THE YELLOWTAIL OP CALIFOENIA 



from Hawaii, and the same fish is known as Ao in Japan. If 

 you Avish to trace the ancestry of this splendid fighter a fossil has 

 been found in Tuscany that was once the bottom of some ancient 

 sea. 



The yeUowtail is found in its greatest numbers, at its best, 

 at San Clemente and Santa Catalina islands, ranging south to 

 Mazatlan and north to the bay of Monterey. It is migratory, 

 appearing in April and disappearing in December, though if 

 the winter is dry, mild and stormless, large numbers remain 

 about the islands, and I have taken them from the wharf at 

 Avalon every month in the year. Exactly where the myriads of 

 these big game fishes go in winter is not known, but I have seen 

 individuals taken on the grouper banks in seven hundred feet 

 of water in February ; hence they may descend to deep water 

 or go offshore to some deep bank into 



' The vast unseen mansions of the deep 

 Where secret groves with liquid amber weep, 

 Where blushing sprays of knotty coral spread, 

 And glint the azure with a deeper red.' 



While this California amber fish charges its prey in shoals, at 

 times, in the summer, it breaks up into small groups of four or 

 five up to twenty, not swimming together entirely, but associ- 

 ating together. So that if you toss over some bait four or five 

 fishes may be expected, showing that they are swimming to- 

 gether. 



The tyro can catch the yellowtail providing he has the 

 strength, and they are caught daily at Avalon in summer by men, 

 women and children. Yet I have seen a woman almost puUed 

 overboard by a yellowtail, children jerked from the wharf, and 

 men thrown into the toils of the hysterical frenzy of inaction 

 known as buck fever to the extent of trembling, dropping the 

 rod, completely overwhelmed. This is due to the fact that the 

 rush of the fish and its continued struggles are almost irresistible. 

 In trolling the fish strikes on the run, the reel makes a blare of 



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