A New Game Fish 



tackle are such that if one out of every five tuna hooked 

 is brought to gaff, the angler may consider his spurs 

 won. 



" It has been my experience in landing eighteen on 

 the nine-ounce rod, ranging from seventeen to fifty- 

 one and one- fourth pounds, that the capture of the 

 larger fish (those over forty pounds) can best be 

 effected by chumming them around the boat, and this 

 can be done only by the liberal use of chum such as 

 sardines, smelts or albacore cut up, which must be 

 fresh, as salted bait is ignored by this fastidious 

 fish. 



" When the chum is first thrown out the skip-jacks 

 appear, then the albacore. At this stage of the game 

 expectancy is keen buf wait; presently up from the 

 unseen depths rises what appears to be a long bar of 

 gold it .is a yellow fin. Now throw out a handful of 

 chum away from that on which the albacore are feed- 

 ing, and just as the tuna cuts the surface meet him 

 with your bait, and the battle is on. 



' This seems very easy, but requires much expe- 

 rience and skill, as the slightest miscalculation finds 

 you fast to an albacore; also the tuna passes the bait 

 by, if he discerns its connection, which indicates a game 

 fish of the highest order. 



" Most of these tunas (especially the large fish) 

 make a brilliant surface fight, only sounding at times, 

 it being very difficult to pump them up from any great 

 depth, and instances where captures have been made 



349 



