232 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 24, 1912 
More Lines and More Trouble 
By A. J. S. NEWBERRY 
M Y article ‘‘On Lines,” published in Forest 
and Stream, July 1, 1911, was scrupu¬ 
lously accurate and seemed to be entire¬ 
ly just as originally written, and brought forth 
a large number of replies from two classes of 
correspondents. All sportsmen heartily sym¬ 
pathized with my disastrous results and agreed 
with my proposed method of obtaining a cure, 
although I have not seen many articles on the 
subject, perhaps because none have been writ¬ 
ten and perhaps because publishers of some 
sporting magazines care more about the 
revenue obtained from the dealers in fishing 
tackle as advertisers than they do about pro¬ 
moting the interests of sport and sportsmen. 
The second class of letters was from dealers 
in fishing tackle, nearly all of whom condemned 
me greatly, entirely failed to understand the 
purpose of my article, and seemed to think that 
I was condemning their whole class of makers 
or dealers instead of trying to protect the honest 
maker and dealer against the dishonest maker 
and dealer, and therefore to promote the in¬ 
terests of sport. After a large amount of cor¬ 
respondence, however, three separate dealers or 
makers agreed to furnish me lines, and I went 
to Nassau in January of the curren.t year equip¬ 
ped with six 200-yard twenty-four thread green 
cable laid lines furnished by the Edward vom Hofe 
Co., six by Abbey & Imbrie, and six by the Ash¬ 
away Line & Twine Mfg. Co., the Ashaway 
Company also furnishing me a single twenty- 
four thread braided linen line, and Abbey & 
Imbrie doing the same thing. 
I stated to all these gentlemen that I pro¬ 
posed to thoroughly test these lines, to keep a 
careful record of the results obtained and to 
DOLPHIN JUST FROM THE SEA. 
publish these results whether they were bad or 
good, and to this they all agreed in writing. 
After having made such efforts to guard 
against the disasters of the winter of 1911, I 
supposed I was protected, and that the disasters 
of the previous season would not be repeated, 
but unfortunately this was far from being the 
case. Before giving an account of my experi¬ 
ence, I ought to say that Nassau fishing requires 
the use of a large bait, which must necessarily 
spin, and consequently is very severe upon a 
cable laid line (although I had no difficulty with 
similar lines in the winter of 1906), and the very 
unfavorable winter which has just prevailed even 
in the South, though to a much less degree than 
in the North, delayed the arrival of the big fish 
until very late in the year, so that I had no 
practical chance to try these lines against fish of 
any magnitude until the month of March. In 
fact, t caught nothing but barracuda and rock- 
fish, and none of these in excess of twenty-five 
pounds, until nearly The end of February, so 
that the cable laid lines during the early part 
of the season had no severe test. Under such 
test as was then given they showed extraordi¬ 
nary differences. I used three rods, each carry¬ 
ing a line of a different maker, and kept a 
record of the performance of each of the lines. 
1 he twenty-four thread lines furnished by 
Alibey & Im'rie gave good success during this 
early fishing; that is, they showed little ten¬ 
dency to kink or unravel and took a large num¬ 
ber of fish up to fifteen or twenty pounds each 
without any accident, and the lines furnished 
by the Ashaway Company gave practically the 
same results. During all this early time 1 made a 
practice of taking these last two lines from the 
reels and substituting new lines in a period not 
much exceeding two weeks, and thought they 
were thoroughly reliable. The twenty-four 
thread cable laid lines furnished by E. vom 
Hofe Co. showed a disastrous difference. I tried 
three of these lines in the beginning and each 
of them broke or became unfit for further use 
on the first day. so I no longer dared to use 
their lines at all and have three of the twenty- 
four thread lines of their make still in my kit. 
T never saw any cable laid lines show such ten¬ 
dency to untwist and kink as these lines did, 
and think that they are absolutely worthless for 
fishing in tropical waters under Nassau condi¬ 
tions even for small fish. 
Messrs. Abbey & Imbrie also furnished me 
two hundred yards of their braided Cuttyhunk 
line and the Ashaway Company furnished me one 
of their "Reliance” braided linen line, both of 
which I tried during the early part of the sea¬ 
son in comparison with the cable laid lines. I 
found the braided lines showed some tendency 
to swell and slightly preferred the Ashaway line, 
although the difference was not great, but both 
of them seemed to me so swollen and weak¬ 
ened by salt water as to be unfit for service 
after about a month’s use, and I therefore took 
them off the reels, substituting for them one 
each of the cable laid Ashaway and Abbey- 
Imbne lines which had made before so good an 
appearance. The names of the cable laid lines 
HIS FIRST TARPON. 
furnished me by the various companies were as 
follows, all being green in color and twenty- 
four thread size: Abbey & Imbrie—“Highest 
Quality Linen Cuttyhunk Line.” The Ashaway 
Company—“The Original Cuttyhunk Bass and 
Tarpon Line.” Edward vom Hofe & Co.—“Cele¬ 
brated Bass and Tarpon Line.” 
About March 15 the big fish at last arrived 
and my confidence in cable laid lines of any 
make promptly disappeared. I began to hook 
big kingfish, unmistakable by their characteristic 
play, and my lines promptly began to 'break. I 
cabled north for more braided lines, for no 
tackle can be bought at Nassau, and found that 
the Ashaway Company did not have braided 
lines in stock, and that it would take nearly a 
month to make them, which would bring me to 
the end of my stay. In reply to my order for 
six braided lines, Abbey & Imbrie sent me six 
more of their twenty-four thread cable laid lines, 
so I was left until the last week of my stay 
with nothing but these untrustworthy cable laid 
lines to depend upon. I repeatedly hooked large 
kingfish, played them with the greatest skill in 
my power and without fault on the part of my 
boatman, and had my lines break, often after 
the fish was pretty nearly exhausted. By fur¬ 
ther cabling my office I finally obtained from 
Abbey & Imbrie six of their braided linen lines 
bearing the following name, “Everlasting Deep 
Sea Cuttyhunk Line,” but they were only of size 
twenty-one instead of size twenty-four, which I 
wanted. With these six new braided linen lines 
I succeeded in taking a 53-inch dolphin and a 
43-pound amberjack ■ during the last week of 
my stay, but these were the only big fish that I 
got. One afternoon, using an Abbey & Imbrie 
cable laid line, I hooked two of the largest king¬ 
fish I have ever felt, played them with the great¬ 
est care and skill within my power, and with¬ 
out fault on the part of myself or my boatmen 
in both cases the lines broke short before the fish 
(Continued on page 251.) 
