FISHING TACKLE AND COMMENTS 



deavoring to harpoon him (Coot was fishing for the market) 

 when a private yacht barged right in on them. Hall, seeing 

 that in a few seconds he would run the fish down anyway, 

 yelled to the boy at the wheel to run him down, seeking to 

 beat the private boat out of his chance. The green kid 

 misunderstood the instructions and proceeded to run the 

 yacht down, driving the pulpit right into the wheelhouse. 

 If these tactics were employed more often there would prob- 

 ably be less harpooning by private yachts. 



I know of cases where rod-and-reel anglers were baiting 

 the fish when a private boat cut in and harpooned him. In 

 1940, off Freeport, New York, a swordfish was harpooned 

 after he had been hooked and was being fought by a rod-and- 

 reel angler. So many fish were harpooned by the Freeport 

 charter boats during that season, one of the finest Long Island 

 has ever known for Mr. Xipheas Gladius, that several law- 

 suits resulted— disagreements in each case occurring between 

 the party and the charter boat skipper about whom the fish 

 belonged to after it was harpooned. The boatman, not con- 

 tent with the sixty- or seventy-dollar-a-day charter fee, also 

 wanted to stick the fish and keep the money for his own ac- 

 count. Some of the boats didn't even have the proper tackle 

 with which to catch fish, which was reason enough for the 

 angler in the charter boat to claim it. 



Most of the time, however, the angler was given no time 

 to bait the swordfish— whether or not he was capable of 

 hooking and catching it. There is no question but that if you 

 charter a boat for a day's fishing, any fish taken, no matter 

 by what method, belong to the charterer. If he elects to make 

 himself a commercial fisherman by selling it, that is his own 



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