o the boat. Six hours later he
weighed fifty-eight and a half pounds, and as he had lost a good deal of
blood and dried out considerably, he would have gone over sixty pounds,
which, so far, is the largest sailfish I know of caught on light tackle.

The sailfish were still leaping around us and we started off again. The
captain called our attention to a tail and a sail a few yards apart not
far from the boat. We circled around them to drive them down. I saw a
big wave back of R. C.'s bait and I yelled, "Look out!" I felt something
hit my bait and then hit it again. I knew it was a sailfish rapping at
it. I let the line slip off the reel. Just then R. C. had a vicious
strike and when he hooked the fish the line snapped. He claimed that he
had jerked too hard. This is the difficulty with light tackle--to strike
hard, yet not break anything. I was standing up and leaning forward,
letting my line slip off the reel, trying to coax that sailfish to come
back. Something took hold and almost jerked the rod out of my hands.
That was a magnificent strike, and of course I thought it was one of the
sailfish. But when I hooked him I had my doubts. The weight was heavy
and ponderous and tugging. He went down and down and down. The boatman
said amberjack. I was afraid so, but I still had my hopes. For a while I
could not budge him, and at last, when I had given up hope that it was a
sailfish, I worked a good deal harder than I would have otherwise. It
took me twenty-five minutes to subdue a forty-pound amberjack. Here was
proof of what could be done with light tackle.

About ten-thirty of this most delightful and favorable day we ran into a
school of barracuda. R. C. hooked a small one, which was instantly set
upon by its voracious comrades and torn to pieces. Then I had a
tremendous strike, hard, swift, long--everything to make a tingle of
nerve and blood. The instant I struck, up out of a flying splash rose a
long, sharp, silver-flashing tiger of the sea, and if he leaped an inch
he leaped forty feet. On that light tackle he was a revelation. Five
times more he leaped, straight up, very high, gills agape, jaws wide,
body curved--a sight for any angler. He made long runs and short runs
and all kinds of runs, and for half an hour he defied any strain I dared
put on him. Eventually I captured him, and I considered him superior to
a tarpon of equal or even more weight.

Barracuda are a despised fish, apparently because of their voracio