THE LITTLE TUNAS 



They attain a weight of sixty pounds, and are hard and vigorous 

 fighters, never giving up until gaffed, affording a most exciting 

 play. The only drawback is, they are too ready as a rule to 

 bite, and thirty or forty pounders will give the average angling- 

 novice more exercise than he cares for. 



Everything about the long-fin tima betokens speed, aggressive, 

 power and strength, and few game fishes afford a harder fight 

 on the nine-ounce rod and nine-thread line the Tuna Club re- 

 commends. The ubiquitous Japanese have entered the field, 

 and the fish is now canned as Blue Tuna. The method of taking 

 the fish is extraordinary, at least to the American angler who is 

 handicapped by a desire to live up to the ethics of the highest 

 standard of sport. The Japanese have a fleet of fine thirty-foot 

 power launches. On deck is a can containing sardines, which, 

 are kept alive by continual replenishment of the water and 

 aeration. 



Once on the ground, from one to five or six miles off Avalon, 

 the trolling ground of the Tuna Club, in water as smooth as 

 glass, the Japanese launch stops, the fisherman takes a bamboo 

 rod about ten feet long in one hand, baits the short ten-foot Une 

 with a live fish and tosses it over. In his other hand, the right, 

 he takes a long bamboo which has a spade-like end, with which 

 he splashes the water, throwing it at the struggling live bait. 



Exactly what the long-fin tuna of from twenty to thirty 

 pounds thinks about this extraordinary performance we do not 

 know, but the Japanese assumes that the tuna thinks a school 

 of sardines are feeding, the single fish and the repeated splashes 

 carrying out the delusion. Be this as it may, I trolled around 

 such a fisherman in May, 1912, for several hours, taking very few 

 fish, while the Japanese was fast filling his boat. The moment 

 a long-fin tuna struck, the Oriental dropped the ' splasher,' 

 and hauled the fish in without ceremony, baited the hook, and 

 presently had another tuna. 



The conclusion that the long-fin tuna is a very stupid fish 

 does not detract from its fine qualities as a game fish. The Tuna 



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