Tbe Yellowtail 137 



angler is concerned, two or three weeks, then 

 will come a cessation of biting, though this is 

 by no means a hard and fast rule, rather a 

 general average in my experience. In May, and 

 from then on, the yellowtails are about the 

 islands north to Santa Barbara in vast numbers, 

 and have come for the season, which is of about 

 nine months' duration. They apparently come in 

 small schools, then break up and are found in 

 bands of greater or less size all summer ; in the 

 spawning time in pairs at the surface, refusing 

 the daintiest lure. The fishes sweep up the 

 "entire coast, reaching offshore to San Clemente 

 thirty-five miles, and occasionally are caught as far 

 north as Monterey ; but the approximate northern 

 limit, so far as the angler is concerned, may be 

 considered to be Santa Barbara, the fishing rang- 

 ing far to the south being particularly fine in 

 the vicinity of Ensenada and the shallow bays of 

 Lower California. 



As the yellowtail enters the Santa Catalina 

 channel the charms of the island of that name 

 and San Clemente with their abundant food 

 supply capture it, and the actual rod-fishing of 

 Southern California may be said to focus about 

 the region of which these two islands, twenty 



