254 Life in the Open 



cast began the chumming which is supposed to aid and 

 abet the capture of fish in all climes. 



The equipment of this black-sea-bass angler may be 

 of interest. His rod and reel were designed especially 

 for leaping tuna and black sea-bass ; the silent reel 

 was equipped with heavy, patent, anti-overrunning 

 brake and leather thumb-brake, and held perhaps six 

 hundred feet of twenty-one-thread linen line. The rod 

 was a split bamboo, seven feet in length, with long butt 

 and single joint mounted with agate guides. A six- or 

 seven-foot bronze wire leader was attached to the line, 

 the hook being the Van Vleck pattern a singular- 

 shaped silvered hook in high favour among tarpon 

 experts. 



A light wind sprang up and swung the boat to the 

 east, gently rippling the water. As the moments slipped 

 away the angler leaned back in his chair, with rod across 

 his knees, the line overhauled and between his fingers, 

 as the big reel had no click, and glanced over the San 

 Clemente Channel at the long, low island that loomed 

 up in the blue haze. It was not a day of waiting. 

 Presently there came an ill-defined tightening of the 

 line ; it might have been a drifting kelp leaf, possibly 

 the shifting current; then it slackened, and the 

 angler took his rod in hand, his right clasping the butt, 

 the left caressing the cork grip above the reel, as he 

 well knew that the largest of game fishes in the bass 

 tribe are the most delicate biters. There was no mistake 

 here ; Don Antonio dropped his cigarette, threw off the 



