The Royal Catch 269 



The fish repeatedly rushes in, trying to take the 

 angler at a disadvantage ; then plunging to the bottom, 

 to rise like a bird to the surface, and circle the. boat, then 

 towing it a mile to sea, where it turns and literally goes 

 crazy in a series of evolutions, at the end of which 

 it has been brought within a few feet of the boat. 

 Again and again this has been accomplished. Again 

 and again the angler has felt himself going under the 

 tremendous pressure, but hope shines like a star some- 

 where in his heart ; he has determined to land that fish 

 at any cost, and never relinquishes his hold upon the 

 rod or reel. Almost an armistice is called. It seems well- 

 nigh impossible to bring the fish nearer. Seeing the 

 boat, it breaks into a frenzy, bearing off with such vio- 

 lence that disaster hovers about, too near for comfort. 



Lifting, reeling, pumping, holding fast, the fisher- 

 man always feels the continued strain which tells that 

 the tuna has never lost a scintilla of its strength and 

 vigour, is still fresh, while it long ago began to tell 

 on the man, indeed on the nerves of one looking on. 

 Suddenly, after three hours and a quarter, the fish turns 

 and swims away to the south, dragging the boat, oc- 

 casionally stopping to rush in ; but at the end of four 

 hours, within three hundred feet of where it was 

 hooked, and after a last run of four miles, the tuna is 

 brought to gaff. Ten or twelve miles it has towed the 

 boat up and down the coast, ten miles of fighting. 1 The 



1 The author's record fish, the first large tuna taken, weighed 183 Ibs. It 

 towed the boat, against the boatman's oars, ten or twelve miles in four hours. 



