1 78 Big Game Fishes 



almost white ; the very young maroon barred with 

 black. 



Owing to this diversity of colors the fish is 

 known by various names along the coast the 

 fathead, or redfish, being the most familiar; but 

 at the islands, where it is taken with a rod as a 

 game fish, it is known as the sheepshead, and to 

 science as Pimelometopon pulcher (Ayres). The 

 average fish ranges from ten to fifteen pounds, 

 but I have seen large males which would weigh 

 twenty or twenty-five pounds. The sheepshead 

 spawns at the islands in June or July, depositing 

 its eggs in the kelp beds near shore ; and these 

 ocean forests are its home, where, amid the most 

 aesthetic surroundings, it poises in company with 

 the colossal black sea-bass. The islands of 

 Southern California and much of the mainland 

 coast have this border of kelp, which is a fishes' 

 highway, a maze of vines (macrocystis) of 

 enormous length, whose leaves, long, broad, and 

 richly tinted in olive-green, rise from great depths 

 and sway in the current, or at ebb tide lie along 

 the surface, their fluted edges fluttering in the 

 soft wind, often waving slightly above it. 



This submarine forest is the salvation of the 

 fishes. It forms an effective breakwater, without 



