1 66 Recreations of a Sportsman 



spouted lava out of the ocean, so building up 

 the peculiar island which to-day affords the 

 finest sea angling for large game fishes, in the 

 United States, at least. Harbors in the best 

 sense it has none, and we were lying in a little 

 indentation directly under a cliff which afforded 

 perfect protection from the prevailing west wind. 

 I had among my rods a nine-ounce affair, with 

 six hundred feet of the nine-thread line tested 

 to a holding capacity of eighteen pounds an 

 outfit which the Light Tackle and Tuna Clubs 

 of Avalon were trying on large game fishes, at 

 the suggestion of Mr. A. J. Eddy with surprising 

 results. 



Baiting the line, I tossed it over from the stern 

 of the yacht. Almost immediately I had a strike, 

 and whatever it was it started out to sea to the 

 tune of my buzzing reel. I called for the boat, the 

 men tumbled in, and we made a run for it; but 

 my game, doubtless a four-hundred-pound black 

 sea-bass, walked off with all my line with great 

 ease. The next time I had the boatman row 

 me aw T ay from the yacht near shore, and at once 

 I had a strike from some game that unreeled 

 three hundred feet of line, so quickly that I did 

 not realize that it was slipping away; then I 

 stopped it, and the game turned and made a 

 splendid rush around in half a circle, and I 

 saw that it was an eight- or nine-foot shark. 



The water was not more than twenty feet 



