Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series of reprints of historic Catalina Islander articles. This article was the second of two published in 1924 that questioned the commitment to sportsmanship of author and pioneer angler Zane Grey after he wrote an article advocating a stronger line for catching certain fish. It was originally published Wednesday, Jan. 26, 1924.
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series of reprints of historic Catalina Islander articles. This article was the second of two published in 1924 that questioned the commitment to sportsmanship of author and pioneer angler Zane Grey after he wrote an article advocating a stronger line for catching certain fish. It was originally published Wednesday, Jan. 26, 1924.
Zane Grey, writer and angler, in a recent issue of the Islander (“Heavy Tackle for Heavy Fish,” Jan. 2, 1924), makes a plea for the adoption of a stronger line for taking broadbill swordfish and “big” tuna.
Mr. Grey makes a very strong argument in favor of his side of the case—always provided that the time-honored, generally approved motto of the Tuna Club, “More sport and fewer fish,” be disregarded and scrapped.
The Tuna Club was founded, has been built up, and has won world-wide fame and approval, on the basis of seeking always “A higher standard of sport.”
Has the time come to abandon that standard? Is there any real need for its abandonment?
All the records and history and achievement of the Tuna Club blaze forth in indignant denial that such is the case.
The mere suggestion is enough to make Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, the honored founder of the Club, the originator and prime mover in giving our salt water fish a fair chance, turn over in his grave.
Prior to 1898, the year the Tuna Club was founded, the game fish of Catalina waters were caught with handlines by the boatload and tons upon tons were slaughtered and thrown away.
The, various rod, reel and line standards were adopted, and from that day to this the trend and tendency has been in the direction of lighter tackle, with scarcely an exception. (The changes made in the breaking strength of the lines, operating against the fish, was, in the opinion of many, a step in the wrong direction; and now it is proposed to “rub it in!”)
The feeling among sportsmen anglers has been for the use of lighter tackle, and establishing “a higher standard of sport.”
Has angling stood still, or gone backward, because of this?
It has not. Glance backward a little. It is but a few years since the taking of a 100-pound tuna on light tackle, or of swordfish—broadbill or marlin—on any tackle, was considered impossible.
Did the Tuna Club anglers of that day confess themselves beaten and demand the adoption of heavier tackle?
Again, they did not. They went right ahead and fished and fished—kept on trying. They were after quality, not quantity. Today, the taking of marlin or blue-fin tuna of 100 pounds or more on the regulation light tackle—nine-thread line, six-ounce tip—is a recorded occurrence.
Mr. Grey evidently wants something that will hold the fish, “regardless,” so to speak.
He tells of the sense of security and confidence conferred by the use of $1500 reels and $30 lines.
But how about the game fish, fighting for its life against tremendous and ever increasing odds?
The boats at Catalina are better than they used to be; the boatmen are better informer and more skillful; better tackle is used, and anglers are more expert than in the bad old days of handlines and “two-by-four” rods—praise be!
It is true, undoubtedly, that Mr. Grey will have to his credit more fish and less sport if he continues to use thirty-nine-thread lines and “$1,500” reels.
That is his privilege.
If numbers and poundage is what he is after, and not sportsmanship, he is surely on the right track.
But because heavier tackle is used in Nova Scotia waters, where the tuna run up to 1,500 pounds or more, that is no reason why Catalina anglers should, under the more favorable conditions prevailing here, lower their own standards.
I have never caught tuna or swordfish; but have, all my life, been an angler, and interested in angling from the view point of sound sportsmanship. As a former member and director of the Tuna Club, and at present a member of the Pacific Coast Anglers’ Porch Club in good standing, I earnestly protest against any move to lower the standards of the Tuna Club in favor of “sure thing” angling.
“If this be treason, make the most of it.”