18 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July x, 1911. 
brown tarpon lines of 200 yards each, of twenty- 
one or twenty-four threads, put them on my reels 
without any setting, never wash or dry them, and 
find them give excellent service for about thirty 
days with little tendency to untwist or kink. 
After that time it proved wise to replace them 
by new ones, and this became my regular prac¬ 
tice. In my two former winters, at Nassau and 
in Florida, I had a line break but once, and this 
was when I had neglected to exchange it for 
a new one after thirty days’ service, and perhaps 
was rather careless also. I used but a single 
large swivel, and never found it necessary to use 
keel sinkers, or any similar device, to prevent 
untwisting or kinking. 
I had hoped to return to Nassau the following 
year and break my own record on kingfish, and 
for that purpose then bought four of Hall s 
special tarpon lines, but illness and the panic of 
1907 prevented, and the lines lay among my kit 
until this last winter. Then at last I came back 
to my old fishing grounds full of glorious an¬ 
ticipations, secured my former house and my old 
boat and crew, and started to work. Before 
leaving I had ordered from New York half a 
dozen Rex tarpon lines, described as the very 
best, and also a supply of swivels and keel sink¬ 
ers. Pending their arrival I used the Hall lines, 
purchased in 1906, without setting or washing, 
and with but one swivel, and found them give 
rather more trouble than I had formerly had in 
untwisting and kinking, but nothing very serious. 
Still when the Rex lines arrived, about two weeks 
after I began fishing, I thought the Hall lines 
unfit for longer service, and exchanged them for 
the new ones, putting on also keel sinkers. I 
was surprised to find the new Rex lines white or 
nearly so, but concluded that others knew better 
than I and used them with confidence. 
Then my troubles began. A new Rex line 
would, in three hours’ trolling, be untwisted into 
three parallel strands for the lower seventy-five 
yards of its length, would kink in a most extra¬ 
ordinary manner, and, in spite of increasing the 
swivels to three, putting on keel sinkers, and re¬ 
versing the lines each day, was likely to break 
under a very moderate strain on the second or 
third day. I rigged up on my rear porch with 
great trouble a place where I could stretch and. 
dry my lines, and went through the laborious 
and time-devouring process of setting them, of 
course only possible in the day time, but obtained 
very little improvement. 
Thinking that the white color and lack of dye 
might account for the difficulty, I wrote at once 
for more Hall lines, but partly through the slow¬ 
ness of the parcels post, which comes to Nassau 
but once in two weeks, these did not arrive until 
over six weeks after they were ordered, and then 
proved greatly inferior to those bought four 
years ago with which I had begun the season. 
I sent over to Miami for the best green tarpon 
lines they could furnish and got at last some 
Gulf tarpon lines, bearing the name of a St. 
Louis dealer. These did a very little better ser¬ 
vice than the Rex lines, but were greatly inferior 
to the older Hall lines, unravelling and breaking 
in a most distressing manner. 
I used two Rex lines unset. The first one was 
so badly untwisted and kinked after the first half 
day’s fishing that I reversed it on my reel, put¬ 
ting the unused portion at the outer end. I then 
used it for two days more, reversing it each day, 
and it broke on the third day at the strike of a 
moderate sized fish. The second unset Rex line 
broke in about two hours after I had put it on 
the reel. The other four Rex lines I set and 
found these to give very varying results. One 
of them broke the first day I used it, the others 
lasted several days each, although it was neces¬ 
sary to reverse them every day. In less than 
two weeks all of the six Rex lines were unfit 
for service. 
The first Gulf tarpon line used unset encour¬ 
aged me very much, giving good service for the 
first day. The next day I took a Rex line from 
one of my other reels and put a new Gulf tarpon 
line on it. This line broke at the first strike I 
had upon it. I then took off the unset lines and 
substituted set Gulf tarpon lines. These gave 
better service than the unset lines, but still un¬ 
twisted, unraveled, kinked and broke. I reversed 
these lines every day and managed to catch some 
fish with them, but never could trust them. 
Of the new lot of Hall lines received only a 
few days before I left Nassau, I went through 
the process of setting one, and found that the 
soaking removed a large part of the coloring 
matter. After careful setting and drying I used 
this line for two days with great caution, re¬ 
versed it every night, and on the third day it 
broke at the strike of a moderate sized fish. I 
did not dare to use any of the other Hall lines 
and brought them back home with me.' 
The best lines I had during the winter were 
two tarpon lines bought of a New York dealer, 
costing considerably less than any of the others, 
but even these were very far from good, enor¬ 
mously inferior to the lines of five years ago, 
unraveled and kinked badly and broke frequently. 
Toward the end of my stay I always cut off the 
lower ten or twelve feet of the line after one 
day’s use, always doubled the line for the lower 
ten feet before using it, watched the lines very 
carefully, and, when a weak spot showed, cut it 
out and knotted the line, used keel sinkers and 
three large swivels, and yet continually got 
wretched service. 
The big kingfish were very late in arriving 
this year, perhaps because the season was un¬ 
usually cold and all fish seemed very scarce, so 
up to April 13, when I left Nassau, I had only 
hooked eight large ones. One was lost by the 
excitement of my skipper, one tore the hook out 
of its mouth, and six broke my lines short off 
in spite of the greatest care I could use. 
During the whole winter I caught only one 
kingfish over twelve pounds, and this three days 
before I left. He was forty-eight inches long, 
weighed thirty pounds, and was hooked in the 
middle of the belly. Of course he made a most 
furious fight, repeatedly ran out my line nearly 
to the end, got under the boat, and was only 
kept from cutting off the line on the keel by 
plunging my rod straight down into the water. 
It took at least forty-five minutes to kill him. 
Every moment of this time I felt that my line 
was liable to fail me and the fish was only landed 
by the greatest care. 
I can only explain this disastrous and infuriat¬ 
ing experience by supposing that the makers of 
lines have been led to use inferior material and 
labor, so that such abuses have arisen as, in an¬ 
other field of trade, the Pure Food and Drugs 
Act has done so much to remedy. The abomi¬ 
nable notion that the markets of the world are 
for the benefit of the producer and seller only, 
and that the consumer and buyer have no rights 
at all, which has done such grave harm in other 
industries, seems to have extended its baleful in¬ 
fluence over the tackle trade also. Of course 
such an idea leads directly to fraud of all 
kinds, and countless kindred evils. These 
can be overcome only by informing and direct¬ 
ing the public opinion, which is the court of last 
resort in this country, and the only method of 
successfully doing this is by publicity, by throw¬ 
ing light into the dark places. 
That thoroughly reliable lines can be made and 
sold at a reasonable price is conclusively shown 
by my experience of five years ago, and a dealer 
or maker who will furnish such trustworthy 
lines can have from me any reasonable price he 
asks. I want good lines, regardless of cost, and 
appeal to all my fellow sportsmen to help me 
find them, if they can be now had, and if not, to 
join me in a crusade that will produce them. Let 
us all condemn in print and giving full names 
of lin'es, maker and dealer, such lines as we have 
found bad, and in the same way praise such lines 
as we have found good. 
I have not written this article, nor do I pro¬ 
pose the above suggested course to my brother 
fishermen, for the purpose of wreaking ven¬ 
geance on any dealer or manufacturer, but want 
to myself use, and have other fishermen use, the 
great weapon of publicity for the protection of 
fishermen, honest dealers, and honest manufac¬ 
turers, against dishonest manufacturers, who 
cheapen their product by using inferior material 
and labor, and dishonest dealers who sell some¬ 
thing they know to be inferior. Of course a 
dealer may be also deceived, so a time limit 
should be allowed before dealers are denounced 
by name. For this reason I have omitted the 
names of dealers from this article. 
I have dealt with the dealers who sold me the 
Rex lines for many years and have found them 
most courteous and accommodating, and never 
until this winter have I got bad material from 
them. I wrote them fully, stating my experience. 
They expressed great regret and have volunteered 
to take back all goods purchased from them 
which proved unsatisfactory, and refund the full 
price, which they have since done, but this does 
not cover the case. If I buy a line for three 
dollars and hook and lose a record fish through 
failure of that line, a refund of three dollars, a 
payment of three hundred dollars, or any money 
sum whatever, would not satisfy me. What fish¬ 
ermen want, especially those who are exercising 
their craft in distant regions, where no supplies 
can be had and communication is slow and un¬ 
certain, is tackle that can be depended upon 
and not a claim for damages. 
I also wrote to the St. Louis dealers, reporting 
the unsatisfactory results obtained with the lines 
bearing their name. 
I had other experience with unsatisfactory 
tackle and other trials on this trip, which really 
have made it memorable for misfortune, and 
these I shall probably describe in a future article, 
but the present one is devoted to the subject of 
lines only. 
The following seem to me established as con¬ 
clusions: 
1. The lines now made and so'd for tropical 
trolling are generally enormously inferior to 
those obtained five years ago. 
2. All linen lines should be sold set and ready 
to put on the reel, and fishermen should refuse 
to buy any others. 
