Atlantic Tuna Fishing. 
Sydney, N. S., June 26 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: By J. A. L. Waddell’s letter m your 
issue of May 29 last I see that I have promised 
your paper a letter on tuna fishing with a rod 
and line on the Atlantic. Although I am very 
glad to tell my experience with the Atlantic 
tuna I should like you to understand in the first 
place that previous to 1908 I had never attempte 
any fish larger than salmon, so that really I am 
a novice at big-game fishing. 
Last year I bought a tarpon outfit but with 
a special reel that would hold 300 yards of No. 
36 line. I always used a No., n Van Vleck 
trolling tarpon hook with wire snood and 
swivels, No. 36 line and a 7-foot, 19-ounce 
wooden rod. I generally used a mackerel for 
bait, though I preferred herring or gaspereau if 
I could get them, which was not very often. My 
favorite fishing place was St. Anne’s Bay, which 
is about thirty miles north of Sydney. It is a 
beautiful bay with a splendid anchorage inside 
a natural breakwater formed by a sandbar. Ihe 
bay outside the sandbar is from six to seven 
miles long and about six miles wide at the 
mouth. Mira Bay, another resort of the tuna 
is about the same distance south of Sydney and 
practically of the same size, but there, is no 
inner harbor for my yacht as at St. Anne s Bay, 
though one can go up the River Mira with a 
good sized launch. I fished in Mira Bay only 
one day last year and on that occasion I had 
four rises, but hooked only two. 
The tuna are first seen here in the latter part 
of July and stay, so far as I know, until the 
end of September. I hooked my first fish 111 St. 
Anne’s Bay on Aug. 8 last year at about 10:45 
a. m., and as I was an absolute greenhorn and 
knew’ nothing about the strength of my tackle 
I just sat in the boat and hung on to the rod 
like grim death. When the fish took the bait 
he broke the surface for about fifteen to twenty 
feet and went on in a mad rush half way across 
the bay, which is about a mile wide at this point. 
He then turned and made for the shore, but 
when he approached the shoal water he com¬ 
menced to slow down and I began to reel in. 
When I was within about thirty feet of the 
fish—I could see him all the time, as he was 
swimming with his dorsal fin out of the water 
he made three or four quick rushes backward 
and forward and then dived under the boat on 
a tremendous run. 
Although I immediately put the tjp of the rod 
in the water and Captain Bill, my boatman, 
swung the boat, we were nearly upset, but more 
by good luck than good management the rod 
and boat were saved and we started off at a 
good pace, being towed by the tuna, stern first. 
These maneuvers were repeated by the tuna 
every time that he approached shoal water, which 
occurred five or six times in the first seventy 
minutes, but that first dive taught us a lesson 
and we always afterward were ready for him 
when he dived under the dinghy. 
Between 1130 and 2 p. m., the wind coming 
up forced us to turn the dinghy to tow bow 
first. At about 5 p. m. a heavy fog commenced 
to roll in from the sea, and by 5130 we were 
completely shut in by the fog. The wind drop¬ 
ped so that the sun, which was just visible, was 
our only means of knowing the direction we 
were taking. When I realized that in a little 
more than an hour we would be practically lost, 
I commenced for the first time to fight the fish 
as hard as I could, in order to see what the 
tackle would stand. I then learned two things, 
first, that my renewed efforts started the fish 
to tow us faster than we had gone all day, and 
second, that the tackle was a good deal stronger 
than I had expected. About 7 P. M., just before 
the sun went down, I cut the line, as he was 
then towing us out to sea. 
The inclosed photograph was taken from my 
sloop Gloria, and as you will see I am just 
TOWED BY A TUNA. 
From a photograph made on board the :y,® ch J ^ lor ,\ a ' 
Mr Ross was plavmg the big fish, while Capt. \\. 
Ross steered the dinghy. 
sitting, holding the rod and allowing the fish 
to tow us as he pleases. In all other attempts 
I fought the fish from the start, never giving 
him a rest, as I then knew better what my tackle 
would stand. 
During the summer I had twenty-eight rises 
and hooked twenty-one tuna. Some of these I 
fought for only fifteen or twenty minutes, but 
others I fought for hours. My longest fight 
was from 8:45 a. m. until 10:25 p. m., or thirteen 
hours and forty minutes, when I had to cut the 
line, owing to darkness. On that occasion when 
I cut the line I had the fish almost tired out, 
as he could not take more than thirty or forty 
feet of my line, but during the last two hours 
I had him so close to the boat that he seveial 
times nearly broke my rod, yet I could not see 
him, and as there was no possible chance of 
gaffing him before morning, I was forced to 
let him go. The whole time that I fought this 
fish I never saw him at all. He was the only 
one of the twenty-one I hooked that I did not see. 
The tuna when they first come in the bays 
in this vicinity go around in large schools, leap¬ 
ing all over the bay, but later in the season or 
after the middle of August they do not seem 
to jump so much, and they then go round in 
pairs. I found it much harder to hook them m 
the earlier part of the season when they were 
jumping than later in the season when they 
seemed to jump only occasionally. 1 his may 
perhaps be accounted for by my not knowing 
how to bait my hook properly at the first part 
of the season. When the fish rises for the bait 
I find it necessary to strike as hard as I can 
or he will invariably spit out the bait and hook 
as several did when I did not strike hard enough. 
In my experience after hooking a fish, the first 
twenty minutes are the hardest to hold him, but 
if you can hold him for twenty minutes you 
can hold him all day, provided that you make 
no mistakes. One mistake and the tuna is gone. 
Most of them jump after they are hooked, but 
a few you never see, although I found that the 
great majority of them jumped after being 
hooked. 
After my experience last summer I came to 
the conclusion that the lines and reels were not 
heavy enough to tire out one of these enormous 
fish during the hours of daylight, so I arranged 
for a special reel that would hold 300 yards of 
No. 39 line. Although this new line has only 
three more threads than the No. 36, still each 
thread is made . stronger, so that I expect that 
it will have nearly 5° P er cen f- more strength. 
With these new lines I feel confident that you 
can tire an Atlantic tuna before dark if you play 
him without making any mistakes. I have also 
ordered the wire leaders to be twelve feet long, 
as I lost several fish last year owing to the fish 
cutting the line with their tails, as the smallest 
1 tuna here are over six feet in length, and it 
seems to me that a leader longer than the fish 
is required. 
I must apologize to Mr. Waddell for giving 
him the wrong dimensions of the tuna that was 
harpooned in Mira Bay last August. I gave him 
the dimensions from memory, but now I find 
that they were as follows: Length, 8 feet 4 
inches; girth, 5 feet 7 inches; tail, 2 feet 9 inches 
in width; from nose to gill, 3 feet; weight, 462^ 
pounds. J- K- Ross 
[Although Mr. Ross hooked and played more 
than a score of tuna, he landed none of them. 
All broke away save those mentioned by him, 
which were cut adrift. In a later communica 
tion he confirms this statement and adds: 
“This year with improved tackle I hope to 
succeed in landing an Atlantic tuna with rod 
and line. At all events I feel confident that 
tuna will be landed this year with rod and line, 
as a number of men from the United States 
have told me they were coming here with new 
gear to try their luck.”— Editor.] 
All the fish laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
