50 The Amertcan Angler 
of the fish, and to avoid its first leaps, 
which are often furious and wild. After 
making the cast, place your rod across 
the thwarts of the boat, and, still hold- 
ing the reel end of the line, coil at least 
twenty-five feet of it upon the deck- 
board, or seat, which should be entirely 
free from obstructions. The line should 
then be overhauled, so that it will run 
off freest toward the hook. After this 
is done, wait, wait, wait; it may be one 
minute or it may be a week of minutes 
before you feel a tarpon ‘‘draw.”’ . To 
relieve the monotony you may divert 
yourself by a little ‘‘chumming,” if 
you chance to see evidences of tarpon 
coming in toward their feeding grounds, 
on the edge of which your boat is pre- 
sumably anchored. This chumming 
is not like what is done in the North for 
bluefish and large weakfish. The mullet 
you use will not create ‘‘a slick,” as this 
fish in the spring or late winter months 
is not sufficiently fat or oily to do so, 
and if it was, it would be no attraction 
to the tarpon, which isa bottom feeder; 
hence all the chumming that is required 
is simply to cut the waste portions of 
your mullet into small bits and throw 
them as far as possible from the boat, 
and in the direction from which the fish 
are thought likely to come. 
After waiting an indefinite time, you 
may see the coil of your line running 
out swiftly but evenly, and you then 
know that the bait has been lifted from 
the bottom and a large fish is going 
away with it, possibly a tarpon, or it 
may be ashark. Be it either, you will 
take things calmly, see that all is clear 
for the line, and soak your thumbstall 
over the side of the boat. A moment 
more, when the line is entirely out, 
you will spring the steel into the fish, 
and presto! all doubts are solved. It 
is the Silver King, high-vaulting mon- 
arch of the magnolia seas. You know 
him by his shield of hammered silver, 
and by the wavy sheen of sunlit pearl 
on its back. Up with the anchor! 
Now comes the tug of war. Steady as 
you go. Let him earn every inch of line. 
Keep, if you can, a five-pound pressure 
on him, for the steel is imbedded 
in his throat, and that ferocious, rabid 
shake of the head cannot free it from 
the flesh. Mark! Now he is again in 
the air, six feet to a minimeter! Can 
your rod and line stand it? If so, give 
him the butt with both hands, not too 
fiercely, but with all your strength, 
just at the moment he is at the max- 
imum height of his aerial flight, and 
you will bring him flat upon his side. 
If this is well done, and just at the 
right moment, with proper force, you 
will take the breath out of the giant, 
and render him helpless at your com- 
mand. Failing to make this movement 
effective, the lordly fish will take ‘‘the 
bit in its mouth,”’ and you are subject 
to an houror more of long, powerful, 
sullen surges before you can bring him 
to gaff. The highest reach of angling 
skill is to kill your tarpon, not in the 
water, but in the air. Finally, let your 
fish tow the boat; never row against 
him; hold your rod well up in playing 
your fish; do not fear ‘‘holding too 
hard”’; do not let your boatman gaff 
the fish until it shows exhaustion; gaff 
the fish in the gills or throat latch. 
