TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 501 



catfish, sharks, seaweed, and the tide are to the tarpon fisher. 

 At Marco there are few catfish, but there were lots of sharks 

 and seaweed. I have heard that the tarpon is such a shy and 

 sensitive creature that, as it travels along the bottom of the 

 river in search of food, it would immediately drop the mullet 

 if it felt the least drag attached to it. The tide causes the 

 seaweed to form round the sagged line, the tarpon lifts the 

 bait, finds it suspiciously heavy, and is off like lightning. 

 During my experience the water was never clear enough to see 

 a tarpon take a bait, but I was assured by one guide that it 

 picks it up in a most gingerly manner, travels about eighty or 

 a hundred yards with it, and then stops to swallow it leisurely. 

 Another man, however, denied that the fish stopped. 



Our trouble at Marco was principally seaweed. The rough 

 weather of the day before had brought it heavily to the mouth 

 of the pass. It was early yet. Now and then, in the distance, 

 you could see a great swirl in the water, and a tarpon rose, but 

 they kept very clear of our boat. We sat leisurely smoking in 

 the brilliant sunlight, and at the end of twenty minutes I reeled 

 in and found that my bait had been swallowed by a huge shell 

 fish, a conch. It weighed between seven and eight pounds, and 

 we had to cut it open before we could get the hook out of it. 

 In appearance it was not unlike a gigantic whelk. From 

 time immemorial a hole has been cut through the top of this 

 shell, and it has been formed into a kind of signal horn. 

 This was an amusing, though not a brilliant, beginning. We 

 put on fresh bait, moved forty or fifty yards, and cast in again. 

 The day was getting hotter. The great fish began to rise (for 

 air) very numerously. After a time we took to counting the rises, 

 and I am not exaggerating when I say that within sight of my 

 field-glasses (we could see close upon a mile in one direction) 

 there were over fifty distinct black fins showed during that 

 morning. 



