Qualifying in the Three-Six Club 229 



then another, which my imagination made twice 

 as large, snatched it from his mouth and made 

 short work of my line. Hence we endeavored 

 to keep the bait away from twenty- or twenty- 

 five-pounders and save it for the large fish which 

 range well up in exceptional cases to one hun- 

 dred pounds, a seventy-pounder having been 

 taken off Santa Monica this year. 



Well may the reader look askance at some 

 of these statements, yet on some of these days 

 the reality was much more startling than I have 

 described. A friend was trolling down from 

 Mosquito (so called because a mosquito lives 

 there) one morning, when he came to a cave or 

 sink or basin in the bottom, about twenty feet 

 across. The water was so clear that every ob- 

 ject could be distinctly seen, and in this pool, 

 this well, were numbers of very large fishes 

 swimming around, giving the impression that 

 some kind of a convention was being held among 

 the colossi of the fishes. Here was a black sea- 

 bass three hundred or four hundred pounds in 

 weight, big sheepshead, white sea-bass, and in 

 the centre, swimming proudly about, dragging 

 ten feet of a six-line, a yellowtail of such size 

 that the men could hardly believe their eyes. 

 As fast as they cast, just so fast would these 

 mystic fishes of the pool take line and leader, 

 and the men returned to camp with tales that 

 kindled interest into a flame. 



