500 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 24, 1910. 
Tuna Fishing at Cape Breton. 
In view of the interest taken in the efforts of 
J. K. L. Ross and C. G. Conn to take Atlantic 
tuna in fair fishing, the following letter from 
F. G. A., in the London Field, is timely: 
The days of the Cape Breton tuna are, I think, 
numbered, and indeed the fish owes its long re¬ 
prieve to' the fact that only one angler has hither¬ 
to given it battle. This was my friend, J. K. L. 
Ross, of Montreal, who, having during the past 
two summers hooked no fewer than thirty-four, 
of which he failed to kill a single one, very 
spiritedly invited others, with somewhat more 
experience of big-game fishing than himself, to 
try whether they could not find the answer to 
the riddle. The history of Mr. Ross’ failures 
is briefly as follows: Season of 1908 hooked 
twenty-one fish out of twenty-eight strikes; sea¬ 
son bf 1909, when he had a coal strike on his 
hands and could only go out five days, hooked 
thirteen out of sixteen. The last fish of 1909 
gave him the nineteen hours’ fight which has 
since become classical, and a week earlier he had 
practically killed another after a struggle of only 
two hours. Unfortunately, the captain of his 
yacht, standing by as usual in case of need, mis¬ 
took his signals. It had fallen dark, and Ross 
was waiting for the moon, which was due at 10 
p. m. He therefore signalled the yacht to keep 
off. On the contrary, she bore down on him and 
got the propeller foul of the line. Two days 
later some boys found a dead tuna on the beach 
near the scene of the catastrophe, but as they 
made no search for a hook, not having heard 
of the affair, its body was washed away by the 
next tide with its secret untold. There can, 
however, be little doubt that-it was one and the 
same fish. 
When in response to Mr. Ross’ suggestion I 
arrived at Cape Breton toward the end of July, 
I almost immediately joined him on his yacht 
and went to St. Ann's Bay. He had hooked his 
first fish of the season a week earlier, the line, 
an old one, parting after a short fight. A few 
days later I saw him hook and lose his second. 
On this occasion the wire leader, a new one that 
morning, parted at the swivel. This is how we 
stand at the time of writing. I have not as yet 
had the luck even to hook one, the only other 
fish of the year having been hooked and played 
almost to a finish by that veteran Catalina sports¬ 
man Mr. Conn, who, unless I am much mistaken, 
will shortly have the honor of landing the first 
tuna ever caught on rod and line in Canadian 
waters. It was on Aug. 5 that he hooked his 
fish, and after a fight lasting two hours and 
twenty minutes his rod broke below the reel, a 
most unusual spot. 
With Mr. Conn is his boatman, Bill Matthews, 
whom I remember doing excellent work in this 
capacity at Avalon, and between them I fancy 
they will surely solve the problem that has hither¬ 
to baffled all who tackled it. Another well- 
known American fisherman, Mr. Myers, was 
here at the end of July for a fortnight, but went 
home without having hooked a fish. Mr. Conn 
assured me that, although undoubtedly larger and 
heavier fish—he estimated his own at exactly 
twice the length of his leader, or twelve feet— 
these Canadian tuna do not fight weight for 
weight as hard as the Californian. If true, this 
verdict is a curious contradiction of the prevail¬ 
ing opinion that the fish of cold waters are more 
game than those caught in a higher' temperature. 
Mr. Conn is a very powerful man and he pun¬ 
ished his fish from the start, never allowing it 
to tow him without continuous reprisal. He has 
for some time rejected the Catalina gasolene 
boat in favor of a lighter craft rowed by two 
men, one of whom is able when needed to stand 
by with lance or gaff. 
The tuna of the North At'antic still, therefore, 
has all the fascination of an unsolved problem. 
It is not easy to account for the whole of Mr. 
Ross’ failures, though the majority are no doubt 
due to his inexperience of big-game fishing else¬ 
where. As he says, he had to learn everything 
for himself. He had neither corresponded with 
other sea anglers, nor had he read their books. 
Thus he probably lost fully ten of his earlier 
fish through other tuna snapping at the bait as 
it ran up the line. This is a common danger 
in all such fishing, and is provided against by 
the simple device of a piece of stiff wire attached 
to the top of the leader at the swivel, so as to 
keep the bait down on the wire. Having learned 
the risk from his own observation of what hap¬ 
pened, Ross applied the remedy with the result 
that he has not since lost a fish in this way. 
Others, however, were lost perhaps by too severe 
treatment of the tackle; others, again, from not 
being properly hooked, or by allowing them to 
tow the boat, which merely tires the angler, but 
puts very little strain on the fish. The proper 
way is to fight the fish from start to finish, and 
when Ross held his famous fish for nineteen 
hours in order to demonstrate his own theory 
that unless properly hooked a tuna could not be 
tired out, he also proved beyond all doubt that 
these fish must be put hors de combat in three or 
four hours, or not at all. 
So far then no Canadian tuna has died on the 
rod, though many have been harpooned, and 
others have been killed by attaching a baited 
hook to a barrel and letting the hooked fish tire 
itself out. But the time is near and then a fine 
new field for tuna fishing will be opened opposite 
to Liverpool, without the need of the long dis¬ 
tance railway journey to California. If the 
Maritime Provinces have hitherto had reason to 
complain of neglect on the part of tourists, they 
need not be under any apprehension as to the 
number of their angling visitors should it once 
and for all be demonstrated that it is possible 
to land one of the big tuna on rod and line. 
Tarpon in Louisiana. 
New Orleans, La., Sept. 15.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: John M. Parker, president of the 
Southern Commercial Congress, had the luck re¬ 
cently to land a tarpon measuring 7 feet 8 inches 
at Horseshoe Jcey- two mile! from Pass Chris¬ 
tian, Miss. Mr. Parker had a great tussle with 
the big fish and it took fully an hour to land it. 
He will have the tarpon mounted and placed in 
his offices in this city. 
Large parties enjoyed fishing Saturday, Sun¬ 
day and Monday, the latter day being a legal 
holiday. The clubs entertained large crowds at 
the Rigolets, Lake Catherine, Chef Menteur and 
other places. Waveland. Bay St. Louis and Pass 
Christian were also visited by many fishermen. 
The Barafaria section was also a popular place 
during the week. A great many striped bass, 
green trout, speckled trout and sheepshead were 
caught and various other varieties. George 
Denegre entertained a fishing party on his 
schooner Marion over Sunday. They fished near 
Ship Island and had only fair luck. J. R. 
Camors with some ’friends was out in his launch 
near Ship Island and landed a number of fish. 
F. G. G. 
Illinois Casting Club. 
Chicago, TIL, Sept. 14.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following scores were cast on 
Sept. 10, re-entry day. The small number of 
1 e-entries, as compared with the large number 
of completed scores (in number almost double 
those of last year) speaks for itself and indi¬ 
cates a constant growing interest in the sport 
and on the part of members to complete their 
season’s scores. 
The weather conditions were ideal, the wind 
south to southeast, varying from, calm to a six 
to eight mile breeze. Scores: 
QUARTER-OUNCE ACCURACY BAIT. 
TT. R. Winfield. 
R. C. Nicholson 
\Y. H. Mathews 
. 98.4 
. 98.0 
. 98.5 
W. W. McFarlin 
A. G. Berg. 
. 98.8 
. 98.0 
half-ounce accuracy bait. 
H. R. Winfield.. 
...... 98.1 
L. V. Tournier. 
. £7.1 
QUARTER-OUNCE 
DISTANCE BAIT. 
W. W. McFarlin 
A. G. Berg. 
Feet. 
.. 96 2-3 
.. 79 7-12 
W. T. Jamison... 
*A. G. Berg. 
Feet. 
.. 68 7-12 
.. 79 11-12 
HALF-OUNCE DISTANCE BAIT. 
A. G. Berg. 
.... 82 ft. 
ACCURACY FLY. 
W. T. Jamison.. 
. 98 5-15% 
LIGHT 
TACKLE DRY-FLY ACCURACY. 
J. E. Amman.... 
H. D. Willis.... 
Per Cent. 
... 98 1-15 
... 99 7-15 
*J. E. Amman.. 
Per Cent. 
... 92 2-15 
DELICACY AND ACCURACY. 
\V. J. Tamison... 
Per Cent. 
... 95 8-15 
*W..J. Tamison... 
Per Cent. 
.. 95 14-15 
LIGHT TACKLE 
DISTANCE FLY. 
H. D. Willis. 
W. T. Jamison_ 
Feet. 
. 87 
. 79 
*H. D. Willis... 
Feet. 
. 84 
SALMON FLY. 
J. E. Amman_ 
Feet. 
. 115 
H. D. Willis ... 
Feet. 
.121 
i 
DISTANCE FLY. 
W. H. Ball. 
T. E. Amman_ 
W. J. Jamison.., 
^Re-entries. 
Feet. 
. 97 
. 96 
. 88 
H. D. Willis.... 
*W. H. Ball.... 
Feet. 
. 103 
. 97 
H. D. Willis’ cast of 
103 feet in the distance 
fly establishes a new club record. 
W. H. Mathews’ score in the last half is 98.46 
per cent, which ties him with A. D. Whitby as 
an alternate on the team. 
A clerical error in reporting the quarter-ounce 
distance of Aug. 27 made N. C. Heston’s longest 
cast 163 feet 8 inches instead of 167 feet 8 inches. 
Another club record. 
An invitation has been received from R. W. 
Hawthorne, secretary of the Elgin Anglers’ 
Club, inviting our members to take part in the 
last club tournament at Wing Park on Sept. 25. 
A. D. Whitby, Sec’y. 
Anglers’ Club of Milwaukee. 
Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 15. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Charles Rhine was high in the quarter- 
ounce and M. A. Beck in the half-ounce events 
in the tournament held at Washington Park yes¬ 
terday. The scores were as follows: 
Ji-ounce. %-ounce. 
Charles Rhine . 98.9 97.6 
A. F. Bingenheimer. 98.4 98.1 
M. A. Beck. 98.0 98.1 
Tames McBride . 97.1 
G. C. Schoenlaub. 97.1 
C. L. Tolfson, Sec’y. 
