134 Big Game Fishes 



Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands, but this 

 is exceptional, as the months of January and Feb- 

 ruary, as a rule, know it not, at least in shallow 

 water, and the angler who would take a yellowtail 

 at this time must search the deep San Clemente 

 channel, six hundred feet down, or the Cortez 

 Bank south of Santa Catalina, where there is 

 every reason to believe the yellowtails, or a cer- 

 tain percentage of the schools, lie not far from 

 the sardine and smelt schools, which also mys- 

 teriously move out at this time. In March a 

 few yellowtails appear at the islands, and in or 

 about the first of April, sometimes sooner, some- 

 times later, what is known as the first run comes, 

 and the bay of Avalon is often alive with fishes 

 and boats, and the shouts of laughter and disap- 

 pointment as the fish play havoc with the rods 

 and lines of the tenderfoot. Not many years 

 ago I was at Avalon when this spring " rush " 

 occurred. Without warning a large school of 

 yellowtails ran a small school of smelts in on to 

 the beach, then out again, breaking them up in 

 a masterly manner until the entire charming 

 bit of water was a mass of foam. The yellow- 

 tails averaged twenty-five pounds at least, and a 

 cyclone appeared to have struck the quiet bay. 



