The White Sea-bass 27 
the larger bays, as the Isthmus, the angler can 
sometimes go ashore and cast from the beach, and 
land these splendid fishes under ideal conditions. 
The method of fishing ex végle is to troll 
slowly, with sardine, smelt, or flying-fish bait, 
just outside the kelp. The fish comes in small 
schools, almost always swims on the surface, 
and can be recognized at once by its dorsal 
fins above water. It frequents little bays or 
indentures in the kelp, and I have taken it by 
lying off and casting forty or fifty feet. Even 
the tremendous bait, a whole flying-fish, dropped 
into a school, does not alarm them, as this is 
the habit of the flying-fishes, to drop with a 
crash. The solidity of these fishes, the diffi- 
culty to move them, can be illustrated by an 
incident. A boatman took my rod while I was 
fishing for larger game and cast it into a school, 
where it was immediately seized by a large 
bass. The man struck so heavily that the rod 
broke off just above the butt, the fish not being 
moved by the shock. Of course the break was 
entirely unnecessary, but it illustrates the point. 
I have been most successful in taking this bass 
by following large schools of sardines upon 
which they prey. The bass chase them in, tak- 
