SWORDFISHING IN THE PACIFIC 



At last he saw the bait and as the fish 

 sank the launch was stopped. He disap- 

 peared without a motion or the least flirt 

 of the tail. The balance of these fish is per- 

 fection. 



"Shorty" said: "He is now going down to 

 give it the once over; turn everything loose 

 and give him plenty of line." The line was 

 jarred as the fish struck the bait a hard blow 

 and then it began to run out slowly. I gave 

 him about two hundred feet and when the 

 line became taut struck hard. 



I had hooked my first swordfish! 



He made a run of about two hundred 

 yards and then sounded about six hundred 

 feet, stayed down a few moments and al- 

 lowed himself to be pumped up. He then 

 came up to the surface and thrashed about 

 in a circle, sounded again, was pumped up 

 again. He did this several times. Within 

 the first hour I had the double line, which 

 was doubled back fifteen feet, on the reel 

 three times and the wire leader was above 

 [61] 



