July 8, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
59 
The Eastern Tuna. 
Avalon, Cal., June 20 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: It is with much interest that the men 
of the Tuna Club in California have watched 
the attempts of anglers to take the tuna with 
rod and reel and tackle upon which the Tuna 
Club has made its records. A number of Tuna 
Club members have endeavored to set the pace 
elsewhere. Mr. Earlescliffe went to the Medi¬ 
terranean and tried them. Mr. Aflalo went to 
Madeira and then to the northeast coast of 
Canada and later, Mr. Conn, of the Tuna Club, 
tried the same place. 
In the summer of 1910 a school of tunas came 
up the Atlantic coast and several were taken. 
In Nova Scotia, or near the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence, the trouble seems to be that the fish 
are too large. Several have been hooked and 
boats have been towed up and down the coast, 
but the fish so far have outclassed the anglers 
or have forced the play until after dark, then 
started to sea. 
For several seasons I scoured the Atlantic in¬ 
side of Boon Island off Ogunquit and Old Or¬ 
chard Beach hoping to hook a tuna. I used a 
rod of thirteen or fourteen ounces (I have the 
butt yet), and live and dead mackerel bait, but 
never saw a tuna, though I was constantly en¬ 
couraged by my boatman, who told me he had 
seen horse mackerel, as he called them, along¬ 
side as long as his dory, and that they frequently 
would stand by when he was cleaning dogfish 
(sharks) and eat the refuse as he tossed it to 
them. He regaled my piscatorial appetite par¬ 
ticularly with accounts of one giant tuna, ten or 
eleven feet long, which was so tame that he 
named it, and could almost touch it as it swam 
about the dory. I trolled miles and hours for 
this fish, but never saw it. 
The fact is that the Atlantic tunas, so far as 
my knowledge goes—and I may be wrong—are 
.as a rule too big to come within the rod-and- 
reel class; not because they are too big to wear 
out, but because they are too heavy to lift or 
maneuver with a rod of any kind. Not only this, 
but the fish to give sport is the maximum sized 
fish of the medium class. To illustrate, in my 
own experience I found more sport, more ac¬ 
tivity in a two and a half-pound brook trout than 
in a nine-pound rainbow. I had my most excit¬ 
ing play with a ninety-pound tuna, my hardest 
on a 183-pounder. Colonel Morehouse holds the 
Tuna Club record with a 251-pounder. I took 
my 183-pound tuna in four hours of as hard 
fighting as I could put into it during the twelve 
miles it towed me. I literally made the physical 
effort of my life and was in good condition, and 
my boatman, who had seen more tunas taken 
than any man, told me that he had never seen 
so hard a fighter. Colonel Morehouse killed his 
251-pound fish in the same time, but it was too 
big to make so hard a fight as a smaller fish, 
though I am not detracting from its play; I am 
merely arguing that it is not the biggest fish 
that is the hardest fighter; it is the medium sized 
fish. 
My best tarpon was not over 125 pounds; my 
biggest was so big he couid not jump. I think 
he weighed 250 or more pounds—he got away. 
The record tarpon was too big to get out of the 
water more than once. He was a dead weight, 
a gallant fighter. This is true of all game fishes. 
It is the long slender tarpon under 150 pounds, 
the medium size trout, black bass, sa mon, that 
put up the best fights. 
Hundreds of men have tried to beat the Tuna 
Club record, but so far have failed. Tunas of 
doubtless 400 or 500 pounds have been hooked 
and played by two men, fourteen hours, but I 
submit that such a giant fails into the legitimate 
harpoon or grain class. The rod and reel is 
out-classed. My 183-pound fish I nearly lost be¬ 
cause the lifting strain was so terrific that my 
line would repeatedly cut down into the spool 
and stop the reel. I think that some time the 
251-pound record will be beaten, but it should 
be done with the tackle of the Tuna Ciub, a 
rod not less than six feet in length and a twenty- 
one or twenty-four thread line. In point of fact 
ail the big tunas taken at Santa Catalina, I think, 
were with twenty-one thread lines, length being 
considered an advantage. 
I am led to express this hope that all tuna 
anglers will use the twenty-one thread line, as 
the Tuna Club has sixty or so records made on 
it, and if a larger fish is taken, it will be of in¬ 
terest to compare the catch, but if a thirty-four 
or larger line is used, almost all the sport is 
taken out of it, as there is little chance of a 
break. The huge fish will merely tow the boat 
about all day and possibly go to sea at night, and 
the line will have to be cut. I am induced to 
say this, as in a most interesting paper C. F. 
Lane, in the County Gentleman, London, says: 
“The line itself must be stronger than the stand¬ 
ard adopted by the Tuna Club of Avalon, as 
Colonel Conn, the well-known member of that 
club, realized this year, that known as thirty-nine 
best Cuttyhunk being as light as it is advisable 
to use, and 300 yards is the minimum length." 
No one will question Colonel Conn’s judgment 
as a big fish angler, as he has taken practically 
everything that can be taken, and in a most 
sportsmanlike way, but I hope he will try the 
big Nova Scotia tunas with the twenty-one or 
twenty-four line upon which all the records have 
been made in California, so that there will be 
some base for comparison. Personally, I am of 
the opinion, as I have suggested, that the fish 
which cannot be taken with a twenty-one or 
twenty-four line passes out of the rod class and 
is in the harpoon or grain (Florida) class, a 
sport in itself which I have enjoyed with a large 
variety of fishes including the big Bahamian 
barracuda, sharks, swordfish, rays, etc. I do not 
mean to say that a very large tuna, we wid say, 
cannot be taken with a thirty-nine line, but I 
believe it would become a towing match, and 
that if the fish reached deep water, the angler 
would find it practically impossible to lift so 
big a fish or pump it un, the work becoming so 
strenuous that it would pass beyond the pale 
of sport. Tf, on the other hand, you grain a 
big 1,000-pound tuna, the fish is maddened, an 
element of danger enters the game, and for two 
men to take such a fish with a spear would 
certainly entitle them to the highest honors. In 
a word, I believe it is well to keep in mind the 
fact that there is a line separating the rod and 
the grain or harpoon class beyond which one 
is liable to step in the case of an 800 or 1,000- 
pound tuna. 
I once took a huge swordfish with rod and 
reel. I believe Edward Vom Hofe holds the rec¬ 
ord, though I do not recall the length. My own 
was too heavy to weigh in the locality in which 
it was caught, but it was game for the grains 
or harpoon. It merely towed me about and 
tried to cut me up at the finish. 
I have taken the same sized fish with the 
grains, nursesharks, etc., when the attempt was 
a battle, and have been jerked overboard and 
forced to let go. If tuna hunters in Nova Scotia, 
the Mediterranean, Madeira or elsewhere will fish 
with the Tuna Club tackle, which we know is 
certainly equal to a 251-pound fish, and we think 
a 35°~pounder, some most interesting and valu¬ 
able deductions and comparisons with the former 
catches can be made. 
The difficulties in the way of taking many 
tunas of over 100 pounds witli rod and reel may 
be estimated when it is known that out of the 
thousands of anglers who have tried it in the 
last ten years, and the expenditure of tens of 
thousands of dol.ars, not over seventy men have 
succeeded, these constituting the voting mem¬ 
bers of the Tuna Club. Charles F. Holder. 
A Pedagogical Angler. 
Syracuse, N. Y., June 12 .—Editor Forest and■ 
Stream: The poem herewith is a little gem, too 
good not to be set up before the readers of 
Forest and Stream. I hope you will let your 
subscribers have the benefit of it. Prof. Charles 
E. White, the author, is one of our public school 
principals and is a “pedagogical angler” which, 
by the way, would seem to me a good title for 
the poem. 
In the world of pedagogics. 
He who draws its revenue 
Must be quite as many-sided 
As the famous split-bamboo. 
Now the virtue of this fish rod, 
We are told by knowing guides, 
Is the true articulation 
Of exact trihedron sides; 
And that all its single sections. 
Each a truncate bamboo split. 
Must be mitred and assembled 
To a geometric fit. 
As a frustrumed hexahedron, 
Firmly bound in silken grip. 
With a fair and faultless taper 
From the reel seat to the tip; 
Hence its flex to tip the nibble, 
And its strength to land the fish; 
Hence its fame as highest apex 
Of the angler’s fondest wish. 
From a viewpoint pedagogic. 
Thus we read this metaphor: 
It behooves each Knight of Learning 
To extend his repertoire. 
Gain experience composite, 
Master multifarious arts. 
Take on poise and conscious powers 
Be a pedagogue of parts. 
Here’s the plain interpretation 
From the angler’s point of view, 
Be not just a common fish pole; 
Be a peerless split-bamboo. 
J. E. Bierhardt. 
