Fish and Fishijio- in America. 



337 



artificial fly. On the day named, William 

 H. Wood, of this city, captured the first 

 tarpon ever taken on rod and reel with 

 natural bait and by scientific methods. 

 It is true that several fish of this species 

 had been captured by the hand-line or 

 trolling-line, but these were accidental 

 occurrences, and several years had in- 

 tervened between the dates of capture. 



The tarpon was for many years as 

 much dreaded on the hook as the shark, 

 and its capture more despaired by the 

 angler who chanced to become fast to 

 •one of them. Its enormous and fre- 

 c^uent leaps from the water, and the 

 muscular energy with which it shook 

 the hook from its mouth, rendered its 

 ■capture beyond the reach of the experi- 

 enced angler. It is now as easily 

 brought within reach of the gaff as a 

 thirty-pound striped bass. 



William H. Wood was a worthy ex- 

 ponent of old Seth Green's doctrine of 

 using common sense in fishing. He 

 thought out the subject of tarpon-catch- 

 ing before he stepped aboard the 

 steamer bound for the vSouth. He had 

 heard that the tarpon on the hook in- 

 variably shook the steel from its jaws; 

 hence — here the common sense comes 

 in — when the fish took the bait and 

 moved off with it, slack line should be 

 given, as anglers of the North do when 

 pike or pickerel, and, under certain con- 

 ditions, black bass, take the natural 

 bait. He determined to " pay out" 

 line when the tarpon drew away with 

 the bait, before he struck the hook into 

 the fish. This done, the steel would be 

 sunken into the gullet of the fish, and 

 the wild shake of the head and the des- 

 perate leaps and surges would be pow- 

 erless to free it. It was on these lines 

 that Mr. Wood captured his first tarpon, 

 and the rules he laid down in this city, 

 eleven years ago, and more than a 



thousand miles from his ultimate quar- 

 ry, are still followed by all successful 

 tarpon -anglers. 



The young angler who essays for the 

 first time this lordly fish, will know him 

 at once by his overcoat of molten silver 

 and the long filamentous ray of the dor- 

 sal fin, which at times inay be seen pro- 

 truding from the water when the -fi-sh is 

 on the shallows or swimming near the 

 surface. When he leaps from the water, 

 the veriest tyro cannot mistake the fish ; 

 he looks like a streak of light, the sun's 

 rays strike the scales, and the fish seems 

 to sparkle and blaze. 



Fishing for tarpon may be termed 

 composite angling, for a tarpon-rodster 

 should be master not only of the meth- 

 ods of handling salmon, but also of 

 those employed in killing a striped bass 

 on the rod — the salmon and the tarpon 

 are leapers — ^the striped bass and the 

 tarpon are desperate surgers. From 

 these conditions arises the tyro's diffi- 

 culty in handling and bringing the tar- 

 pon successfully to the gaff. 



The rod should be a stiff one, from 

 six to seven feet long, with enough 

 " give and take " quality about it to re- 

 spond to the action of the fish. It can 

 be made of any approved wood, but one 

 made of strong natural bamboo, in one 

 piece, with enlarged handle or butt, and 

 fitted with guides and a tipping, is to 

 be preferred. The reel should be at 

 least fifteen inches from the butt-end of 

 the rod. The line used is the ordinary 

 standard Cuttyhunk linen line of Nos. 

 15 to 21, which should stand a breaking- 

 test of at least thirty pounds. A good 

 striped-bass reel should be used — one 

 known as 3-0 or 4-0, holding five to six 

 hundred feet of line. Have a leather 

 guard sewed to one of the bars of the 

 reel. 



Soft linen or cotton snells about the 



