FISHING THE PACIFIC 



miles to the southward with the current. He did all of his 

 jumping with never more than 150 ft. of line out, so we had 

 look after look at him and if I had had a photographer the 

 pictures would have been spectacular. All in all, the double 

 line was on the reel twenty-five times and after that I stopped 

 counting and got hold of the leader three more times, making 

 a total of fourteen in all. At 4: 30 or thereabouts the entire 

 foot rest of the chair came oif and one arm went with it. With 

 the terrific drag on the reel this catapulted me out of the chair 

 across the counter in the stern. I took the full force of the 

 blow on both hands and tried to protect the reel, which took 

 a very hard rap. After loosening the drag I picked myself up. 

 It is impossible to go overboard when fighting a big fish if 

 the drag is loosened regardless of what you may hear to the 

 contrary. I got back into the chair but I had no more bracing. 

 However, some cushions and life preservers aided me some- 

 what. My right hand was in bad shape but I didn't notice this, 

 nor did I notice that the little finger on my left hand was 

 pretty stiff. I was much more concerned about the reel which, 

 fifteen minutes later began to act up. Between five and six 

 o'clock I repaired the reel three times and again had the fish 

 under pretty good control. 



He started down once and I did not attempt to stop him too 

 much until he got to about 250 feet because I thought he was 

 surely going to die. However, I brought him back up to the 

 double line and he was still very much alive and made another 

 little run. Finally he came to the surface and seemed to 

 quiver as if he were in his death flurry, then sounded again. 

 He had run off some 350 to 400 feet of line when the reel 

 again went out of order. By this time it was getting dark and 



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