Sea Fishing in Californian Waters [pp. 483-492]

Overland
Monthly
VOL. XXX. (Second Series.) December, 1897. No. 180
SEA FISHING IN CALIFORNIAN WATERS
BY HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL
F,<w_ _HE GAME fish to be de scribed in this article
are, the tuna, the king
salmon, the albicore, the yel low tail, the black bass, or
Jew fish, the halibut, the
bonito, and the barracuda.
These taken, be it under stood, with rod and reel
furnish the sportsman a max imum of entertainment. Other
fish, smelt, mackerel, flounder,
surf fish, rock cod, et hco geOtto
omne, present claims to the angler's consideration, but these claims will find due
recognition at my hands elsewhere.
I am aware that a certain prejudice lurks
in the hearts of fly-fishermen against those
who go down to the sea with spoon, jig,
and savory sardine. This prejudice I shall
endeavor to remove. But I admit frankly
that such fly-fishing as may be found in
northern California and British Columbia,
where the rivers, cool and pellucid, flow
swiftly through primeval forests, where
the pine and the hemlock sigh their lullabies
above foaming rapids, where a stout trout
puts to the proof the angler's utmost skill,
where the fly must be cast with fairy-like
delicacy and precision,-such fly-fishing, I
emphatically declare, soars into the empyrean of sport, unrivaled, unapproachable.
But the cream of fly-fishing can be skimmed
but by few. And the art as practised
upon most of the lukewarm streams of
Southern California is bastard and degenerate, exacting neither ability nor strategy.
To yank troutlets by the hundred into a
barley sack, whether in season or out of
season, may tickle the taste of a counterjumper, but it is not sport.
Nor is it sport to hire a power launch
and a boatman, to scour up and down
amongst schools of yellow tail, bonito, and
barracuda, with t wen,tyha(d liin es out astern,
to fill barrels with fish that are left to rot
on the beach, or thrown back, dead, into
the ocean, to stand in front of the camera
with hecatombs of the slain behind you,silent witnesses of your shame and cruelty,
this is not sport, nor fun, nor folly, but
wanton and inexcusable crime.
And this crime, beneath the aegis of
sport, is committed daily, nay hourly, at
Santa Catalina island!
A few gentlemen the gods be praised!
insist upon and practise the rigor of the
game. They use the finest lines, the lightest rods, and in short, give their quarry
what is his lawful due-fair play. The
strength of the tackle should depend upon
the size of the fish. A sportsman will approve
the golden rule of a "minute to the pound."
For instance, in trolling for yellow tail the
cuttyhunk line should be of fifteen ply;
without putting undue strain upon this it
is almost impossible to kill a fifteen pound
fish in less than a quarter of an hour; a
thirty pounder, in like manner, would keep
one busy for thirty minutes. Some fish, of
course, are more game than others, but the
rule, in the majority of cases, holds good.
In Florida, fishing for tarpon, the man who
uses a line heavier than sixteen ply is
voted a pariah; at Catalina, fishing for
tuna, twenty-four ply line has alone with
(Copyright, 1897, by OVERLAND MONTHLY PUBLISHING COMPANY) All rights reserved
Brown, Meese & Craddock, S. F.