FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



taken over the same ground on the chance of catching its mate. These 

 fish are less shy than yellowtail or white sea -bass and have been known 

 to take a bait close to the launch, possibly because in the dancing waters 

 far from land the boat and its occupants are less conspicuous than in the 

 smooth, clear bays inshore. 



The opah, halibut and Spanish mackerel come under the head of occa- 

 sional catches, for the first-named, one of the most brilliantly coloured 

 fishes in the sea, has been caught, I think, only once on the rod at Santa 

 Gatalina. The season for the Spanish mackerel (an ocean-going bonita) 

 is confined to early spring, and the halibut is taken only by accident when 

 fishing on the bottom for black sea -bass. The barracouta, on the other 

 hand, is of daily occurrence, and it gives, in those seas at least, so little 

 sport for its size and formidable appearance that it all but comes under 

 the category of vermin. It must not, however, be forgotten that a large 

 piece of barracouta is an admirable bait for black sea -bass. 



Santa Gatalina is a paradise for the sea angler. The variety of its fishing, 

 the splendour of its climate, and calmness of its sea, the social side of the 

 sport fostered by the hospitable Tuna Club, and the not exorbitant cost 

 of accommodation and fishing, combine to make it the most enjoyable 

 angling resort on any coast within my travels. The one drawback for 

 Englishmen is the time occupied on the return journey. Yet those who have 

 the courage to face it may, in one short fortnight, enjoy the sea fishing of 

 their life. 



The conditions at Cape Breton Island, memorable for the recent and 

 repeated success of Mr J. K. L. Ross at Englishtown, are, it must be 

 confessed, less alluring, and although, in one sense, Mr Ross has earned 

 the gratitude and admiration of his contemporaries by demonstrating 

 the possibility of catching these immense Canadian tunas, his solution of 

 the riddle has, in a measure, diminished the interest with which that 

 problem invested those far -northern fishing grounds so long as it re- 

 mained unsolved. Previous to the summer of 1911, the apparent impos- 

 sibility of landing a Canadian tuna on the rod drew ambitious fishermen 

 to the spot from all parts of the world. Some of us came from England, 

 others from far California, but it was the man on the spot who won the 

 trick, and no one surely grudged him the fruits of his untiring efforts 

 which, for three summers, had proved fruitless, though in that period 

 he had hooked and lost no fewer than thirty -four fish. These early failures 

 were in great measure due to his lack of acquaintance with the canons 

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