HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



the Pacific marlin have a different number of spines in their 

 dorsal fins and measure up differently. They appear just the 

 same when killed but show up more silvery when they begin 

 jumping, due, I suppose, to the food they are getting. On oc- 

 casion black and striped marlin are caught and now and then 

 a Pacific sailfish is taken, but these waters definitely do not 

 constitute one of the best hangouts for these fish. If whole 

 fish baits instead of feathers were trolled more often prob- 

 ably a greater number of silver marlin would be caught. 



Visiting anglers should be equipped with 9-, 15- and 39- 

 thread line for fishing off the islands, and with rods weighing 

 6, 10, and 25 ounces; 6/0 and 12/0 reels, if they want to get 

 the most sport out of the various sizes and species of fish that 

 await them. Marlin, tuna, dolphin and bonitos are caught in 

 deeper water outside and the wahoo and jack-crevalle closer 

 inshore. Believe it or not— I never saw a shark in the water 

 or on a dock, dead or alive, in the thirty-odd days I fished the 

 Hawaiian Islands, and I fished on four different grounds. The 

 scarcity of this wolf of the sea in these waters seems to ac- 

 count for the fact that few fish are mutilated. 



Occasionally a broadbill swordfish is caught by one of the 

 most extraordinary and at the same time most deadly methods 

 of commercial fishing— that is, by a fleet of boats averaging 

 from 45 to 60 feet in length called "flag-liners" which fish 

 with floated lines from 3 to 6 miles in scope. At intervals of 

 about every 250 feet there is a flag on an 8-foot pole. Between 

 them there is a tremendous glass ball, a counterpart of those 

 of smaller size used on lobster-pot lines in the North Atlantic. 

 Suspended from these floats about 15 or 20 feet down is the 

 main line to which the fishline and hook are attached. They 



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