BIG TUNA 



"We'll watch the fish and wait for wind," I said. 



This situation may not present anythi;ig remark- 

 able to most fishermen. But we who knew the game 

 realized at once that this was an experience of a life- 

 time. We counted ten schools of tuna near at hand, 

 and there were so many farther on that they seemed 

 to cover the sea. 



"Boys," said Captain Dan, "here's the tuna we 

 heard were at Anacapa Island last week. The Japs 

 netted hundreds of tons. They're working southeast, 

 right in the middle of the channel, and haven't 

 been inshore at all. It's ninety miles to Anacapa. 

 Some traveling! . . . That school close to us is the 

 biggest school I ever saw and I believe they're the 

 biggest fish." 



"Run closer to them," I said to him. 



We ran over within fifty feet of the edge of the 

 school, stopped the boat, and all climbed up on top 

 of the deck. 



Then we beheld a spectacle calculated to thrill 

 the most phlegmatic fisherman. It simply enrapt- 

 ured me, and I think I am still too close to it to 

 describe it well. The dark-blue water, heaving in 

 great, low, lazy swells, showed a roughened spot of 

 perhaps two acres in extent. The sim, shining over 

 our shoulders, caught silvery-green gleams of fish, 

 flashing wide and changing to blue. Long, round, 

 bronze backs deep under the surface, caught the sun- 

 light. Blue fins and tails, sharp and curved, like 

 sabers, cleared the water. Here a huge tuna would 

 turn on his side, gleaming broad and bright, and 

 there another would roll on the surface, breaking 

 water like a tarpon with a slow, heavy souse. 



227 



