Other Game Fish 207 



a great commercial fishery. It is easily caught in purse seines 

 when the water is relatively warm, but cooler water makes it 

 wary and active and often drives it down from the surface. 

 More recently, the primitive hook-and-line has largely re- 

 placed the net, the big new boats, which sometimes spend 

 weeks offshore, being designed primarily for this kind of 

 fishing. When a school of tuna is found, the. fishermen 

 clamber over the sides onto racks around the stern of the 

 vessel. Each man wields a stout bamboo pole with a short 

 line and a feathered "jig" with a barbless hook. Almost in 

 one motion, the hook strikes the water, is seized by the fish, 

 and is heaved backward and upward, so that the startled tuna 

 flies through the air and lands on the deck behind the fisher- 

 man. The barbless hook comes out and is immediately cast 

 back into the water. When a school is biting fast, action is 

 almost continuous. If the fish are too large for one man to 

 handle, two work together, one hook being fastened by a 

 twin line arrangement to two poles which are lowered and 

 raised in perfect unison. For big fish, three men with three 

 poles must join forces, and for the biggest four, and some- 

 times even five. To see those bamboos bend as the giant fish 

 rises and sails through the air is a spectacular sight. As may 

 be guessed, a strong back is an essential for a commercial 

 tuna fisherman — but in few activities does a strong back gain 

 a higher financial reward. 



The tuna is in California also a great sport fish, for it was 

 at Santa Catalina Island that a hardy, pioneering gentleman 

 first conceived of the possibility of catching this huge animal 

 on rod and line, and did actually take one on tackle which 

 would now be looked on as pitiable. This was the inception of 

 the famous Tuna Club. It was also in California that the 

 most effective method of getting tuna on a troll hook was 

 invented — attaching a kite to the line, which pulls the lure 



