The Taking of Big Game Fishes 



rarely a factor here, hence the angler can take his 

 time. Some have the boatman pull against the fish; 

 others, who would make a short fight, have the boat 

 backed after the game, reeling when they can. An 

 instantaneous plunge, or rush down, may be expected 

 in some fishes so irresistible that the entire line is 

 unreeled; and here most of the tunas are lost. By 

 legitimate thumb pressure an average fish should be 

 stopped before it takes two hundred feet of line, and 

 then the angler will find that it is nearly three hundred 

 feet directly down, yet towing the launch slowly but 

 surely out to sea. Pumping but now vertical is 

 resorted to, and repeated rushes may be expected; 

 some away, some at the boat, when the line must 

 be reeled in with all the rapidity possible, and the 

 hand transferred quickly to the brake as the fish turns 

 and charges. With a light rod I have brought a 

 ninety-five pound fish to gaff in forty minutes. Many 

 anglers, with short, stiff rods, bring their fish to gaff 

 in from ten to thirty minutes; but particularly game 

 fishes often fight for hours, dying suddenly of heart 

 failure. Tunas are always gaffed, and in the man- 

 ner described in tarpon fishing ; the difference between 

 the fishes is that the tuna jumps only when feeding. 

 Its rushes are more vigorous down instead of out; 

 being caught in deep water, its fighting powers are 

 at least twenty-five per cent, greater than those of the 

 tarpon. 



The tuna and tarpon are types of fishes which bite 

 123 



