84 Big Game Fishes 



that if one fell into the boat it would pass 

 through it as though paper; hence believing 

 discretion the better part of valor, I began to row 

 out of the school, but not before I had attempted 

 a mental calculation of the height of some of 

 the leaps which were being made about me. As 

 I stood upon the seat of the skiff, the rushes of 

 the tunas into the air appeared to the excited 

 spectator, who may in these few moments have 

 seen things which did not exist, to reach a point 

 five or six feet higher than his head. 



The possibility of approaching schools of these 

 fish suggests various methods of taking them. 

 That most in vogue is to follow a school and 

 endeavor to head it off, or so encircle it that the 

 bait will cross the leaders ; as a rule, two strikes 

 are had if two lines are out, and several times 

 both fishes have been saved. I have succeeded 

 in obtaining a strike when tunas were not biting 

 by heading off the school and casting into it, 

 which is accomplished by reeling the line all in, 

 having the heavy flying-fish as near the tip as 

 possible. When the bait lands in the school 

 with a splash, the tunas evidently consider it 

 an exhausted flying-fish alighting, and forthwith 

 charge it. When other methods have failed, 



