258 Fish Stories 



asked to compare this tuna to a tarpon, and with high appre- 

 ciation of the silver king, I think this tuna could have towed 

 and drowned several tarpons of like length. 



The big tuna in its best condition is simply irresistible, and 

 I have described these catches because they were my own 

 and I have intimate knowledge of the details, but there are 

 over sixty active members of the Tuna Club who wear at 

 times, when they go fishing, a little blue button, showing a 

 silver tuna, which indicates that they have taken a one- 

 hundred-pound tuna, or over, and nearly all of these gentle- 

 men could tell stories which, if compiled, would make one 

 of the most extraordinary series of fish stories ever heard in 

 any land, and best of all, every angler has the consciousness 

 of knowing that he approached the big game with tackle so 

 light that the average layman, on seeing the fish and the 

 line, would class it among the miracles of angling. Judge 

 Beaman of Colorado was towed by a tuna over twenty miles. 

 Mr. Wood played his tuna seven hours, then unable to fight 

 longer he gave it up, and his boatman, Harry Elms, took the 

 rod. This contest was waged from five to ten miles from 

 Avalon. The boatmen of the latter place took excursion 

 parties out into the Santa Catalina channel to see the con- 

 test with what was supposed to be the largest tuna ever 

 hooked. 



The members of the Tuna Club sent lunch out to the 

 boatman, and a committee of the club stood by him hour 

 after hour. Elms fought the tuna seven hours ; and even 

 estimating that the boat was moving only two miles an hour, 

 here was twenty-eight miles altogether, in and out around 

 and around, the tuna boring down, sounding deep in the 

 heart of the channel. 



At the end of fourteen hours Elms brought the game to 

 the surface, when it was seen to be a monster. But the 

 fates were against him, it was lost at the gaffing. On feel- 

 ing the gaff the splendid fish made a downward rush, the 

 wire parted, and there was nothing but the story left, though 



