California White Sea-bass 



Victoria, Vancouver Island. It reaches a weight of 20 to 80 pounds, 

 and is one of the really great game-fishes. Professor Holder says: 



"The season is generally May and June. Of 7 caught in one 

 day by the writer with a i6-strand line each weighed over 50 pounds, 

 and every fish made a play of from 15 to 30 minutes that can only be 

 described by the term magnificent. There is a difference in individuals, 

 but one 51 -pound bass, taken after a 25-minute contest, I believe, gave 

 me more pleasure than any catch I ever made. 



"The fish played entirely on the surface, and I only saved it by the 

 skill and quick movements of my boatman as the fish repeatedly 

 rushed around the boat. This fish is a beautiful creature in bronze 

 and old-gold tints, and is well called the Santa Catalina salmon, having 

 a close resemblance to that fish and being its equal in every way. The 

 equipment used is, so far as line is concerned, the same as for the 

 tuna, though I prefer a lighter line and a lighter rod. Flying-fish or 

 large smelt is the killing bait, trolled slowly along not 50 feet from the 

 shore. All my catches were made in Avalon Bay not 200 feet from 

 shore, and around the first week in May." 



Cynoscion nothus, which is usually called the bastard weakfish, is 



a well-marked species, differing in numerous respects from the others 

 of the genus. It occurs on our South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and is 

 a good food-fish. Colour, grayish silvery, thickly punctulate above 

 and on sides to level of pectorals, then abruptly silvery, a row of dark 

 points marking the line of division ; snout and tip of lower jaw black- 

 ish; mouth white within; lower fins white, the upper dusky. 



C. reticulatus, the corvina, is found from Mazatlan to Panama. 

 It reaches a length of 3 feet and is a common food-fish on the Pacific 

 coast of Mexico. 



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