THE TUNA CLUB AND BRANCHES 79 



tect game fish in every way, and to secure proper legislation 

 affecting the fisheries of all kinds, the protection of sardines 

 and other food fish during the spawning season, and in every 

 legitimate way to set an example of the highest possible sports- 

 manship. 



"To accomphsh this the Club organized with several kinds 

 of members; active, who had accompUshed the seemingly 

 impossible by taking tunas over one hundred pounds, and 

 other representative anglers and citizens of influence were 

 invited to join the experiment. The plan adopted was to 

 advocate the lightest possible tackle for the largest fish, and 

 rod and reel, the theory being that with this tackle it would 

 be impossible to land more than a rational angler ought to 

 catch in a day. The Club made a twenty-four-strand line the 

 limit, but advocated twenty-one for tunas, eighteen and nine 

 lines for yellowtail and white sea bass (fifty to eighty pounds). 

 This was at the option of the angler, and many experiments 

 were tried. In 1888 a member caught a seventeen-pound 

 yellowtail with an eight-ounce ten-foot split bamboo and a 

 trout silk line, and many club members experimented with 

 number nine and eighteen lines for all fishes except tuna and 

 black sea bass; but taking into consideration the possibilities 

 of kelp and chafing in long encounters, the Club advocated 

 light rods and the twenty-one-strand hne as a good average 

 size and fair to the fish. 



"In his annual address the first president and founder of the 

 Club, Charles F. Holder, said: 'I congratulate you, gentlemen 

 of the Tuna Club, on the results of a year's example. A year 

 ago boats left Avalon Bay with from four to ten heavy hand- 

 lines, and tunas and yellowtail and sea bass were slaughtered 

 by the ton and thrown away. To-day by your example not a 

 boatman of Santa CataHna will permit a hand-line in his boat. 

 All use rods and reels and the lines specified by the Club, and 

 the result is that few fish are wasted, the catch is reduced two- 

 thirds, and the sport is enhanced by the use of rod and reel. 

 Not only this, but the fame of the Tuna Club has gone around 

 the civiUzed world, and its example, "fair play to game fishes," 

 has been adopted in every land where the phrase, "He fishes 

 like a gentleman," has any significance.'" 



