Fishing in Southern California 



playing its beauties to the anglers; a blaze of glory, 

 canted upward, its silvery belly gleaming in the morn- 

 ing sun, its back an iridescent green, the fins, median 

 line and tail yellow. The boatman is fingering his 

 gaff. " Now, then ! " whispers the angler. The tip 

 of the rod goes forward, a quick movement, a blind- 

 ing splash of water with the last compliments of the 

 yellowtail, and the gaffer straightens up with the fish 

 of fishes quivering, trembling, still fighting, to receive 

 its quietus. " Thirty-two and a half pounds, sir," 

 and glancing at his watch, " in twenty-two minutes." 



The common fish is the yellowtail (Seriola dorsa- 

 /), a sociable fellow, coming within ten feet of the 

 boat to take the bait, playing about in full view, its 

 golden tints flashing with gleams of green and blue. 

 It is usually caught trolling slowly; but from the 

 wharf or from a boat it is often taken by allowing the 

 bait to lie on the bottom. The cleverness and dis- 

 crimination of the yellowtail are unequaled. Toss 

 over a handful of sardines, and the big fish will dash 

 at them, picking up every one except that containing 

 the hook. In many years' fishing at this island, I 

 have never seen a yellowtail under seven pounds, the 

 largest weighing sixty-three ; but a specimen has been 

 taken which, headless and cleaned, weighed eighty 

 pounds. 



The yellowtails arrive in March and April, and in 

 midsummer are at the islands in countless numbers. 

 In August last, four rods took sixty of these fish, 



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