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Light Tackle Sea Fishing.—I. 
Pasadena, Cal., May 18 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The true sportsman will give his game 
a chance, not simply a chance, but very decidedly 
the advantage. The market fisherman increases 
the strength of his tackle until he gets the fish; 
the ardent amateur lightens his tackle until three 
out of five strikes are lost in the contest. 
There is no pleasure in catching fish, but there 
is abundant delight and incentive in losing them. 
If four strikes out of five are landed it is a true 
sign of coarse methods, and the true amateur 
will begin to “lighten up” until four out of five 
are lost, then the contest begins to be one of skill 
and sagacity. 
The Catalina Light Tackle Club was organized 
in April, 1906. It closed its first season on the 
last day of the following September with a mem¬ 
bership of 122, each of whom had duly qualified 
under the rules of the club by catching a game 
fish of not less than 20 pounds, with a standard 
nine-thread linen line and a rod not exceeding 
16 ounces in weight, butt included. The follow¬ 
ing are the rules as originally adopted: 
Membership.—Membership in the club is open to am¬ 
ateur fishermen only, who have caught in the waters 
of Santa Catalina Island on light tackle, according to 
the rules of the club, a game fish of not less than 20 
pounds net weight. The species included under this 
head are tuna, yellowtail, albacore, white sea bass, 
bonita and skipjack. The initiation fee is $2.50, and 
there will be no dues. 
Buttons.—Upon election to the club each new member 
will be presented with a club button as a badge of 
membership. A silver button will be presented to each 
member landing a game fish the corrected weight of 
which shall be net less than 45 pounds. A gold button 
will be presented to each member landing a game fish 
the corrected weight of which shall be not less than 60 
pounds. 
Rules.—1. The line used must be a standard 9-thread 
line. 
2. The rod 1 must be a wood rod of not less than 6 feet 
in length, including butt, and the weight of same, in¬ 
cluding butt, shall not exceed 16 ounces. 
3. Where the weight of rod is less than 16 ounces, 5 
per cent, shall be added tO' the weight of catch for each 
ounce less down to 9 ounces. No additional allowance 
shall be made for rods less than 9 ounces in weight. 
4. In addition to allowances made by Rule No. 3, a 
special allowance of 20 per cent, shall be added to actual 
weight of yellowtail. For instance, 55 per cent, will 
be added to weight of a yellowtail caught on a rod 
weighing 9 ounces or less. 
5. Anglers desirous of competing for prizes shall sub¬ 
mit their tackle for inspection to one of the Weighing 
Committee for approval. Tackle shall also be submitted 
for inspection at time of weighing in catch. 
6. Any amateur angler may compete for prizes offered, 
it not being necessary to become a member of the club 
in order to do so. 
7. Every angler must bring his fish to gaff unaided, 
and the fish must be reeled in. A broken rod, either 
before or after gaffing, disqualifies the catch. 
The experience of the first season led to the 
following modifications: In response to the ex¬ 
traordinary demand for light tackle the manu¬ 
facturers began, before the summer was over, 
turning out nine-thread lines which, while con¬ 
taining only nine strands, were as large and as 
strong as twelve thread. These extra size lines 
had a guaranteed breaking strength of over 24 
pounds and might go 30. The rules now require 
that fifteen feet of line used be turned in with 
catch at time of weighing, and if found of extra 
strength the catch is disqualified. A fine nine- 
thread line of selected flax should test not less 
than two pounds to the strand and may run as 
high as 20 or 22 pounds under favorable condi¬ 
tions, but the average should be not much over 18. 
It was found that a rod of six feet cut from 
an ordinary piece of bamboo and without joints 
is altogether too stiff for a nine-thread line, 
therefore the new rules require that all rods of 
a single piece of wood, without joints or detach¬ 
able butt, shall weigh 2 ounces lighter; that is 
in order to receive the credit of a 9 ounce rod 
they must weigh not over 7 ounces. 
Of the 122 members 31 won silver buttons and 
12 gold. This year a diamond button is provided 
for the angler landing a ioo pound tuna with the 
standard line and a 9-ounce rod. The anglfer 
who wins this button will at the same time qualify 
for the Tuna Club button, which calls for a tuna 
of not less than 100 pounds on heavy tackle. 
When the club was organized very few be¬ 
lieved it possible to land a tuna with light tackle, 
but one of 60 pounds, another of 35 pounds, and 
a number over 40 pounds were landed during the 
first season, and while many are skeptical re¬ 
garding the 100 pounder, the writer has no doubt 
that when the large ones are about one will be 
landed. For two seasons no large tuna have been 
striking; the largest last summer on heavy tackle 
was only 75 pounds, the average was about 40 
pounds. 
Pound for pound, the tuna is probably the 
swiftest, the hardest and longest fighter of all 
sea fish that are taken with a line, yet with skill 
and patience it can be landed, not every time, 
or once in ten times, if over 50 pounds, but once 
in a while, just often enough to keep a man fish¬ 
ing from early morning until after dark in the 
hopes of landing a big one. But we will return 
tO' the tuna later. 
The light tackle movement had its origin a 
year earlier. The writer first visited Catalina in 
February, 1906. The albacore fishing was ex¬ 
ceptionally fine all that winter. Tourists visited 
the island in great numbers, often as many as 
six or eight hundred going over in a day, and 
while most of them returned the same day, not 
a few remained over night and fished the next 
morning. Nearly every pleasant morning fifteen 
or twenty gasolene launches would put out from 
Avalon in search for albacore, each launch carry¬ 
ing from two to four or more people, men, 
women and children, most of whom had never 
caught a fish larger than a bullhead. The men 
would shout and the women scream when they 
had strikes. A dozen boats in a school of fish, 
each boat with one or more strikes, people shout¬ 
ing like mad, lines and rods breaking, is a sight 
not to be forgotten. After catching one or two 
fish it was always more fun to sit and watch the 
others. The weather was so fair, the sea so 
calm, the fish so plentiful, the tourists so numer¬ 
ous, the winter was one to be remembered. 
I* carried with me a pretty complete outfit of 
fresh water tackle, and as an extra precaution 
one 7-foot split bamboo 16-ounce sea rod and two 
sets of noibwood rods, three tips to one butt, the 
heaviest tip of one set with butt weighing 18 
ounces, the lightest tip of the other set a trifle 
under 8. A friendly resident of the island looked 
over my outfit and pronounced all the rods, ex¬ 
cept the two heaviest, worthless for those waters. 
“You may get an albacore on that rod,” point¬ 
ing to the split bamboo sea rod, “but a yellowtail 
would break it all up.” 
The next day I tried a 10-ounce cheap split 
bamboo, a small reel with 100 yards of line, and 
had no difficulty in landing three albacore, but 
it was perhaps lucky for me the first was only 
a 12-pounder. I was trolling with about twenty- 
five yards when the little rascal struck. I was 
looking for him, but did not expect him. _ He 
took out over a hundred feet before the vigor¬ 
ous thumbing of the small reel brought him to a 
halt and it was ten or fifteen minutes before he 
was landed. Albacore, like most of the game 
fish about Catalina, make very little fight near 
the surface, but sound, turn on their sides and 
make large circles, fighting every inch, often mak¬ 
ing several runs in the course of the contest. 
When they turn and sulk, so to speak, it is hard 
*[f the personal pronoun occurs frequently in this 
article it is because the notes are based on personal 
experiences, and it would be awkward and affected to 
write constantly in the third 1 person. But no credit is 
claimed over any one else fond of the sport. Many 
anglers fish at Catalina every season who are far more 
skillful than I, but possibly not many are so fond of 
experimenting with tackle, and it is these experiments 
and experiences which may be of interest to others. 
getting them up with light tackle, but the fight 
is worth while. 
The next strike proved to be a 24-pounder, 
and for a second or two it looked as if the 
meagre supply of line would be exhausted, but 
by exerting all the pressure the line would stand, 
and urging the boatman to back the launch, the 
fish was saved and landed in about twenty-five 
minutes. Three fish made a good morning’s 
sport. The rest of the time was spent watching 
others wlm were using heavy tackle and landing 
as many as eighteen or twenty to' the boat, a 
slaughter all the more wanton because the alba¬ 
core is seldom used for food. All the fish caught 
in the morning were thrown away in the after¬ 
noon. 
The record catch of albacore at the island is 
401, averaging about 20 pounds each, 8,000 pounds, 
in one half day, landed, photographed, then 
dumped back in the ocean. The fish deserves 
better treatment than that. It is the understudy 
of the tuna, and belongs to the same species, dif¬ 
fering mainly in its extraordinary long side 
fins. If the albacore were not about the island 
winter and summer, they would be as much 
sought after as the yellowtail, but fishermen are 
perverse. They always want that they cannot 
get. They will troll all day for yellowtail in 
the spring when they are scarce to scorn them 
in the summer when they are present in large 
numbers, or they will scour the ocean week after 
week for tuna and swear if a good big game 
albacore takes hold, though until they bring it 
within sight they think they have a tuna and 
are correspondingly elated. 
The experience of the morning showed me that 
one hundred yards of nine-thread line was not 
enough. While many fish could be turned with¬ 
in that distance others could not, and each run 
was apt to give a man palpitation of the heart 
as he saw his limited amount of line go out 
with a whizz which warmed the leather drag. 
The rules of the Tuna Club permitted not heavier 
than a twenty-four strand line and a rod the 
tip of which weighed not more than sixteen 
ounces. As the heavy rods were nearly all butt 
the total weight of a tuna rod might be three 
or four pounds or more. A fine one of split bam¬ 
boo, weighing from twenty-four to thirty-six 
ounces. Tuna and tarpon rods are rated the 
same. 
As the custom at Catalina has been for the 
boatman to furnish boat and tackle, it was to 
their interest to use the heaviest and most dur¬ 
able rods, reels and lines. Many of them made 
their own rods out of strong pieces of bamboo 
or of hickory with no joints. 
The heavy tackle rules were established with 
reference to large tuna, and if a man is going to 
fish for tuna weighing from 100 to 300 pounds, 
with the expectation of landing his fish, he should 
use something more than a nine-thread line, but 
he will miss a lot of sport with the smaller fish 
which are to be had in numbers when the large 
ones are scarcer than “chickens’ teeth.” No 100 
pound tuna has been landed since 1904. In the 
summer of 1905 they appeared, small in size and 
slightly different in color. Prof. Jordan classed 
them with the Japanese albacore, but they were 
so like the large tuna that the boatmen denied 
any difference except the more yellowish hue. 
The following summer the same tuna appeared in 
large numbers and heavier, running to 75 or 80 
pounds, and larger were seen, but not hooked. 
The absence of the large tuna made conditions 
ripe for the introduction of light tackle fishing. 
So long as the large fish came in good, anglers 
would visit the island for the tuna fishing as 
they go to the gulf resorts for tarpon, but there 
was no sport fishing for white sea bass, yellow¬ 
tail and albacore with the heavy tuna tackle, con¬ 
sequently fishing was left to the tourists. For 
