TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 495 



occasion, and my thumb was in hospital for some weeks in 

 consequence. There are reasons, as will presently be seen, why 

 it is absolutely essential that a tarpon reel should run as freely 

 as the wheel of a bicycle. 



I am often asked, by the increasing number of people from 

 Great Britain who are thinking of going to Florida for angling 

 during the spring, whether it is advisable to take any English 

 tackle, and I would say ' Yes.' I had good sport among many 

 kinds of fish with a light greenheart and an eight-ounce built 

 cane rod. A salmon rod is useful, with a moderate assortment 



LEATHER BELT AND ROD 



of gaudy flies, .spoon baits, and phantom minnows. Dry-fly 

 fishing is practically out of the question in such parts of Florida 

 as I visited. I did occasionally kill when fishing dry, but the 

 banks and rivers and creeks are not as a rule conducive to 

 drying the lure in the orthodox way. Most of my fly fishing 

 was done in the evening from a boat, and it was just as easy to 

 kill with a wet as with a dry fly. Occasionally, indeed, the 

 fish were so ravenous that one could kill quite easily with a 

 bare hook. The jack fish, a particularly game specimen, of 

 which more anon, were often so numerous as to become a 

 nuisance. Sometimes one could kill at every cast. 



