July 2, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
9 
week's Forest and Stream, had another freak of luck 
the next day. He hooked on to a big trout at his 
favorite spot in the pool, below the Upper Dam. His 
friends began to advise him not to allow the fish to jump 
into some other boat, while other boats offered to be in 
readiness to receive him. After a good deal of resistance 
the trout, evidently a very large one, was drawn up be- 
side the boat, and Mr. Lynch's guide was about to net 
him. A chub of Over lib. weight now took a hand in 
the fray. He seized the fly, on which the exhausted trout 
was impaled, and actually knocked the hook from the 
trout's jaw. The chub was landed, but the trout is in 
the pool now, ready for some other fellow. Tradition 
has it that Mr. Trout once did the chub a great favor; 
he declined to eat him when he was a little fellow. Ever 
since fish gratitude has existed between them. Mr. Chub 
witnessed that last struggle from a safe distance, and 
when he saw the net about to slide under his friend, to 
raise him out of their beloved element altogether and 
forever, he dove between death and his friend, actually 
preferring to sacrifice his own life rather than that his 
noble friend should fall a victim to the frying pan. Let 
those sportsmen who know it all. and believe that "all 
fishermen are liars," read this chub story and believe it: 
not spending their energies in disbelieving the story of 
the salmon jumping into the boat, which story can be 
proven by several witnesses whose word is beyond 
reproach, and who have fished as many years as the 
amateurs have days, who believe that all fish stories 
should be taken cum grano salis. 
Mr. T. B. Stewart, of New York, has taken another 
trout at the Upper Dam, weighing over zdbs. Mark 
Hollingsworth, of Boston, has also just taken one of 
lina Island a few weeks ago in company with Samuel Clippies', 
had a thrilling experience with a big tuna yesterday. He started 
fishing at 3 o'clock in the morning. At 7 o'clock the fish struck 
his hook, and for seven hours afterward there was an almost even 
struggle for the mastery. The strike occurred near the little town 
of AValon, and at 2 o'clock, when the fish was finally brought to 
gaff, the boat had been towed fully twenty miles. The big fel- 
low weighed 130lbs., 5()lbs. less than one caught, a few days ago, 
but it was found to have been hooked in the back, which ex- 
plained the vigorous and protracted fight it made. The time re- 
quired to land this tuna exceeded by two hours and one-half 
any former record. 
Years ago Genio C. Scott, the well-known authority 
on angling, said of this fish (Thyunus orcynus), the 
horse-mackerel, tunny or tuna, "it is not a fish for the 
rod and reel," and so he has remained up to within a 
year or so secure from the angler because of his 
tremendous speed and endurance, his unequaled 
strength, and the peculiarity of his habits. At Catalina 
within recent date a few gentlemen such as Messrs. C. 
P. Morehouse, of Pasadena; H. A. Vachcll, and C. R. 
Scudder, have now succeeded in proving the fallacy of 
Mr. Scott's statement, demonstrating that the tuna can 
be caught with rod and reel, and that lie is moreover 
what I have maintained him to be for years, "the grand- 
est game fish in the world." Just as Mr. Wood, in Flori- 
da, taught sportsmen how to catch the tarpon with a 
rod, so did Col. Morehouse teach the anglers of Ava- 
lon how to fish for tuna. In 1805 this was not under- 
stood. The new use of the power yacht to tow the 
angler, thus giving a rapidly moving and therefore attrac- 
tive bait, had not been thought of then. That has all 
come since my time. His majesty was there in all his 
bravery of steel and silver, but he. would not bite except 
at very rare intervals. Daily by dozens during that 
the ready use of the oars in following, we went flying 
across that bay like a power yacht. My big multiplier 
fairly shrieked, one long continued, steady cry, while 
700ft. of line melted away like snow from under my hard 
pressed leather brake. From the butt under my right 
thigh to the very tip my rod was one beautiful, nervous 
arc. It was magnificent. Anticipation seemed giving 
place to a happy fruition. The fight for which I had 
longed was on. Like a happy, new wed lover who sees 
the future unroll before him, I felt myself married to 
the object of my longing, a splendid leaping tuna. Sud- 
denly, however, the end came. The game fellow, a 
plummet of lead, dropped to the bottom, and then with- 
out any warning or reason whatsoever — for my rod 
could pull only 4^1bs. of dead weight, and so an over- 
strain on the line was an impossibility — the tip straight- 
ened, the pull ceased, and my only tuna strike was a 
thing of the past. When I sadly recovered my line, T 
found that the trouble had occurred right at Jim's splice : 
Cherchez la femme. 
With all of this and much more in mind concern- 
ing the doings and habits of this truly royal fish, it is 
with a feeling of sincere pleasure that I note Prof. Hold- 
er's recent success in bringing him to gaff. Eastern 
anglers have no conception of what he really is, or 
awakening from their indifference they would not be 1 
grudge the time and money necessary for this capture. 
I predict that there is a change coming, a day when he 
will be appreciated as he deserves; when the ablest 
knights in that tournament of sport wherein the rod is 
king, instead of seeking battle in Florida with the tar 
pon, a fish which cannot stand comparison with the 
tuna in that he is utterly worthless when caught, is less 
THE TUNA— From Fisheries Industries. 
4lbs. R. N. Parish, of Montville, Conn., has taken one of 
4lbs. At the Mountain View House, Mr. H. J. Hessler 
has taken salmon weighing 6 J / 2 , 4^4 and 3>41bs. Fish 
Commissioner L. T. Carlton is also credited with a sal- 
mon of 6>41bs. and a trout of 3lbs.; Mr. H. W. Clark, a 
salmon of o^lbs. At Bemis fishing continues good, as 
indeed is the case through the whole Rangeley region. 
Special. 
A Plea for a Noble Fish. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of June 18 I note a letter from ''Senor 
X,," in the course of which he is kind enough not only 
to pay me a pretty compliment as to catching yellowtail 
at Santa Catalina Island, California — the subject of a 
recent letter from me in Forest and Stream — but 
moreover he calls me his "good friend." This is surely 
the kindest sort of treatment, coming as it does from 
so ready a pen as that of Senor X., and I hereby beg 
leave to express my due appreciation of the same. 
Nevertheless, when a man such as this puts himself to 
inconvenience for my benefit and also greets me as his 
"good friend," it naturally arouses my interest as to 
his personality. Senor X. is too modest. He treats me 
well and yet conceals his identity. In my eyes he is like 
Pope's Man o' Ross, who "did good by stealth and 
blushed to find it fame." Now I cannot lay claim to 
much if any of Poe's extraordinary ability at guessing 
cryptograms and enigmas, but I think that in this case 
I do not err when I say that I have solved the Senor 
X. personality probjem. There are certain little ref- 
erences in his able article on Catalina yellowtail, under 
date of May 14, that have given me reason for my be- 
lief. Senor X. is not only the modest and retiring 
grub, which, fearing examination and recognition hides 
itself away, but he is as well the gorgeous, full-grown 
butterfly, the envy of all. On page 402, at the bottom, he 
is simply "Senor X.," who pays "his good friend, Mr. 
Beard," a compliment: turning to page 403 and reading 
the very first line — from another hand — he becomes 
"Charles Frederick Holder, author and writer." to whom 
the said "erood friend" before" mentioned now willingly 
takes off his hat and bends the knee, for in killing a 
leaning tuna, r§3lbs. in weight. Prof. Holder has done, 
and well done, a feat with rod and reel that is beyond 
all praise from the angler's point of view. 
For frame qualities that fish, the tuna, is truly a won- 
der. Note this little clipping from the Sun as to the 
capture of a much smaller specimen than that of Prof. 
Holder. He was foul hooked, it is true, but see what he 
did: 
TOWED TWENTY MILES BY HIS FISH. 
From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
Los Angeles, June H.— Clifton R. Scudder, who went to Cata- 
summer I watched the astonishing aerial gymnastics of 
his kind, as they vaulted 12 and even 15ft. above the 
water in pursuit of prey; many a time have I heard the 
thunder as of breakers when the ocean's surface was 
torn and lashed into waves by the feeding tuna school 
as though it were storm troubled; and again and again 
did I mark what was to me as an angler the most 
marvelous sight in all the vast realm of nature, how 
some individual giant, very incarnation of speed, flush- 
ing a hapless flying fish from the glassy sea rim, would 
drive it a thousand feet and more, the flyer, swallow 
swift, 10ft. in the air, the swimmer ready always at the 
surface, until with dried and exhausted membranous 
wing the brave little fellow sank to certain death at 
last into the mighty jaws of the waiting gaze-hound 
beneath. That is truly a sight to stir the heart. It 
never grows commonplace. It never fails in interest. I 
have witnessed it not once, but a hundred times, and it 
has never failed to thrill me with astonishment and 
wonder. 
It was my ambition at Catalina to meet and con- 
quer this mighty over-lord of the sea. I camped 011 
his trail, I studied his habits, I schemed and toiled and 
lost sleep over him, ever in hopes of getting a fair 
chance at him. All to no purpose. Once indeed I came 
very near it, and I have often thought that the smile 
of a pretty woman cost me my fish. Sailor Jim Gardner, 
capital boatman and good fellow always, was splicing an 
extra 200ft. of cuttyhunk to my 8ooft. reel-line one 
evening as we sat in the hotel Metropole. We were talk- 
ing of Mr. Tuna, for this extra length was to help com- 
pass his destruction, I fondly hoped. Jim was doing 
the intricate "sailor's splice" as only a sailor can do it. 
Suddenly fate in the shape of a very sweet and pretty 
girl whom we both knew stopped near us and wanted 
to know, woman-like, "just how he did it." Jim is al- 
ways courteous and he tried to show her as he worked 
away busily; but I saw very quickly that he was a bit 
rattled by her close attention. His fingers lost some 
of their deftness, and I remember too that he com- 
plained of the warmth of the room. The knot finished, 
seemingly in good shape, I laid my tackle carefully 
away, full of faith in Jim's heretofore always truthworthy 
splicing work. Alas for me, three days later I had rea- 
son to remember that girl. One evening the bay at the 
Isthmus was full of feeding tuna. I baited with a fresh 
flying-fish and went out to interview them. When right 
in the midst of the school one great fellow flashed up to 
the surface, making a swirl fully 10ft. across, and I 
had a strike that might have cost me a finger had I 
been incautious enough to have tried to grasp the flying 
reel handle. He had taken the bait at full speed, and 
next instant I was getting a glorious run from a fish that 
made all other fish ever caught or hooked by me seem 
absolutely tame and slow by comparison. My boatman 
did his part well, and easing the strain on the rod by 
beautiful to the eye, and certainly takes a lower place 
in the scale for game and strength. I predict that in that 
day the man who can honestly lay claim to the capture 
of the heaviest leaping tuna will be easily ranked as the 
"world's high hook." To pun vilely, it is even now a 
case of Holder of the world's record. I am glad of it 
too, and I want to see an article from his pen telling 
just how he killed his grand fish. Such an article in 
Forest and Stream, coming from such a source, will 
not only promote interest in and substantiate my state- 
ments concerning the possibilities of this wonderful 
game fish, but it will make others beside myself think of 
and long to carry out that old-time maxim, "Go thou 
and do likewise." Senor X., we await your good pleas- 
lirc - Stuart-Menteth Beard. 
New York, June IT. 
Weakfish and Biuefish. 
Weakfisiiing and bluefishing are reported good on 
the Great South Bay, Long Island, 'ine best points are 
"the cinders" and the west channel. The Long Island 
Railroad to Sayville, Islip or Bayshore is the route from 
New York. 
Inner Beach, L. I., June 27.— Crabs are more plenti- 
ful than they have been in years, and other sorts of fish 
food abound everywhere in the bav. The result is a 
great rush of large fish through the inlets, and the best 
fishing we have had in years. Great numbers of weak- 
fish have been caught. One peculiarity of the fishing this 
season has been the superior chances of the fisherman 
who is on the ground early in the morning. This is said 
to be the result of the great quantities of food which is 
in the bay. After the first hour or two of feeding the 
appetite of the weak fish is appeased, and they will bite 
only the most tempting bait. 
East Rockaway, L. I., June 27.— The creeks and 
shoal waters of the bay are fairly alive with crabs; noth- 
ing like it has ever been known before at this season of 
the year. A common catch of amateur parties, with meat 
tor bait, and a crab net, is 100 crabs in an afternoon; 
while the regular baymen are averaging from six to ten 
dozen soft crabs for a day's work. It is thought that 
the reason for the unusual number of crabs at this season 
is the great quantity of vegetable matter which was 
washed into the creeks by the heavy rains of April and 
Ma y- Rock. 
Messrs. John Balch and B. Moliter on Saturday made 
the largest catch of weakfish with hook and line ever 
recorded in this bay. They took 160 fish, averaging 
about 2 1 /<lbs. each. On Sunday, Hugo Kuestler, Harry 
Frith and John Balch landed 114 weakfish. Other parties 
caught almost as many. v Fluke were also very plenty. 
