THE BLACK SEA BASS 



'' Laegest Black Sea Bass {Stereolepis gigas). 



P. V. Eider, Avalon, Cal., season 1898 . . . 327 pounds. 



T. S. Manning, Avalon, Cal., season 1899 . . . 372 



F. S. Schenck, Brooklyn, N. Y., season 1900 . . 384 



C. A. Thomas, Pomona, Cal., season 1901 . . . 384 



H. T. Kendall, Pasadena, Cal., season 1902 . . .419 



Edward IleweUyn, Los Angeles, season 1903 . . 425 



H. L. Smith, New York City, season 1904 . . .402 



L. G. Mm^hy, Converse, Ind., season 1905 . . . 436 



C. H. Earle, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1906 . . 372 



C. J. Tripp, Los Attgeles, Cal., season 1907 . . . 427 



Lloyd B. NeweU, Los Angeles, Cal., season 1908 . . 380 



R. C. Baird, San IVancisco, Cal., season 1909 . . 394 



Jesse Roberts, Philadelphia, Pa., season 1910 . . 385 



Judge J. S. Dempsey, Madisonville, Ky., season 1911 430J 



S.'W. Guthrie, season 1912 427 



Some large sawfishes have been taken -with rod and reel in 

 Florida, the combat being exciting and dangerous. I have had 

 a large sawfish bury the ivory teeth which arm its long sword-like 

 snout in the soft wood of my boat, suggestive of what it would 

 have done had I been in the way. In hauling a sawfish alongside, 

 it has a disagreeable habit of suddenly raising itself on its tail, 

 or lifting its^ head out of water and striking to right and left. 

 One of the largest of these fishes ever taken with a rod was hooked, 

 played and landed by Mr. S. Oakley Vanderpoel of Few York, near 

 Key West. Mr. Vanderpoel was fishing with a sixteen-ounee 

 rod and a twenty-four thread line, and for four hours and forty 

 minutes it wa,s give and take for the mastery, the great fish 

 making desperate lunges and towing the small boat about in every 

 direction. When it was finally brought to gaff and triced up 

 alongside the gangway of the yacht, its proportions became 

 evident. It was fourteen feet one inch long, over seven feet 

 around, and estimated to weigh five hundred pounds. In all 

 probability, it weighed nearer one thousand pounds, as the scales 

 upon which it was weighed were limited to five hundred poimds. 



The sawfish is a strange combination of shark and ray. Its 

 saw is unique in the armament of fishes, calling to mind the sword 

 of the swordfish. 



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