The Yellowtail 139 
boatman, or if the angler desires he can stand 
and play his fish. 
The shore of the islands is remarkably abrupt, 
rocky cliffs, rising sheer from the sea, and almost 
anywhere a ship would strike the rocks with 
her bowsprit before she would ground. To this 
is due the close inshore fishing, as it is all within 
from ten to two hundred feet of the shore. The 
island is skirted by a fringe of kelp at various 
points, and just beyond this is the yellowtail 
highway where the splendid fish sails up and 
down to the delectation or confusion of the 
angler. The equipment for yellowtail is one 
more or less of fancy. I give my preference, 
and can only say in defence that it has been 
eminently successful, owing perhaps to the pro- 
verbial fisherman’s luck. The rod of noib wood, 
greenheart, or split bamboo is from seven to 
eight feet in length and weighs not over twenty- 
six ounces, pliable, yet sufficiently stiff to lift a 
sulker of thirty pounds if perchance the occa- 
- sion demands. The line is a twelve or fifteen 
strand cuttyhunk, or some equally good make, 
and there should be three hundred feet of it; 
the hook, a 7/o O’Shaughnessy, though a larger 
size is more popular, with a six or eight incr 
