The Wbite Sea-bass 27 



the larger bays, as the Isthmus, the angler can 

 sometimes go ashore and cast from the beach, and 

 land these splendid fishes under ideal conditions. 

 The method of fishing en regie is to troll 

 slowly, with sardine, smelt, or flying-fish bait, 

 just outside the kelp. The fish comes in small 

 schools, almost always swims on the surface, 

 and can be recognized at once by its dorsal 

 fins above water. It frequents little bays or 

 indentures in the kelp, and I have taken it by 

 lying off and casting forty or fifty feet. Even 

 the tremendous bait, a whole flying-fish, dropped 

 into a school, does not alarm them, as this is 

 the habit of the flying-fishes, to drop with a 

 crash. The solidity of these fishes, the diffi- 

 culty to move them, can be illustrated by an 

 incident. A boatman took my rod while I was 

 fishing for larger game and cast it into a school, 

 where it was immediately seized by a large 

 bass. The man struck so heavily that the rod 

 broke off just above the butt, the fish not being 

 moved by the shock. Of course the break was 

 entirely unnecessary, but it illustrates the point. 

 I have been most successful in taking this bass 

 by following large schools of sardines upon 

 which they prey. The bass chase them in, tak- 



