April 15, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
297 
The Log of a Sea Angler. 
BY CHARLES F. JIOLDER, AUTHOR OF ''aNGLING/' "tHE 
ADVENTURES OF TORQUA," ETC. 
Vn.— The Amber Jack— A Hard Fighter— Shootiog Jacks 
— jraiaii g a H .wkbiu— Peggi. g l't.r;les— Big Sharks 
Eating Turtks— A bea. Battle. 
We had not turned a turtle for ten days, and John ex- 
pressed the opmion that the laying was over, or that the 
turtles had been frightened off ; so we decided to try_ Mid- 
dle Key, and in the meantime "peg" a turtle on our" reef. 
A good turtle 'peg can be made out of a file by using 
about half an inch of the end, the object being to use a 
sharp three-sided plug that will enter the shell of a turtle 
but not injure it, the peg, so far as its cap is concerned, 
being made like that of the grains, fitting on to any grain 
pole. . 
Bob sculled the dinghy slowly along, while I looked for 
turtles that fed on the soft green weed and often slept 
there, occasionally rising to breathe. It was not long be- 
fore I saw one and tossed the peg into it just as it moved 
away; a moment later we were being towed up the reef 
by the big game that whipped the water with powerful 
flippers. But it was no match for the dinghy, and we 
soon tired the animal, and, hauling the boat alongside, 
forced it to swim inshore, towing us, and landed it on 
the sands near camp. 
Chief borrowed my rifle near here and began shooting 
at some large fishes which were swimming along shore 
with their dorsal fins out of water. They proved to be 
jacks, and Chief killed two in this way, putting a bullet 
through the vertebrae. 
Middle Key was much smaller than East Key, and ap- 
peared to be two miles to the west. John sailed the "Bull 
Pup" over with Bob, while Chief and I rowed the dinghy, 
it being calm and smooth, that I might see the reef and 
the coral. On the way I pegged a hawkbill turtle — the 
kind combs, etc., are made of — the animal differing from 
the others of the family in having its shell in great over- 
lapping scales. A small remora was fast upon its under- 
side. 
We circled the reef, viewing great heads of coral — the 
vases of the sea — examining the sponges and fans that 
were suggestive of a good fishing ground, and were slowly 
drifting along when a commotion in the channel, water 
tossed into foam, attracted our attention. Pushing in that 
direction, we succeeded in running near a huge logger- 
head turtle, the largest I had ever seen, that was engaged 
in a deadly struggle with a large shark. The turtle had 
a bulldog grip on the shark, which occasionally plunged 
down, taking it out of sight; hut up it would come again, 
the shark bending and snapping at its grim^ armored ad- 
versary, that undoubtedly would have ultimately killed 
the shark had we not interfered. They evidently saw us, 
and the turtle made an effort to escape, while the shark 
wrenched itself- away. The turtle I found to be com- 
pletely helpless. The shark had bitten off all its flippers, 
leaving mere fringes of flesh, and had attempted to crush 
the •side- rf the shell. The turtle must have weighed six 
or sevi'ii. hinidred , pounds — a giant and an yntedilnvian. 
Jtj, huge month \yas cut and vrorn into leathery teeth ; its 
THE BROOK IN APRIL. 
lips perforated with parasitic worms ; its eyes were enor- 
mous and dull, and altogether it was a picture of great 
age and decrepitude. We towed the helpless reptile into 
shallow water away from the sharks, and gave it a chance 
for its life. 
Middle Key was a small duplicate of East Key and 
one of a line of keys which seemed to extend to the west- 
ward, terminating in Loggerhead, five or six miles dis- 
tant. The boat was anchored in the lee, and the smoke 
of our camp-fire rose on the beach as we went in. A few 
birds were swinging around overhead, and later many 
young were found in the bush. As in the other keys, a 
platform or reef surrounded it, gradually deepening to the 
blue channel, on the edge of which the coral flourished 
and formed a splendid fishing ground. Acting on the 
suggestion of Chief, I determined to try it. . He said it 
was the only place that he had ever taken the amberjack 
around the keys, and when he told me the sizes of the 
fish he had taken with a large cotton hand-line I lost no 
time in making the attempt. I fished this channel in all 
fashions for three days, but never saw the fish I desired, 
though I took several large barracudas. 
One day Chief was rowing me in the dinghy, I having 
rigged up a box seat in the stern in which I could sit 
facing it. I was using a fairly stout Greenheart rod eight 
feet long, weighing ten or twelve ounces, with a No. 21 
linen line and live mullet bait. I had tried on the surface 
and had exhausted about all the points that Chief could 
think of or suggest, and had allowed my line to sink 
about ten feet, when it suddenly straightened out. I 
thought it a shark, as this vermin of the reef was always 
on hand ; but this was different game, my reel singing 
high and low in a long wail that meant many yards of 
line. The rush of the fish was so sudden — so electric, for 
a better word— that I fancied it a jack or a bonito, two 
fishes famous for quick action. It soon had the dinghy 
moving as I stopped its rush, and made a splendid swing 
half around the boat with its belly turned upward, so 
that it appeared a silvery flash of light against the deep 
blue of the channel, at which Chief shouted, "Amber- 
jack!" 
Here was luck of a specious quality, and I played the 
gamy creature with all possible caution, mentally classing 
it with the "delight makers." Several times it came in on 
the line with a splendid burst of speed, turning quickly, 
as though to break away and gain sufficient force to out- 
wit the unknown enemy which held it. Now it would 
plunge into the channel, as though sounding, and threw 
us into despair, lest the line should touch a coral point, 
and doubtless this was what the gamy creature had in 
view; but by sheer good luck I held it and continued to 
gain. 
The amberjack never gave up; it fought the good fight 
every second, and did everything but jump, lashing the 
surface into foam at times in sheer madness, or perhaps 
in the hope of cutting the line or discovering some weak 
spot in it. Chief succeeded in keeping the dinghy stern 
to the game, despite its rushes, and at the end of twenty 
minutes I had it well in hand, and saw it swimming 
around in a circle ; then I gained ten or fifteen feet and 
brought the splendid gleaming creature across the quarter, 
always bearing off, and then Chief gaffed it, and held it 
while it tossed the spray over us in a last effort. 
This fish was three and a half feet long, ; thick-set, but 
Photo by E. C. Grinnell. ^ 
well proportioned, and must have' weighed thirty or more 
pounds, one of the most attractive and gamiest of all the 
fishes of the reef. I found it a common fish, but not a 
common catch, at least here. In playing the fish I could 
not but wonder what would become of a typical salmon 
rod designed for forty-pound salmon. It was my opinion 
that the amberjack of forty pounds would make kindling 
wood of it, so much does the fish exceed the salmon in 
agility and fighting qualities. Nearly all authorities under- 
estimate the size of this fi-sh, which, like others of the 
Seriola tribe, are among the very large fishes, running up 
to eighty or even one hundred pounds in individuals. 
We carried the amberfish in and feasted on him in 
royal fashion. John dug a pit in the sand, lined it with 
shells, then building a rousing fire in it and piling sea- 
weed on the coals. On this pyre was deposited the amber- 
jack, whole, which when baked was served on an oar- 
blade; and I am prepared to assert that planked amber- 
jack is food for the gods. 
On this prolific reef the large fishes are so common 
that the angler often neglects the small fry; but I had 
light tackle, small hooks and lines, and experimented on 
all the lesser game that came my way, and can add parrot 
fishes, angel fishes, the doctor fish, and many more to the 
list of good fishes. Of all this throng the doctor fish 
(Teuthis) was the strangest; a high, big-eyed, long- 
finned fish somewhat resembling the porgy. I had often 
seen the "doctor" when watching the fishes in a large 
coral head with a water glass, and had observed singular 
movements — a peculiar whisking of the tail, well under- 
stood after an examination of the "doctor." I caught it 
readily by using a small fly-hook with crayfish bait. But 
its mouth was very small and armed with a peculiar array 
of teeth that easily crushed a delicate hook. My first 
catch was about eight inches in length, and when netted 
and brought in, it gave a vivid demonstration of the ap- 
propriateness of its name, as on each side of the tail was 
an opening from which protruded, as from a scabbard, a 
sharp bony lance, suggestive of the sting of a bee on a 
large scale. With this weapon the doctor of the sea 
lanced its coiripanions, and later, when I kept one in a 
tank, I found that it made war against all comers, cutting 
and slashing them and easily killing small fishes, as sar- 
dines, herring and others. I placed a cowfish, which is 
encased in armor and provided with horns, and a doctor 
fish in a tank together; the doctor immediately attacked 
the other, but to no purpose ;' the cowfish was a knight in 
armor. 
In hunting for amberfish I fell in with a mass of algae 
or sargassum that to the east is caught in the great tidal 
vortex and constitutes the Sargasso Sea. This was a 
floating island an acre in extent and a world in itself. 
In the center were lanes and openings in which swam the 
flying gurnard, a dazzling creature that I tried to capture 
from the dinghy; but they would none of it. This is the 
fish that has astonished anglers by seizing the bait and 
dashing into the air and soaring away. Such an expe- 
rience was vouchsafed to Dr. Moseley, pf the Challenger. 
I finally gave up the attempt, and alarming the fishes, saw 
them shoot away over the surface, catching all that landed 
on the surface of the sargassum. A more attractive fish 
it would be difficult to imagine. Its head encased in 
armor, makes it a dangerous projectile to encounter. 
This floating island had.a life peculiarly its own. CrabSj 
