Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast

by Harry Thom Payne

(Cygonoscion nobilis)

The white sea bass is purely a California species, ranging from the Coronado Islands to about the latitude of San Francisco. They are caught trolling and make a gamy fight on rod and reel. Twenty to forty pound fish are common and they have been caught weighing seventy-five pounds.

Light bluish on the back and white on the sides, with many small specks; dark spot at the base of the pectoral fins. Head, long, with pointed snout, and with the scales of the head running nearly to its end. Dorsal fin double, the first half having ten spines and the latter twenty-one or twenty-two soft rays. Anal with two spines and nine rays. Tail but little forked.

Tackle—The same as for salmon or yellow-tail.

CALIFORNIA WHITING OR SAND SUCKER (Menticirrhus undulatus)

CALIFORNIA WHITING OR SAND-SUCKER

(Menticirrhus undulatus)

This species is common to the sand beaches of the Pacific, from Point Conception south to Guaymas, Mexico. It feeds during the larger part of the year in the surf, and is caught from the wharfs or by long casts with heavy sinkers from the beach. The whiting appears on the California coast in two varieties, the undulatus proper and a subspecies which I think has never been classified. At any rate, the difference seems sufficient to entitle it to a subspecies classification, for the mouth curves strongly downward, and, therefore, does not extend so far back as the undulatus proper. The tail also differs, in having both upper and lower lobes rounded, instead of the upper being square as in the undulatus.

Head, about one-fifth of the entire length; snout, rather pointed, and projecting beyond the mouth; mouth reaching to the center of the eye; small barbel on the lower lip. Dorsal fin, double, the first with from seven to nine spines, the second soft and reaching from the first to within about the length of the head from the tail; pectoral fins near the gills and about the width of the eye below the center of the body; ventral fins, a little behind the pectoral; anal fin under the center of the second dorsal; dorsal fins dark; pectoral, ventral and anal fins, light with darker tips; tail of the undulatus proper, upper lobe square and lower lobe rounded. Back, bluish brown, shading to white on the belly; scales, small. Below the lateral line are a number of small spots forming irregular lines running backward and upward. Size, rarely exceeding eight pounds.

The illustration is of the variety that I have referred to as a subspecies.