CHAPTER VI 
THE CALIFORNIA BARRACUDA 
“ Angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so.” 
— Izaak Watton. 
In May or June the picturesque, lateen-rigged 
boats of the Venetian and Portuguese fishermen 
of San Pedro, California, go out in search of the 
barracuda which is due at this time, coming in 
from the outer and deeper sea, or from “down 
alongshore,” that mysterious locality where many 
fishes winter. They have two or more hand- 
lines boomed out to starboard and port, and 
before the stiff trade, fly over the Santa Catalina 
channel trolling for the California barracuda, 
probably the most valuable food-fish on this 
particular piscatorial horizon. The fisherman 
has a cord or sheet fastened to his boomed-out 
lines, and when a strike comes, or the bone jig 
is taken, he hauls the line aboard by this con- 
trivance and brings in the fish hand over hand, 
without even luffing for courtesy. 
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