FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 41 



the high seas. The most famous place for it is off 

 Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, about two miles, in 

 water as smooth as a lake, owing to the situation of 

 the island. Here often ten or twenty launches of the 

 type described on page 12 will be seen moving slowly 

 about, the two anglers, with rods to right and left, 

 trolling for the game. The moment a strike comes the 

 gaffer stops the engine and tosses some bait overboard 

 to keep the school about the boat, and the sport is on, 

 as now both anglers have bending rods. The long-fin 

 runs up to one hundred pounds, but the fish usually 

 caught are between twenty-five and thirty pounds. 

 The long-fin tuna soon shows his game qualities with 

 a desperate and rod-racking rush into the depths. 

 There is but one thing to do, and that is to let him 

 have his way and gently check him. The amount of 

 line a twenty-pound fish will take depends upon the 

 tackle; usually the nine-ounce rod is employed, but 

 the fish is also taken on the six-ounce and the 

 thread of a line that goes with it, and then the time is 

 almost doubled. In any event, twenty or thirty min- 

 utes of play are devoted to the fish, making a hard 

 game fight before he is brought to the surface and 

 seen coursing along, a thing of beauty, with big star- 

 ing hypnotic eyes, and long side fins, like poniards. 



At last he comes in and is gaffed, and so plentiful are 

 these fishes that an endless number could be caught if 

 desired. 



The long-fin tuna moves in great well-distributed 

 schools, not in a compact mass, and is generally as- 

 sociated with the various bonitos and often with the 

 tuna and the yellow-fin tuna. All these fishes are often 

 seen trying for the bait. They feed on small fishes 



