THE TARPON 89 



Some ang-lers seem to think it clever to publish exaggerated 

 catches, usually for home consumption. I have not included 

 any so-called records which are not well established. 



The loss of a fine fish after a long struggle is disheartening. 

 Let the angler who has this experience console himself by 

 reflecting upon the dire misfortune which befell Mr. L. P. 

 Schutt, the manager of the Casa Marina at Key West, several 

 years ago. ]\Ir. Schutt hooked a fish which he thought was a 

 shark. He worked hard to get it close to the boat so that he 

 could cut it off without losing too much of the new 24-thread 

 line he was using. At the expiration of thirty minutes he 

 brought it close enough to see that he had a tarpon. The sun 

 was setting during the first part of the struggle and darkness 

 soon closed down. After over an hour's hard work the fish 

 was brought up to the boat ready for gaffing, when a shark 

 bit it off just behind the dorsal fin. The head was mounted 

 and measures slightly over nineteen inches from the chin to 

 the extremity of the gills. The piece salvaged weighed 156V2 

 lbs. With the mouth closed, the distance from the chin to the 

 back of the dorsal fin was fifty-eight inches, whereas the 

 McLaren record fish of 232 pounds now mounted at Tampico 

 has a corresponding length of only forty-eight inches. The 

 girth of the portion saved was forty-seven (47) inches. 

 Surely this would have been the American and probably the 

 world record fish had not the shark intervened. So when you 

 lose a fish, solace yourself with the reflection that even harder 

 luck befell Mr. Schutt, for after careful study of the length 

 and measurements of the remaining fragment, his fish may 

 have weighed over 240 pounds. The shark and Mr. Schutt 

 jointly hold this record. 



In 1924, at the Boca Grande Pass, I caught a tarpon weigh- 

 ing 76 lbs. on 3-6 tackle, that is to say, a rod weighing six 

 ounces for both tip and butt, measuring six feet in length 

 and a six-thread line. On the same day I captured this fish, 

 Mr. John E. Jack of Punta Gorda caught a tarpon weighing 



