108 Big Game Fishes 
through it beyond my range of vision. I had 
but two hundred feet of fifteen-thread line on my 
yellowtail reel, hence the end soon came. The 
reel uttered a vigorous protest, and the line 
parted. But I was well paid; I had seen a big 
sea-bass standing upon its head in the heart 
of this maze of kelp. 
This fish makes its home in these dense lama- 
rian forests and is found in-abundance from the 
Coronados and Cortez Bank, and doubtless farther 
south, to the latitude of San Francisco, lurking 
in the kelp beds around rocky points near shore 
from April to December. In July and August it 
spawns, and fishes caught at this time are filled 
with enormous masses of eggs which are deposited 
beneath the kelp in shoal water from twenty to 
thirty feet deep, near shore. At this time the 
fishes are very ravenous and bite eagerly, but 
on or about November 15 they become scarcer, 
and are rarely caught, though they do not entirely 
disappear. There is reason to believe that they 
run in schools at this season, and go offshore 
to deeper water. They attain an enormous size. 
I have caught many specimens from one hun- 
dred and fifty up to three hundred and forty- 
seven pounds, and specimens weighing four and 
