36 Big Game Fishes 
made one eager for the contest. Stopping the 
dinghy, I anchored and cast my bait, a piece of 
white conch (Stroméus gigas), the favorite grouper 
bait on the reef, in their midst. It was a striking 
dainty, standing out in the brilliantly colored 
water like ivory, and was at once seized by 
grunts, porgies, angel-fishes, and others, and 
jerked and bandied about in a manner that would 
have been irresistible to many fishes; but to my 
surprise, the snappers paid absolutely no attention 
to it. I could see every movement, being directly 
over them, and they were not disturbed in the 
slightest from the even tenor of their way. I 
then tried crayfish, breaking the tail shell side- 
wise and taking the meat out entire, selecting 
the lower end with its inviting tints of scarlet. 
Of all baits in tropical waters this is the most 
alluring and irresistible. Not a fish which I 
recall, save the barracuda, but can be seduced 
into biting it, and as it dropped slowly, out 
sprang a timid parrot-fish and seized it, dashing 
away followed by the grunts, chetodons, and 
other courtiers which constituted the train of 
the gray snapper, that seemed to look with scorn 
upon the smaller fry so easily deceived. I scat- 
tered crayfish bait over the water, arousing the 
