THE AMBER FISH 337 



a fish far ahead of the bluefish. I drew a mental 

 picture of it being played with a rod and light line, 

 and it was not long before I again arrived at Avalon 

 with an old black-bass rod that had a record of four- 

 and-one-half and five-and-one-half-pound black bass 

 in the St. Lawrence River. I well remember when I 

 displayed this rod to the only guide and boatman, 

 Mexican Joe, who lived in a canon about four miles 

 up the coast. He glanced at it, then at me, and 

 laughed heartily at my temerity as I explained to him 

 that I was going to catch yellowtails with it. This 

 was the first rod ever seen at Santa Catalina, and only 

 recently Joe and I were fishing for yellowtails at Silver 

 Canon. I had landed three or four on my delicate 

 three-six tackle when I hooked a big fellow and Joe's 

 big genial laugh rang out again as I smashed the rod 

 in mere carelessness. Long ago Joe turned on the 

 hand-line, and is now a convert to the finest rods for 

 all fishes. At that time Joe was the only boatman and 

 guide; now there are dozens of boatmen, and Joe is 

 the dean of the corps. What he does not know about 

 the art of sea-angling in the Channel Islands is not 

 worth knowing. 



If the winter is very warm, yellowtails are caught 

 every month in the year; but the fish is migratory, 

 ranging from Lower California up the coast as far as 

 Monterey, and found in the greatest numbers about 

 the Channel Islands and particularly San Clemente 

 and Santa Catalina. In the winter, when the rains 

 are profuse, the yellowtails leave the islands and go 

 out to sea to the offshore banks and far to the south. 

 They return in March and April in great schools, then 

 break up into small ones or in pairs, affording sport 



