TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 491 



magnificent sport, and I wonder that more Englishmen do not take 

 to it. 



My largest fish took one hour and forty-five minutes to kill. It 

 should not be forgotten that they are heavily handicapped by being 

 hooked so near a vital part, and, as every tarpon man will know, 

 they bleed very much. As to the well-known leaping of the tarpon, 

 I have counted over twenty distinct jumps of some feet in the air. 

 Occasionally one meets a fish that is sulky and continually coming 

 to the surface of the water to ' blow,' as it is called ; but as a rule 

 their activity is marvellous. I shall not readily forget one particular 

 fish. It leaped right over our boat. 



Two hundred yards of line is none too much on a reel, for I have 

 had a fish take the full six hundred feet without stopping, and then 

 break me. 



One has many slips when tarpon fishing, and it should never be 

 forgotten that the slightest check is fatal to one's chance of killing. 

 One of my fish (it had only fouled the trace by getting it under his 

 scissor jaw) took three hours to kill. 



As to whether the fish can be taken with fly or trolling a much- 

 debated point it should not be forgotten that the fully-grown tarpon 

 has a very hard mouth, too hard for penetration by hook. An 

 American in a small yacht tried trolling, but though they took 

 the spinner the fish always broke away. I think something might 

 be invented that would hold them. They would be very difficult 

 to kill in this fashion. 



The time of year is a most important matter. The hotter it is, 

 the better the fishing becomes. I cannot think that it would be 

 good after the second week in May, as the tarpon are then going 

 up to spawn, and though they take readily, according to accounts 

 I heard, have lost their gameness. 



Apropos of Lord Orford's comparison of tarpon with salmon 

 angling, it will no doubt adversely prejudice those who have 

 never killed a tarpon to learn that the sport is partly fishing with 

 a dead gorge bait. Up to the present no other means have been 

 devised of killing Master Tarpon when he gets large. When 

 small, a fly or phantom minnow is effective. When large he is 

 so sly and cunning that he is rarely ever to be tempted by this 



