THE BLACK SEA BASS 



layman believe the stories told at the town of Avalon. A large 

 individual, over one hundred and fifty pounds in weight, has, I 

 think, been taken with a nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line — 

 the light tackle originated by Mr. Arthur Jerome Eddy, of the 

 Tuna Club, the distiaguished angler, fencer, author and playwright, 



Up to 1886 the black sea bass was always taken with a hand- 

 hue. The first one I caught was with a ' syndicate ' of five anglers. 

 Mexican Joe, our boatman, hooked it and handed the rod to me. 

 I was satisfied in about five minutes, my arms being nearly 

 wrenched from their sockets, and passed the line to my companion 

 next to me, who succumbed in about the same time. We aU 

 tried conclusions with this three or four hundred-pound fish, and 

 I fancy our laughing boatman landed it. 



This was the preliminary in 1886. Later I landed many of 

 the fish, single handed, and one seventy-five or eighty pounder 

 on a nine-ounce rod and niae-thread line ; not a remarkable fish, 

 as I thought it was a yellowtail. By a curious series of fatalities 

 I never succeeded in taking a large black sea bass with rod and 

 reel, nor did I take the first in this manner although I tried re- 

 peatedly. But I was compensated in being with a gallant officer — 

 General Charles Viele, of the Cavalry — when he accomplished 

 this feat, supposed to be practically impossible. While he was 

 being towed about by the fish I lost tips, rods and lines from the 

 anchored launch, the big game evidently enjoying themselves at 

 my expense. 



My next trial was a failure. I hooked a fish, the colossal 

 sort that are never seen. At the strike the boatman cast off the 

 buoy, and away we went out to sea at about four miles an hour. 

 I was usiQg a tuna sixteen-ounce rod and line of twenty-four 

 strands, which would lift a weight of forty-eight pounds, and I 

 put on forty-seven pounds of tension and pressure, as near as I 

 could estimate ; but I doubt if the giant ever felt it. My efforts 

 were so futile, I was so utterly unable to make any impression on 

 the monster, which was growing larger in my mind's eye all the 

 time, that presently my two companions began to make certain 



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