54 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



A good many bass were being taken in San Antonio Slough in Marin 

 County at this time on bait, but I made only a few trips up there, with 

 poor results, although I have seen men returning from San Antonio 

 with all the bass they could carry. 



Five years ago it was found that the small crabs of the species Cancer 

 magister were line bait. The water in Carquinez Straits and Petaluma 

 Slough and at Benieia and South Vallejo was alive with them. Where 

 they were present, a clam used as bait would not last a half minute. 

 A man who had used crabs for bait in the East showed us how to pre- 

 pare them. Break off all the legs, cut the edge of the shell all around 

 and lift off the back, then break off the two lower parts of the shell and 

 you have one of the best striped bass baits. A large hook, seven or 

 eight 0, is used and the bait is put on whole. When bass are taking 

 crabs well they seemingly taste the bait first, then grab it and run. 



A 35-pound striped bass that it was my good fortune to catch in 

 Petaluma Slough had in its stomach a crab about five inches across 

 the back. At another time a 12-pound bass was found to have devoured 

 thirteen small mud crabs, called ' ' fiddlers. ' ' 



An arrest was made for having small Cancer magister crabs in pos- 

 session, which put a stop to their use for bait. They are a real nuisance 

 when fishing with other bait and the few that would be used would be 

 nothing to the numbers that die each year when the freshets come down 

 the sloughs adjoining Petaluma Slough. 



A large crab of lawful size can be used, but it must be fresh and 

 uncooked. A dozen good baits can be made of it. 



The salt water bullhead is the predominating bait at the present 

 time. The head and tail are cut off and the hook, a number four or 

 five 0, is put into the throat from the inside. 



Some men strike with the line when the fish grabs the bait, while 

 others have the clicks on the reel fixed very light so it runs easily and 

 the fish is allowed to run with the bait from 20 to 100 feet or until it 

 is thought he has swallowed the bait. The fish is then hooked in the 

 stomach or throat. A fish so hooked does not put up as good a struggle, 

 in most cases, as one hooked in the mouth. 



Monterey sardines are used a good deal for bait, also herring. They 

 are cut into chunks or split lengthwise. Fishing with herring one 

 night in January, 1913, in Petaluma Slough, I landed 125 pounds of 

 bass in three hours, the largest fish weighing thirty-six pounds. 



During the summer months the fishing in San Pablo Bay, Napa River, 

 Petaluma Slough and their adjoining sloughs is mostly carried on by 

 trolling with spoons, and during that time the fish are usually small, 

 although an occasional large one is caught. It is in winter the bass run 

 large and they are then caught on bait. 



The largest bass caught with rod and reel was caught by William 

 West of Napa, in the Napa marshes, on a spoon September 26, 1911. 

 Its length was 51 inches, girth 31 inches, weight 62^ pounds. 



Seemingly, there are millions of striped bass in San Francisco, San 

 Pablo and Suisun baj^s and the rivers and sloughs flowing into them, 

 and with the protection that the Fish and Game Commission is giving 

 them there is no danger of their being depleted 



