512 MODERN SEA FISHING 



remarkably like a pike, and a big one. I guessed him as 

 weighing at least twenty pounds, and gave up in despair 

 the idea of killing him with a light greenheart rod. He fought 

 doggedly and brilliantly. Many times in my tussle with him 

 did I tremble for my tackle ; many times was my American 

 guide, whose admiration for English rods was not of the great- 

 est, prepared for the 'I told you so,' as the frail greenheart 

 doubled and strained. After a time he came in easily and 

 stupidly, as a grayling occasionally will. When I thought I had 

 him, he, like a grayling, made his best rush of all. He was off 

 and away, and I thought it best to let him work his wicked 

 will. As he slowed down I wound the line against him, and 

 gave him all the butt I could. The guide backed the boat 

 towards him. I reeled up rapidly, and before he knew where 

 he was he was gaffed. 



As a rule, I do not think it fair to gaff a fish under ten 

 pounds, and this gentleman weighed barely eight. He was a 

 rovallio, and I was lucky in killing many another before I left 

 Florida. 



The red or channel bass is a most beautiful fish, and game 

 as one could desire. In colour he is a dark coppery red. He 

 is usually killed at the mouth of a river. My first channel 

 bass was caught some three miles from the sea. Like the 

 tarpon I caught in the Gordon River, he was the first of the 

 season. Channel bass go to forty pounds. 



