TROPICAL TROLLING. 



night air. will undo most of your work, which must then be done 

 over again. Now I. at least, want to fish in my mornings and not to 

 prepare tackle, and it seems to me manifest that all such preparatory 

 work should he done by the maker or dealer, and that the fisherman 

 should be able to buy a line completely ready for use. For such 

 no reasonable sportsman would hesitate to pay an extra price, which 

 would reimburse the maker for the extra labor and pay him a good 

 profit besides. 



The books also say that all lines used for salt water fishing 

 should be taken from the reel each night, thoroughly washed in fresh 

 water, allowed to dry completely, and then be replaced. Has any one 

 of these writers tried it and found out how much labor this operation 

 requires, how the lines will snarl, and how much time, which should 

 be devoted to fishing, one must expend on this soul-destroying occupa- 

 tion ? Let him attempt what he so cheerfully recommends to others, 

 and he will know more and talk less. ( )f course rich men can hire 

 others to do the setting, washing, drying and replacing, though it 

 will be done- less well than the fisherman would do it himself, but my 

 experience has shown the whole process to be unnecessary, provided 

 honestly made lines are furnished for one's money. 



Six years ago I spent a month cruising among the Florida Keys, 

 fishing near the reef for the great kingfish. amberjack, barracuda 

 and groupers. Five years ago I spent nearly five months of the 

 winter and early spring in Nassau, fished about eight hours a day, 

 from a thirty-five foot sail boat, and took kingfish up to fifty-five 

 pounds and amberjack up to fifty-two. I then could buy green or 

 brown linen cable laid tarpon lines of two hundred yards each, of 

 twenty-one or twenty-four threads, put them on my reels without any 

 "setting," never wash or dry them, and find them give excellent 

 service for about thirty days, with little tendency to untwist or kink. 

 After that time it proved wise to replace them by new ones and this 

 liecaine my regular practice. In these two winters, at Nassau and 

 in Florida, my line broke only once, and this was when I had 

 neglected to exchange it for a new one after thirty days service, and 

 perhaps was rather careless also. 1 used but a single large swivel, 

 and never found keel sinkers, or any similar device, necessary to 

 prevent untwisting or kinking. 



I had hoped to return to Nassau the following year and break 

 my own record on kingfish, and for that purpose then bought four of 

 "Hall's Special Tarpon" lines, but illness and the panic of 1!><>T pre- 



