Salt Water Game Fishing by Charles Frederick Holder

Author:Charles Frederick Holder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Outing Pub. Co.
Published: 1914-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

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this tuna differs greatly from the others. It is almost non-migratory here and normally can be found in great numbers at any time from a mile to two miles off Avalon Bay, rarely if ever going any nearer and ranging the blue waters to a depth of several hundred feet, but normally lying near the surface.

It is the fish the anglers all rely upon at Santa Catalina when everything else is out of season; it can almost always be caught if the season is not particularly stormy; then it disappears for a month or so. It feeds on small fishes and will bite so readily that it is often a nuisance. But it makes a violent and vicious play, plunging down into the deeps and often wearing out the lusty angler. It should be taken with a nine-ounce rod, nine-thread line, No. lo or No. 12 hook, and sardine or smelt bait. The piano-wire leader here need not be over a foot or six inches long. A small sinker is generally attached to take the line down below the surface a foot or so; indeed, such a sinker is used for all these fishes, so that bait will not lie above the surface when trolling.

This tuna spawns along the kelp beds of Santa Catalina, now a fish refuge by the act of legislature secured by the Tuna Club in 19 13. The

eggs are deposited in August and September, but the very young are rarely seen here, the smallest fish being a five- or six-pounder, showing that they keep in deep water, out of sight

All these tunas are of importance. In the Mediterranean the tunny fighters are of great value and the young tuna of fifty pounds, as served at the banquets of the Tuna Club, is meaty and rich. The yellow-fin is also a food fish, and the long-fin tuna is the one that is canned as *^ Blue Sea Tuna " and now constitutes the supply of a great business. While this tuna should be taken with a nine-ounce rod, it can be caught with 3-6 tackle. In using this, the angler should wear a belt with a rod socket and he can stand and play the game. In all this fishing there is what is termed " pumping.'' In water a mile deep, fish when hooked go down, instead of leaping as they do In the shallows, and when a long-fin tuna is stopped at the three-hundred-foot mark he must be lifted up, a proceeding to which he objects strenuously.

If you could see him now I He is pointed downward, head down, tail up, boring down. To offset or overcome this—sulking, it is termed in salmon angling—the angler holds his rod steady, reels the tip down to the surface, checks

the line with one of his left-hand fingers (on the rod), and lifts the fish steadily until the rod is vertical or at an angle of sixty degrees; then the rod is dropped to

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