Ill SPORT WITH TARPON 33 



anchor and pole of the boat must also be. let go. Although, 

 therefore, you do not attempt to stop the game, you by 

 and by put on all the drag you can with the short rod. 

 You fix the butt in the socket of the waist-belt, the leather 

 protection (either guard or thumb-stall) is pressed with judg- 

 ment, but firmly against the spool, with one hand, while the 

 line is pressed with the fingers of the other above the reel. 



You are now in for probably a smart tussle. The rod is 

 held perpendicularly by sheer strength ; it is " giving him the 

 butt " with a vengeance, and the top of the little implement, if 

 of the proper make, bends well to the work. Far away from 

 the boat, as if it were some one else's fish, out comes the 

 tarpon again, glittering, into the air^ with its portmanteau-like 

 mouth wide open ; then on falling back with a splash upon the 

 water it lashes the surface, trying ever to get rid of the hook. 

 Sometimes the fish is pretty quickly killed : I have known 

 it done in twenty minutes or half an hour ; at other times, as 

 I have previously stated, the sport may last over an hour, with 

 the severest strain on arms and back during the entire contest. 

 Many an American fisherman employs great force just to see in 

 how little time he can get his tarpon in. 



The fish should be brought up to the boat as quickly as 



