Aug. 24, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
251 
PARKER GUNS 
Wear Well, Shoot Well and Handle Well 
Wear well because they are made of the best material by the most skillful craftsmen. 
Shoot well because they hold the charge compactly together at extreme ranges. 
Handle well because the greatest attention has always been paid to the distribution 
of wood and metal, to insure perfect balance and the most symmetrical outline. 
Twenty-bore Parkers have set the pace for small bores in America, and are growing 
in popularity every year with the most progressive sportsmen. 
For further information regarding guns in gauges ranging from 8 to 28, address 
PARKER BROS. Meriden, Conn. 
New York Salesrooms, 32 Warren Street 
MORE LINES AND MORE TROUBLE. 
Continued from page 232. 
got near enough to the boat for me to see them. 
All through the last half of March and the 
early part of April tourists and natives, using 
ordinary white hand lines with a big hook, were 
bringing in kingfish of over forty pounds, and 
two were taken and brought into the Colonial 
Hotel, of which one weighed sixty pounds and 
the other eighty pounds, while I, fishing dili¬ 
gently, had nothing but broken lines and small 
fish to show. 
I should add that Messrs. Edward vom Hofe 
& Co. sent me a twenty-seven thread cable laid 
line of different make, which gave comparatively 
good service, enormously superior to their 
twenty-four thread line, and in fact better than 
any of the cable laid lines I had, but after this 
long and trying experience I have reached the 
conclusion that a cable laid line is absolutely 
unsatisfactory for fishing, under the peculiar 
conditions at Nassau, and that a braided line 
of the quality of the Everlasting Deep Sea 
Cuttyhunk Line furnished by Abbey & Imbrie, 
if of twenty-four or twenty-seven thread size, 
might be reasonably satisfactory, but that any¬ 
one that goes to Nassau to fish with any other 
line is doomed to disappointment. 
The trouble with my lines was not the only 
difficulty which I met in this fishing. I took 
down with me two tarpon reels that I had used 
five years ago, and one of Abercrombie & Fitch’s 
tarpon reels No. 444, which I had bought the 
previous season. That reel had promptly broken 
its click, but I supposed this was an accident and 
did not expect a recurrence of the trouble in 
reels of that kind. My two old reels were fitted 
with Abbey & Imbrie's Rabbeth drag, which had 
gifc'en me such excellent service, and before I 
had been using them much over a month, the 
screws which bind the drag to the reel wore 
out and the handles came off, rendering the reels 
useless. As soon as the first of these Rabbeth 
drags failed, I cabled my office for more reels, 
and two new reels of No. 444 were forwarded 
me from Abercrombie & Fitch. On the day they 
reached me, the first one jammed in the main 
axle, so I took it apart and forwarded the im¬ 
perfect piece to Abercrombie & Fitch by express. 
They returned me a new axle to put in its place. 
Before the end of the season the second Aber¬ 
crombie & Fitch reel, No. 444, jammed in the 
same way, and the nut holding the Rabbeth drag 
on the third one wore out and came off, so that 
during the latter part of my stay I had only 
one reel in service and in this I naturally had 
no confidence, although it fortunately did not 
actually fail me, so that my fishing, which was 
my principal pleasure, could be kept up, although 
with untrustworthy tackle, until the end of my 
stay. 
My rods, of which I started with four, I 
managed with some splicing to keep in working 
order. After a great deal of difficulty I ob¬ 
tained from Messrs. Abercrombie & Fitch a 
dozen of hand-forged hooks which they called 
12/0, but the breaking of my lines soon dis¬ 
posed of this small supply, and I had to again 
revert to the local hooks of proper size, but of 
inferior quality. In the winter of 1911 I had 
obtained some Sam spoons through Abercrom¬ 
bie & Fitch, which I found to fail me entirely, 
through the tarnishing of the metal of which 
they were composed, through the weakness of 
the hook at the point at which it was attached 
to the spoon, and from the incurved point of 
the hook which is admirable for still-fishing, but 
makes one miss a large number of strikes in 
trolling. I reported these disasters to Messrs. 
Abercrombie & Fitch, and they furnished me a 
number of Sam spoons specially nickel-plated 
and with stronger hooks, although the incurved 
point was still present. I found the nickel plat¬ 
ing completely remedied the trouble of tarnish¬ 
ing, so that with very little effort one’s spoons 
could be kept in proper shape, but even these 
heavier hooks were too weak at the point where 
they were attached to the spoon, and I broke two 
of them, and also found that the old trouble of 
missing strikes, which I suppose to be due to 
the incurved point of the hook, was as prevalent 
as ever. 
I plan to go to spend next winter at Nassau, 
devoting myself to fishing as usual, and want 
to start with at least the following outfit: 
1. One dozen braided linen lines as good as 
Abbey & Imbrie’s Everlasting Deep Sea Cutty- 
hunk line, but of larger size, twenty-four or 
twenty-seven. 
2. Not less than three reels of the very best 
quality, with a reliable friction adjustable drag, 
preferably in the handle. 
3. Not less than 100 hooks of about the size 
called 12/0 by Abercrombie & Fitch; that is 1 
inches from point to shank and about 4^2 inches 
in the length of the shank. 
4. 1 should like some more spoons of the Sam 
shape, nickel-plated, with a very much stronger 
and heavier hook than those sent to me, and 
with a straight point. 
The cost of these articles is unimportant as 
compared to their quality, and I ask the privilege 
of publishing the results obtained. My total ex¬ 
penditure for fishing tackle during the current 
season was considerably over $250, and I stated 
this fact to one of the dealers at Nassau, gave 
him a catalog I happened to have with me, mark¬ 
ing the articles which I had used, and advised 
him to make the attempt to have something of 
the kind on hand. This he may possibly do, pro¬ 
vided he has more energy than most of the 
business men of the South seem to possess. The 
names of the principal hardware dealers at 
Nassau are Messrs. S. George & Co. The Gen¬ 
eral Hardware Co., and the Ironmongery Co., 
and I think it might be well worth while for 
fishing tackle dealers to communicate with them 
as there are many Americans beside myself who 
desire to fish in the tropics and would be glad 
to use American tackle if it could be procured, 
which at present it cannot. 
The typical tarpon and tuna rod has a butt 
of five or six feet long and short tip, which of 
course makes it excessively awkward to carry. 
I had a rod seven feet long, built of greenheart, 
in two pieces of equal size, the sliding ring being- 
above the reel and arranged to lock by turning. 
My specimen gave me a good deal of trouble 
on account of the tarnishing of the metal of 
which it was composed, so that the ferrules and 
locking ring had to be greased at least once 
a day. I have used and have one or two green- 
heart rods of the standard patterns and have 
suffered an immense amount of annoyance in 
their transportation, but found the new rod quite 
as satisfactory in use and enormously more con¬ 
venient in transport. I ought to explain here 
that I have two fishing trunks, one for fresh 
water and one for salt water, the lower portion 
of each of which holds tackle box, lines, reels 
and other equipment, and the upper portion 
holds the necessary fishing clothing. These 
trunks are about fifty-six inches long, twenty- 
four inches wide and sixteen inches deep, so 
that they will readily hold any ordinary rod of 
two pieces, a bag of golf clubs or anything of 
such dimensions, and the tackle does not have 
to be taken out and put back again, but stays 
in the trunks unless removal for repairs is neces¬ 
sary. I have found these trunks of enormous 
convenience and heartily recommend them to 
my brother anglers. 
I have fished both in salt and fresh water; 
in fresh water for at least thirty years, and in 
salt water for a dozen. Standard trout and 
salmon tackle, all from the same New York 
dealers whom I have named above, have never 
given me any trouble of importance. In fact, 
I have taken it for granted that my trout lines, 
supplies and rods could be depended upon. Why 
I should have had such a disastrous experience 
with salt water tackle from the same concerns 
is beyond my understanding. Two such winters 
as I have passed at Nassau have been trying- 
enough to seriously impair the health and 
strength of any fisherman. I want to say that I 
