PASS FISHING 67 



head. There must have been a bit of smart angling here, as 

 the hook had ripped along the skin for about two inches, 

 and the hold was so precarious that the fly fell off as the 

 fish flopped about in the boat. 



Tarpon fishing at night is recommended by Mr. Mygatt. 

 He declares it if anything more exciting than in the daytime, 

 since to " the many usual details are added the indescribable 

 fascination and mystery of darkness. To catch Night 

 tarpon at night by moonlight is pretty hard to r»sning. 

 beat for sport, but I must say that to catch them on a pitch- 

 dark night when all the playing has to be done by the feeling 

 of the strain on rod and line is the most exciting sport I 

 know of. I certainly prefer night fishing. It is always cool, 

 there is rarely any wind, and if not late in the season, not 

 many mosquitoes."^ 



At Captiva Pass you fish best on the flood-tide, and it 

 was while here that Mrs. Ward and myself lived on board the 

 yacht. We arrived there on 1 4th April, after some . . . . 

 " small fishing," and reached our anchorage in time Pass 

 to have an hour or so of fishing before dark. Here ^ 



we soon had strong evidence of the obdurate character of the 



* "Some Tarpon Adventures," by Otis Mygatt, Badminton Magazine, October 1895. 



