278 Big Game Fishes 
Gulf coast localities, but I never caught it out 
on the reef. It is a bottom fish, and yet affords 
many people a vast amount of sport in rod fishing 
of a peculiar kind well known to New Yorkers. 
One may read in the local press advertisements 
of certain steamers which in the summer months 
go daily to the fishing-banks outside of Sandy 
Hook. These banks range from the Highlands 
to Long Branch and beyond, the Cholera Banks 
being an exceptionally popular ground about 
twenty miles east of Sandy Hook. Going aboard 
one of these vessels, the angler finds an array of 
very short and clublike rods with heavy reels, 
stout lines provided with heavy sinkers, and abun- 
dance of clam or fish bait. Once on the ground, 
the steamer is anchored, rods ate taken in hand, 
and the extraordinary sight witnessed of several 
hundred men fishing with rod and reel in deep 
water. The fish bite well, and the sport begins, 
sea-bass from four to seven pounds often being 
the largest catch. 
There are a number of little-known fishes of the 
ocean which, if the angler could divest himself 
of certain prejudices, would be entitled to come 
under the term “game.” Thus in Southern Cali- 
fornian waters the halibut of large size is often 
