ATTRACTIVE FISHING RESORTS
It is possible that the day may come when man will be so engrossed with the pursuit of the dollar that the call of the wild will no longer quicken the pulsations of his heart. But until that time does come, the wild creatures of nature, whose pursuit affords the most healthful and exhilarating pastime, will continue to lure him to their haunts.
"To sit on rocks and gaze o'er flood and fell;
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal feet hath ne'er, or rarely, been,"
To draw a bead on the antlered buck; to stop the flight of the gamy quail; to land the denizen of the mountain stream, or troll the ocean's depth for the tuna, the salmon or the yellow-tail, furnishes a pastime whose recollection draws one back again and again to sit on nature's lap and listen to her teachings. The recollection of these pleasures are locked in the treasure vaults of the memory, where the wearings of time can never erase them; for when the once firm step that carried him proudly up the mountain's side shall falter and become a palsied wreck of time, and the eye, dimmed by the accumulated mists of years, shall see clearly, only in retrospect, he will sit by his fire-side in slippered feet, and, gazing down the long vistas of the past, live over and over again in his reveries the pleasures furnished by the forest, the field, the stream and the ocean.
Nothing would please me better than to describe herein the many places where, during a residence on the Pacific Coast of more than half a century, I have enjoyed these sports in the fullest degree. But even the merest mention of the almost innumerable hunting grounds and trout streams, and the hundreds of mountain and sea-side resorts, from Washington to Mexico, would, of itself, make a volume of no mean size. I am, therefore, restricted to the mention of only a few of the more attractive places where good sea fishing can be found, coupled with such accommodations and surroundings as appeal to the discriminating pleasure seeker.
CATALINA ISLAND.
Almost due south of Los Angeles, and about twenty miles from the mainland, is the far-famed island of Catalina.
It is still a debatable question whether it was the leaping tuna that made Catalina famous, or whether it was its many attractions, its facilities for sea fishing and its splendid accommodations, that gave the sport of tuna fishing a world-wide reputation.
This beautiful island, with its diversified amusements; its grand scenery; its wonderful drives; its surf less sea bathing; its marine views; its perfect equipment for sea fighting, and its splendidly appointed hotel, has made it the Mecca to which the enthusiastic anglers of the world make their regular pilgrimages, for it seems to be the favored habitat of all the game fishes of the ocean, except the salmon and the striped bass.