The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
boat, so that the fish will not be checked after 
it has taken the bait, for it would then probably 
eject the morsel without a “ run ”’ being effected. 
For this reason, too, the check of the reel is left 
off, for it is the work of an instant to put that on 
again. Now comes the sitting and waiting. 
Often when tarpon are not on the feed this 
becomes monotonous. Sometimes a huge Jew 
fish, which may weigh anything up to four 
hundred pounds, and whose mouth is as large 
as a small coal-scuttle, will annex your bait. 
These fish do not fight, but remain like stones, 
and are only reeled in by sheer strength. Then 
a shark may, and probably will, seize the bait, 
a shark perhaps ten feet long and weighing two 
or more hundredweight. Its rush is sharp at 
first, but it is very easily drowned, and soon 
turns up the fight. Still another intruder, the 
swordfish, an enormous brute weighing perhaps 
three or four hundredweight! It is interesting © 
to watch the coils of line that are loose. The 
local expert can tell more or less what fish has 
taken the bait by watching the line run out. 
For instance, a shark picks up the piece of bait — 
and draws out the line in intermittent jerks, 
whereas the tarpon takes off the line in a steady, 
regular fashion. We will suppose that at last 
one of these latter fish takes the bait. You give 
him line until he has taken out some twenty or 
thirty yards, then when he has presumably had 
178 
