Be sure to scroll down to see 2 more pictures of significance to west coast collectors.
Here is a picture of Joe Coxe taken from the book ..."Men , Fish and Tackle". He made vom Hofe reels obsolete on the west coast starting before 1920...and by the mid 20's every gentleman had to have a Coxe 9/0 reel.
This book was written by the same author as "Tight Lines"...Ralph Bandini. I'm grateful he documented the stories of west coast angling history. "Men, Fish and Tackle" sure sounds enticing to a fisherman...especially with the jumping marlin on the cover. The highlight is The chapter that explains Joe Coxes' approach to landing 100 pound tuna in 10 minutes instead of an hour or more. He simply pulled the trigger on his star drag, putting the reel almost into free spool. The bluefin tuna had to drag a few hundred yards of wet linen line which quickly tired the fish leaving the angler fresh enough to just reel the line in as the skipper drove the boat toward the tuna. Kind of cheating...but the trend now is to lay your rod on the rail when fighting 50 to 400 pound yellowfin tuna on San Diego's long range fishing trips. I consider that cheating...it's truly sporty to balance the reel and rod while standing up insted of kneeling...to each his own. Since anglers started using braided spectra and using th rod on the rail...the world record was toppled.
