THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



the islands to spawn. I have anchored my boat to a rock in 

 a Kttle cove at Santa Catalina and had my boatman toss over 

 ' chum,' — or ground bait, and in a short time had these beautiful 

 fishes all about the boat. When I cast for them -with a light 

 rod, they would come up out of the deeps Kke meteors and take 

 the fish bait with a rush, affording delightful sport almost entirely 

 on the surface. The Tuna Club record is a twenty-pound fish, 

 taken by Miss Edith Holder in an hour and a quarter on a nine- 

 oimce rod. 



There is a group of fishes known as little tunnies {Gymno- 

 sarda), well represented in southern CaUfomian waters. There 

 are two species, both fine game fishes. One is G. pelamis, found 

 in all semi-tropical seas, not common ; yet at Santa Catalina it 

 is the common catch in spring, up to fifteen or even twenty pounds. 

 It is a hard-fighting fish, highly appreciated by the Tuna Club, 

 that distinguishes it from Sarda cMlensis, or skipjack, by calling 

 it the oceanic bonito. It attains a length of two feet, and is 

 easily recognized by the black stripes that sweep down from 

 the back near the finlets obHquely forward, while in the Sarda 

 cMlensis the stripes are on the lower surface. The skipjack is 

 chubby, thick-set, a humming-bird in its wonderful iridescence, 

 wMle the oceanic bonito is long and fairly slender. Both are 

 game fishes of the very first class. 



If the reader has good luck when fishing near Malta he should 

 take a little tunny, G. dUeterata, very much like the above. It is 

 also taken near Barbados and iN'assau. I have never seen it in 

 CaUfomia, but have taken it off Cuba in the Gulf Stream. A 

 hard-fighting little fish. With these might be mentioned the 

 Frigate mackerels, Auxis, found in many warm seas ; a world- 

 wide wanderer, like the big tuna. On the Pacific coast the 

 Chub mackerel, the Houttuyn of the Japanese {Scomber japonicus), 

 is taken with rod and reel. 



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