Big Game at Sea 



the months named, or in May, they suddenly appear 

 in large well-broken schools, soon breaking up into 

 smaller ones. Then the sport begins, not for the 

 expert few, but for all the people who may fish, and 

 in July or August one of the most remarkable fishing 

 sights to be seen anywhere is staged off the placid 

 waters of Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina. Here possi- 

 bly two hundred boats may be seen, the anglers, with 

 rod and reel, fishing for the game yellowtail or amber 

 jack. They are anchored about twenty feet apart, 

 and form a compact floating town or assembly, fish- 

 ing in water of the deepest blue about one hundred 

 feet or more in depth just at the entrance of the 

 bay. Now and then comes a shout and a boat cuts 

 loose from the throng and is rowed or towed away, 

 and the angler is seen to be in the toils, the fish jerk- 

 ing the rod down to the water's edge in sharp blows 

 while the reel sings. 



There is nothing, at least in these waters, quite 

 like this splendid rush, fairly demoralizing to some. 

 I have seen a man jerked from a pier by such a fish. 

 Another on receiving the strike was seized with a 

 species of buck fever and trembled so that the fish 

 ran away with all the line 600 feet and would 

 have taken the rod had I not gone to the rescue; 

 yet these fishes average but seventeen to twenty-five 

 pounds. I have seen one that weighed eighty 

 pounds, and the largest catch with a rod is, I believe, 

 fifty-one pounds. 



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