SPORT FISHING IN CALIFORNIA AND FLORIDA. 203 
pectoral fins. It is followed by anglers and taken with either a 6-ounce rod 
with 6 or 3 thread line (this for experts) or a 9-ounce rod with 9-thread line. 
The bait is sardine and the fish are so ravenous that they will at times snatch 
a sardine from one’s hand, or the game can be hooked at the side of the boat 
when the school is located, during which operation the bait is towed behind 
the boat. 
The yellow-finned tuna, which is a beautiful fish and attains a weight of 100 
pounds, averaging 45, is common in Japan and at Honolulu, and appears at 
Santa Catalina in September. The largest specimens are taken with rod and 
reel for market and sport. It resembles the leaping tuna but has a short fin, with 
the finlets a vivid lemon-yellow. (Fig. 11, pl. vi.) It will towa boat 2 or 3 miles. 
The bonito or skip jack is another of the beautiful fishes of California and 
other seas. It is taken with a 6-ounce rod, no. 6 line, small hook (7/0), and 
sardine bait. The hook in baiting is thrust through the mouth, out and into the 
side, the mouth of the fish closed by being wound by wire. The bonito attains 
a weight of 20 pounds and is a vigorous fighter, having a peculiar wriggling 
motion, and playing on the surface entirely. The angler follows it in launches. 
The oceanic bonito comes in early spring. It attains a weight of 25 pounds, 
is beautifully barred and silvery. It is taken on a 6-ounce rod, and a line that 
will stand a dead strain of 12 pounds; sardine bait, a long piano wire leader, 
6/o hook and light sinker. (Fig. 4, pl. mu.) The boat proceeds at a rate of 3 
or 4 miles an hour trolling 80 feet of line, and the fish is gaffed when brought in. 
The white sea bass is a food and game fish of California attaining a weight 
of 100 pounds. It is taken by market men in nets at Monterey, but at Catalina 
is a great game fish (fig. 7), and to encourage anglers to use light rods valuable 
prizes are offered for the big specimens. The club record is 60 pounds. The 
fish is taken with a g-ounce rod, 9-thread line, by trolling with a sardine on a 
7/0 hook and 6-foot piano wire leader. It makes a fine play, and requires skill 
to land. The white sea bass appears in May and disappears in August, and 
except in Monterey may be considered an offshore fish, being taken in greatest 
numbers at the Channel Islands of California. In the Gulf of California it 
attains a weight of 150 pounds, and is often taken in the surf on the east coast 
of the Gulf, north of Tiburon. It prefers flying-fish bait, but live smelt or 
sardine is good; also a Wilson spoon in trolling. The live bait is used in still- 
fishing, the plan being to drop an empty hook into a school of sardines and 
snag a fish, which, if there is a white sea bass around, will be taken at once. 
Remarkable catches are made in Avalon Bay, where the fish all weigh over 50 
pounds. There is another species of the fish, averaging 15 pounds, called ‘‘sea 
trout,’”’ which is taken in the same way. Both species are related to the eastern 
weakfish, or squeteague. 
