50 FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



THE BLACK SEA BASS 

 (Stereolepis gigas) 



Probably no catch ever made with rod and reel has 

 so taxed the credulity of the layman and general public 

 of the Atlantic coast as that of the black sea bass of 

 Santa Catalina waters. On the face of it it appears 

 preposterous to ask any one to believe that a three 

 hundred-pound fish can be taken with a line so small 

 that it will lift but forty- two pounds, or two pounds 

 to the thread or strand; yet this is a very common 

 catch here from June to October. Imagine an 

 ordinary five-pound black bass by magic lengthened 

 out in good and comely proportions to six or seven 

 feet, and given an avoirdupois of several hundred 

 pounds, and you have the black sea bass, jewfish or 

 June fish, the gigantic sea bass of California, peculiar 

 to the region and the gulf. It is not to be confused 

 with the jewfish of Florida; it is an entirely different 

 fish, a free swimmer, taking to deep water or outer 

 banks in winter, coming inshore in summer to make 

 its home on the submarine slopes of the great mountain 

 islands of California, where their spawn is deposited, 

 but the young rarely, if ever, seen. The black sea 

 bass frequents the vast kelp beds, which shelter the 

 regions near shore, in water about forty feet deep, 

 though they are often seen in shallow water. 



It is a most interesting sight, this giant of the kelp 

 groves. I was with Dr. Gifford Pinchot, anchored on 

 a submarine mountain spur of San Clemente a few 

 years ago, in September, lying on deck looking down 

 into the marvelous blue of the water, when suddenly 

 I saw a black sea bass swim up the side of the 



