Dec. io, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
941 
Tuna Fishing off Finistere. 
The first sign of the approach to land, says 
C. 0 . M., in the Field, is a tunny fisherman run¬ 
ning before the breeze with close-reefed sails, 
the rods out, and the lines trailing far astern. 
These fish have their regular tracks, on which 
they are certain to be found in greater or less 
numbers at fixed dates, which the fishermen say 
are known with accuracy. After a certain lapse 
of time, the shoals will have all passed away to 
go elsewhere, and for perhaps ten months not 
a fish will be seen. In the case of the smaller 
tunnies off the west and south coasts of Brittany, 
it is apparently not a spawning migration, but a 
pursuit of the shoals of mackerel and sardines. 
The bays nearing Brest are full of small boats 
after mackerel and pollack, but the weather has 
been too rough of late for the 
lobster men, and, indeed, many 
of these now find it more profit¬ 
able to run across Channel to the 
Sciby Isles and the Seven Stones 
and catch the crabs and crawfish 
which our men are too proud or 
too incompetent to try for. 
From Brest to Douarnenez is 
but a few miles, as the crow flies, 
and not many by steamer, but the 
railway journey requires a long 
detour, first up country to Lan- 
derneau in the northeast, then 
south through Chateaulin to 
Quimper, and then west to the 
head of the deep bay. All the 
country is a land of trout streams, 
though the fish run usually small. 
Between Landerneau and Quim¬ 
per, and particularly in the latter 
half of the journey after passing 
Chateaulin, there are a great 
number of sma 1 brooks of a 
Dartmoor character, running very 
clear through the granite boul¬ 
ders even after heavy rains. In 
the river of Landerneau—the 
Elorn—there are a good many 
salmon, and fishing can sometimes be had by 
application in the proper quarters. Trout fishing 
is generally free, subject to the permission of 
riparian owners who, as is usual in Brittany, are 
numerous; so the best way to work up the neces¬ 
sary information is to take one of the villages 
as headquarters and bicycle around in search of 
likely waters. The river of Audierne — the 
Goayeri—-is a large stream with a run of sea 
trout in spring and very good brown trout higher 
up. Pont-Croix, where there is a station on the 
light railway from Douarnenez to Audierne, is at 
the head of the tide water, and would be a good 
headquarters, as one could then work up stream. 
The sardine fishery this season has been quite 
a failure in Brittany, though the little pilchards 
have been coming in in enormous numbers to the 
coast of La Vendee, further to the southeast, 
but the fishermen of Douarnenez are not to be 
denied, and are putting out 400 boats at least on 
every night when the weather is at all possible, 
and counting themselves lucky if they return with 
a fare of 4.000 fish, which even at the extraordi¬ 
nary price now current — 23 fr. a thousand — is 
not remunerative when the heavy cost of the 
bait is taken into account. The tunny fishery, on 
the other hand, is doing bravely. A score of 
boats came in one day with 7,000 fine fish among 
them, of which one boat scored 800. All these 
are caught with hook, line and rod, but the rod 
and line won d certainly not answer to the speci¬ 
fications of the three-six club at Santa Catalina, 
for the line used is a very stout cord, and the 
rods weigh a good deal over six ounces—or six 
pounds for that matter. The tunnies seem to be 
the long-winged sort ( Thynnus alalonga), or 
alaloncha, as the Basques call them; at least, so 
it seems to me, for the long, narrow pectorals 
reach to about the first finlet, and the size — from, 
say, thirty to seventy pounds—is smaller than 
that of the common tunny or albacore. The 
boats are stout yawls of fifty tons or upward, 
with crews of about eight men, and they remain 
at sea for some days, most of the fishing being- 
done off the capes and headlands in very rough 
TUNNY FISHING OFF THE BRITTANY COAST. 
water, and where a good deal of heavy weather 
is liable to be encountered. They hail, as a rule, 
from the large islands, Belle lie and Groix, but 
work from Douarnenez, where the packers have 
their establishments, and where there is safe 
shelter front the worst of the southwesterly gales. 
for over an hour. He asked me if I thought it 
weighed sixteen pounds. Having no scales I 
made a rough guess of twenty pounds. On 
weighing the fish it proved to be a 23-pounder. 
He seemed to be much surprised at the weight, 
as he said the fish he lost, having him on the 
shore to the gaff where he could get a good view 
of him, was at least a third larger. The next 
day his wife killed eight small salmon. This 
was their first experience in handling a salmon 
rod. 
A short time after, while in my camp on the 
Overfall Pool, I saw another large fish taken 
by an unexperienced angler; his first season, 
also. He was using a medium weight trout rod 
when he struck a large fish. On the first run 
of the fish down the pool he put on a little too 
much power, and the rod broke short off at the 
ferrule of the second joint.. He 
gave the rod to his guide who 
played the salmon from the butt 
and reel while he held the tip in 
line of the fish. The guide played 
the fish for about thirty minutes, 
when my guide gaffed the fish for 
them. It weighed on my scales 
2i l / 2 pounds, a beautiful fresh- 
run silver fish. 
I have met a number of men 
who have been fishing "these 
waters for years that have never 
killed a twenty-pounder. This 
season seems to have been a ban¬ 
ner year for big fish. I have seen 
weighed fish of 41^, 33^, 29, 
28^, 24, 24, 23L2 and 2D/2 pounds. 
You must remember this is not 
the Restigouche or some of the 
rivers on the Gaspe coast where 
it is not an unusual thing to see 
salmon taken running from thirty 
to forty pounds without much 
comment upon its size, frequently 
costing the angler about $5 a 
pound, if he belongs to a se’ect 
club or leases a part or whole 
fishing rights on 
Newfoundland rivers are open 
after procuring a rod license 
amounts collected go to the fish 
a river. The 
to all anglers 
of $10. The 
commission for 
Newfoundland’s Banner Season. 
New York City', Nov. 30.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Flere are a few notes made in New- 
foundland last summer as to what a salmon fish¬ 
erman saw' himself, and what he hears from 
other brother anglers during a fishing trip in 
that most attractive island. 
I went as usual to the Grand Codroy in the 
early part of June and killed a few salmon 
weighing ten to twelve pounds. 
There a young -man and his wife, who had 
never fished for salmon, came in the river, they 
having heard while in Florida of the glorious 
sport of taking salmon on a fly. The first day 
they killed a salmon and two grilse. On return¬ 
ing to camp the next day the young man said he 
had on a large fish for fifty minutes, but lost 
him in bringing him to gaff. Shortly after that 
he hooked and saved another after a fine fight 
payment of wardens on the rivers. This became 
a law for the first time last spring, and has 
proved of great benefit to the angler, most of 
the rivers having two fish wardens. 
As formerly, netting at the mouths of the 
rivers has been to a great extent stopped. The 
Newfoundland Fish and Game Commission of 
St. Johns, deserves great praise in their endeavor 
to stop poaching and netting, and their plans 
should be carried out in the future in the same 
manner that they have started in this season. 
In a few years the river, as formerly, before the 
netter and poacher held their sway, will by pro¬ 
tection be brought up to their full capacity. 
C. D’B. W. 
American Game Bird Shooting. 
Gunners, and outdoor men generally, will be 
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which is described on page 951. The table of 
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