THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



the skiff is underway before the entire line is exhausted. This 

 accomplished, the angler puts more strain on the brake, and that 

 miracle of sea angling for tuna is seen — a fish towing a boat by a 

 number twenty-one-thread line. 



Santa Catalina Island wiU always be the most attractive point 

 for tuna angling as it is an ideal place. The summer climate is 

 almost always cool and delightful. The island, sixty nules 

 around, affords that desideratum, stm water like a lake, while 

 the fleet of perfect angling boats, one hundred and fifty or more, 

 and skilled boatmen trained for the work, and with high ideal 

 for sport, render the locality extremely attractive to anglers. 

 Again, if tunas are not biting there is always something to take 

 its place, from following the big swordfish, white sea bass, yellow- 

 tail, or the diversions of mountain climbing ia the Sierra CabrUlo 

 of the beautiful and romantic island out in the Pacific, eighteen 

 miles, yet within two hours saU of Los Angeles, a city of 600,000 

 souls. Many Englishmen have visited this isle of summer, 

 among them England's most distinguished sea angler, Mr. F. G. 

 Aflalo, founder of the British Sea Anglers Society, of which 

 Lord Desborough, well known in America as a sportsman, is 

 president. Of this locality Mr. Aflalo says in his book, Swnset 

 Playgrounds, that here ' is the finest sea fishing in the world.' 



If the true recital of all the tuna catches could be told it would 

 make a fish story beyond belief when the size of the line and the 

 rod is appreciated. Men have been towed from five to twenty- 

 five, or more, miles in from five to twenty-four hours, and I well 

 recall a fish of not over one hundred pounds that towed two of 

 the best anglers of the island offshore many miles. They hooked 

 the fish at about six o'clock in the morning near shore. Mr. 

 E. L. Doran of the Tuna Club and I were cruising about five miles 

 offshore at noon, to give some ladies a view of a school of sixty- 

 foot whales, when we found the anglers practically exhausted. 

 They could not move the fish, that was down one hundred feet 

 or more, I volunteered to go aboard and relieve the boatman 

 at the oars while he relieved the angler, Mr. Scudder of St. Louis. 

 104 



