306 Big Game Fishes 
the great fish can be counted on to make a 
gallant play. 
The equipment for this strenuous sport is a rod 
not over seven feet in length and of sufficient 
stiffness to lift the heaviest fish. The noib-wood 
tuna rod described is equal to the task by using 
a heavy tip. The line should be number twenty- 
four, the only difficulty being that the fish when 
taken in shallow water has a sorry habit of plung- 
ing into the equivalent of the “ dark, unfathomed 
caves,” where the best of lines often fails to dis- 
lodge it. Every sportsman fond of big game has 
a keen desire to kill an elephant. So, too, the 
big fish angler will be tempted to take a jewfish ; 
and should it chance that they are all hard fighters, 
he may become enamoured of the sport. I rarely 
caught young jewfish and do not recall seeing one 
less than two hundred pounds in weight. They 
spawn in May, June, and July, and are found in 
the localities mentioned at all seasons of the year, 
but more frequently in spring and summer. It 
is believed that they retreat into deeper water in 
winter. It was not uncommon to take jewfishes 
from June to October on the edges of the lagoons 
or off the outer reef in water not over twenty feet 
in depth. They fed in the shallow lagoon at 
