92 ALBACORA 



ones, notably a 407-pound bluefin which Christian 

 Feigenspan licked about 1910. But even the men had 

 trouble with the big ones in those days because equip- 

 ment was awkward, huge and often dangerous. 



The old reel was called a knuckle-buster. It had no 

 drag, which made it about as safe as a bicycle without 

 a brake. Whenever the fish decided to make a run, the 

 handle on the knuckle-buster spun freely and furiously. 

 There was no way to check the sudden spin. If it did 

 not always break the knuckles, it usually broke open 

 great patches of the fisherman's skin. 



Other tackle was little better. Line was treated with 

 tar but certain to snap at the first hefty tug of a fish. 

 The old rods were heavy, inflexible and far too ungainly 

 for any woman to handle with complete control. 



Gradually, equipment evolved and improved, and the 

 biggest single boost deep-sea fishing ever got came in 

 the middle of the roaring twenties when reels had drags 

 and line was tougher. It was then that Zane Grey, the 

 author of so many western stories, caught a tremendous 

 marlin near Tahiti in the South Pacific. By the time 

 Grey's marlin was boated, its carcass had been slimmed 

 down by hungry sharks to about one-third of its origi- 

 nal size. Still, the fish weighed 1,040 pounds. Word of 

 the catch stole headlines, even from baseball. 



Grey did quite a little writing about his favorite out- 

 door spot, and other anglers have turned out libraries 

 of books and stories. With his Nobel Prize, Ernest 



