The Jewfishes 



where it is one of the really great game-fishes taken at that most 

 famous anglers' resort, and Professor Chas. F. Holder has written 

 entertainingly of this wonderful fish. He says the "jewfish is a bot- 

 tom feeder, and is fished for on the edge of the kelp in 30 or 40 feet of 

 water. The strike comes as a nibble, but when hooked the fish is 

 away with a rush that has been known to demoralize experienced 

 anglers. My largest fish, weighing 276 pounds, was taken in a boat 

 or skiff which weighed 125 pounds, and I was repeatedly almost 

 jerked overboard by the struggles of the bass. When it was gaffed it 

 jerked the gaff from my hands a score of times. It was impossible to 

 take it aboard, so we towed it five miles to port, well illustrating how 

 delightful the most arduous labour becomes when dignified by the 

 term sport. I have seen a 2OO-pound fish snap the largest shark-line 

 like a thread, and large specimens straighten out an iron shark-hook; 

 yet the skilled wielders of the rod catch these giants of the tribe with 

 a line that is not larger than some eye-glass cords." 



Professor Holder's experience with his first California jewfish is 

 worth repeating: 



"The anchor was tossed over, the rope ran merrily out, and the 

 hook, baited with a 6-pound whitefish, went hissing down to the big 

 submerged rock. 



" 'Sometimes he bite, sometimes he don't,' remarked Joe; 'but 

 whether he do or not, we have the fishin' all the same.' And he 

 looked at me inquiringly, to see if I was of that variety of fishermen 

 who are never satisfied unless the fish are always on the line. It so 

 happened that I found pleasure in the mere anticipation; and we sat 

 silent for half an hour, I holding the throbbing line that the ebbing tide 

 played upon as the string of a musical instrument. ... I glanced at my 

 companion, and was wondering if in his veins ran the blood of the 

 Aztecs or of the Indians whom Cabrillo and others found here centuries 

 ago when Santa Catalina was an empire in itself and owned by them, 

 when suddenly I became aware that the tension of the line I held had 

 increased to a steady pull ; then came a jerk that carried my hand into 

 the water. 



"'Jewfish, sure!' whispered Joe, awakened from his reverie by 

 my exclamation, 'Slack!' 



"I paid out the line, while he seized the anchor-line and made 

 ready to haul up. 



" 'Give him 10 feet, and then hook!' were my orders. 



"I was an old shark fisherman, having caught many of these mon- 



yft 



