A Historic View of the Avalon Tuna Club Part 1: A Long Awaited Introduction

[livetofishnj]

Author's Note: I've tossed and turned and stared at the pages of notes and mental images from my visit, trying to find a way to write about everything that I saw, while keeping it shorter than the Encyclopedia Britannica. There are no cameras allowed in the club so there is just so much great info to portray. To put this all into a decent pace for you the readers and to convey the enormous history of the club I've split it into three parts of which this is the first. Simply, to do it any other way is just an injustice to the 110 years of fishing history that the club represents. I hope you understand and follow the series.

After I had been in Avalon California for over 15 days I had gotten to see the small town from one end to the other. I had been through the mountains and seen the vistas, and been honored to see the historic names that had set foot at the country club or casino ballroom long before my visit. The one door that I had yet to enter was into sportfishing's childhood home at the Avalon Tuna Club. It wasn't until my final day on the Island that I finally managed to get a tour courtesy of Pure Fishing's Bob Hoose. The Tuna Club is open only to the under 200 members and their personal guests. It was incredible to get the invitation, knowing that inside was most of the original history of our sport.

The Avalon Tuna Club was founded 110 years ago with a group of anglers led by Dr. Charles Frederick Holder. Holder was a well traveled author and sportsman originally from the Northeast who relocated to Los Angeles and began fishing off the Southern Pacific Coast including the waters surrounding Catalina Island. The common quarry at the time was yellowtail and sea bass which were plentiful in the harbor and nearshore waters. It was however the so-called Leaping Tuna that were seen in massive schools just offshore that fascinated the doctor.

The primary method of fishing on Catalina in the late 1800's was handlining and Holder found the idea that men could catch fish from the shores as fast as they could cast to be unsporting. He brought some of the first of what could be called modern tackle to the island. The tackle was outmatched by even the yellowtail and had no chance of beating the tuna that would become the club's namesake. The first of the leaping tuna to be caught came in 1896 when Col. C.P. Morehouse accomplished the feat. Holder managed to record his first with a rod and reel in 1898 when he landed a 183-pound bluefin tuna, the first large tuna to be caught on rod and reel off of Avalon.

It was the inspiration of this first catch and a spirit of conservation that had Holder along with a group of five other local anglers found the tuna club that same year. The principal was simply that using rod and reel and tackle that offered the fish a sporting chance, that the fish would be naturally conserved and available for future generations. The tackle of the era consisted of bamboo or wood rods, linen line which required extensive care and reels that were direct drive and used a leather patch connected to the reel seat for a drag. The simple art of fishing was a challenge and the equipment was at many times as dangerous for the anglers as it was for the fish. The original headquarters for the club was at the Hotel Metropole and the porch became known as the Tuna Hospital for the anglers nursing wounds there.

The current Avalon Tuna Club is located along the harbor between the famous casino and the Avalon Yacht Club. It stands on pilings over the clear blue water and greets the boats of members when they come back from a day's fishing or just moor their boats in front of town. The building is outstated for the history it contains, though a famous statue depicting the leaping tuna and other gamefish of the region stands inside the fence and is a numbered stop in all of the tourism guides. The building is also holds a place on the National Historic Register because of the history that has occurred within its walls.

To enter the club and sign its guestbook is a true honor for any fisherman, so I was quite humbled to be part of this exclusive in any way. The building has an air of history that nothing can shake, and without even looking in the numerous glass cases that line the walls one must be impressed. Wood paneling stretches to near eye level and the architecture belies the tradition and old world nature that the tuna club is known for. The entry hall is wide and greets visitors in a fashion more common in turn of the century life. Along the walls are glass cases which hold numerous trophies and awards for different angler achievements, all of which qualify as incredibly challenging sportfishing accomplishments. Hanging throughout the room and the club along the tops of the walls are mounts of the many local fish. Not the simple fiberglass reproductions that hang above most shoreside bars, but skin mounts of the actual fish which were caught by the founders of the sport.

Branching off from the main hall are several rooms and hallways but the most prominent are the meeting room, card room and locker room. The back of the building's first floor is dominated by the meeting and card rooms with wall to wall windows overlooking Avalon Harbor. Here again the walls are majestically paneled and lined with cases holding pristine examples of the history of sportfishing on Catalina Island and throughout the world. The locker room is in the front of the building as you walk in and would be as suited for an Augusta, Georgia country club as it is in this old-world building. The lockers are built from dark-stained wood and were surely older than most anyone that uses them today.

Everywhere one looks there are trinkets of the birth of sportfishing. The original rods, reels and even line that the pioneers of our sport used to create what we now know are laying in perfect condition throughout. Names that stretch from past members well known for other endeavors like Cecil B. Demille, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to dignitaries who were frequent guests like Winston Churchill, Presidents Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt, Nixon and Reagan are all noted throughout the history recorded in plain sight. The names that stand in the Tuna Club rolls can be found throughout the historic record from world leaders to famous authors and artists, even the social elite of the United States throughout the early and mid 1900's.

For photos from the museum in Avalon and the fishing history there, see: Some shots from the cradle of sportfishing history

Stay Tuned for Part 2: The Detailed History of the Avalon Tuna Club and Part 3: The Avalon Tuna Club in Modern Times

[lilharcher]

Amazing history......thanks for sharing. I live just across the channel from Avalon so it really hits home. Really cool stuff..