30 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Apparatus of capture. — The apparatus used for the capture of bonito 
and barracuda (the principal species sought for by the vessels) consists 
of a troll line of soft-laid cotton twine about 60 feet long, with a drail 
from 3 to 4 inches long of bone or iron, and a hook fastened to it. The 
hook has its barb filed off blunt, so that it will not be difficult to ex- 
tract it from the fish, and it is fastened to the lower end of the drail 
with a rivet through the eye and a piece of wire passing around its 
shank through two holes in the drail. When the fishermen can not get 
drails they sometimes use an ordinary hook with a piece of rag tied 
around the shank as a substitute. The bone drail is said to be pre- 
ferred for barracuda fishing. 
Methods of fishing. — When engaged in trolling for barracuda or 
bonito a vessel moves along under easy sail, and six or eight lines are 
kept out at one time; no bait is used, as the fish will readily bite at the 
drails employed for their capture. The method is similar to that 
adopted on the Atlantic coast for catching bluefish. 
The following account of fishing for barracuda at San Diego is from 
an article written by J. C. Yan Hook and published in Forest and Stream 
of October 31, 1889 : 
At daybreak we were drifting past Ballast Point, the entrance to the hay. After 
floating a mile out into the ocean, assisted occasionally by a “ cat’s-paw,” we con- 
cluded to tie up to the kelp and wait for the wind. Here we enjoyed for an hour the 
continuous up-and-down motion of the heavy ground swell, sometimes throwing out 
a line as far as possible and pulling it in rapidly to entice the barracuda which were 
playing around us, but without success. So we * * * waited patiently for the 
breeze, which is indispensable for barracuda fishing as it is in the Atlantic for that 
wily corsair, the bluefish, * * * I heard something like the surf breaking on the 
shore * * * and about 1,500 porpoises were coming toward us in a line, jumping 
out of the water and looking like big black wheels rolling along. * * * About 9 
o’clock a light breeze sprung up, and, cutting loose from the kelp, we began to move 
slowly over the water, but not fast enough, as Bob said, to put out our line&. In my 
anxiety to begin the sport I cast out two lines, and very soon we hooked two so- 
called Spanish mackerel [bonito] of 10 and 12 pounds apiece. * * * Presently 
the breeze came along, and within half an hour we were sailing at a lively rate, so 
we adjusted outriggers, one on either side, about in the waist of the boat, with two 
lines on each. We also trolled one from the stern, making five in all. Just then w© 
met our friends coming home, loaded with sixty-five barracuda, which they had 
caught by towing and trolling while we were tied up to the kelp. Being thus en- 
couraged, we put everything in readiness and placed in front of the cabin door a fish 
box 3 by 3 by 3 feet. Bob had the first strike and pulled in his fish, then he hooked 
and landed another, and a third. As I was beginning to wonder what was the matter 
with my lines one of them straightened out, and I began to haul in hand over hand. 
When I was about to lift him out of the water he doubled himself up, and I brought 
out the bare hook. I repeated this three times. * * * Upon hooking another I 
pulled in slowly, and when the fish was 3 feet from the boat I threw him up into the 
air, bringing him over my head and landed him into the box. Then by catching hold 
of the drail and shaking it the fish came off easily. As I found o^t, all the drails for 
barracuda fishing have the barb of the hook filed very blunt, and an inexperienced 
person might easily lose his fish, while, at the same time, the hook is readily jerked 
out of the mouth free from the lance-like teeth. 
