COLLECTING SEA FISH AT MOMBASA 
9 
caught in large numbers by the natives, who troll for them 
with a single hook, baited with a piece of squid. On a fish 
being hooked they haul him up to within a boat’s length and 
then throw out three more previously prepared baited hooks. 
The result is that as the school passes, a catch of five or six 
Dolphin fish are unceremoniously hauled aboard. If trolled 
by rod and line of light make, say, a thirteen-ounce rod, very 
fine sport will be had ; the average weight is about eight pounds, 
but for ten minutes they develop the energy of a fifteen pounder. 
While playing them, they are as much out of the sea as in it, 
but when landing them a gaff should not be used as they have 
a strong leathery skin which even a gaff skates about on, and 
Dolphin Fish or ‘ Faloosi ’ ( Cory'phaena , sp.) 
Weight 26 lb. Total length 3 ft. 10 in. Mombasa, March 1910. 
will not readily penetrate. A large-mouthed landing-net would 
meet the case. 
The Dolphin fish will take a ‘ spoon bait ’ or a ‘ clipper 
spinner,’ but the palate has a bony surface and the mouth is 
relatively small ; therefore a triangle hook is of not much use. 
It should be single and long in the shank. 
The largest of these fish I saw weighed twenty-six pounds. 
The natives recognise two varieties, but I very much doubt the 
correctness of this. 
The ‘ Faloosi ’ is always on migration when in the neigh- 
bourhood of Mombasa, and goes about in shoals of fifty or 
more. It is a surface feeder, and, as far as my knowledge goes, 
spawns in the Persian Gulf and travels down the coast of 
Africa to the vicinity of Mauritius. After that it is never seen 
again on its return north. It probably seeks deeper waters and 
