Qualifying in the Three-Six Club 227 



half, when the only light came through a crim- 

 son cloud to the west, the engine surrendered 

 and concluded to go; hope sprang to life again, 

 and the Baron still played the fish. But why 

 serve him the warmed-over agony? If ever 

 angler deserved reward for playing a giant on 

 a thread of a line for five hours, 'for a matter 

 of principle, he did, but the fates had decreed 

 that fish was to go free. For half an hour as 

 we drifted into the west it flaunted its charms 

 in our eyes in a menacing sea. It circled on 

 the surface, gleamed and scintillated, coming 

 slowly in, but always a long w r ay off, then sud- 

 denty plunged madly down deep, found a branch 

 of kelp, and w r as fast. Many devices were es- 

 sayed to save the fish, but the end had come, 

 and as the night settled down, as though to hide 

 remorse, the Baron handed the line to Mexican 

 Joe; he could not make up his mind to break it, 

 but it had to be done and so what was unques- 

 tionably the biggest yellowtail played on a six- 

 ounce rod was left deep in the gardens of the 

 Kuro Shiwo. 



With hand-lines of the kind used, say at Nan- 

 tucket, for bluefish, boats could have been filled 

 with fish weighing from twenty-five to sixty or 

 more pounds, as doubtless the really large fish 

 broke the lines; but we used the lightest lines 

 and rods advocated by the club. The daily rod 

 catch of six anglers probably averaged six or 



