CHAPTER VI 



THE CALIFORNIA BARRACUDA 



" Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so." 



IZAAK WALTON. 



IN May or June the picturesque, lateen-rigged 

 boats of the Venetian and Portuguese fishermen 

 of San Pedro, California, go out in search of the 

 barracuda which is due at this time, coming in 

 from the outer and deeper sea, or from "down 

 alongshore," that mysterious locality where many 

 fishes winter. They have two or more hand- 

 lines boomed out to starboard and port, and 

 before the stiff trade, fly over the Santa Catalina 

 channel trolling for the California barracuda, 

 probably the most valuable food-fish on this 

 particular piscatorial horizon. The fisherman 

 has a cord or sheet fastened to his boomed-out 

 lines, and when a strike comes, or the bone jig 

 is taken, he hauls the line aboard by this con- 

 trivance and brings in the fish hand over hand, 

 without even luffing for courtesy. 



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