18 ALBACORA 



fine ever since. In fact, several years ago when the phy- 

 sician finally learned what Lou had meant by fishing, 

 it was he who almost suffered the coronary. 



Lou had always been an enthusiastic fisherman, but 

 it took the heart attack to turn him into a single-minded 

 one. As for myself, I think I caught the fever in the 

 late twenties from my very first dose of fishing for tuna 

 with heavy tackle. Then gradually I began to develop a 

 knack for handling light tackle. Here at last was a sport 

 in which I could match myself against Lou — a sport 

 in which any woman ought to be able to match her man 

 — for the whole theory of light tackle cries for skill 

 and delicate technique rather than brawn. Some lines 

 can stand 200 pounds of pressure before they break. 

 Using them against fish has always struck me as being 

 only one degree away from using depth bombs. Six- 

 thread line, which snaps at twenty pounds of direct 

 pressure, is more sporting. At that, light tackle does not 

 leave you quite as helpless as it may seem. 



Once an expert swimmer challenged the value of my 

 favorite line so persistently that I could not resist throw- 

 ing out a counter-challenge. "You're a pretty fair swim- 

 mer," I said. "I'll bet I could reel you in on six-thread 

 tackle." I did not bother to point out that I'd seen this 

 done before at a sportsmen's show in New York. 



The swimmer started laughing. "You've got a bet," 

 he said. He was still poking fun at light tackle when 

 we met at a pool several days later. I had brought six- 



