110 Big Game Fishes 
Previous to 1895 the fishes were caught entirely 
with the hand-line, but about that time General 
Charles Viele succeeded in taking a large fish 
with rod and reel, and since then this has been the 
method employed—anglers landing fishes ranging 
from three hundred to four hundred pounds with 
ordinary tuna tackle. While the rod is to be 
commended as the most sportsmanlike, the fish 
gives the angler more exercise with the hand-line, 
and will easily jerk the absent-minded fisherman 
overboard. I took my first bass in the latter 
manner in 1886. My boatman provided a line 
which in the East would have been sacred to 
sharks; the hook was a small edition of a shark 
hook, while a chain served as a leader. The bait 
was a five-pound whitefish, hooked through the 
back so that it would swim. A half-pound sinker 
was attached, and this crude contrivance, an insult 
to the bass tribe in general, was lowered within 
six feet of the bottom and the waiting begun. 
“How poor are they that have no patience” 
is well exemplified in this pastime, as without 
patience no one ever landed a black sea-bass. 
Catches of four or five a day have been made, but 
the average is one, and often the wait is long and 
wearisome to the angler who has no other re- 
