Sport: Off Louisburg

Because its soft mouth is hard to hook and harder to keep hooked, the giant broadbill swordfish, one of the seas' sportiest inhabitants, is the most difficult fish to take on rod & reel. Although more than 5,000,000 pounds of swordfish are harpooned by commercial fishermen off the Atlantic Coast every year, no more than a baker's dozen are caught by Atlantic anglers.

Last week husky, 45-year-old Michael Lerner (Lerner Shops), who hunts and fishes round-the-globe, round-the-calendar, accomplished an unprecedented swordfishing feat. Off Nova Scotia's picturesque Louisburg, Angler Lerner boated two broadbill (275 Ib. and 367 Ib.) in one day.

Catching two broadbill in one day, extraordinary though it is, is not unprecedented. Two other big-game anglers have landed two in one day: Briton W. E. S. Tuker off Tocopilla, Chile and Calif ornian J. W. Jump off Catalina Island. What made last week's catch an unparalleled achievement was the fact that Angler Lerner had done it for the second time—one day in 1936, in the same waters, he caught a 535-pounder and a 601-pounder (a North American record).