Big Game at Sea 



thousand tints and scintillations seem to flash and play 

 upon it. The belly is white, grading into gray; the 

 upper portion, old gold with iridescent hues ; the head 

 a blaze of peacock blue in iridescent flashes to pink 

 and indescribable tints ever changing in the sun. 

 Nearly five feet in length, and tipping the scales at 

 fifty pounds, on a nine-ounce rod, No. 9 line, are 

 incidents in the verdict. 



The bass (Cynoscion nobilis) is a cousin of the 

 weakfish, and in these waters averages fifty pounds. 

 Four I caught in one morning were all of this weight, 

 or over. Like the yellowtail, the white sea bass is a 

 very sociable fish, some of the best catches having 

 been made twenty feet from shore. But the season 

 is short and uncertain, from May until July. These 

 fishes attain a weight of one hundred pounds. The 

 record rod catch of the Tuna Club in Avalon bay is 

 fifty-eight pounds. 



The tuna is game for the veteran, but the inex- 

 perienced angler may work up to it by practicing on 

 albacore, a game long-fmned oceanic fish found at the 

 Californian islands the year around. A sixty-three- 

 pound fish towed an angler three miles before it could 

 be brought to gaff. If larger game is desired with- 

 out the extreme excitement of the tuna, the black sea 

 bass affords it. This is the giant of the bass tribe, 

 ranging here up to four hundred pounds. The record 

 rod catch with nine-thread line is a two hundred and 

 thirty-four-pound fish, caught by George Farnswprth. 



182 



