Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast

by Harry Thom Payne

(Sphyraena argentea)

The baracuda is a common fish from San Francisco south to Mexico. In the Santa Barbara channel and about Catalina and San Diego it is largely taken by trolling with light tackle, when it affords really good sport. It is a long, slim fish, reaching three and even three and a half feet in length, the usual catch being from two to two and a half feet in length.

Head long and slender; eye high up on the head and nearly half way between the snout and the back of the gill covers. Pectoral fin just below the lateral line; first dorsal spinous and nearly opposite the ventral; second dorsal about midway between the first and the tail; anal almost directly under the second dorsal.

Bluish brown on the back, grading into white on the belly.

Tackle and Lure—Same as for bonito.

WHITING and CROAKERS

There are three other species of fish which inhabit the surf of the Pacific from Point Conception, south to Mexico, that, while they can not be properly termed game fishes, furnish the angler fine sport because of the gamy fight they make on light tackle. These are the whiting (Menticirrhus undulatus), the spot-fin croaker (Roncador stearnsi) and the yellow-fin croaker (Umbrina roncador). The first of these is known locally by the names of courbina and surf-fish, which are bad misnomers. The name, surf-fish, is given by the ichthyologist to a species of perch, and the courbina belongs to the genus Pogonias and is not found as far north as the California coast. These names should be abandoned by the anglers and the proper English name of whiting used. The word courbina is Italian and means croaker, from the Latin, corvus, crow.

WHITE SEA BASS (Cygonoscion nobilis)

THE WHITE SEA BASS