FISHING THE PACIFIC 



good night's sleep in a berth you arrive at Antof agasta around 

 noon the following day and board a plane for Iquique shortly 

 afterward. This speedy travel brings the greatest swordfish- 

 ing ground in the world very close to the United States. 

 Direct connections can be made from California. One may 

 leave Los Angeles at midnight, arriving at Tucoman Airport, 

 Panama, around one the next day and depart thence at mid- 

 night via El Inter- Americano. There are also two flights 

 northbound— on Wednesdays and Saturdays— the Saturday 

 flight being on the Fiesta Lounge, as the Thursday night plane 

 southward out of Miami is also called. 



There is a fine new hotel being built in Antofagasta. Here 

 the commercial fishing fleet has to go either south or north 

 to the fishing grounds which are a long way oflr. Hence it is 

 my opinion that no sport fishing will ever be done out of 

 this port. 



There are swordfish south of Antofagasta at Chaiiaral, 

 but none has ever been brought in south of Caldera, some 

 300 miles below Antofagasta. 



Of course there are plenty of small varieties in this vicinity, 

 such as big-eye tuna and several varieties of bonitos. There are 

 more mako sharks than there are off Peru and I've even seen a 

 thresher shark hit a bait in those waters. I know that black 

 marlin have been struck off Iquique. None, however, have 

 been taken on rod and reel. I saw the largest broadbill sword- 

 fish I've ever seen brought in to Tocopilla. This fish weighed 

 1565 pounds and was in fact the biggest fish of any kind I've 

 ever seen anywhere— and I've seen quite a number that went 

 over 1000 (that is, not dressed for market). 



Commercial fishing is usually done from small open boats, 



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