64 FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



garding it from the standpoint of sensational play. 

 The swordfish is taken from launches with tuna tackle, 

 but it lends excitement and interest to take it from 

 a small skiff, towed astern, that can be cast off at 

 the strike and towed away by the fish. The angler 

 should insist on the launch, and a sea-going one, lying 

 by, as in the case of Mr. Pinchot and myself, off San 

 Clemente, a catastrophe might well have happened in 

 a heavy sea and fog in a two-hundred-pound skiff. 



The visitor to the Tuna Club will see two mag- 

 nificent specimens the swordfish of Colonel John E. 

 Stearns, the other that of Mr. Conn not only splendid 

 trophies, but fishes which suggest literal battles of 

 the sea where sportsmen met the big and dangerous 

 game with line so light that the layman will not be- 

 lieve that a fish of its size could be taken with it, as it 

 appears to be manifestly absurd. Yet it is true to 

 the letter, as the Tuna Club is most careful of its 

 records. 



The swordfish preys on fishes of all kinds ; dashing 

 into schools of mackerel and sardines, cutting them 

 down, then picking up the pieces. It is very pug- 

 nacious, and some extraordinary battles have been wit- 

 nessed between the fishes. 



The swordfishes spawn in the open sea and the 

 young are at first very different from the adults. Very 

 little is known as to their habits. 



The rod records of the Tuna Club are as follows, and 

 it should be remembered that the records were won 

 on rods weighing not over sixteen ounces and lines 

 not over twenty-one- or twenty-four-thread. In a 

 word, these splendid trophies have been won in open 

 dangerous fights at sea where swordfish had every 



