Ill SPORT WITH TARPON 25 



The hook that will pierce that plating has not yet been 



fashioned. What is used for tarpon has therefore been 



designed for service with gorge bait ; its destination must be 



the gullet of the fish, and once there, there is not much 



chance of a breakage or ejectment, if the hook be of the 



right length, substance, pattern, and temper. Such a tarpon 



hook as that illustrated seemed to me to ably fulfil each of 



these requirements. 



For the one pattern of hook used by the tarpon fisher there 



is generally one kind of bait, namely, a piece of the common 



gray sea mullet. There are seldom times or 



The Bait. 

 places on the coast when an ample supply of bait 



cannot be secured, since the elevation of tarpon catching to a 

 popular sport has resulted in the creation of the businesses of 

 guides (or gillies), bait-catchers, and hangers-on. The mullet 

 is cut into three parts, and the tail section is generally chosen for 

 bait. All scales are removed, but the head is preferred by some 

 fishermen, and I think Mr. W. Ashby Jones caught his big six 

 feet nine inch fish (172 lbs.) with this. He told me that in his 

 opinion the tail was a " mean bait." The hook is passed so that 

 the snell is threaded through the lump of fish, which will be per- 

 haps five inches in length, and therefore heavy enough to be cast 



