DEH, ACAK PON 
OR SILVER KING.* 
BY WILLIAM C. HARRIS. 
On Thursday, April 18, 1885, ati 
epoch occurred in the history of the art 
of angling fully as eventful and import- 
ant as when the Atlantic salmon was 
found, some fifty years ago, to take an 
artificial fly. On the day named, Will- 
iam 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 have been captured by the 
hand or trolling line, but these were ac- 
cidental occurrences, and several years 
had intervened between the dates of 
capture. 
The silver king, grand ecaille, sava- 
nilla, tarpum, or tarpon, as he is sever- 
ally and locally named, was for many 
years as much dreaded on the hook as 
the shark, and its capture more de- 
spaired of by the angler who chanced 
fompecome fast to one of them. Its 
enormous and frequent leaps from the 
water and the muscular energy with 
which it shook the hook fromits mouth, 
rendered its capture beyond the reach 
of the most experienced angler. It is 
now as easily brought within reach of 
the gaff as a thirty-pound striped bass. 
That old Nestor of angling and fish 
culture, Seth Green, was accustomed 
to tell his disciples that if they would 
use a little more common sense and 
think less of diameter of rods, angles of 
draughts in hooks, ete., they would be 
* We go to Florida this month in hopes to have an 
extended experience among the silver kings, and this 
sojourn among them will doubtless add much to our 
previous knowledge. In the meantime, this article 
was written at the request of the New York 77mes, 
and published therein, and it is now repeated with the 
hope that it will interest and, to some extent, en- 
lighten the angler who has never fouzht one of these 
lordly fishes.—W. C. H. 
more successful when on their angling 
outings. William H. Wood was a 
worthy exponent of this doctrine. He 
thought out the subject of tarpon catch- 
ing before he stepped aboard the 
steamer bound forthe South. 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 
conditions, 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 his head and the des- 
perate leaps and surges would be 
powerless to free it. It was on these 
lines that Mr. Wood captured his first 
tarpon, and the rules he laid down 
in this city nine years ago, and more 
than a thousand miles from his ultimate 
quarry, are still followed by all success- 
ful tarpon anglers. 
This great game fish is the highest 
development of the herring variety of 
fishes, although not strictly one of that 
species. Itis grouped by ichthyologists 
under the family name of ‘‘ big-eyed 
herrings,’ of which only two species 
are said to exist, one in the Indo-Pacific 
waters and the other native to the seas 
of semi-tropical America; but it is 
probable that these two species will be 
merged into one, as the best of our 
American ichthvologists are becoming 
more conservative, and are restraining 
their younger brethren in their un- 
