120 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



io.o Limerick or O'Shaughnessy hooks and a gaff. I have 

 used the O'Shaughnessy hooks, and I believe they are gener- 

 ally employed. 



A gaff is considered indispensable. I regarded it so until 

 the loss of a fine fish caused me to change my tactics. After 

 a battle of over an hour, during which my finny opponent 

 had gone through the usual process of sky-scraping, astonish- 

 ing spurts beneath the water's surface and the like, I had 

 succeeded in getting him under perfect control and was bring- 

 ing him to the gaff. My boatman, as boatman so frequently 

 do, became flurried and made his strike in too great haste. I 

 was not prepared for the final move; and the stroke, coming 

 unexpectedly, entangled my line and, much to my disgust, 

 enabled the Tarpon, which must have weighed one hundred 

 and fifty pounds, to get away. Since, I play my fish, as 

 usual, until completely exhausted, when I bring him to the 

 side of the boat, and make the boatman run his hand and 

 arm up his gills, out through the Tarpon's capacious mouth, 

 and lift him gently into the boat. My new method has proved 

 efficacious in every instance in which I have tried it, and 

 hereafter I will exhaust my fish thoroughly, and use the gaff 

 only on urgent occasions. Many a victory has been won, 

 only to be thrown away by the awkwardness and lack of skill 

 of an excited boatman. 



Mullet is the bait universally employed in fishing for Tar- 

 pon. Unquestionably, they prefer it to other small fish, 

 though I have had them take small Catfish, and the variety 

 termed "Virginia Mullet" by the coast fishermen. These 

 latter are sometimes called "Rat-fish," the head resembling 

 that of a rat. They seem to run with the Silver Mullet, and 

 I have frequently seen them caught in the gill-nets with which 

 schools of the latter were surrounded. 



Some fishermen use an entire Mullet on their hooks, but 

 more generally cut-bait is employed. There is much room 

 for experiment in the matter of bait. I have heard experi- 



