188 SCIENCE OF FISHING. 



the sport and to mount as trophies. The small ones are 

 always released. To do so they are gaffed carefully under 

 the jaw and held until the hook is extracted. 



The only rival of the tarpon as a game fish, is the great 

 leaping tuna of the California coast, near the Santa Catalina 

 Islands. There it reaches an average weight of 150 pounds, 

 but I don't know how heavy it really does get in the Pacific, 

 though in the Atlantic, where it is found from New Jersey 

 northward it reaches a weight of 1200 pounds. These mon- 

 sters have never been taken with rod and line, and the 

 record is a 680 pound fish. At Santa Catalina is the greatest 

 sea fishing to be had anywhere in the world, and the fishing 

 is all conducted on true sportsman's lines. There is one club 

 known as the Three-Six Tackle Club that will not use a 

 line heavier than a 6 thread linen, which will not stand a 

 strain of more than fifteen pounds. It seems impossible to 

 catch such large fish as tuna, which have such a reputation 

 for fighting, on such tackle, and of course the large ones 

 could not be held with it. I think the record for this tackle 

 is a sixty pound fish. Ordinarily the same tackle is used for 

 tuna as for tarpon. Flying fish are used for bait. The leader 

 should be of phosphor-bronze, six feet long, and the line 

 for ten feet should be double. The bait is cast into a school 

 of the fish when they are chasing flying fish, and after hook- 

 ing the fish it is sometimes hours before he is tired out, and 

 the boat is towed several miles. The fishing is done from 

 small motor-boats made specially for tuna fishing. 



The Atlantic tuna or Canadian tuna, is sometimes called 

 horse mackerel, in fact it is more often known by that name 

 than by the name tuna. They grow to an immense size, 1200 

 pounds or even more, and it seems that they are the same as 

 those found in the Pacific as regards fighting qualities, except 

 that the largest fish of any kind are not the fiercest fighters. 

 They are found very rarely as far south as New Jersey, 

 and are most abundant off the coast of Nova Scotia and 



