64 THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA vi 



on tarpon fishing to the Badminton Magazine in 1895. He 



has fished the same waters on successive seasons, and is 



therefore fully qualified to speak. His first season 



Mygatt's left him a decided pessimist, for his luck was 

 ^ ' wretched ; but after his second and subsequent 



seasons he became, and remained, what he calls a " rabid 

 optimist on the sport." That w^s a grand day of his when he 

 caught eight tarpon of 155 lbs., 138 lbs., 128 lbs., 139 lbs., 

 136 lbs., 1 10 lbs., 119 lbs., and 78 lbs. With the exception 

 of the last, which was 5 ft. 10 in. , long, all these fish were 

 considerably over 6 feet in length, one of them, and that not 

 the heaviest, reaching 6 ft. 8 in. 



During the satne .season he had other enviable days, and 

 his heaviest fish was 182 lbs., and at that time it was, as far 

 as Mr. Mygatt knew, the longest of which there was any 

 accurate record, for it measured 7 ft. 4 in. 



* According to this gentleman's observation the tarpon fre- 

 quent the shallow lagoons and the brackish and often sheltered 

 Tarpon water of the adjoining creeks from September to 



Seasons. June, but during the rainy season, viz. from 

 June to August, they seem to abandon the creeks altogether 

 and also the upper lagoons ; he imagines that this may 



