of the deep belongs to the bass family. 

 They have been caught weighing as 

 high as twelve hundred pounds. The 

 largest one I saw this summer weighed 

 480 pounds, and was caught by the 

 Mayor of San Jose, packed in ice and 

 immediately hurried to the Garden City, 

 as a tropy of his prowess. To take this 

 large fish you anchor just oif the kelp. 

 The hook used is five or six inches long 

 and nearly two inches across from the 



