TARPON FISHING. 445 



nearly 200 Ibs weight, and invariably costs the angler 

 a severe struggle before it gives in. 



Tarpon fishing lasts from January till May, but it 

 is at its best during the last two months of this time ; 

 and the fish are taken either with a rod or a hand- 

 line. The sport has become quite a fashionable one 

 of late years in the United States, and draws many vis- 

 itors to Florida when tarpon are taking freely. A list 

 of fish caught during the season of 1889, between Janu^ 

 ary 30 and May 8, from the Tarpon House Hotel, Punta- 

 Rassa, on the west coast of Florida, was published in 

 the American sporting papers. * 



This list gives the size and weight of 1 1 3 fish which 

 were caught there, of which the largest was 165-^- Ibs 

 in weight and 6 feet 10 inches in length, while the 

 smallest was 44 Ibs and its length 4 feet 6 inches; 59 

 fish out of the 1 1 3 were i oo Ibs weight or over it, 

 and only two fish were under 50 Ibs. Another account 

 of this kind of fishing appeared in The Field of 

 June 1890, from which it appeared that the tackle 

 found most efficient was 



" a rod of about ten feet long, very stiff, made of split bamboo, 

 with 200 yards cotton line, very strong, but thinner than a 

 salmon line; to the end of this a piece of thick soft snood 

 is attached, with a hook about three inches long by one inch 

 across. The bait is a quarter of mullet. Sharks are very 

 numerous, and the question of snoods is a most troublesome 

 one, for you must use one that a shark can bite through 

 and a tarpon cannot. If you use wire, a shark would not 

 be able to bite it and would probably smash everything. On 

 the other hand a hard snood would be instantly cut by the 

 shearlike action of a tarpon's jaws; also the hook would be 



* See Forest and Stream of May 29, 1890. 



