134 Big Game Fishes 
Santa.Catalina and San Clemente islands, but this 
is exceptional, as the months of January and Feb- 
ruary, as a rule, know it not, at least in shallow 
water, and the angler who would take a yellowtail 
at this time must search the deep San Clemente 
channel, six hundred feet down, or the Cortez 
Bank south of Santa Catalina, where there is 
every reason to believe the yellowtails, or a cer- 
tain percentage of the schools, lie not far from 
the sardine and smelt schools, which also mys- 
teriously move out at this time. In March a 
few yellowtails appear at the islands, and in or 
about the first of April, sometimes sooner, some- 
times later, what is known as the first run comes, 
and the bay of Avalon is often alive with fishes 
and boats, and the shouts of laughter and disap- 
pointment as the fish play havoc with the rods 
and lines of the tenderfoot. Not many years 
ago I was at Avalon when this spring “rush” 
occurred. Without warning a large school of 
yellowtails ran a small school of smelts in on to 
the beach, then out again, breaking them up in 
a masterly manner until the entire charming 
bit of water was a mass of foam. The yellow- 
tails averaged twenty-five pounds at least, and a 
cyclone appeared to have struck the quiet bay. 
