PREFACE 



ANGLING for the great oceanic game fishes, so 

 far as it relates to the tarpon, tuna, black sea- 

 bass, and others, is a modern pastime. The time 

 was when the definition of game fish included the 

 reservation that it must be edible, like the salmon 

 or trout; but with the coming of the tarpon or 

 the silver king, and the leaping tuna, precon- 

 ceived notions were revolutionized. What tiger 

 and lion hunting is to the sportsman, the taking 

 of these ocean giants is to the sea-angler, who 

 often takes his life in his hands, as with all the 

 chances on the side of the fish he plays the great 

 game in the open sea from one to fourteen hours. 

 It is wild and strenuous sport, essentially manly, 

 and nowhere is the true sportsmanlike spirit 

 better exemplified than among its votaries who 

 follow the largest fishes with tackle so light that 

 the layman will often doubt the evidence of his 

 eyes. In all the famous localities where gentle- 

 men fish and sea-angling holds, the highest stand- 

 ard of sport prevails. In California alone there 



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