GULF STREAM FISHING 



But the line broke. After that he took one of my 

 other tackles. Something went wrong with the en- 

 gine and the captain had to shut down and we drifted. 

 I had a long line out and it gradually sank. Some- 

 thing took hold and I hooked it and found myself 

 fast to a deep-sea, hard-fighting fish of some kind. 

 I got him up eventually, and was surprised to see 

 a great, broad, red-colored fish, which turned out 

 to be a mutton-fish, much prized for food. I had 

 now gotten six varieties of fish in the Gulf Stream 

 and we were wondering what next. I was hoping 

 it would be a dolphin or a wahoo. It happened, 

 however, to be a beautiful cero mackerel, one of the 

 shapeliest and most attractive fish in these waters. 

 He is built something like the brook-trout, except 

 for a much sharper head and wider fins and tail. 

 But he is speckled very much after the manner of 

 the trout. We trolled on, and all of a sudden raised 

 a school of sailfish. They came up with a splashing 

 rush very thrilling to see. One hit R. C.'s bait 

 hard, and then another, by way of contrast, began 

 to tug and chew at mine. I let the line out slowly. 

 And as I did so I saw another one foUow R. C.'s 

 mutilated bait which he was bringing toward the 

 boat. He was a big purple-and-bronze fellow and 

 he would have taken a whole bait if it could have 

 been gotten to him. But he sheered away, fright- 

 ened by the boat. I failed to hook my fish. It was 

 getting along pretty well into the afternoon by this 

 time and the later it got the better the small fish 

 and kingfish seemed to bite. I caught one barra- 

 cuda and six kingfish, while R. C. was performing 

 a somewhat similar feat. Then he got a smashing 



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