66 Big Game Fishes 
weather-worn appearance lie a tenacity, spring, 
and strength worthy a rest for the remainder 
of its life, as there is “life” to a rod which 
departs in the course of time. With this rod 
I played a fish four hours; later, it landed a 
three-hundred-and-fifty-pound bass in the hands 
of a friend, and then was invalided. Another 
slender split bamboo trout rod, on the retired 
list, brought in after an hour's struggle a thirty- 
five-pound amber-fish; and so on, one might 
go through the list of old rods which have a 
personality to the angler who really enjoys the 
sport in all its details. 
It has been my fancy to experiment with com- 
paratively light rods, and when fishing to use as 
nearly as possible a rod adapted to the fish; 
that is,so light that in the balance of chance 
the game has a decided advantage. In fishing 
for tuna, tarpon, and the black sea-bass, the trio 
which are the tiger and elephant hunting of the 
angling world, the temptation is strong to use 
robust and short rods; yet I took a one hundred 
and eighty-three-pound tuna with a three-jointed 
rod; have caught large yellowtails and sea-bass 
on a black bass rod; and a ninety-pound tuna, 
that threw us into the sea a mile from shore, 
