306 Big Game Fishes 



the great fish can be counted on to make a 

 gallant play. 



The equipment for this strenuous sport is a rod 

 not over seven feet in length and of sufficient 

 stiffness to lift the heaviest fish. The noib-wood 

 tuna rod described is equal to the task by using 

 a heavy tip. The line should be number twenty- 

 four, the only difficulty being that the fish when 

 taken in shallow water has a sorry habit of plung- 

 ing into the equivalent of the " dark, unfathomed 

 caves," where the best of lines often fails to dis- 

 lodge it. Every sportsman fond of big game has 

 a keen desire to kill an elephant. So, too, the 

 big fish angler will be tempted to take a jewfish ; 

 and should it chance that they are all hard fighters, 

 he may become enamoured of the sport. I rarely 

 caught young jewfish and do not recall seeing one 

 less than two hundred pounds in weight. They 

 spawn in May, June, and July, and are found in 

 the localities mentioned at all seasons of the year, 

 but more frequently in spring and summer. It 

 is believed that they retreat into deeper water in 

 winter. It was not uncommon to take jewfishes 

 from June to October on the edges of the lagoons 

 or off the outer reef in water not over twenty feet 

 in depth. They fed in the shallow lagoon at 



