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Updated: June 24, 2025
Grouse, domestic per pair $3.00 Grouse, foreign " " $1.25 to 1.75 Partridge, domestic " " 3.50 " 4.00 Woodcock, domestic " " 1.50 " 2.00 Golden plover per dozen 2.50 " 3.50 English snipe " " 2.00 " 3.00 Canvasback duck per pair 2.25 " 3.00 Redhead duck " " 1.50 " 2.50 Mallard duck " " " 1.25 Bluewing teal " " .75 " 1.00 Greenwing teal " " .75 " .90 Broadbill duck " " .50 " .75 Rail, No. 1 per dozen " 1.00 Rail, No. 2 " " " .60 Venison, whole deer per pound .22 " .25 Venison, saddle " " .30 " .35
That is a wide range. He is the wisest, shyest, wariest, strangest fish I ever studied; and I am not excepting the great Xiphias gladius the broadbill swordfish. As for the speed of a bonefish, I claim no salmon, no barracuda, no other fish celebrated for swiftness of motion, is in his class.
Barracuda and white sea-bass showed up in great schools; the ocean appeared to be full of albacore; yellowtail began to strike all along the island shores and even in the bay of Avalon; almost every day in July sight of broadbill swordfish was reported, sometimes as many as ten in a day; in August the blue-fin tuna surged in, school after school, in vast numbers; and in September returned the Marlin, or roundbill swordfish that royal-purple swashbuckler of the Pacific.
At least I had a remarkably keen appreciation of the defeats in store for any man who aspired to experience with that marvel of the sea Xiphius gladius, the broadbill swordsman. On the first morning of my fourth summer, 1917, I was up at five. Fine, cool, fresh, soft dawn with a pale pink sunrise. Sea rippling with an easterly breeze. As the sun rose it grew bright and warm.
Maybe the albacore did not come this year; maybe they were mostly all caught; maybe they were growing shyer of boats; at any event, they were scarce, and the reason seems easy to see. It was significant that the broadbill swordfish did not return to Avalon in 1918, as in former years. I saw only one in two months roaming the ocean. A few were seen. Not one was caught during my stay on the island.
We ran across a shark of small size and tried to get him to take a bait. He refused. A little later Captain Dan espied a fin, and upon running up we discovered the huge, brown, leathery tail and dorsal of a broadbill swordfish. Captain Dan advised a long line out so that we could circle the fish from a distance and not scare him. I do not remember any unusual excitement.
I have seen two swordfish threaten my boat, and one charge it. Walker, an Avalon boatman, tells of a prodigious battle his angler had with a broadbill giant calculated to weigh five hundred pounds. This fight lasted eight hours. Many times the swordfish charged the boat and lost his nerve. If that propeller had stopped he would have gone through the boat as if it had been paper.
Soon he went down. Then a little later I saw what Dan called a Marlin. He had big flippers, wide apart. I took him for a broadbill. We circled him, and before he saw a bait he leaped twice, coming about half out, with belly toward us. He looked huge, but just how big it was impossible to say. After a while he came up, and we circled him.
Boschen was years catching his fish. Moreover, though it is hard to get a broadbill to bite and harder to hook him it is infinitely harder to do anything with him after you do get fast to him. A word about Avalon boatmen. They are a fine body of men. I have heard them maligned. Certainly they have petty rivalries and jealousies, but this is not their fault.
By the middle of June, when I finished, I was tired out. That would not have mattered if I had not hurt my back in an eleven-hour fight with a giant broadbill swordfish. This strain kept me from getting in my usual physical trim. I could not climb the hills, or exert myself. Swimming hurt me more than anything. So I had to be careful and wait until my back slowly got better.
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