288 Big Game Fishes 
bonito, which in my experience is a surface fighter. 
I baited usually with young mullet, but the king- 
fish stands not upon the order of bait, but takes 
what is offered with a rush. I have caught them 
with rags white, rags red, and rags yellow; with 
a bone jig, with a piece of elongated conch, and a 
home-made spoon cut and filed from the tip of 
the big Stvombus gigas, this by casting and reel- 
ing quickly. For a fish so extremely common 
very little is known regarding its habits. Speci- 
mens which I caught in the open water near Key 
West in December contained spawn, but I never 
saw a very small or young fish in the outer bays 
or reef. Smack fishermen state that they spawn 
in the shallow waters around Biscayne Bay. The 
professional fishermen of Key West have a hearty 
appreciation of the kingfish, which they follow 
in large and small boats, trolling for them in deep 
water, or on shallow grounds offshore, as the case 
may be, often literally filling the boat with the 
ceros which rank high as table fish. 
A feast of the kingfish which I often attended 
is an experience long to be remembered. It would 
often be announced by the laughing gulls, whose 
loud and resonant “ha-ha” would come over the 
glasslike waters as the bird rapidly increased its 
