SALMON'S RIVAL. 



261 



splash he was jerked into the boat, 28 

 pounds of silver-and-gold, the finest fish 

 and the best fighter I had ever caught. He 

 was about 4 feet long; tail a light yellow, 

 with a yellow stripe along the median line; 

 the upper part a beautiful silvery-green; 

 the belly, pure white. 



The yellow-tail vary much in game qual- 

 ities. The largest I ever saw weighed 45 

 pounds, but they range up to 60. The 

 smaller, 25, 20 or 18 pounds, often make a 

 more vigorous fight. 



The white salmon or Scriola dorsalis, is 

 now the fish at Santa Catalina. Almost 

 every day during the season fine catches are 

 brought in. However, as becomes a game 

 fish, he is fickle. I have rowed over schools 

 when the water was tinted by them for 

 acres, and where thousands were swim- 

 ming along in plain view, not 5 feet from 

 the surface. Yet not one would take the 



bait. On other days, numbers could be 

 taken in a few hours. I have fished every 

 day for a week without catching an amber- 

 fish, while some one else, flushed with ex- 

 citement and full of stories of rare battles, 

 would come in with a good catch. 



It has been my good fortune to catch 

 nearly every kind of game fish of the coun- 

 try, but for real sport, commend me to a 

 25-pound amber-fish in fighting trim. 



Some idea of the power of the fish can be 

 had from the following incident: In trol- 

 ling from a naphtha launch one day, I had a 

 strike, and, though the launch was stopped 

 almost instantly, 300 feet of line had been 

 whirled off before I knew what was happen- 

 ing. Nothing could stop the fish; line and 

 tip went by the board and a badly damaged 

 reel told the story. When an amber-fish is 

 struck, sport good and true, is sure to fol- 

 low. 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY A. C. WILMERDING. 



AUTUMN FRUIT. 



