FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 87 



nine, or even smaller, line, as the bass is not so 

 powerful as a yellowtail and can be taken on the 3-6 

 tackle described; its play with this tackle is most in- 

 teresting. If an eighty-pounder should happen to take 

 it, it is needless to say that the angler might lose the 

 game. 



I have hooked the white sea bass within five feet of 

 the boat; at once the fight was on, the fish making 

 splendid rushes away, not seeking the depths (which 

 are the despair of the angler) as much as most of the 

 fishes described, due to the vast depths about the 

 islands and the fact that they are the tops of moun- 

 tains rising from the sea. The fish will rush away, 

 circle the boat, if in shallow water, and put up a most 

 clever fight. As the fish swims in schools, and is 

 slow and dignified in its movements, it is an interest- 

 ing creature to attempt to catch. One can often move 

 upon a school and cast a sardine into it, or, when the 

 bass is in a bay, one can lower a bare hook down into 

 the often present school of sardines and snag one, 

 which will often be taken by a big bass which would 

 ignore the countless thousands swimming about it. 



When feeding, the white sea bass becomes greatly 

 excited. A school of several hundred will dash into a 

 bay or indentation, driving sardines, flying-fish or 

 squid out upon the beach. At such times they will 

 take bait or a spoon very readily. I have seen thirty 

 boats in Avalon Bay, nearly all the occupants of which 

 were playing a fish not less than forty pounds in 

 weight. One lady was repeatedly towed across the 

 bay by an eighty-pounder on the end of a hand-line. 

 This day, with a companion in a light skiff, with light 

 rods, we took ten white sea bass, five each. At one 



