TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 507 



for some hours trying with a phantom minnow in the Gordon 

 River. Neither rod nor line was suitable for the task, and I 

 had been cheerfully informed that spinning for young tarpon 

 was hopeless work ; that one American gentleman, indeed, had 

 been steadily essaying the feat for three seasons without result. 

 However, I was weary of killing the various fish described at 

 the end of this paper, and thirsted for something difficult. 



Several hours of angling in the blaze of the Florida sun are 

 sufficient for most of us, and I felt weary and dispirited. There 

 were several young tarpon about ; we had seen them. I re- 

 solved on a final try. The waters met at the end of a long 

 island, and I cast into the swirling ripples on either side of me. 

 The line tightened, the reel screeched, and I was into some- 

 thing big. That day I had brought to net and gaff some 

 seventy pounds of various fish, and for a moment I imagined 

 that my prey was a big ' channel bass.' I thrilled a moment 

 later when, with a magnificent leap, a ' silver king,' an unmistak- 

 able tarpon, sprang up fiercely and came down again ready for 

 another rush. 



We were off after him without a second's delay. He took us 

 hither and thither at a speed that made us despair of getting 

 him. It is perhaps the uncertainty, the nervous fears as to the 

 strength of one's cast, one's line, and one's rod that help to 

 make angling what it is, and I had my fill of all these sensa- 

 tions on that occasion, for none of my tackle was suited to its 

 work. 



One great danger of the episode was the attempt of my friend 

 to get to ' weed ' to the roots of the mangrove trees. This 

 had to be avoided at all cost, and, with many a foreboding of 

 disaster, I strained my little rod to the utmost and turned the 

 fish's head down stream. Up he came again into the sunlight, 

 shaking his head savagely, off to the other side of the pool, up 

 again and again and again. Presently he slackened, and I 



