Chapter XX 



Trolling in Deep Water 



IN' sailing down the Santa Catalina Channel one 

 may often meet several trim launches flying gay 

 flags, several miles off the bay of Avalon. The 

 boats are models of comfort and utility ; about twenty 

 feet in length, with an eight-horse-power engine, and 

 two seats astern and facing it for the anglers, whose rods 

 point to port and starboard. The boatman is engineer, 

 gaffer and steersman, and sits behind them as they cruise 

 up and down the blue water, which may be a thousand 

 or more feet deep and doubtless is. 



The game here is the bonito and albacore, the latter 

 a large mackerel-like fish allied to the bonito ; big-eyed, 

 stout of body, coloured a rich blue, and provided with a 

 pair of side fins that are so long they look like sabres 

 hung to the side of this doughty swashbuckler of the 



sea. 



The albacore is found here almost the entire year, 

 preferring the channel, away from land, though I 

 have taken it inshore along the kelp beds. The average 



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