108 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNL\. 



ordinary fish and might be any size, but when seen 

 beside the angler it looms up as big as the man 

 himself. 



Mr. Alfred L. Beebe, who took this fish with the 

 nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line, has made some 

 remarkable catches with light tackle, among which is 

 a yellowtail of forty-eight and one-half pounds, — 

 the record for some time, — which he took at 

 San Clemente Island, California, in 1908. This fish 

 doubtless made a harder fight, at least a more active 

 one, than this black sea bass. But, for the purpose 

 of contrast, the bigger the fish the more credit seems 

 to go to the angler and his dainty tackle. 



Catching big game at sea is a strenuous sport, to 

 which, I fancy, a man must be bom; for many sports- 

 men indulge in it. It is a matter of congratulation 

 that, in its comparatively short history, its few votaries 

 have brought it to such a high standard. Thirty 

 years ago a man would have been laughed at, had he 

 suggested catching a fish as big as himself with rod 

 and reel. There was no such thing as a tarpon reel 

 or a tuna reel, and commercial fishermen even con- 

 sidered it extremely hazardous to hook a big, powerful 

 fish like a tuna. I recall being told but a few years 

 ago that men had been jerked overboard by tuna and 

 drowned. To-day there are any number of anglers 

 who think nothing of catching a tarpon or a tuna 

 weighing as much as two hundred pounds with a rod 

 weighing less that twenty ounces and a twenty-one- 

 thread line, tested to withstand a dead weight of forty- 

 two pounds. They would think a great deal, however, 

 of performing the same feat with tackle similar to 

 that used by Mr. Beebe in taking the fish shown 



