150 Big Game Fishes 



known to science as Ocyurus chrysurus, and at 

 Porto Rico as colirubia. It is a dainty, radiant 

 creature, one of the most attractive of all fishes, 

 nor only with yellow tail, which color constitutes 

 the base from which radiate rays of golden lines, 

 splashing and blotching it with color. Its eye, 

 like that of the large Seriola, is an object of 

 beauty, clear, bright, black, and vivid red. I have 

 taken it off the great fringing reef of Garden Key 

 by casting in among the waving gorgonias a 

 fitting home for so beautiful a creature, and can 

 commend the fish, which attains a weight of eight 

 or even ten pounds, to the angler with an eight or 

 ten ounce rod, the lightest line, with a number 

 three O'Shaughnessy hook with a three-ply twisted 

 gut leader and no sinker. Such an equipment 

 with fresh crayfish bait will afford the angler 

 much delightful sport. 



The relative game qualities of the same fishes 

 of different size is an interesting subject. The 

 yellowtails of all sizes are good fighters, and by 

 varying the size of the rod and tackle the angler 

 can obtain full enjoyment from all. In my ex- 

 perience the yellowtail of seventeen or twenty 

 pounds is as a rule the hardest fighter, many very 

 large fishes not possessing the agility and activity ; 



