580 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[April ii, 1908. 
New Clubs in California. 
Los Angeles, Cal., March 30 .—Editor Fores! 
and Stream: The yellowtail is the chief game 
fish of Catalina, although the tourist seldom 
hears much of it until arriving at the coast. In 
the East it is all tuna. The yellowtail has been 
somewhat neglected in angling literature, but the 
coming of light tackle has done much to popu¬ 
larize him. That a fish of twenty pounds weight 
could put up a diverting fight when angled for 
with gear designed to subdue fish of ten times 
his weight speaks a volume for his sporting 
qualities, and at last the yellowtail is to be given 
a square deal. 
Thomas McD. Potter, Lafayette P. Streeter 
and the writer met a few days ago and per¬ 
fected the details of a pair of angling clubs 
which are destined to promulgate a new propa¬ 
ganda in angling ethics. The use of a six-strand 
line and a six-ounce rod is insisted upon pri¬ 
marily, and the club will issue no buttons or 
other trophies with the exception of a cup or 
two, and cards of honor attesting the catches 
when made upon specified tackle. One club is 
to be recruited from the island anglers; the 
other from the Southern California Rod and 
Reel Club’s experts on the mainland. There 
will be six charter members in each, and the 
name of the island organization will be the 
Catalina Three Six Club, the three six idea 
being derived from the tackle and the number 
of charter members, and carried out in the 
classes which are for fish of eighteen, twenty- 
four and thirty pounds weight, the competition 
being limited exclusively to yellowtail. 
Messrs. Potter, Streeter, T. S. Manning, Gil- 
mour Sharp, Prof. Charles F. Holder and E. H. 
Brewster, all expert Catalina anglers, are the 
charter members of the Catalina Three Six Club. 
The South Coast Three Six Club, which is the 
Southern California Rod and Reel Club organi¬ 
zation, will be composed of President Hedderlv, 
Directors W. G. Stearns and probably Smith 
Warren, Edward Winfield, Secretary Roy F. B. 
Shaver and another. No dues are contemplated 
and all fees will be nominal. The motto of each 
club is “more sport; fewer fish.” The popu¬ 
larizing of the ultra light tackle, with the end 
and object of raising the standard of the yellow¬ 
tail as a game fish in order that it may receive 
legal as well as the incidental protection af¬ 
forded by the lighter tackle employed, is the 
chief object. 
To the man who wishes to fish at Catalina as 
inexpensively as possible, the three-six idea is 
a boon. At almost any time last summer Avalon 
Bay was alive with yellowtail from fifteen to 
nineteen pounds in weight and many more 
smaller. The largest just missed the twenty- 
pound minimum of the Light Tackle Club, and 
by the three-six rules many would class in the 
eighteen-pound competition. A skiff between 
two anglers is certainly inexpensive as com¬ 
pared with chartering a launch ; the still waters 
of the bay are easily accessible, and surely 
anglers are within reason when they predict that 
some of the prettiest sport Catalina has ever 
yielded will result from this further lightening 
of the tackle. 
The Catalina club’s burgee will be a golden 
shamrock in a green field with a numeral six 
in green on each lobe of the shamrock, the 
initials C. C. before and after the design in the 
field. The South Coast flag differs only in color. 
Getting the rods was thought likely to prove 
a serious stumbling block after the trouble ex¬ 
perienced in getting nine-ounce sticks with butts 
that would not break when a normal, healthy 
man picked one up, but Secretary Roy Shaver, 
of the local rod and reel club, is something of 
an expert and is now building eight rods for 
Potter, one of which he will present to each of 
his Three Six colleagues. They are beautiful 
sticks, split bamboo, and of far more power 
than had been anticipated. 
The six-thread lines received are as fine as a 
stout hair when compared with even the nine- 
strand strings. The combination is certainly fin- 
de-siecle in every regard, and will do much to 
enliven the interest in angling by giving the 
sportsmen something further to master. The 
islanders are enthusiastic about it and the re¬ 
appearance of yellowtail is being awaited with 
lively interest. The practicability of the gear is 
questioned by some, but most anglers feel cer¬ 
tain that it will win against any fish that wdl 
run his head off when pricked as do the yellow¬ 
tail. For sulkers, pot-bellies, pigs, all pet names 
for the albacore (long-finned tuna), something 
that can abuse a fish is needed in order to lug 
their dead weight up from the bottom. 
1 he Tuna Club has decided to build a club 
house. A stock company of members, limited 
to one share of stock apiece so as to preserve 
equality and harmony, will provide the funds by 
subscription. The Banning Company has offered 
to donate a splendidly located lot right on the 
water front so the club can have a float on which 
the launches can land their occupants. A cafe, 
sleeping rooms and all the necessary accommo¬ 
dations are included in the plan, the scope of 
which comprises an investment of something like 
$2,500 or $3,000. Messrs. Streeter, Potter, Col. 
D. M. Burns, (who by the way has volunteered 
to advance all the money if need be) Manning, 
Holder, and in fact, nearly the entire angling 
colony, resident within easy reach of the island, 
are parties at interest. 
The Tuna Club long has needed some place 
where it could properly preserve its archives and 
trophies. The accommodations for anglers will 
add much to the social pleasures of Catalina 
angling also, and the project is being received 
warmly on every hand. 
I hos. McD. Potter has announced a silver lov¬ 
ing cup for the largest yellowtail taken on six- 
strand six-ounce tackle this season, and it is the 
present plan to make the office of president fol¬ 
low the prize, first vice-president for next year 
going to the captor of the second largest yellow¬ 
tail, and so on down the line. The Tuna Club 
used this scheme at one time, but it. had risks 
and was not perpetuated. 
The Southern California Rod and Reel Club 
contemplates a chain of club houses along the 
shore, and committees are seeking to ascertain 
what arrangements can be made. Such things 
take time, but eventually something is certain to 
be accomplished, and the angler who desires can 
leave Saturday afternoon, take the evening and 
morning fishing late and early, and cook his fish 
if he likes at the club house when fresh. The 
social features are many, and great possibilities 
lie in the scheme. 
Regulating launchmen is another thing the club 
will attempt. Extortions and general unrelia¬ 
bility are great drawbacks to the pleasure of 
those who like to go trolling in deep water. 
Some boatmen “hold up” the unwary in shock¬ 
ing style, ^jjd others are so undependable that 
one never knows whether he will find a boat wait¬ 
ing for him as per previous arrangement, and all 
ship-shape, or be compelled to wait two hours 
for a drunken lout whose craft is short of water, 
gaff and maybe even gasolene. The establish 
ment of a list of reputable boatmen, weeding out 
all others, is the club’s scheme for handling the 
situation. It is not an easy task at best. 
Another casting tournament is being arranged 
to occur in a month. With half a dozen men 
averaging 220 feet or better in the 2p2-ounce 
single-handed event, the winner will surely have 
to do some tall sinker shying. 
Fishing is opening up alongshore. A number 
of corbina have been taken and a few yellowtail 
are taking hold outside. Barracuda are due al¬ 
most any time now, also. On six-thread line 
and six-ounce rods it is certain a new field will 
be opened to the barracuda and bass trollers who 
will find new and unexpected gameness in their 
favorite quarry when given a fair fighting chance 
upon proportioned gear. Edw. L. Hedderly. 
Lady Berners. 
All anglers are interested in Lady Juliana 
Berners, the author of the first English book on 
sport which was entitled, “The Boke of Hawk- 
ynge and Iluntynge and Fysshynge.” The title 
of the first edition has the following explana¬ 
tion : 
“This present boke shewyth the manere of 
hawkynge and huntynge; and also of diuysynge 
of Cote armours. It shewyth also a good matere 
belongynge to horses; wyth other comendable 
treatyses. And ferdermore of the blaysynge of 
armys: as here after it may appere: (Colo¬ 
phon:) Llere in this boke afore been shewed 
the treatyses pertevnynge to hawkynge and.hunt¬ 
ynge with others dyuers playsaunt materes be¬ 
longynge unto noblesse: and also a ryght noble 
treatyse of Cotarmours: as in this present boke 
it may appere. And here we ende this laste 
treatyse whyche specyfyeth of blasynge of 
armys. Enprvnted at Westmestre by Wynkyn 
the Worde, the ycre of thyncarnacon of our 
lorde, mcccclxxxxvi. (Westminster), 1496, fob” 
She was the Prioress of Soepwell Nunnery 
near St. Albans. She was the earliest English 
sportswoman and poetess of the chase on record. 
A number of editions of her volumes on sport 
have been printed, and Mr. Geo. Van Sicklen 
more than thirty years ago printed a facsimile 
of one of them in this country. 
The print which we here reproduce, though 
it looks as if it were the frontispiece of a 
volume, is not taken from a book, but was printed 
as a separate picture in London about the year 
1800 or 1810. Angling, hunting and hawking are 
referred to in the ornamentation about the frame 
of the portrait. Then the weapons for killing 
game were only the lance and the cross bow; 
the lance undoubtedly being used by the hunter 
after the deer had been brought to bay by 
hounds. The opportunity to reproduce the print 
is afforded 11s through the kindness of Mr. Rus¬ 
sell W. Woodward, of Elizabeth, N. J., who has 
loaned us this very precious possession. This 
print was copied by Sabin in this country, a pen 
and ink drawing of it having been published 
years ago. 
