278 Big Game Fishes 



Gulf coast localities, but I never caught it out 

 on the reef. It is a bottom fish, and yet affords 

 many people a vast amount of sport in rod fishing 

 of a peculiar kind well known to New Yorkers. 

 One may read in the local press advertisements 

 of certain steamers which in the summer months 

 go daily to the fishing-banks outside of Sandy 

 Hook. These banks range from the Highlands 

 to Long Branch and beyond, the Cholera Banks 

 being an exceptionally popular ground about 

 twenty miles east of Sandy Hook. Going aboard 

 one of these vessels, the angler finds an array of 

 very short and clublike rods with heavy reels, 

 stout lines provided with heavy sinkers, and abun- 

 dance of clam or fish bait. Once on the ground, 

 the steamer is anchored, rods are taken in hand, 

 and the extraordinary sight witnessed of several 

 hundred men fishing with rod and reel in deep 

 water. The fish bite well, and the sport begins, 

 sea-bass from four to seven pounds often being 

 the largest catch. 



There are a number of little-known fishes of the 

 ocean which, if the angler could divest himself 

 of certain prejudices, would be entitled to come 

 under the term " game." Thus in Southern Cali- 

 fornian waters the halibut of large size is often 



