IX 



GAME-FISH THAT LEAP ABOVE THE SURFACE 

 ON A RESTRAINING LINE 



OF the many fishes in American waters there are 

 only fifteen that invariably rise above the sur- 

 face when they feel the tension of a restraining 

 line. "These are the salmon (both sea and land- 

 locked), the black bass, the rainbow trout, the 

 banded muskellunge of the Ohio Basins, the gray- 

 ling, and occasionally the black-spotted trout of 

 Western waters. Of the salt-water fishes that leap, 

 there are only the tarpon, ladyfish, Spanish 

 mackerel, the kingfish of southern seas, and the 

 needle-fish of Key West, which is the most skilful 

 acrobat of them all, either in fresh or salt water, 

 often making double somersaults." Such are the 



102 



