36 Big Game Fishes 



made one eager for the contest. Stopping the 

 dinghy, I anchored and cast my bait, a piece of 

 white conch (Strombu s gigas), the favorite grouper 

 bait on the reef, in their midst. It was a striking 

 dainty, standing out in the brilliantly colored 

 water like ivory, and was at once seized by 

 grunts, porgies, angel-fishes, and others, and 

 jerked and bandied about in a manner that would 

 have been irresistible to many fishes ; but to my 

 surprise, the snappers paid absolutely no attention 

 to it. I could see every movement, being directly 

 over them, and they were not disturbed in the 

 slightest from the even tenor of their way. I 

 then tried crayfish, breaking the tail shell side- 

 wise and taking the meat out entire, selecting 

 the lower end with its inviting tints of scarlet. 

 Of all baits in tropical waters this is the most 

 alluring and irresistible. Not a fish which I 

 recall, save the barracuda, but can be seduced 

 into biting it, and as it dropped slowly, out 

 sprang a timid parrot-fish and seized it, dashing 

 away followed by the grunts, chaetodons, and 

 other courtiers which constituted the train of 

 the gray snapper, that seemed to look with scorn 

 upon the smaller fry so easily deceived. I scat- 

 tered crayfish bait over the water, arousing the 



