The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-30
FIsHIyspon YELLowEiILs.
A California Fish that Is as Gatny As tho
 Tarpon and Big Enough.

and southern California what me tar- pon Is to Florida. and the experiment of taking him with light rod is very nearly the same. Until late years no one thought rod could be made that would stand the "tussle." but now 1t is considered by Mexican Joe. the santa Catalina guide and fisherman. unpro- fessional to drag in the noble flsh,
 Why. anybody can draw In a fish on hand line" said this apostle Of the rod. but 1t takes a man with head and good nerve and eye to take one on q rod. and 1t will set you crazy
 wanted to go insane in this particu- lar way. so with light boat and two light rods-one an eight-ounce split bamboo and the other a sixteen-ounce rod with an expert reel holding 300 feet of tarpon line-we started.
 The yellowtail Is a Ash known as Serbia dorsalis-a comedy fish and distant cousin of the mackerel. looking little like one and something like n trout. It Is dark green above and rich silver beneath, with a yellow sickle-shaped tail and strong, powerful side fins. Give such fish a length of three and half feet and n weight of from twenty-five to thirty-flve pounds or more and imagine 1t with the quick ness of a flash of light and the strength of a lion of the fish tribe and you have the yellowtail.
 In the deep water about Santa Cata- ing upon the small fish. especially smelt. have seeen them in such num- bers that the water was fairly colored by them for acres, surrounding the boat as far as the eye could reach, and not a fish would touch a bait. On other occasions they bite eagerly. In brief, there Is much about the fish that re- minds me of the salmon. and 1t Is called erroneously the white salmon and amber fish. It is gamy, caprlci- ous, and remarkably cunning and dis terminating. embodying In fact. all the qualities that make up gamy fish, one that would appeal to the skilled fol- lowers of tarpon, salmon, trout, or
 
 black bass.
 Such was the game for which our hooks were baited with silvery smelt and with poles carefully laid length wise with the boat and hanging over the stern, with seventy-five or more feet of line out, we pulled away for Peb- ble Beach. The water was an intense Labradorite blue. and fish could be seen far down in it's depths. Here flashes of yellow told of the yellowtail, and as looked astern three monsters, cer- tainly -pounders. were following in the wake not ten feet away.
 Soon we crossed a school of several hundred, but still no bites-a tantaliz- ing proceeding. Down the island we went, past majestic cliffs, by the beach of pebbles, and just as we entered the light green water of Seal Rock Beach there came nickel-plated scream from the throat of the big multiplying reel. It was high staccato. and before the l reverberation had ended the fish had taken 200 feet of line and was now working hard for the other hundred.
 Joe, stopped, rowing and the owner of the rod seized it. and the fight be- gan. Now the screech of the reel rose on the air: then the soft click of the | brake as the fisherman took it in, ten feet gained, to be lost in a rush and a hiss Of line. Now the fish would make | dive for the bottom, then rise so fast that it was almost impossible to take | in the slack on the multiplier, and then just as it was in, the fish would dive again, making the reel sing once more | Now he is making magnificent sidt rushes, putting the entire weight ol his body on the lire, a heavy strain thai hends the rod almost double.
 l No wonder the old fishermen call him 1 the white salmon. as no salmon ever had more resources or tricks. But the long line and repeated runs finally tanned the gamy fish, and after the last desperate rush he was given the but in good shape and brought to the sur face a gleaming, scintillating mass o yellow and silver-a magnificent crea ture still full of fight, but now to ht jerked into the boat by the cruel gaff One such catch that has taken ovel half an hour well repays the fisherman but there are more, and in the turns uI and down the surf-beaten rocks sev eral yelowtail weighing from hfteer to thirty pounds. came in.
 The gany qualities of the fish are at tested by the woful stories of anglers Not a fisherman but what has come tt grief in some way. Some have los many hooks; others line, hook and rod In one instance a slight foul resulted l in & total wreck. the rod going tt
 pieces. Another lost 200 feet Of line and so on. So there are scores of vel lowtails swimming about. draggin Hong streamers of line. The range o the yellowtail, amber fish, or white sal
 mon seems to be from Cape St. Luca
 to about Santa Barbara, though ther
 are exceptions: but its chief habita appears to be off Santa Catalina
 where 1t circles the island. occasional
 charging the bays. creating no end
 excitement.
 One morning the writer was arouse
 by a series of shouts,a and lookingout, a
 the inhabitants of Avalon seemed to b
 running to the beach. while the shou
 Of "Yellowtail"' was heard above tn
 din. A glance at the bay soon explain
 ed the cause of all the excitement.
 was a foaming mass of fish that wei
 dashing in every direction, chasin
 small fry inshore..e .itsr
 ' In less than ten minutes twenty (
 thirty boats and at least 100 person