July i, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
17 
Cleveland, Ohio, June 22.-— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The line required for trolling with the 
rod for the great game fishes of the tropical seas 
must be a marvel of strength, lightness and en¬ 
durance. The strain of taking' a tuna or tarpon 
of 150 pounds, even from a small and handy 
powerboat, which can follow the fish and ease 
ravel and kink, if it is to do good service. It 
should also be dark in color, as a light coiored 
line, in the wonderfully clear waters of the 
tropics, is too noticeable and will, according to 
my experience, obtain much fewer strikes than 
one that is colored green or brown. I am satis¬ 
fied also that the coloring matter lessens the ten¬ 
dency to untwist and kink, and, to a considerab'e 
degree, protects from the rotting effect of salt 
ieast want to fish in my mornings and not to 
prepare tackle, and it seems to me manifest that 
all such preparatory work shou d be done by 
the maker or dealer, and that the fisherman 
should be able to buy a line completely ready 
for use. For such no reasonable sportsman 
would hesitate to pay an extra price, which 
would reimburse the maker for the extra labor 
and pay him a good profit besides. 
The books also say that all lines used for salt 
water fishing should be taken from the reel each 
night, thoroughly washed in fresh water, allowed 
to dry completely, and then be rep’aced. Has 
any one of these writers tried it and found out 
how much labor this operation requires, how the 
TROLLING ON BOARD THE KESTREL. 
the line with the engine, is enormous. That put 
upon the line in taking a fifty-pound kingfish or 
amberfish from a large sailboat, which cannot 
follow the fish and requires the whole work to 
be done with rod and reel, is probably equally 
great. In either case two or three hundred yards 
must be wound on a reel of reasonable size, and 
the salt water attacks the fiber and causes it to 
rot, so that the life of such a line cannot be very 
long. A high class linen line should have a 
breaking stress of at least two pounds per thread 
and maintain this strength for some weeks. 
The spin of the bait in trolling has a tendency 
to untwist all cable laid lines and cause them to 
kink. One so untwisted and kinked must have 
weak spots, and be liable to break at much less 
than the strain that one, properly twisted and 
unkinked, will easily endure. The line for such 
fishing must have the minimum tendency to un¬ 
water and so prolongs the life of the line. 
The catalogues recommend that one shou'd 
“set” his lines before use. This process consists 
in taking the line off the spool, winding it on a 
stick in kite string fashion,* so that it can be 
readily soaked, thoroughly soaking it, stretching 
it on a frame, permitting it to dry thoroughly, 
and then winding it upon the reel. Now the 
time and trouble required to so prepare a long 
line is very great. I have found that to set three 
lines of 200 yards each required a whole night’s 
soaking, followed by at least a whole morning’s 
troublesome and annoying labor, as the stretch¬ 
ing, drying and reeling up can only be done by 
day and in direct sunlight. A slight shower or 
the damp night air will undo most of your work, 
which must then be done over again. Now I at 
*A much better method is to use an ordinary folding 
line dryer.—E d. 
lines will snarl, and how much time, which 
should be devoted to fishing, one must expend on 
this soul-destroying occupation ? Let him attempt 
what he so cheerfully recommends to others, and 
he will know more and talk less. Of course rich 
men can hire others to do such work as setting, 
washing, drying and replacing lines, though it 
will be done less well than the fisherman would 
do it himself, but' my experience has shown the 
whole process to be unnecessary, provided hon¬ 
estly made lines are furnished for one’s monejL 
Six years ago I spent a month cruising among 
the Florida keys, fishing near the reef for the 
great kingfish, amberjack, baracuda and groupers. 
Five years ago I spent nearly five months of the 
winter and early spring in Nassau, fished about 
eight hours a day from a 35-foot sailboat, and 
took kingfish up to fifty-five pounds and amber- 
jack up to fifty-two. I then could buy green or 
