“I never knew just how easy it could happen,” said Dan. “No one ever before hooked a big fish right under the boat.”
“With that weight, that tail, right after being hooked, he would have killed some of us and wrecked the boat!” I exclaimed, aghast.
“Well, I had him figured to come into the boat and I was ready to jump overboard,” added my brother.
“We won’t cut him loose,” said Dan. “That’s some fish. But he acts like he isn’t goin’ to last long.”
Still, it took two hours longer of persistent, final effort on the part of R. C. to bring this swordfish to gaff. We could not lift the fish up on the stern and we had to tow him over to Mr. Jump’s boat and there haul him aboard by block and tackle. At Avalon he weighed three hundred and twenty-eight pounds.
R. C. had caught the biggest Marlin in 1916—three hundred and four pounds, and this three-hundred-and-twenty-eight-pound fish was the largest for 1918. Besides, there was the remarkable achievement and record of seven swordfish in one day, with six of them freed to live and roam the sea again. But R. C. was not impressed. He looked at his hands and said:
“You and Dan put a job up on me.... Never again!”