The Albacore 201 
In watching a school of tunas at this time, the 
albacores are seen, types of activity, rushing 
hither and yon, in marked contrast to the 
larger fish, on the alert to steal the prey of the 
tuna or pick up the silvery morsels which often 
besprinkle the water after the larger fish has 
rushed through a school of smelt or mackerel. 
Like the tuna, the albacore is a pelagic fish, 
born on the high ocean and a rover in many 
seas, at home in mid-ocean, coming into shal- 
low water and near island shores in spring to 
exercise its voracious appetite upon the small 
fry of its choice—herring, anchovies, squid, 
smelt, mackerel, and others. 
So far as known the Southern California 
islands are the only localities where the albacores 
are caught with the rod; the conditions being 
particularly favorable, the fish coming in near the 
rocky shores from the Coronados to San Miguel 
Island where there is smooth water in the lee, 
permitting the angler to play them with pleasure 
and comfort. I have hooked the albacore within 
twenty feet of the rocks, but the favorite and 
most popular trolling-ground is half a mile off 
Avalon Bay, where large schools, or many small 
ones, are found, breaking the mirror-like water 
