rike would come
invariably soon after. No two swordfish acted or fought alike. I hooked
one that refused to stand the strain of the line. He followed the boat,
and was easily gaffed. I hooked another, a heavy fish, that did not show
for two hours. We were sure we had a broadbill, and were correspondingly
worried. The broadbill swordfish is a different proposition. He is
larger, fiercer, and tireless. He will charge the boat, and nothing but
the churning propeller will keep him from ramming the boat. There were
eight broadbill swordfish hooked at Avalon during the summer, and not
one brought to gaff. This is an old story. Only two have been caught to
date. They are so powerful, so resistless, so desperate, and so cunning
that it seems impossible to catch them. They will cut bait after bait
off your hook as clean as if it had been done with a knife. For that
matter, their broad bill is a straight, long, powerful two-edged sword.
And the fish perfectly understands its use.

This matter of swordfish charging the boat is apt to be discredited by
fishermen. But it certainly is not doubted by the few who know. I have
seen two swordfish threaten my boat, and one charge it. Walker, an
Avalon boatman, tells of a prodigious battle his angler had with a
broadbill giant calculated to weigh five hundred pounds. This fight
lasted eight hours. Many times the swordfish charged the boat and lost
his nerve. If that propeller had stopped he would have gone through the
boat as if it had been paper. After this fish freed himself he was so
mad that he charged the boat repeatedly. Boschen fought a big broadbill
for eleven hours. And during this fight the swordfish sounded to the
bottom forty-eight times, and had to be pumped up; he led the boat
almost around Catalina Island--twenty-nine miles; and he had gotten out
into the channel, headed for Clemente, when he broke away. This fish did
everything. I consider this battle the greatest on record. Only a man of
enormous strength and endurance could have lasted so long--not to speak
of the skill and wits necessary on the part of both fisherman and
boatman. All fishermen fish for the big fish, though it is sport to
catch any game fish, irrespective of size. But let any fisherman who has
nerve see and feel a big swordfish on his line, and from that moment he
is obsessed. Why, a tarpon is child's play compared to holding a fast
swordfish.

It is my great ambition now to catch a broadbill. That would