Stars Played Role in Local Waters : Avalon Tuna Club Members Were Fishing for More Than Compliments in Early Days

The rare appearance of giant bluefin tuna off the Southern California coast in recent weeks has sparked the interest of local fishermen, and for good reason.

Commercially, it has created impressive financial opportunities. Since early November, commercial fishermen netted hundreds of the fish off Santa Rosa Island, each weighing from about 300 pounds up to a Pacific-record fish of 850 pounds.

In mid-November, 233 giant bluefin brought more than $2 million at a Tokyo auction.

Recreationally, these fish represent a powerful, yet elusive prey. Several fishermen, mostly aboard private yachts, have tried, but as of yet no one has been able to get one of the big tuna to swallow a hook.

“I don’t think these fish are even catchable on rod and reels,” said Curt Herberts of the prestigious Avalon Tuna Club. “They can catch them on the East Coast because the water there is only 150 feet deep, and the boat can pretty much stay on top of them. Here, the water is 2,000 feet deep, and they can go clear to the bottom if they like.”

Deep water or not, a challenge is a challenge.

In 1983, Jim Salter of Avalon, fishing in a marlin tournament, battled a 363 1/2-pound bluefin off Santa Barbara Island for 4 hours 38 minutes before successfully landing it at night in rough seas. The 6-foot 4-inch, 210-pound fisherman couldn’t straighten his left arm for 48 hours.

The giant bluefin, powerfully built and perfectly streamlined, has been the primary target of many East Coast fishermen for years, though their numbers have been steadily declining in the last decade.

Mary Barnett, a resident of New Jersey, has caught 100 giant bluefin in her lifetime, including four that exceeded 1,000 pounds. The all-tackle world record is a 1,496-pounder caught off Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia.

The presence of giant tuna this fall warrants a look back to a time when the big fish were abundant and thrived just off the mainland.

At the center of it all was the Avalon Tuna Club, a New England-style building that stands on the waterfront near the Avalon Casino on Santa Catalina Island. This exclusive club was formed just before the turn of the century by Charles Frederick Holder, who with his friends would spend several months each year fishing off Catalina. “They were probably the first rod and reel fishermen in the world,” said Herberts, chairman of memorabilia for the club.

Alec MacCall of the National Marine Fisheries Service agreed, saying, “Up to that time, (commercial fishermen) were hand-lining the tuna.”

Holder’s 183-pound bluefin tuna, caught in 1897, was said to be the fish that sparked the sportsmen’s interest in starting such a club, considered the world’s oldest organized fishing club. Holder’s fish was one of, if not the first, fish ever caught on rod and reel.

Col. C.P. Morehouse’s 1899 catch of a 251-pound tuna still stands as a club record.

Others learned of these big fish providing sporting battles just off the mainland and wanted to get in on the action. The sport grew more popular, and steamship runs to what was then a tiny fishing village became more frequent.

From 1900 through 1937, Tuna Club members caught 6,407 tuna, with most coming in the first quarter of the century. The average weight of the tuna in 1901 was 119 1/2 pounds.

“The wealthy people owned their own boats,” Herberts said. “The others would take the boat over and rent row boats and sailboats (to go fishing).”

But they usually didn’t have to row far, or wait for the wind, according to Hugh Wright, 85, a former club president.

“I remember when I was about 10 years old, I used to fish Catalina in a row boat,” he said. “There would be schools of big tuna just 200 yards from the entrance of Avalon Harbor. Then they were called leaping tuna, not bluefin, because there were lots of flying fish in the area and the tuna could be seen jumping and catching them in the air.”

The late Zane Grey, the noted author and outdoorsman, whose fishing exploits would become legendary, once said he watched a school of 100-pound tuna that took all day to swim past his boat. He felt there were much bigger tuna down deep, but the fishing tackle of the day, he said, was insufficient for the task.

Celebrities and dignitaries payed regular visits to Catalina. Wright remembers watching Charlie Chaplin catch bluefin tuna in a boat alongside his, just outside the harbor.

“They were small tuna, mostly 30-pounders,” he said.

Winston Churchill, on a visit to the United States, once took a train here from New York. He visited Catalina as a guest of the club. “He had a good time and was a great guest,” Herberts said.

Churchill, who was awarded an honorary membership, was apparently so impressed with his visit that after his return to New York, he went to an Abercrombie & Fitch store and bought a present for his host, who later donated it to the club.

“It was a flying head gaff,” Herberts said. “It was very unusual--it had a 7-foot wood handle that screws together with a bronze fly-head, and it’s beautiful.”

Others awarded honorary membership status were former presidents Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt, the army’s George S. Patton, then a colonel, and the Navy’s Admiral Hugh Rodman.

Celebrities who fished the local waters included actors John Barrymore and Bing Crosby. The late producer-director Cecil B. De Mille’s 1929 catch of a 32-pound dorado, taken on light tackle, still stands as a club record. Two years before that, De Mille caught a 55-pound albacore.

Zane Grey’s son, Loren, chartered a fishing boat in local waters while attending college in 1938 and 1939.

“I had quite good luck,” he said.

His customers included such celebrities as Robert Montgomery, Benny Goodman and Errol Flynn.

Then there is the story of George Pillsbury Jr., who in the 1930s was called “one of the club’s greatest anglers.” While fishing alone one day, Pillsbury hooked and successfully boated 5 marlin, all on light tackle.

“I fished in 1931-32 and there were dolphin, yellowfin tuna and marlin all over the place,” Loren Grey said.

Swordfish abounded in local waters as well, and few fisherman, if any, matched the feats of Zane Grey, whose passion for writing was matched only by his love of fishing, and of James Jump, both of whom became well-known for their lengthy battles with the powerful swordfish.

Zane Grey, who by 1937 held 10 all-tackle world records, including the first 1,000-pound marlin caught on rod and reel, was said to have have hooked 100 swordfish in a single year.

In 1925 he wrote of his 12-hour battle with a swordfish that he estimated to easily exceed 1,000 pounds, describing how the fish, after 11 1/2 hours on the hook, surfaced during the night to feed on a school of flying fish, seemingly unaware that it was even hooked.

That fish broke off, convincing Grey that heavier tackle was needed for these powerful billfish. The Tuna Club refused to grant the use of heavier line, so he quit the club.

The fishing line of the day was made of linen, with each thread having a maximum breaking strength of about 3 pounds. The Tuna Club had three categories: three-six tackle, a rod not shorter than 6 feet and a reel spooled with 6-thread line (roughly equivalent to 18-pound test); light tackle, or 9-thread line; and heavy tackle, or 24-thread line.

The rods were made of wood or cane, and the reels didn’t have any anti-backspin mechanism. When a fish was hooked, the reel’s handle would often spin uncontrolably, thus the reels were often called “knuckle-busters.” The drag system was a simple leather thumb-pad, which the angler would press onto the spool to slow a fleeing fish.

In 1926, after leaving the club and outfitting his rod with heavier tackle, Zane Grey caught a 582-pound swordfish, and was outdone shortly after that by his brother, known as R.C., who caught a 588-pounder.

Jump’s 365-pound swordfish caught in 1928 is still considered a Tuna Club record.

“Zane Grey and Jimmy Jump were the first ones who really got into broadbill fishing,” Herberts said. “There used to be lots of them.”

Club members caught 2 swordfish last year.

Striped marlin used to be caught in droves, and they were much bigger than those that presently migrate into Southern California waters during the summer.

A.R. Martin of Beverly Hills caught one weighing 405 pounds, and many others topped the 300-pound mark. These days, a fish more than 200 pounds would be considered an exceptional catch, perhaps pointing to a bleak future.

Bill Pigg, a Tuna Club member for more than 40 years, said last year that, years ago, he would often see schools of more than 100 marlin in waters off Santa Barbara Island.

Black sea bass, now a threatened species, were common in the first quarter of the century, and most weighed more than 150 pounds. Hollywood’s Grant Dolge caught the club’s largest from 1926-28, with 3 fish weighing more than 250 pounds apiece.

“I caught two when I was 14 years old,” Loren Grey, 73, said. “One was 156 pounds and the other weighed 186.”

Yellowtail in the 40-pound class made Tuna Club news often, and bigger catches were not unheard of. In 1908, W. W. Simpson of London caught a 60 1/3-pound yellowtail while fishing off Catalina with light tackle.

But after the first quarter of the century, fishing began to decline noticeably. Zane Grey, who once teamed with his brother to catch and release 12 striped marlin in one day near San Clemente Island, gave up on fishing Catalina waters after about 1931, citing a declining broadbill fishery--because of commercial harpooning--as the main reason.

In 1937, there was a slight resurgence and Tuna Club members caught 330 marlin, 30 tuna and 2 broadbill.

Tuna fishermen in those days would suspend a flying fish under a kite and run the kites alongside a school of feeding tuna. “It takes three people to do and it was very difficult,” Wright said.

The kites went back into the closets in about 1940, when, according to MacCall, “things just turned off.”

What happened to all the fish?

“They got caught,” MacCall said. “I believe there was a resident population of the bigger tuna. If you look at the dates some of those fish were caught, you’ll see many were caught in February and March, which are the coldest months.”

MacCall said heavy commercial fishing helped deplete much of the resident fish population. When asked if he was optimistic about the recent showing of giant bluefin, he replied: “Absolutely not.”

Said Loren Grey: “It’s sad, but I’m afraid the good old days are gone forever.”