THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



divers checks or brakes which the angler can ' set ' ; so it is but 

 necessary to sit and hold on to the rod ; the reel is invulnerable. 

 To this one can add the drag of Mr. Eabbeth of the Tuna Club, 

 who has a clever device to still further handicap the game — ^a 

 wonderful change from the first tuna reel of Vom Hofe I had. 

 It had but one drag, and I might say I caught my big tuna, as did 

 all anglers at the time, with my thumb, which was pressed upon 

 a pad which in turn pressed upon the Une. This becomes 

 arduous in four or ten hours, but by it the angler is in touch with 

 every motion of the fish, and with this old-fashioned tackle 

 members of the Tuna Club have played their game from one to 

 twenty hours. 



To the deUcate line is attached a piano-wire leader longer 

 than the fish, say seven feet, which may have a number of swivels. 

 The hook is a ISo. 10/° ; the bait, the natural food of the tuna — 

 the flying fish, eighteen inches long and weighing one pound and 

 a half. This is hooked either in the lip or in such a manner that 

 it wiU run naturally — a desideratum accomplished by using a 

 fin-sinker and sewing up the mouth of the lure. Some anglers 

 like the bait to whirl ; others would have it leap by using a kite, 

 described elsewhere, while others again use a sled which carries 

 the bait away from the boat and fifty or one hundred feet off the 

 quarter. With such an outfit the tuna angler embarks in his 

 comfortable twenty-foot eight- or ten-horse power launch. The 

 latter is designed at the Avalon shipyards and meets all the 

 requirements of this sport or swordfishing. It is broad and 

 eminently seaworthy. The engine is amidships ; the wheel on the 

 starboard side amidships, so the boatman, gaffer and engineer 

 can sit with one hand on the wheel, the other on the clutch to stop 

 and back or turn at the cry of ' strike ! ' The two anglers sit 

 in the stern, facing it, holding their rods to the right and left. 

 Some run at one speed ; some at another, depending upon what 

 the anglers think desirable. 



The tuna when feeding is crazed, rushiag at full speed. At such 

 times a school will cover miles of surface in their chase of a fly- 



I02 



