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    Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on: Marlin, Sharks, Swordfish, Sailfish, Tarpon, Tuna and Bass
    Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on: Marlin, Sharks, Swordfish, Sailfish, Tarpon, Tuna and Bass
    Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on: Marlin, Sharks, Swordfish, Sailfish, Tarpon, Tuna and Bass
    Ebook159 pages2 hours

    Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on: Marlin, Sharks, Swordfish, Sailfish, Tarpon, Tuna and Bass

    By Read Books Ltd.

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    About this ebook

    “Big Game Fishing” contains a fantastic vintage guide to fishing for large fish, including tuna, swordfish, sharks, and more. This illustrated guide contains simple explanations and descriptions coupled with expert knowledge and helpful tips, making it ideal for adventurous anglers of all skill levels. Contents include: “A Short History Of Fishing”, “Marlin”, “The Marlin Or Spearfish”, “The Big Marlin At Gallagher’s”, “Shark! Shark!”, “Sharks”, “Freshwater Sharks”, “Swordfishing In The Pacific”, “Tarpon”, “Tarpon Fishing”, “Tuna”, “Incidents In Tuna Fishing”, “The Long-Finned Tuna”, “Tuna Fishing”, “Tuna Fishing At Avalon, Santa Catalina”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on the history of fishing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateOct 13, 2011
    ISBN9781447491842
    Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on: Marlin, Sharks, Swordfish, Sailfish, Tarpon, Tuna and Bass

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      Big Game Fishing - With Chapters on - Read Books Ltd.

      MARLIN

      Marlin fishing, whether the fish happens to be of the blue, black, white or striped variety, or an inhabitant of the Atlantic or Pacific, has been described as a state of mind as well as a sporting activity.

      Like most forms of big-game angling, successful marlin fishing involves two factors that are just as important as one’s angling skill, if not more so: enough common sense to select a capable, experienced boatman, and luck. There is little point in being possessed of exceptional angling skill if you troll day after day without raising a single fish, or if you have a boatman who doesn’t know how to present the bait or can’t handle the boat properly after the fish has been hooked. Except in those rare instances where luck is the major element throughout the contest, marlin fishing is a matter of teamwork between angler and boatman, and there have been many occasions when the capability of the boatman was sufficient to counter the ineptness of the angler.

      Fortunately for the sport of big-game angling, the majority of the real adherents have taken up the challenge of light-tackle fishing. It is no longer considered a matter of pride to take a big marlin, unless that fish was taken on tackle light enough to insure a contest of skill rather than a mere physical tug of war.

      Marlin fishing, like salmon fishing, is not within the grasp of every grocery clerk, although the latter, by cutting down on his expenditure for spirits and tobacco, might be able to finance an occasional day or two after these fish. Good marlin fishing is not only hard to find, it is a long way off, at least where the residents of about forty-five of the forty-eight states are concerned.

      If you have the temperament that can be satisfied with fishing for white marlin, the smallest member of the marlin family, a trip to Florida, Maryland, or Long Island will keep you happy, provided you always make that journey at a time when the fish are present in those waters. During most of July and August, boats out of Ocean City, Maryland, and Montauk, Long Island, manage to harvest somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred white marlin a season. More or less. No one will ever know how many anglers have saved to finance a day off these resorts and returned to the dock without having seen so much as a fin. Those who seek them in the Florida waters normally manage to find some excitement, even though they may not hang a marlin, for there are always sailfish, dolphin or some other tropical scrapper ready to grab up a trolled bait.

      Those addicted to the blue variety have a longer trip, for these fish are found in acceptable numbers, in season, only in the Bahaman and Cuban waters. In the Bahamas, the fish seem most plentiful from January to July, and in Cuban waters from April through October. Although the whites normally scale from seventy to one hundred pounds, with a big one scaling 150, the blues average around three hundred, and big ones can go better than seven hundred. Needless to say, most anglers are very, very happy if they manage to watch the arm of the scale touch the five hundred mark.

      Atlantic marlin fishing is a comfortable form of angling, but the chances are you will pay from fifty to seventy-five dollars a day for this comfort. A padded fighting chair on the stern of a gleaming cruiser, cold beer at hand, and a luncheon hamper filled with tempting tidbits. These comforts are pleasant, even if the marlin fail to respond to the bait skipped astern by means of the tall outriggers. If you have reasonable confidence in your own skill and in the ability of the boatman, you will probably be using, for white marlin, a six-ounce rod tip and a 4-0 reel loaded with 9-thread (twenty-seven-pound-test) line. For blues, a twelve- or sixteen-ounce tip, and 24-thread line is considered sporting.

      An interested, or even a hungry marlin does not mean a hooked one, for often these fish will swim behind a bait, dorsal and tail knifing the water, while the angler’s heart action jumps to an almost dangerous high. The sudden spurt and the vicious smack of the bill at the bait is, to me, one of the most exciting phases of the fishing. Having hit the bait with enough force to free the line from the outrigger clip, the marlin may decide to take it immediately, or he may decide to look it over first. The impatient angler often loses his opportunity right at this point.

      The experienced marlin fisherman will throw the reel on free spool the instant a fish is sighted and will let line run out until he is certain the fish has the bait in its mouth. That is the moment for the strike, which must be as hard as the rod and line will stand.

      All of the spearfish are surface fighters, which is one reason why light-tackle fishing is practical. The fish that bores and sounds requires more tension than most light-tackle outfits can provide, but by keeping a steady, though light, tension, the marlin usually tries to throw off this restraint by jumping or by long, greyhounding surface runs. While this taxes the knowledge and skill of the angler, it also tires out the fish very quickly, and the length of time required to get a marlin alongside the boat is in direct ratio to the amount of jumping the fish does. It is here that boat handling is of paramount importance. The boatman that lets the fish make a long run, without turning the boat to follow, greatly reduces the chances of the catch, for the more line there is in the water the less tension the angler can put on the tackle. As line goes out, drag on the reel must be reduced, for the friction of line in the water is enough to cause tension. In order to give the angler more freedom of movement, the boat must be kept, not parallel to the fish’s course, but at a slight angle to that course. As line is recovered, the angler again increases drag tension, and the boat is guided on a sharper angle, keeping the fish astern as much as possible.

      With light tackle, the angler cannot fight the fish, and he must handle the tackle in a manner that forces the fish to fight itself; and where extremely light tackle is involved, the boat must be maneuvered alongside the fish, rather than the fish brought to the boat.

      Then, with the battle over, the real sportsman looks at his prize, picks up a pair of wire cutters, and snips the leader off at the hook, releasing the fish for future growth and sport. These fish have no commercial value in this country, and unless they are in the record class or are wanted for mounting, the sporting gesture is release. The flesh of the white marlin, properly pickled, then smoked, makes an excellent hors d’oeuvre, but few people have facilities for preserving fifty or sixty pounds of perishable hors d’oeuvres.

      Both striped and black marlin, the latter growing to tremendous size, are Pacific members of the family and are taken from Southern California to Peru, and in the latter waters in really large numbers. The largest game fish ever taken on rod and reel, at this writing, was the 1,560 pound black marlin, taken off Peru by Albert Glassell of Texas, although the largest fish taken on rod and reel was much heavier, a shark scaling 2,372 pounds taken in Australian waters. A small group of American sportsmen have built a club in Peru and have had a half-dozen fishing cruisers shipped down by liner. These boats, with capable local boatmen, are made available to any visiting angler who wants to try his luck at the fishing, and at prices that are quite reasonable when compared to those charged in our waters.

      The striped marlin is also quite plentiful in Australian and New Zealand waters, but most Americans follow the fish only as far as Guaymas, Mexico, which has also developed recently as a big-game fishing resort. This marlin is a thinner, longer version of the black, and has a bill much longer in porportion to its size. They range in weight from 150 to 350 pounds, although some fish scaling more than one thousand pounds are quite common in the waters off Tahiti. The Guaymas fish, being smaller, are taken on light tackle, and many have been brought in on regulation six-nine tackle.

      The black, being the giant of the family, is also a tough scrapper, and even 39-thread (117-pound test) line is considered light for taking them. The big specimens seem to gather in Peruvian waters, although quite a few have been taken off Chile. The record fish taken by Farrington will probably not hold first place too long, for larger fish have been seen in those waters and in New Zealand waters, where one scaling more than 1,200 pounds washed ashore a few years ago.

      Regardless of their size and habitat, the marlins are taken in the same manner, by a skipped bait, and the method of playing the fish is the same. The larger the marlin, the more pressure is required to bring it to submission, and normally the more time is required for this process.

      Although a spectacular fighter, the marlin will never be a popular fish because of the financial outlay required to become adept at the sport. In a sense it is like African big-game hunting, of which millions of sportsmen dream, but which few are able to realize. The average angler, after he has brought one of these big fish alongside the boat, will nod his head, count his remaining money, and decide to go back to bass fishing.

      THE MARLIN OR SPEARFISH

      (Tetrapturis mitsukurü)

      I JOURNEYED from Maine to Santa Catalina Island, California, at the end of August to attempt to take a marlin. This fish is the jumping-jack of the Pacific ocean, and I had heard so much of his acrobatic performances that I decided that no journey would be too long if I could but capture one.

      The marlin is sometimes called the Japanese swordfish, which is a misnomer, for his so-called sword is a spear shaped like a marlin-spike, hence the name, marlin. He is a true spearfish and is to be found in the warm waters of the Pacific ocean.

      He appears, as a rule, off the island of San Clemente in early September, coming from the south. San Clemente is twenty miles due south of Santa Catalina Island.

      Some years these fish have been very numerous off the latter island during the second half of the month of September, but I was disappointed when told on my arrival at the Tuna Club that but one fish had so far been taken during the summer. Others had been reported but they were few and far between.

      As the members of the club were all fishing for swordfish (Xiphias gladius) I had to follow suit, for no tuna were reported.

      We roamed the ocean and Shorty, my boatman, and

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