492 MODERN SEA FISHING 



means. And yet, despite the dead gorge, tarpon fishing requires 

 as much skill of its own kind as any branch of sport with which 

 I am acquainted, as is proved by the fact that expert anglers 

 have failed to kill for the whole of their first season. 



There is another reason why tarpon cannot be killed when 

 hooked in the mouth. In its way, though from an entirely 

 different cause, the mouth of the tarpon is more difficult than 

 that of the grayling, as Lord Orford has pointed out ; and it is 

 for this reason that the old tarpon fishers, though they slaved 

 away for years, were never able to kill. Up till March 1885 no 

 large tarpon had ever been captured with rod and reel, but in 

 that year an American gentleman, Mr. Wood, of New York 

 City, was successful in bringing to gaff a fish weighing consider- 

 ably over 100 Ibs. 



Among my angling treasures is a scale from this very tarpon, 

 presented to me by Mr. A. N. Cheney. 



To recount my own experiences in Florida. We left Liver- 

 pool one Wednesday afternoon, and were in New York on the 

 following Tuesday night ; and, though we made the passage in 

 midwinter, the io,ooo-ton Teutonic, most comfortable of float- 

 ing hotels, enabled us to cross the Atlantic with but little 

 physical agitation. Were I going again, as I hope to do, I would 

 as soon cross in winter as at midsummer. 



Early next day I replenished my store of tarpon literature, 

 and purchased my tackle. 



There are still those in England, and in the United States 

 also, who hardly believe that it is possible to kill with very frail 

 tackle a 2oo-lb. fish a fish so strong that it can tow a boat for 

 miles ; so active that it can leap out of the water from four to 

 seven feet over and over again ; so fierce that, once hooked, it 

 regards its captor as a personal enemy, and fights him with 

 courage and activity not given to any other fish. The finest gut 

 cast with which a four-pound trout can be captured is very coarse 



