TWO TALUS Of' TROUBLE. 



me, was hooked, played a while, straightened out my small hooks and 

 departed. I then put on a steel wire leader with larger hooks, prompt- 

 ly hooked him again, and played him for some fifteen minutes, once 

 bringing him up into view and seeing that he was about ten feet 

 long. After having pretty thoroughly tired me out he bit my win- 

 leader off and left. We then shifted our ground a half mile, but 

 either this shark or another one promptly turned up and repeated the 

 process. We gave up fishing as useless and tried to eat luncheon, 

 but the boat wobbled round in the hot sun and uneasy swell, most 

 uncomfortably, and all of my guests grew seasick. Finally I bad to 

 put the crew in our small boat, rig a tow line, and be ignominiously 

 hauled about two miles into the harbor. 



As may be readily seen, with the combination of all these diffi- 

 culties, fishing for the first two months of my stay was generally 

 unproductive, doing there with the especial purpose of beating my 

 own record for kingfish, fifty-five pounds, in that time I caught very 

 few kingfish at all and none over twelve pounds. During the last 

 month the fish were more numerous and I did book in all eight heavy 

 kingfish. One of these escaped through the excitement of Captain 

 John, who devoted himself to telling me how to fish instead of to 

 managing bis boat, one tore the hook out of his mouth, and six were 

 lost by the breaking of my lines. 



It should be said here that the play of the kingfish, especially one 

 of anv considerable size, is unmistakable. He strikes with a ferocious 

 rush which may take a hundred yards or more off the reel, then he 

 will become somewhat quiescent and can be reeled back part way 

 toward the boat. Then comes another rush, and such rushes and 

 periods of comparative inactivity succeed each other until he is brought 

 near the side. When the fish first sees the boat there is invariably a 

 tremendous rush. The fisherman must guard against this, bv keep- 

 ing his rod up and his line free, or something is practically sure to 

 break. During the whole winter I took only one kingfish exceeding 

 twelve pounds in weight, and this was a spotted kingfish, \. ;r N '<;.'/.\. 

 forty-eight inches long and weighing thirty pounds. In some strange 

 way he was hooked just in front of the amal tin. naturally made a most 

 tremendous fight, and was only gaffed after more than a half hour's 

 play. His picture appears herewith. 



Of course in so many days of effort I had to catch some king- 

 fish, and one of the pictures accompanying this article shows the stern 

 of the "Kestrel." with mv crew holding up four that ran from seven 



