The Hogfisb 123 



the tail making three large baits, which were 

 fastened upon the hook with soft copper wire or 

 thread a measure to outwit the small fry. I 

 used a rod about eight and a half feet long, weigh- 

 ing sixteen ounces, a reel which held three or four 

 hundred feet of a number twelve line. The 

 leader was three feet of very light but strong cop- 

 per wire, with no sinker; the tackle was ex- 

 actly what I used for the six and eight pound 

 yellowtails, the only difference being that for the 

 latter often a trout rod was employed. A larger 

 hook was necessary for the hogfish, its enormous 

 mouth rendering a very small hook inoperative. 

 With a big net to hold the bait and to bag the 

 game, and sometimes a pair of grains, the coral 

 head was mounted and a cast thirty or forty feet 

 made out into deeper water, where the bait could 

 be seen white against the blue, sinking slowly 

 into the forest of plumes and fans. Up rose a 

 cloud of fishes to meet it. Now " breathe soft ye 

 winds ! ye waves, in silence sleep," as attracted 

 by the swarm of small fry that tosses the bait 

 hither and yon, filling the water with flecks of 

 white, comes a vision in red, a harlequin, or 

 Mephistopheles of the sea, with flaunting plumes. 

 It shoots ahead with a peculiar arrowlike flight, 



