1 86 The Albacore 



of the bay amongst the shipping. We could not 

 get him on board, so we secured him by a double 

 bight of the line round his tail, and towed him into 

 the harbour, where, by the aid of a cargo-crane, we 

 landed him on the quay. He scaled four hundred 

 and seventy pounds, making a goodly sum for the 

 poor fishermen who peddled him round the town on 

 a truck. The gallant struggle he made for life and 

 liberty has often been recalled to my memory in 

 reading angling experiences with the Tuiia in California. 

 What must be the prowess, endurance, and skill of an 

 angler who, in a small boat with one assistant, a slender 

 rod and a fine line, can succeed in securing a monster 

 of the deep like that. 



To my great chagrin I have never succeeded in 

 catching an Albacore. Many times, when fishing 

 for bonito from the jib-boom of a ship, I have hooked 

 Albacore weighing from forty to over a hundred pounds, 

 but never succeeded in pulling them up high enough 

 to drop them in the gaping sack. And I was never 

 quite sure when I had them on the hook whether I 

 would rather get them up or see them drop off, seeing 

 what formidable creatures they are to manipulate 

 when in their full vigour, even on deck. Astride on 

 that slender spar twenty feet out ahead of the ship, I 

 had always a feeling that the holding of one would 

 most likely result in the swift descent of the pair of 

 us into the seething bow-wave ahead of the ship. 

 Once I hooked one in almost a flat calm by dangling 

 my hook with a piece of polished tin for a lure from 

 the jib-boom. He was so heavy that I could not lift 

 him, so I played him until I was quite exhausted, 

 and then, bitterly disappointed, had to hand him 

 over to others. He was eventually secured when fagged 

 out by a man being lowered over the side and slipping 



