THE GAME FISHES OP THE WOELD 



We frequently fished for jewfish when watching for turtles 

 on hot nights on the key beaches where every wave seemed to 

 ignite and sent its lambent flames hissing up the sand. At Port 

 Aransas and Galveston it is one of the sports to angle for jewfish 

 with the rod at night along the pass — a vigorous and athletic 

 pastime. 



The black grouper or m6ro de lo alto {Garruza nigrita) is another 

 fish, and is taken weighing five hundred or more pounds. In its 

 smaller weights, one hundred or one hundred and fifty pounds, 

 it affords no little sport with rod and reel. Practically a deep- 

 water fish, it often came into the outer keys where they dropped 

 quickly into the channelj and at night frequented the great 

 lagoons to feed on the countless crayfish, which wandered abroad 

 at night, and other easily-caught game. 



If we cross from the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of California 

 we shall enter the more or less restricted territory of a fine big 

 bass-like fish, the black sea bass {Stereolepis gigas), found ia large 

 numbers at almost any locahty in the Gulf and alongshore as far 

 as Monterey on the coast of California. Compared to the Florida 

 jewfish, this big game is a greyhoxmd. Many of the male fishes 

 are finely proportioned and bear a striking resemblance, fin for 

 fin, to the ordinary big-mouth black bass, if we can imagine a bass 

 six or seven feet in length, and weighing four or five hundred 

 pounds. 



The big bass has all the game qualities of the black bass, 

 though, naturally, it has not the quickness of movement, nor 

 does it leap under any circumstances ; but it will dart at a bait 

 so suddenly as to nearly demoralize the angler. I have fre- 

 quently ia rapidly hauling in a whitefish, been startled by the 

 sudden and tremendous rush of this^oHath of the fishes as it short 

 upward, making a miniature maelstrom as it missed the fish, 

 turned and dashed out of sight. 



This fish is extremely common at Santa Catahna Island, where, 

 from June until October it is an every-day catch with rod and 

 reel and a 24:-tliread Une, so light that it is diflficult to make the 

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