Fishing at Catalina Island, Lower Califorjiia. 



117 



point to the shank. The line is exceed- 

 ingly strong and must be at least 500 

 feet in length. Bait with albicore, or a 

 four or five pound live white fish, hooked 

 through the back ; when the fish ap- 

 proaches the bait, you must not jerk 

 your line ; he is a slow biter and easily 

 frightened off. He likes to toy with the 

 bait, will drag it slowly for twenty feet, 

 drop it again, then seize it and play with 

 it as a cat does with a mouse, but when 

 he finally gets ready to take hold you 

 will know it, and if you have hold of 

 the line let go immediately until you 

 see it slacking up, then seize it and 

 bring in as much as you can, and play 

 it out under a strong pull when he 

 rushes again. By repeating this per- 

 formance a number of times the fish is 

 finally tired out. After he is gotten to 

 the surface, gaffed, stabbed and beaten 

 over the head with an iron rod, it is a 

 safe proposition to keep him alongside 

 for an hour before trying to remove him 

 from the water. A flap from his tail 



would knock a man overboard, or easily 

 break a limb. 



Major Viele, of Fort Grant, Arizona, 

 announced to the Catalinans that he 

 proposed to land a jewfish with a rod 

 and line. This proposition was looked 

 upon as a mild species of insanity. 

 However, the Major persevered, and for 

 six weeks he tried for it every day. He 

 used a ten ounce rod, a sixteen dollar 

 blue fish reel and five hundred feet of 

 Cuttyhunk line. At last he became 

 convinced that he could not set the 

 ordinary jewfish hook with his tackle, 

 so he took an extra large yellow tail 

 hook, and on the last day of his stay on 

 the island, siiccess crowned his perse- 

 vering efforts and he landed a 157-lb. 

 jewfish, after an unremitting struggle 

 of two hours and thirty-five minutes. 

 He brought him to the boat after one 

 hour, but he darted off again and fought 

 shy for an hour and thirty-five minutes. 

 Prof. Holder, who accompanied Major 

 Viele, said it was the most interesting 



