THE SMALL GAME FISHES 123 



ceous dolphin-shaped Caulolatilus to the gaff. When 

 the fish are well on the surface, some way astern, and 

 the current is running fast, as I have seen it at How- 

 land's, San Clemente, the sport is fast and furious. 



In 1909, at San Clemente, Captain Michaelis put 

 Gifford Pinchot and myself over a submerged moun- 

 tain one day, anchoring on top of it, about three miles 

 above Mosquito Cafion where the blanquillo fishing 

 was literally amazing. It was impossible to get the 

 bait down more than twenty feet, or perhaps thirty, 

 before we could see the blanquillos rising out of the 

 azure sea to meet it, and, hang! — there is no other 

 way to express it — a blanquillo had it. 



These fishes ran up to ten and twelve pounds, and 

 I think some of them must have been fifteen-pounders. 

 They gave us all the sport we wanted, until each and 

 every one of the anglers, not to speak of Mexican 

 Joe and his understudy, and Captain Michaelis, 

 stopped, ashamed to take any more, although not a 

 fish was wasted. If we had been fishing with hand- 

 lines we could have filled a boat with these attractive, 

 hard-fighting, toothsome fishes. 



The charm of this fishing for small fry is in the 

 glories of the submarine view. I doubt if a more 

 splendid garden of the sea exists anywhere (or such a 

 plethora of fishes) as can be seen from the east end 

 of San Clemente for four or five miles north, where 

 the great sea mountain drops gradually into deep 

 water. At a single glance myriads of fishes can be 

 seen poising in the water, or on the surface, which is 

 as smooth as a disk of steel. 



One of the common fishes of the islands, but found 

 only from Point Concepcion south, is the sheepshead. 



