mp has pioneered this sport almost single-handed against the
heavy tackle record-holder who until recently dominated the Tuna Club
and the boatmen and the fishing at Avalon. To my shame and regret I
confess that it took me three years to recognize Jump's bigness as an
angler and his tenacity as a fighter. But I shall make amends. It seems
when I fished I was steeped in dreams of the sea and the beauty of the
lonely islands. I am not in Jump's class as a fisherman, nor in Lone
Angler's, either. They stand by themselves. But I can write about them,
and so inspire others.

Jump set out in 1914 to catch swordfish on light tackle, and
incidentally tuna under one hundred pounds. He was ridiculed, scorned,
scoffed at, made a butt of by this particular heavy tackle angler, and
cordially hated for his ambitions. Most anglers and boatmen repudiated
his claims and looked askance at him. Personally I believed Jump might
catch some swordfish or tuna on light tackle, but only one out of many,
and that one not the fighting kind. I was wrong. It was Lone Angler who
first drew my attention to Jump's achievements and possibilities.
President Coxe was alive to them also, and he has rebuilt and
rejuvenated the Tuna Club on the splendid standard set by its founder,
Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, and with infinite patience and tact and
labor, and love of fine angling and good fellowship, he has put down
that small but mighty clique who threatened the ruin of sport at fair
Avalon. This has not been public news, but it ought to be and shall be
public news.

The malignant attack recently made upon Mr. Jump's catches of Marlin
swordfish on light tackle was uncalled for and utterly false. It was
an obvious and jealous attempt to belittle, discredit, and dishonor
one of the finest gentlemen sportsmen who ever worked for the good
of the game. I know and I will swear that Jump's capture of the
three-hundred-and-fourteen-pound Marlin on light tackle in twenty-eight
minutes was absolutely as honest as it was skilful, as sportsman-like as
it was wonderful. A number of well-known sportsmen _watched_ him take
this Marlin. Yet his enemies slandered him, accused him of using ropes
and Heaven knows what else! It was vile and it failed.

Jump has performed the apparently impossible. Marlin swordfish hooked on
light tackle can be handled by an exceedingly skilful angler. They make
an indescribably spectacular, wonderful fight, on the surface all the
time, a