198 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



STEELHEAD. 



It is often said by sportsmen that steel- 

 head trout do not take the hook in open 

 salt water. As contrary evidence a Si- 

 pound (cleaned weight) steelhead was 

 caught July 23, 1919, on the hook in the 

 open Monterey Bay and the local fisher- 

 men cla=m that such a catch is no great 

 rarity. Several steelhead were also taken 

 this year on the Mendocino County coast 

 by the same method while fishing for 

 salmon. During the summer of 1910 

 many steelhead were taken, during a 

 period of six weeks, by trolling off Soquel 

 in Monterey Bay. Many of the trout 

 were caught a mile off shore. 



SEAWEED AS FOOD. 



The Chinese consider some of our sea- 

 weeds a very desirable basis for soups 

 and several Monterey Chinamen make a 

 business of catering to this demand. The 

 weed is sun-dried and sacked, but held in 

 the sack for further drying before ship- 

 ment. During the last five months about 

 1,450 pounds, dry weight, have been 

 shipped to such eastern points as Chicago, 

 Cleveland, San Antonio and Newark. 



SALMON AT MONTEREY. 

 The king salmon season just closed at 

 Monterey resulted in one-half the normal 

 season catch. The early run was not 

 caught heavily because of a fishermen's 

 strike and the late season run was light 

 and ended early. The run of silver-side 

 salmon was also light, but extended over 

 a longer period than is usually credited 

 to this fish. The silver salmon is said to 

 suddenly appear in Monterey Bay, run 

 heavily for a few days and suddenly dis- 

 appear, but notes kept on the 1919 season 

 show them as caught in small numbers 

 between May 10 and July 20, with a 

 heavy catch on four or five days during 

 the period. 



DRY SALTING FISH AT MONTEREY. 

 There are at present twelve firms en- 

 gaged in the business of hard or dry 

 salting fish at Monterey, representing an 

 approximate investment of $50,000. One 

 firm has invested $7,000 in equipment 

 since last year. In addition, there are 

 eight fresh-fish dealers who do consider- 

 able dry salting during otherwise slack 



periods. Several firms that operated 

 last year have not yet opened up for 

 business, September and October being 

 the big months in the hard salting in- 

 dustry. The chief product is sardines in 

 the form of salachini pressed into round 

 100, 05 and 50 pound tubs. Anchovies 

 are usually put up in 5, S and 10 pound 

 cans although some anchovy and sardine 

 paste is made. Mackerel is salted in 200- 

 pound barrels. 



As yet the trade will not take any 

 great quantity of these relatively new 

 products on th's coast, but the hard salt 

 business promises to develop into a well 

 established and increasingly large indus- 

 try in the future. 



SQUID AT MONTEREY. 

 This year for the first time in several 

 years squid have been caught in quantity 

 at Monterey. Three Chinese firms have 

 dried this season about 1,772,000 pounds 

 (fresh weight) of squid. Three tons of 

 wet squid furnish one ton dried. Due to 

 high labor cost this year the squid were 

 not cleaned, merely dried on the ground, 

 raked up and sacked. Fishermen were 

 paid $10 per ton for the catch and the 

 dried product sacked ready for shipment 

 is valued at 6 to 7 cents per pound. 

 Practically all this sacked product is 

 shipped to China. 



In addition, small quantities of squid 

 have been canned in half pound rounds. 

 The appreciation of fresh squid as a table 

 delicacy is slowly growing, but people 

 who delight in oysters and eels usually 

 balk at squid tentacles till they have tried 

 them once. 



DO FISHERMEN GO FAR ENOUGH TO ' 

 SEA TO GET THE FISH? 



It is the belief of sam- of the canners 

 of southern California that such pelagic 

 fish as the tunas and albacores may be 

 found in large numbers farther o'f shore 

 than the fishermen usually fish. As thn 

 tuna canning industry has grown the 

 fishermen have been getting larger boats 

 and are fishing, during the latter part of 

 the season, twenty to thirty miles off 

 shore. Incoming ships have observed 

 what they have taken to be schools of 

 long finned tuna ("albacore") some two 

 hundred miles off shore. To determine if 



