254 F^h Stories 



Vleck hook and cast. There was a whirl of waters, spume 

 tossed in air, a frenzied cry of the reel, and two anglers sat 

 breathing hard, looking at one another : one broken rod, two 

 broken lines, all in ten seconds. We had met the tunas, and 

 they had bagged their game. 



A member of the Tuna Club was towed twenty miles by 

 a fish; and I have repeatedly been towed four or five, the 

 boatman holding his oars overboard, rowing at times to stop 

 the game. I recall one catch, the incidents of which are so 

 remarkable that does the reader raise an eyebrow and 

 ponder thoughtfully, I shall not take exception, only adding 

 that this is a true fish story. 



I had the pleasure of introducing the first rod to the fishes 

 of Santa Catalina, and the experiments they attempted with 

 it, the rods they broke, the lines and reels they devastated, in 

 those early days ( 1886) was pathetic. In due time I found 

 myself angling for tunas. The Tuna Club, which I founded, 

 allowed a twenty-one-thread line, and a rod weighing sixteen 

 ounces ; but I was using an eighteen line and a jointed rod, 

 which I had made for yellowtail, a fish that averages seven- 

 teen pounds, and when the strike came the tuna, instead of 

 plunging down and sounding, decided to play me on the 

 surface, and dashed away four hundred feet. 



The details of this game at sea are not essential. I played 

 the tuna for forty minutes, then brought it to gaff with my 

 rod slightly buckled. My boatman, Jim Gardner, of Avalon, 

 gaffed it, hauled it in and we were about to give way to 

 exuberance befitting the occasion, when the tuna, as near as 

 I can recall, doubled up, opened out, shot up into the air, 

 and fell upon the rail. As we were standing, we lost our 

 balance, and the next I knew, I was treading water. The 

 boat went down out of sight, then came up bow first, shoot- 

 ing into the air, spilling the oars, gaffs, lines and everything 

 else, into the sea, nearly a mile from shore. I was inclined 

 to take it as a joke, as we had a. launch not four hundred 

 yards away ; but my companion suddenly announced that he 



