The Hardest Fighters 259 



a giant tuna was seen dead on the surface by a passing 

 steamer some days later. 



Some of these erratic and uncertain fishes, which appear 

 at Santa Catahna for four or five years, and then almost 

 disappear or refuse to bite, are very disappointing in the 

 face of the experiences of certain anglers, but I believe this 

 to be the exception, and that such fish are weakened from 

 spawning, or are caught with heavy lines on billiard-cue-like 

 rods, all of which tends to take the life out of a fish. But 

 the " blue tuna," in its best form, is the strongest of all 

 fishes, pound for pound, inch for inch. 



As all the remarkable tuna stories are immediately ex- 

 ploited by the press, they are all, as I have said, twice- 

 told tales, but possibly the following is not known outside 

 of the Tuna Club. 



When a new angler appears at Santa Catalina when these 

 fish are present, he feels something like a man before a 

 battle. He wonders how he will stand it, and as he falls in 

 with several heroes of the chase the night before, at the 

 Club, they do not fail to dilate upon the terrors of the sport, 

 and the awful experiences of the men who have met the big 

 tuna and failed, who, in truth, are legion. 



One day a well-known gentleman, now a director in the 

 Club, and a skilled angler, arrived at Avalon. He had 

 heard the stories, and was told many more, and doubtless 

 considered that he was approaching a crisis in his career, 

 and nerved himself for the struggle. The time came, he 

 hooked his tuna, when, to his amazement, far from making 

 the struggle of his life, the giant fish tamely followed in, 

 and in less than two minutes was alongside. His boatman 

 gaffed it, and hauled it aboard. For a second the amazed 

 angler stood, the most astonished, outraged and deceived 

 man in all Southern California. Then with a wild leap the 

 tuna began to wreck that boat, and it is said by those who 

 were present, that the fight in the air was one of the most 

 remarkable on record. But the boatman finally won, and 



