FISHING THE PACIFIC 



can get out of harpooning this great sporting fish whose habit 

 it is to swim slowly along the surface of the ocean during 

 certain hours of the day is beyond me. It just isn't sport in 

 my estimation. 



Commercial fishermen have been in the business for eighty 

 years or more, and I don't begrudge them the fish they take 

 in this manner. For, after all, they are food merchants and 

 "sword" always brings a good price. 



Many good friends of mine harpoon fish. Many men, who 

 as duck shooters, bird shooters, golfers, tennis and squash 

 players are the finest sportsmen in the world, harpoon sword- 

 fish. Some of them argue with me that if it is all right for the 

 commercial anglers to harpoon them, why isn't it all right for 

 the amateurs? My answer to this is: "Are you a commercial 

 fisherman or a sport fisherman?" There is no such thing as a 

 sport harpooner to my way of thinking, and I know of few 

 people who don't agree with me on this matter. 



I have often been offshore between Shinnecock Inlet, Long 

 Island, and Gay Head, Massachusetts, when no commercial 

 fisherman has been within five miles of me, and seen a private 

 boat harpoon a fish directly on the course I was on within a 

 half mile of me. If the sport fisherman had not been a har- 

 pooner no doubt I would have sighted the fish and had a 

 chance to bait it. Personally I would always drive the fish 

 down or call a commercial over before I would give a sport- 

 ing harpooner a chance to strike a fish. One of the best stories 

 I have heard in this connection happened to Coot Hall, the 

 great Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts, striped-bass guide. He was 

 off No Mans with a green youngster acting as mate when 

 they sighted a swordfish. They were working the fish, en- 



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