nd can be taken as quickly as on heavy tackle. Obviously, then,
this becomes true of tarpon and sailfish and small tuna. What a world to
conquer lies before the fine-spirited angler! A few fish on light
outfits magnifying all the excitement and thrills of many fish on heavy
outfits! There are no arguments against this, for men who have time and
money.

We pioneers of light tackle are out of the woods _now_. There was a
pride in a fight against odds--a pride of silence, and a fight of
example and expressed standards and splendid achievements. But now we
have followers, disciples who have learned, who have profited, who have
climbed to the heights, and we are no longer alone. Hence we can scatter
the news to the four winds and ask for the comradeship of kindred
spirits, of men who love the sea and the stream and the gameness of a
fish. The Open Sesame to our clan is just that love, and an ambition to
achieve higher things. Who fishes just to kill? At Long Key last winter
I met two self-styled sportsmen. They were eager to convert me to what
they claimed was the dry-fly class angling of the sea. And it was to jab
harpoons and spears into porpoises and manatee and sawfish, and be
dragged about in their boat. The height of their achievements that
winter had been the harpooning of several sawfish, each of which gave
birth to a little one while being fought on the harpoon! Ye gods! It
would never do to record my utterances.

But I record this fact only in the hope of opening the eyes of anglers.
I have no ax to grind for myself. I have gone through the game, over to
the fair side, and I want anglers to know.

We are a nation of fishermen and riflemen. Who says the Americans cannot
shoot or fight? What made that great bunch of Yankee boys turn back the
Hun hordes? It was the quick eye, the steady nerve, the unquenchable
spirit of the American boy--his heritage from his hunter forefathers. We
are great fishermen's sons also, and we can save the fish that are being
depleted in our waters.

Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to
find the fish were gone. The mackerel are gone, the bluefish are going,
the menhaden are gone, every year the amberjack and kingfish grow
smaller and fewer. We must find ways and means to save our game fish of
the sea; and one of the finest and most sportsman-like ways is to use
light tackle.

* * * * *

Wiborn, the Lone Angler, is also i