FISHERMAN’S PARADISE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2803, 20 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

FISHERMAN’S PARADISE

CALIFORNIA’S COAST HELD AS RIVAL TO NEW ZEALAND’S DEEP SEA FISHING GROUNDS. WHERE THREE MEN ANGLE WITH ONE POLE. (Story of an Excursion on the Californian Coast.)

"Okay! Everything’s set! Here we are aboard a deep sea fishing boat leaving San Diego harbour. Pull your deck chairs up to tho rail . . . don’t miss anything! We’re headed for sea . . . fair weather . . . and the skipper tells me that the old Pacific is very paciffy to-day! We’re now passing a torpedo boat flotilla. San Diego harbour is the base for these fast little ships of the Pacific fleet. The large boat at the right is tho torpedo boats’ mother ship. No, no, children, the father ship is not a mail boat! Hi, ho! It’s the salt air that gets us that way. , So we set out with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s talking reporter to see how the men of the fishing fleet catch the great tuna. And you are going to hear about fishing which you have never dreamedof before. The first job is to locate sardines, which are used as bait and, thanks to mamma and poppa pelican, wo have located them. A net nearly a mile long is laid in a large circle. The seine is pulled in end tho sardines, having no particular place to go—well, they go insane. The total weight of the sardine catch is about a ton, and they arc used as bait and chum for tbna. A sardine is to a tuna like a worm is to an early bird. About 100 miles south of Magdalena Bay wo get into the big tuna area, and the tuna aro so numerous that it is almost possible to walk on them without sinking. They churn the water into a veritable maelstrom. The men fish not with nets, but with stout bamboo poles and a hook without a barb. No bait is used except a feather on the hook, at which the tuna strike. Hundreds of them, weighing from 50 to 80 pounds each. As soon as the tension is released the fish free themselves because there aro no barbs. The tension is only released when the fish are swung into tho boat. Here arc some beauties — eight in a row. Over 400 lbs in less than a minute. If you want to join this sport attach a feather to your shoe-string, throw tho end into the water, and see what happens. This tuna fishing is a dangerous job. The sharp hooks, wielded by the fishermen, have gouged out many an eye and ripped open scores of backs and chests. Fancy getting all cut up over a fish like that I At such a fast rate are the fish caught that the ways must be kept open. From the trough rails they are moved constantly amidships. Hero they are run below, where a complete refrigerating plant insures this precious cargo a safe trip ashore without spoiling. We are gradually going further south now, 100 miles off San Bencdicto Island, where giant tuna are to be found. The last catch will be goldfish compared to what we aro after now. Two poles and two men work one line and one hook. Fishing in parrs, two men and two poles to a line, they swing the fish into the vessel. Although millions of tuna are caught this way each year for the cannery trade, no roe or eggs have ever been found in a tuna. No one knows where they spawn. And with this wholesale catching the schools never diminish. A strange thing about them is that they are al! full-grown fish. As the tuna become larger three poles and three men work one lino and one hook. They fish in a group of three, each holding a pole fastened to one line, and they swing a fish on to the boat and cast as a group. Truth is far stranger than fiction, and, after four hours of this strenuous work, the mon have a few minutes off—and, of course, they go fishing. !

When the day finally begins to fade more than 80 tons of tuna have been salted away in the hold—a £2OOO cargo. The workmen get a percentage of tho catch, worth more than £lOO to each man.