


Jury 13, 1907.] 

FOREST AND STREAM. 










Light Tackle Sea Fishing—VII. 
Various artificial baits and spoons have been 
tried about Catalina with varying degrees of suc- 
cess. Barracuda will strike anything from a rag 
to a sinker. Albacore when striking freely will 
take a spoon, and it is said yellowtail also do at 
times, but I have never tried for them with a 
spoon alone. 
There is no reason why‘tuna should not strike 
a large spoon or attractive artificial bait provid- 
ing it moves fast enough. They are game to the 
last degree, feed on flying fish and other quick 
prey, and in the nature of things ought to hit 
anything that spins or flashes. However, natural 
bait is so plentiful about the island that few care 
to bother with artificial and run the risk of miss- 
ing a day’s sport. Furthermore, boatmen and 
fishermen generally, whether amateur or market, 
are habitually conservative. Innovations are 
looked upon with profound distrust. “The old 
way is good enough for me,” is the maxim upon 
which fishing as sport or business is done. 
The boatmen will shy at a new hook, a patent 
sinker, a strange swivel, while the man who pro- 
poses to try some other bait or an artificial lure 
is put down a harmless tenderfoot, to be in- 
dulged, if not a dangerous crank to be avoided 
by every boatman on the beach who values his 
reputation. But it is more fun to catch one fish 
in ‘a new way than it is to take a dozen in the 
old. 
One day we had been trolling all the morning 
for yellowtail without a strike. We had tried 
light and heavy sinkers, slow and fast speeds, a 
long line and a short; in fact, every method 
Gray’s long experience could suggest, and not a 
yellowtail. Other launches were faring but little 
better. It was just one of those off days which 
are to bé expected in the best of waters. 
Returning from Seal Rocks about eleven, we 
found three launches circling about. just off ,Peb- 
bly Beach. One yellowtail had been caught and 
that was the incentive. We made two or three 
turns without a strike. It was getting monoton- 
ous. Suddenly I said to Gray: ; 
“There are fish here and I am going to try 
something new and see if we can’t make them 
strike.” 
In my tackle-box there happened to be two or 
three spoons. Taking a No. 5, I removed the 
hocks and attached about six inches of No. 8 
piano wire, at the end of which we fastened the 
hook and sardine we had been using. This 
placed the small, brieht spinner eight inches 
ahead of hook and sardine, my thought being that 
the spinner would attract and excite the fish, 
inducing them to strike, not. the spoon, but the 
natura! bait. 
On the very first turn we had a strike and 
landed:a twenty-two pounder. In forty minutes 
we had three. The other launches hooked noth- 
ing. They followed in our wake -and tried every 
imitative measure known to observing boatmen, 
but they had no spoons. It was noon when the 
third yellowtail was landed. I turned to Gray: 
“Let’s go in, and this afternoon we will catch 
all the yellowtail in the Pacific.” 
When we started out after luncheon we both 
thought the spoon would get us a boat-load in no 
time. 
At night our faith in the attraction of the spin- 
ner was somewhat diminished. Gray was de- 
cidedly skeptical; I was doubtful, but inclined to 
pursue the experiment. : 
During all that season I used the spinner ahead 
of the bait, finally testing it out thoroughlv by 
means of two rods. Net results were decidedly 
in favor of the spinner. It certainly did attract 
the fish. I should say the odds are two to One 
in its favor. -Some days the spinner would get 
practically all the strikes, then again I have 
known the sardine alone to come out ahead, but 
very seldom. . 
A AND RIVER FISH 
ING, 

We did not get a strike all the afternoon.- 

Others tried the spinners, but the boatmen who 
furnished tackle with their launches naturally did 
not favor af experiment which cost money and 
meant additional trouble, and it was not ‘until 
the light tackle movement got fairly under way 
that the use of spinners ahead of the natural 
bait became at all general. 
In my large fishing trunk I carried an assort- 
ment of tackle, lures, spinners, etc., adapted to 
fishing in’ almost all waters. I had plenty of 
spoons of various sizes, also other spinners of dif- 
ferent makes and shapes. Removing the hooks. 
we tried first one then another, first a small then 
a large, etc. We also tried them near the hook 
and as far as fourteen inches ahead. The various 
experiments made during two seasons on different 
fish resulted in the following conclusions: 
The fish seldom or never struck the spoon; a!- 
ways the natural bait. ‘The spoon acts as a lurc. 
My theory is that the bright spoon flashing 1% 
the water is seen much further than the sardine 
alone, and it therefore attracts fish from a greater 
distance; or, in other words, it fishes morc 
ground than the bait alone, and is in that respect 
a very decided advantage. When the fish are 
near_and striking freely there is much less, pos- 
sibly no advantage in the spoon. 
Further, the flash of the spinner no doubt ex- 
cites the fish and may cause them to strike at 
times when they would otherwise lie sluggish anc 
let the bait go by. We had an illustration of this 
one afternoon. There were half-a-dozen yellow- 
tail playing on the surface. When so playing the 
fish are not feeding and rarely strike. Gray said: 
“You won’t get a-strike out of that bunch.” 
“Tt’s a good time to see what the spoon 1s 
good for,’ I responded as we made the circuit 
of the fish in such a manner that the bait, which 
was traveling near the surface, would pass right 
through them. No sooner did the spoon flash 
in their midst than one struck like a shot. The 
fact that it struck the bait and not the spinner 
showed that while the latter may, be the exciting’ 
cause the fish never lose their heads so fas as to 
strike at the shining metal. 
There is something peculiar in this yielding to 
the hypnotic influence of the spoon, and yet in- 
stantly striking the natural bait which is but a 
few inches behind. Barracuda, on the other hana, 
will often make a dash for the spoon, or even the 
sinker, rather than the bait. It apparently mat- 
ters little whether the spoon is three inches or 
fifteen ahead of the hook. My own preference— 
quite without any good reason—is about four 
inches. ‘That makes a long and attractive lure. 
the spoon with its wide sweep, four inches ot 
wire, then the sardine five to seven inches long. 
It is a blind fish that cannot see that from a con 
siderable distance. The noise of the whirling 
spoon doubtless has its effect in exciting the cur- 
iosity of the fish. Anything which gets them to 
approach and examine the bait means strikes. 
The size of the spoon apparently cuts very little 
figure. I tried as large as No. 9 without any 
additional success. On the contrary, it seemed to 
me the large ones were less effective. Besides. 
their resistance to the water was so much greater 
it made trolling fatiguing. Two small spoons 
linked tandem, a favorite muskellunge lure, pro- 
duced no particular results. However, these 
variations were not tried out with two rods as 
carefully as the comparison of spoon and _ bait 
with bait alone. 
Spinners of various fanciful shapes proved, if 
anything, less successful than the No. 5, or its 
equivalent. One of those hangs free from a small 
collar about the shank, so that when the fish 
makes its rush the spoon lies back flat against 
shank, while another, hanging as it does with no 
joint, is often bent and buckled by the rush of 
the fish. All spoons which revolve about a shank 
of brass wire will cut through in time, often in 
a very short time, and unless one watches the 
wear, spoon, hook and bait just drop off while 

trolling when least expected, or a good fish is lost 
by the shank breaking at the weak spot. To meet 
the demand for these spoons which has sprung up, 
the dealers now carry them without the usual 
gang of hooks, and they are sold at about a dol 
lar per dozen. At even that low rate the cost of 
spoons is an item when they are lost in the kelp, 
ten or twelve in a morning; it is not often the 
fishing is so disastrous to the tackle, but such 
Waterloos do’ occur, especially about Eagle Bank 
and off-Johnson’s where reefs and kelp are not 
only plentiful but mostly invisible. The way yel- 
lowtail can run to cover and tangle things up in 
the kelp is a caution. 
Within an hour one afternoon we left eight 
spoons and as many hooks and ‘leaders within 
fifteen feet of the point above Johnson’s. We 
were returning from Sunken Rock. The sky was 
overcast, the wind rising and the tide and sea 
sweeping like a millrace around the point. There 
was something in the air which set our nerves 
on edge. The waters wore a leaden hue. A little 
further out the waves were rolling stronger and 
higher every moment. We were hurrying back 
to the Isthmus, not that there was any danger, 
but the island is so utterly desolate and forbid 
ding everywhere except at the two or three land- 
ing places that one instinctively runs for shelter 
in any sort of a blow, or rather runs for those 
fishing grounds which are within sight of shelter. 
To be caught at the bleak west end where the 
Pacific stretches away to Japan on one side and 
the mainland may be out of sight on the other, 
and where there is not a nook or cranny i» the 
scarred cliffs where one could land—to be caught 
there in a blow makes one wish ior a safe harbor 
close at hand. The company of another launch 
makes all the difference in the world, yet if the 
fishing is good one will stick it out until the 
water comes over the side in a blinding spray. 
then turn and run for shelter. 
Well, we were scurrying back for Sunken Rock 
As we rounded the point we slowed down and put 
out’a line intending to troll down past Johnson's 
The bait had scarcely struck the dark water a: 
the foot of the cliff when there was a vicious 
strike. Gray at once headed out to sea, the line 
running out as if the fish were making a long 
steady rush. In truth the fish scarcely moved; 
the motion of the launch caused the line to go 
out. We could not budge that yellowtail. It iust 
settled down and anchored in the kelp, which in 
a moment cut the line. 
Again and again we. made the turn; always a 
strike in the same swirl of water and precisely 
the same performance. We could not induce the 
fish to strike a little further away from the rock. 
Evidently there was a bunch of kelp not far 
beneath the surface, about which the yellowtail 
were congregated. When the bait passed over 
them, they hit it. Before we had lost our eight 
hooks and spoons, another launch came along 
and though they made a number of turns, they 
could not get a strike on sardines alone. It. hap- 
pened those fish would notice only the spoon. 
A day or two later another persistent fisherman 
left twelve hooks and an equal number of spoons 
in the same place. A week later not a strike was 
to be had in that immediate vicinity on any sort 
of bait or lure. The fish had moved.on. 
The avidity with which the kelp above the 
Isthmus swallows up spoons led old Capt. Adams 
to remark one day when he heard a man say he 
was going up there fishing, and thought he would 
get a spinner. “You better buy ’em by the bushel 
if you’re going to fish up there.” 
So far as I could discover the spoon cuts no 
figure with albacore. I have tried the spoon with 
out hooking a fish amid launches which were 
getting plenty of strikes Again the spinner, has 
secured its fair share of the strikes; but never 
more than its share. On the whole I am in 
clined to think albacore are fully as apt to take 
the sardine without the spoon as with. Whether 




