2 6 4 Life in the Open 



The tuna rod is identical with that used for tarpon, 

 seven feet in length, in two parts, a one-piece tip and a 

 short butt. The latter is often of rubber, mounted with 

 German silver, with the tip of noibwood, bethabera, or 

 green-heart, weighing about twenty-five ounces. The 

 rod may be of split bamboo. Such an one costs from 

 $20 to almost any price, but the typical $22 or so tuna 

 or tarpon rod is best. 



The tuna is the king of the mackerel tribe, the 

 royal catch, Thunnus thynnus of the scientist, a fish 

 that attains a weight of fourteen hundred pounds and a 

 length of fifteen feet ; a world-wide rambler on the high 

 seas, yet, so far as is known, all attempts to catch it 

 with rod and reel except in Southern California have 

 failed. On the Pacific Coast the tuna is rarely seen in- 

 shore or near the mainland, and of all the islands which 

 are strung like jewels from Santa Barbara to San Diego, 

 Santa Catalina is the one where the tuna is seen in 

 greatest numbers. This is probably due to the con- 

 tour of the island , which affords nearly twenty miles 

 of lee calms and sheltered coves into which the tuna can 

 drive its prey, the California flying-fish. This fish 

 appears, and the tuna with it, anywhere from May first 

 to July, though the latter is often an uncertain quantity. 



From May until November, sometimes December, a 

 storm or squall of any kind is unknown. So pass 

 the days away waiting for the tuna, days of dolce far 

 niente. One morning some one looks out over the bay 

 to the east where, across the channel, the snow caps of 



