FISHING THE PACIFIC 



earliest and latest hours at which I have found them. So don't 

 think you have to be out at daybreak or anywhere near that 

 hour. Off Chile the fish hardly ever begin to show until 

 around 1 1 : oo o'clock in the morning. Off Peru I would say 

 that 9:00 A.M. would be the earliest one could look for them 

 to appear. 



In fighting a swordfish, just as with any other fish large 

 or small, it is always best to keep the boat near the fish. This 

 is doubly important if a woman is in the fighting chair. It 

 requires no dazzling intelligence to figure that if you're fight- 

 ing a fish on the surface 700 or 800 feet away and he starts 

 down, he's going to end up 400 or 500 feet below the surface, 

 or even farther, you will have that much more difficulty stop- 

 ping him. Whereas, if he is only 200 feet from the boat when 

 he starts to sound, he can probably be stopped at 100 feet— 

 or better. 



The broadbill is capable of jumping if he wants to, but I 

 think most of them are too smart to do it. He loves to fin 

 out on the surface and make fast rushes just beneath it. At 

 other times he will come to the surface and roll in the leader 

 and slash at it. The leader should always be 2 5 feet in length 

 and of 500-pound stainless steel cable. It should be closely 

 inspected after every fight since the first five feet usually get 

 badly kinked, to say nothing of the beating it takes from the 

 sword. More than one broadbill has been lost because the 

 angler overworked his leader. It is rarely that you can catch 

 more than two fish on the same leader unless you're willing 

 to cut it down about 10 feet, and a 15 -foot leader is much 

 too short for catching a fish that is from 11 to 14 feet long. 



Remember to fight a broadbill hard all the time. Tuker and 



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