62 THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA vi 



Pass (which is f mile wide and \ mile long) is that the likeliest 



haunts of the fish are the tide rips. When there are a number 



of fishermen out, and each is striving with amusing eagerness 



to get the best anchorage (" swim " we should call it at home), 



the sport is intensified by the necessity there is of the boats 



looking after one another ; for it is an unwritten law amongst 



Florida sportsmen to clear out at the moment of action, and 



not get in the way of another man's fish ; and when, as I have 



seen, three or four men happen to be engaged simultaneously 



with a fish, the fun is fast and furious. The raw hide snell is, 



in Pass fishing, exchanged by many for a length of piano wire, 



which will hold anything ; and the same rod is used as in 



gorge-bait fishing. 



The number of misses in proportion to strikes is illustrated 



by Mrs, Grimshaw's statement that her husband once counted 



seventeen strikes in thirty minutes to his own 

 Fine Sport. 



rod, without one fish being hooked. It did 



actually happen to her that, hooking a big fish which came 



up four times, always in a fresh place, shaking his head 



frantically, her guide promptly flung out his buoy, and the 



boat was at once towed with a seven -knot tide towards the 



Gulf This was by a hooked tarpon, and the course I have 



