The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-20


are 600 feet of linen line tested to
pun dead weight of forty pounds,
slx-foot piano wire leader and a stout
rod weighing twenty-six ounces. The
bait is flying fish.
"The launch steams along shore: the
first gray light of dawn steals across
the sea- says Macmillan Foster in a
description of the sport in Munsev' s.
" Near at hand a heavy splash re
sounds across the water-another and
another. The tuna have struck in.
You hear their heavy bodies thudding
upon the fiat sea, and the boatman
warns you to be on the watch. Here
they come, he whispers. blue black
form hurls into the air, falling in a
fountain of spume. Zip! Ftp! Fee
eee-e ee-ee!' screams the reel The tip
of your rod doubles beneath the water.
You have the butt iammed into
socket hole reamed in the thwart, and
you hang on desperately, laying all
your weights to the reel brake, a square
of moosehide leather that half en-
braces the spool. 1t is water soaked
and pliable, but still it is fairly smok-
ing with the friction.
in a dream: ESnub him! Hold him!'
You jab harder. The reel screams
away 100 yards are gone-2O0 He is
still boiling. You put your strength
into the effort, the reel slows down and
halts suddenly, the line slackening
home. You think the fish is off; but
here is the boatman screaming again,
Reel him in-quicker-reel in!' He
warns you, too, to watch out when
the tuna sights the boat He'll dodge
when he does!' yells the man. Ftp
fleece eee- ee-away goes the reel
again The boat backs through the
water sometimes faster than a man
can row it, towed by the striving fish,
Then the line slackens. tautens with
snap and cuts through the water.
The tuna is sounding-once hooked, he
never leaps. Again the boatman i'm
plores you to snub him; the fish halts
and sulks.
4" Keep at himl Give it to him.
roars the man. Pump him! Give him
a lift! You musn t let the tuna rest
if you aim ever to gaff him alongside.
You chug away, lifting with all your
strength. Up comes the fish, sulkily at
first, fighting every foot. The man at
the oars whips the boat about like a
teetOtum, and away you go again,
the launch following. IF he is headed
for open water, let him go; but if he
points for the shore, where there are
kelp beds and Jagged rocks, hold him
at the risk of losing all your line.
You II lose nearly all anyway, if he
ties it in the kelp or turns it around
a rock; but once in the open water
your chances may improve. Then,
again, they may not. The fish may
have taken a hitch of the line around
his tail, while he pulls with his
shoulders like a team of oxen
One battle with a tuna lasted four
teen hours and the boat was lowed
thirty-fve miles, after which the fish
escaped Just as the gaff was reached
for it. The angler needs about week
to recuperate from strained arms and
bruised fingers after such contest.
The excitement of tarpon fishing off
the Florida coast is sometimes varied
with angling for sharks A manila
rope about the size of clothesline
chain leader and steal hook seven
inches long are the outfit necessary A
ten-pound grouper is good bait, which
the houndlike scavenger Of the deep
can scent for a long distance.
cone morning I hooked a very large
shark. says c. F. Holder. in his 'fLog
of a Sea Angler, - (Which. despite my
efforts, ran out the entire line, and as
our dingy started I cast my eve over
the side and saw at least six tiger
sharks following They were about
five feet below the surface. and kept
with us until I had the big game in
hand. This shark made desperate at
tempts to capsize the boat. It lowed
us in a circle completely around the
island, about two miles. and was so
cratic in its movements that had there
not been notch in the bow in which
i kent the rome [ believe II would have