44 ALBACORA 



scurried upon hearing, "There she blows," or even as 

 sailors raced after the warning of an approaching sub- 

 marine. When albacora has been sighted, a fishing boat 

 goes wild. 



Initially, the angler's problem is arousing the alba- 

 cora's interest in the bait, usually small active fish 

 swimming at the end of a 150-foot line. Most fish are 

 extremely near-sighted, judged by human standards, and 

 albacora are not an exception. It is no small trick to 

 maneuver small bait fish across an albacora's line of 

 vision, while at the same time keeping far enough away 

 so that the boiling wake of the boat does not make the 

 albacora plunge down deep below the surface. After 

 many trials and many, many errors, I have concluded 

 that albacora are most likely to notice bait brought 

 twenty-five feet in front of them at a point just under- 

 neath the surface of the ocean. But time and time again 

 I've been on boats in which the captain carefully steers 

 a course to bring the bait close to an albacora when 

 suddenly the fish decides to turn. Then the bait trails 

 past the albacora's tail and the whole careful procedure 

 has to be started all over again. 



Even when everything works perfectly the baiting 

 operation is a stern test for all hands. The fisherman 

 or fisherwoman works from the stern of the boat, hold- 

 ing the 150-foot bait line in one hand and a reserve 

 loop of fifty feet of line in the other. When a hungry 

 broadbill sees the bait, he dives toward it, going under 



