Tuna Record

October 12th, 2023

TROF. C. F. HOLDFER AND HIS 183LBS. TUNA, WITH BOATMAN JIM GARDNER.

July 2, 1898. Forest and Stream Pg. 11

The Tuna Record.

Avalon. Santa Catalina Island. Southern California, June 16.—Editor Forest and Stream: Several years ago the writer in articles on the “Game Fishes of the Pacific Slope,” in Scribner’s Magazine and the Cosmopolitan, mentioned the “leaping tuna” as a possible catch with rod and reel, and for seven or eight years I have made many attempts to take one, but always failed by using too light tackle, and I must confess I would rather fail than take so noble a fish unless all the advantage was on its side. Year after year the leaping tuna gathered in my rod tips and lines and hooks. He unreeled 600ft. of line and took the tip of my rod before 1 realized what the mass of foam astern meant; and Mexican Joe, my boat man, hinted that I was asleep; but I was not. And so time went on and finally I laid out a campaign, which was to use a reel that would hold 1,000ft. of 21-strand line, and before I could find a reel and equipment some one else caught the first fish. This was two years ago; and now the fish is caught by skillful wielders of the rod almost every day, when the attempt is made: and it was reserved for me to make the record catch of the largest game fish ever taken on the Pacific slope—so it is said—with rod and reel; and I am inclined to go further and claim that the catch represents the most active and hardest-fighting thoroughly game fish ever taken on rod and reel and 21-strand line. I am aware that this will be disputed by tarpon fishermen all over the country, but in making the claim I am perfectly loyal to the silver king. I have landed this magnificent fish and know it well. I have also caught all the fish of the Mexican gulf that can be taken, including the Florida jew fish. I have taken, I think, every fish in the Atlantic from the striped bass to the swordfish, and on the Pacific from a black sea bass, weighing 347lbs., to a 5olb. white sea bass; so that, so far as experience goes. I consider that I am a fair judge of the fighting qualities of a fish, and I have no hesitation in saying that if my 1831b. tuna was fastened to one end of a rope and three 1831b. tarpon were on the other end, the tug-of-war would be at once decided, as the tuna would wear them out and never stop. In other words, I consider that the tuna entirely outclasses the tarpon in strength and activity, in the fierceness of its rushes, and in the splendid attempts to escape. I confess that the tarpon is more sensational in its leaps, which are due to the shallow water, but the tuna is the acrobat of the sea, and leaps on all occasions, except when hooked, and then, having 200 or 300ft. of blue water beneath, he has no occasion to take to the air. But I have seen them leap 10 and 15ft. into the air and seize flying fish in full flight; and the grandeur of their feats passes all description. Again the tuna is an excellent table fish, bringing a high price in the market, and sportsmen feel no hesitation in taking a fish which is in constant demand, and not killed simply to afford sport.

I think then that I have proved the claim of the tuna to be classed as a thoroughly game fish, and I would give it the first place among the oceanic fishes. My evidence must be the story of my catch, and a description of the tactics of the fish, which at the end of four hours, I am free to confess, left me exhausted, while the fish could readily have towed my boat five miles further.

I took my fish with a 200Z. rod, about what is used for tarpon and striped bass by some fishermen, though possibly heavier than some use. The reel was a Vom Hofeholding 900ft. of cuttyhunk line, to which was attached a 6ft. piano wire leader. The bait was a I2in. flying fish, the natural food and prey of the tuna. The boat used was a regular Santa Catalina yawl, broad of beam, and rigged with two seats so that the fishermen face the stern, and are back to the oarsman and gaffer, who in this instance was “Jim Gardner,” an expert and thorough tuna fisherman. But for his faithful work I should have lost the fish several times, as for four hours it kept him upon the move to keep me facing the fish. My companion was Mr. C. H. Heverin, of New York.

Our boat was fastened behind a launch, and at 3:30 in the morning we slipped out of Avalon Bay. which was as smooth as glass. Mr. Heverin had the first strike, not 100yds. from the beach, and in an hour had brought a fine tuna to gaff, weighing oolbs. The method of procedure is for the boatman to hold the painter, having his oars ready, and the moment a strike comes to cast off from the launch and back water, getting headway in the boat to offset the terrific rush of the fish, which will often unreel 500 or 600ft. of line belore the fisherman remembers where he is. I received my strike at 6:30, just be low Long Point, six miles from Avalon, and Mr. Heverin received a strike at the same moment; the fish coming boiling along the surface striking in a highly sensational manner. Mr. Heverin failed to hook, and slipped aboard the launch to continue fishing, from her, while I began the fight which lasted four hours without let up. I had been trolling with about 150ft. of line out, and at the rush the fish tore at least 500ft. from the reel, with accompanying music that could be heard a long distance. Gardner started the boat astern and I stopped the fish, the boat rushing through the water for several hundred yards, the fish now plunging down and beating upon the line in savage attempts at escape. Then I gained 20ft., then lost 50 in a savage rush. Then the magnificent creature rose rapidly from a two minute sweep deep in the heart of the channel, until I broke water in a cloud of foam 500ft. away. Then turned and facing the boat came at me like an arrow from the bow. It was a magnificent move, and I reeled for my life on the big multiplier, but could hardly take in the line be fore the fish turned 20ft. from me a blazing mass of silver in the sunlight, and shot away with a velocity that was inconceivable, bearing off the line in one great burst of speed. It was with the greatest difficulty that I stopped the fish at what I believe to have been between oo and 6ooft.. using the heavy leather pad brake as carefully as I could, and realizing that had I not soaked line and pad in advance the line would have been burnt off at the first rush. The fish now plunged down deep into the blue channel, sulking like a salmon for a few moments, hammering on the line in -a peculiar manner. Then, as I gained on it in reeling, it rose in great circles, towing the boat rapidly, and when at the surface it came at me again, hoping to take me unawares. Failing in this, it made several desperate plunges, rose to the surface and heading out to sea swam rapidly away, towing the boat at half the speed of the launch against the oars of my boatman, who kept them over, hoping to stop it. It towed the boat a mile in this way, during which I gained and lost perhaps 200ft. Then I finally turned it, and after a sensational rush in and by me it kept on and towed us over a mile in the opposite direction with a force that it was impossible to resist with the thread like line I was using. The shores of the island are lined with kelp here, and I fully expected to lose the fish, but I succeeded in turning it about 200ft. from the rocks, and then the fish began a series of circling, diving, hammering, rushing in and out, that I saw would in time wear me out. By the greatest effort I three times brought the fish to within 50ft. of the boat, when it would break away again, all the time towing the heavy boat around in a large circle. In this way three hours slipped away, and I noted what I consider to be the most remarkable feature of this fish: it continually gained strength and vigor.

At about 9:30, or about three hours from the time of the strike, the fish had towed us back to almost the identical spot where it was hooked, and after several desperate rushes, which almost resulted in its escape, it turned down the island and towed us five miles, stop ping only to rush in several times when I forced the fighting, and towing the boat stern first and against my boatman’s oars, which were held to stop it, and part of the distance against a heavy sea. The strength of this noble creature can be imagined when I say that two launches, which followed, were obliged to keep up half speed most of the time. Mr. Heverin being in the Catalina and Mr. C. L. Doran being in his launch, the Narod, with Mr. C. R. Scudder, of St. Louis, and Mr. Charles Orr, of London, who had come out from Avalon to see the finish.

The fish towed our boat directly home, or to Avalon Bay, and I am confident that it would have towed us five miles more, but I “forced the fighting,” and three times brought the fish to the gaff, and three times it broke away, and it was then, for the first, that I realized its ‘size and proportions. Again it was reeled in, its rich blue back and massive silver belly presenting a rich contrast, while numerous bright yellow fins flashed like gold. For a moment I held him and Gardner put the gaff into the silver mass. A wild plunge and the gaff went to pieces, and he was away, and we were in despair. Once more he was reeled in. and this time the big gaff caught hini and the magnificent creature came sliding into the boat a mass of silver sheen, a blaze of labradorite blue; while a cheer went up from the witnesses. The deed was done, yet I could not but regret taking so magnificent a creature, that had earned its liberty a thousand times in that hardly fought four hours.

The fish weighed 183lbs. an hour later, measured 6ft. 2in. in length, and was about 4ft. in girth around the deepest portion. I gave the fish to “Jim Gardner,” who is having it mounted, and will swing it on his fish stand, I presume, to commemorate the record catch, and I might add his own qualifications as a perfect boatman. To further illustrate the strength of a small tuna—one of 25lbs., when foul hooked, towed Mr. C. R. Scudder and Jim Gardner seven hours. The writer joined them, and was in the boat the last three hours, and when picked up we were seven miles from the island, in a heavy sea and the fish was as active as when it was hooked. It towed Mr. Scudder in all at least twenty miles, and my fairly-hooked 1831b. fish towed me, including the turns, at least ten miles.All tunas may not fight equally well. All fish differ. The long, slender tarpons are the “game fishes,” but I believe the “leaping tuna,” if taken on the tackle described, to be the great game fish of the world, and one which will afford unlimited sport to those lovers of rod and reel fishing who love big game at sea.

Charles Frederick Holder.

Tuna Record

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