The Salmon of Monterey 197 



had been taken at that depth, I took my rod, 

 which weighed about nine ounces and was rigged 

 with a nine-thread line and number ten hook, 

 baited it with a sardine, put on a light sinker, 

 and unreeled. Bill took charge of the hand-line 

 on the port side and I fished to starboard while 

 he slowly rowed about. 



The sport was fast and furious in other boats. 

 Sometimes four or five fish were hooked in one 

 boat-load of hand-liners, and with shouts and 

 cries of delight they were hauled into the net; 

 or a light boat containing a lady with a rod, her 

 husband at the sculls, would hook one and the 

 resilient rod would tell the story of angling de- 

 lights. Then everybody seemed to have a fish, 

 and the floating villagers shouted encouragement 

 one to the other or laughed at the losers, as 

 there were misses in the game, as I learned to 

 my cost. Nearly all my strikes came on the 

 deep hand-line, showing that this was the lure 

 of lures; so the reel line was rigged. I made 

 a loop in it, ran a thread through a fairly heavy 

 pipe sinker, and tied the thread across the loop 

 so that the sinker was suspended by the thread. 

 This was lowered dow^n, the theory being that 

 the first strike would break the thread, release 

 the sinker, and allow me to play the salmon with- 

 out this incubus. The year previous I had little 

 or no luck with my rod and Bill looked upon 

 it as a thing of evil; yet others were taking 



