6o THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA vi 



monster when so engaged, the sport is prolonged at will ; your 

 man can take you leisurely ashore, and gaff the fish at his ease 

 in shallower water. 



It always occurred to me that an angler who was content 

 to see his baits carried frequently away, and equipped him- 

 self now and then with ordinary spinning tackle, might have a 

 real glut of sport in this style of fishing, casting from right and 

 left, and experiencing sensations and excitements, along with 

 smashes and losses, such as could not be exceeded anywhere. 



On another page I have made allusion to Mrs. Grimshaw. 



She is the lady who, in the Badminton Magazine, described 



„ _ . her experiences of tarpon fishing, and of Florida 



shaw and generally. She pictures Captiva Island as a very 



er po . ijgg^yj-jfuj spot, its beach sparkling with myriads of 



shells, and its semi-tropical growths of prickly pear and palmetto, 



all charming. Indeed, she describes the spot as enchanted, and 



was evidently much in love with it. She stopped in one of the 



huts inhabited by the Spanish fishermen, but in 1897, I fear, she 



would have had a very hard time, for the place was infested 



with mosquitoes and sandflies, which at times made life almost 



unendurable. The fisher people, who supply you with bait and 



are very obliging to the visitor, told me that there had been 



