Big Game at Sea 



and thirty pounds. This angler carried off the tarpon 

 record in the same year at Aransas Pass, Texas. 



The coming in of a big black sea bass is always an 

 event. As soon as a fish is hooked the boatman 

 throws a big flag to the breeze, so that other boats 

 may know that the fight is on, and when the fish is 

 brought in the crowd gathers to see it hauled up the 

 beach or hung on the rack to be weighed by the Tuna 

 Club committee; and then comes the moment of 

 triumph of the victorious angler. He stands up by 

 the giant with his boatman and gaffer and has his 

 catch taken a most necessary piece of publicity; his 

 'rare experience will never be believed out of Cali- 

 fornia, unless he can " prove it." Even this is 

 questioned by some doubters, as a singular character 

 in Los Angeles conceived the idea of playing upon 

 the credulity of the public and bought a big sea 

 bass, which he mounted, bought a few cheap rods and 

 advertised to give any one a picture with a sea bass 

 for a dollar, and doubtless a number of these bogus 

 catch pictures have been sent away by fun-loving 

 people who have never fished in their lives. This 

 same photographer has a bogus orange tree (this in 

 an orange country) beneath which he places his vic- 

 tims and photographs them picking an orange, sug- 

 gesting that it is not alone the Chinaman who is 

 famed for " ways that are dark and tricks that are 



vain." 



There are some singular things about the great 



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