The Hardest Fighters 267 



dred, among them some of the best known anglers in 

 America and England. It is not a club to encourage fish- 

 ing, strange to say, or to make the sport comfortable, but 

 to discourage the taking of numbers and to make it as diffi- 

 cult as possible. Thus, every man of the sixty or more 

 who has taken tunas of over one hundred pounds in 

 weight, caught them with twenty-one-thread lines and rods 

 weighing not over sixteen ounces, about the same kind of 

 a line that many anglers use for black-bass. In a word, 

 the members set the example of the highest possible stand- 

 ards. The game has the entire advantage. For fishes up 

 to sixty and seventy pounds, the Tuna Club uses a nine- 

 ounce rod and a number nine line, and for fishes up to thirty 

 pounds it uses a split bamboo specially made rod, weighing 

 six ounces, and a line known as a number six, a line smaller 

 than any trout line in use. The latter feature belongs to 

 the " Three Six " Club, an adjunct of the Tuna Club, and 

 as these lines are written the writer has qualified for mem- 

 bership (an amiable weakness) in this little club of seven 

 members, by taking an eighteen pound yellowtail with the 

 tackle described, succeeding on the third fish. The first took 

 seven hundred and fifty feet of line and it doubtless broke 

 of its own weight. The second ran into the kelp, but the 

 third was hooked well offshore and was brought to gaff in 

 about an hour, the difficulty being that the slightest over- 

 strain will break the thread-like line, that is only tested to 

 a breaking strain of twelve pounds. 



This movement which may be termed philanthropy in 

 angling, has extended to many places. The Aransas Pass 

 Tarpon Club has been founded on similar lines, and the 

 motto of the " Three Six " Club, " More sport, less fish," 

 will be heard around the world. The time came long ago 

 when anglers should earnestly consider the conservation of 

 the oceanic resources of America. Already the lobster, 

 striped bass, and others have almost disappeared, and the 

 normal situation can only be reattained by the action and ex- 



