The Amber Jacks 



days for the elusive amber jack along these sub- 

 marine gardens and without luck, until one day while 

 trolling with live mullet, the strike came and the sport 

 was on. 



It is difficult to find any fish with which to compare 

 this fish, its power and strength are so great. I was 

 hardly aware that I had hooked it; my line was deep 

 in the heart of the channel, and suddenly the amber 

 fish had me in its toils, racing away with the light 

 dinghy and 300 feet of line, evidently reaching the 

 bottom to come pulsating up to the surface with great 

 throbs easily felt on the line, to stop when checked 

 and give back blow for blow. 



The amber jack of the Pacific Coast is the great 

 game fish of the people in Southern California waters, 

 where it is known as amber fish, but more particularly 

 as yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis) . It is longer, more 

 slender, the head not so large and the body not so 

 thick, and there are no dusky spots nor lines ; the fins 

 yellow as gold, and a stripe down the side of gleam- 

 ing yellow. The upper surface is green or amber, 

 the belly silver. The yellowtail ranges from fifteen 

 to seventy pounds here and comes in from the deep 

 water in March or April and remains about the 

 islands from San Clemente to Santa Catalina or San 

 Nicolas until December. I have taken them from 

 the wharf at Avalon Bay nearly every month in the 

 year; but they are not supposed to be here in the 

 two cold months and are generally absent. But in 



73 



