The Fishes of North Ainci-ica. 



263 



an outing unto themselves when the 

 gloaming comes on. At such times 

 these fish are indifferent to lures of any 

 kind. Should one of either species, 

 however, be hooked and held, others of 

 their ilk seem to be attracted, the tar- 

 pon rising to the surface and showing 

 their resplendent backs. A black bass 

 will seize the disengaged fly, particu- 

 larly if it be the end one, and the 

 angler is always sure of making a 

 double catch of bronze-backers, if the 

 one that is first hooked is allowed to 

 surge around for a brief period. The 

 above - de - 

 scribed trait 

 of the tarpon 

 has been ob- 

 served by 

 many anglers 

 atFortMyers, 

 Fla. 



The tarpon 

 is said to 

 spawn in the 

 latter part of 

 May, and to 

 continue in 

 the act until 

 June 15th, 

 but we have 

 no definite 

 knowledge of 

 its habits in this respect. Baby tarpon 

 of one and a half pounds have been 

 taken with the artificial fly, but their 

 age, when of this size, is only conjec- 

 tural. At certain seasons this fish is 

 more resplendent in coloration than at 

 others, which analogically would indi- 

 cate the approach of the spawning 

 season, were it not that the tarpon, 

 when "fresh-run" from the ocean, like 

 the salmon in more northern seas, has 

 a brilliancy of color-tints which fade 

 when the fish reaches the shallows of 



TARPON SCALE (NATURAL SIZE) 

 Taken from a fish weighing 168 lbs. 



the bays and the fresh water of the 

 spring-fed streams. In June they 

 sometimes gather in great shoals, often 

 numbering two to three hundred, and 

 are then seen sculling leisurely around 

 and around with their high top-gallant 

 dorsal rays sticking out of the water. 

 When thus acting they present every 

 appearance of a shoal of fishes in the 

 act of spawning; the mullet of Florida 

 and doubtless other species when 

 spawning, swim in concentric circles. 



The sailor's name for this fish, by 

 which it is also known at Key West, 



Bermuda, 

 Brunswick, 

 Georgia and 

 elsewhere, is 

 tarpum. In 

 Georgia and 

 in some parts 

 of Florida, it 

 is called the 

 jewfish, a con- 

 fusing local 

 name which 

 is duplicated 

 in the case of 

 the big perch- 

 like ' ' jew- 

 fish, " found 

 in the same 

 waters as the 

 tarpon. It is the grande-ecaille (large- 

 scale) or " gran-dy-kye, " as it is some- 

 times spelled and pronounced, and the 

 "savanilla" of Texas. Mr. S. C. 

 Clarke, of Marietta, Ga., claims that 

 this fish should be called the " tarpom," 

 and gave his reasons therefor in a letter 

 to the American Angler, in 1884. He 

 wrote : 



' ' I write the name of this fish with 

 a final 'm,' 'tarpom, 'because the earliest 

 writers on the fishes of Florida, Romans, 

 for instance, so spelled the name." 



