Il8 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



forty-two; and this with a score or more fishermen hard at 

 it during the major portion of the season, commencing in 

 January. At this same point, during the past season, I believe 

 something in the neighborhood of seventy or eighty have been 

 captured. Many sportsmen, loth to bestow so much of their 

 time in quest of one variety, content themselves with an 

 annual fish, devoting the rest of their spare moments to the 

 smaller varieties. 



As to the best tackle for Tarpon-fishing, were all that 

 has been discussed oftentimes in such heated debate 

 chronicled, it would fill tomes. I have used, in all of my 

 fishing, a strong, pliable, split-bamboo rod, eight feet in 

 length. With this I have taken Tarpon weighing from one 

 hundred and five to one hundred and forty-four pounds, and 

 it has served the purpose admirably. It is a one-jointed rod, 

 with the single joint near the butt. Many anglers prefer a 

 short, stiff rod, ranging from six and one-half to seven and 

 one-half feet, claiming that with one of this description the 

 casting of the heavy bait is easier. My reels are multiplying 

 ones of the very best quality and of the finest workmanship, 

 made to order for me by Mr. James Deally, of Louisville. They 

 will easily hold six hundred feet of fifteen, eighteen, or twenty- 

 one thread linen line. One has the customary click and 

 check, with a leather drag attached to the cross-bar. This 

 has proved serviceable, but I think the second from Mr. 

 Deally's workshop an improvement. Upon the right side of 

 this reel there are merely the click and handle. Upon the 

 left, beneath the body of the reel, and extending out con- 

 venient to the thumb, is a drag, which may be pressed upon 

 at the will of the angler, so as to produce a heavy or slight 

 tension. During the first frantic struggles of the Tarpon, of 

 course he must be allowed all the line possible, and it is my 

 habit, at times during the conflict, to throw line out rapidly 

 by seizing it between the reel and the first eyelet along the 

 pole. A taut line is most to be feared in Tarpon-fishing # 



