The Wbite Sea-bass 15 



not that certain people, usually poor gaffers, 

 literally hoodoo the sport. Of all things, he is 

 a believer in signs and omens and especially in 

 luck. A strange fetich, this luck, which every 

 angler woos with more or less success. " What 

 luck ? " shouts a friend from a passing boat ; and 

 if you have bagged your game, it is, "Joe, hold it 

 up." And Joe holds forth a sixty-pounder, dis- 

 playing every angle, that the iron may enter the 

 heart of the rival boatman in the other craft, 

 who has not gaffed even a gudgeon that day. 

 But if there is no luck, no sixty-pounder, the 

 angler merely pretends not to hear, and his boat- 

 man raises his hands aloft, opening and closing 

 his fingers in a mystic signal which can be inter- 

 preted from six to ten or anywhere along the 

 line. Not St. Peter, but Ananias, is his patron 

 saint. What is luck ? I have fished for hours by 

 the side of a friend, where rod and bait seemed 

 identical, and either he or I caught all the fish 

 and had all the strikes. The luck was all on 

 one side. 



I have seen a lady, fishing with two anglers 

 whose fame had reached halfway around the 

 world, catch all the fish, five splendid white sea- 

 bass, all over fifty pounds, despite the fact that 



