THE GAME FISHES OP THE WOBLD 



bite at any lure, even a white rag. I have seen a dozen boats 

 hooked on to these fishes beittg towed this way and that in Avalon 

 bay, men and women shouting and screaming as they hooked or 

 lost the game. I recall seeing one light skiff being towed rapidly 

 from one side of the bay to the other, the sole occupant 

 a woman, who held a stout hand-line on which was a white sea 

 bass that later on was found to weigh eighty pounds. 



My own experience was no less laughable. Mr. Frank T. 

 Bider of Pasadena and I occupied a light flat bottom boat and 

 were standing, he in the bow, I in the stem, casting with our 

 rods. We both immediately hooked large fishes, Mr. Eider's 

 rushing directly ahead, while mine surged off astern, so that we 

 presented the ludicrous appearance of a piscatorial tug of war. 

 If I remember correctly, we saved the day. Mr. Eider's fish 

 weighed fifty-four pounds, and mine fifty-one. Mrs. Eider took 

 with her light rod several of these large and splendid fishes, 

 which departed as rapidly as they came. 



The bass are, in a sense, night feeders, though I beUeve this is 

 true of almost aU fishes. The bass devotes its nights to charging 

 the elusive flying fish. By standing on an elevation, at times the 

 Uttle bay of Avalon can be seen a seething mass of phosphorescence, 

 as these fishes rush about, after the active fliers which come out 

 on the beach. Often a dozen will be foimd ia the anchored boats 

 in the morning. Several people have been struck by flying fish 

 which were flushed by sea bass. On one occasion a lady I was 

 rowing turned to avoid a flying fish, which struck her in the back. 

 A woman sitting on the beach one night was almost thrown 

 into hysterics by having a flying fish, chased by sea bass, alight 

 in her lap. 



These splendid white sea bass completely fill the imagination 

 of the angler as to what an oceanic game fish should be. They 

 recall the salmon ; are long, slender, yet well proportioned, 

 sedate, dignified, with tmdoubted cunning, at times scorning all 

 the appliances of the angler. 



In colour the fish is gray above, or olive in the water, but 

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