Popular Salt= Water Game Fish 



Incidents are recorded where the fish leap head- 

 long into the boat. If first seen at close quarters, 

 especially front view, with wide-open 

 SpTrf '''"^ jaws and blood-red gills, it is a most 

 sinister object, as ugly a customer as 

 one wants to meet. Its large eyes glare, its lower 

 jaw protrudes, highly suggestive of a determined 

 nature to smash things in general, and the novice 

 trembles for a time, wishing he were safe on shore. 

 The tarpon is a long, slender, thin fish of the her- 

 ring type. Its tail is deeply forked, a powerful 

 organ by which it leaps; the upper portion of the 

 back is of a metallic purple-blueish cast; the rest 

 of the body iridescent silver. Its scales are 

 remarkably large, some on the big fish being 

 3^x3 inches, the exposed half seeming to have 

 been dipped in molten silver and then frosted. 



One of the largest fish taken was that by Dr. 

 Howe at Tampico, Mexico. It weighed 223 

 pounds, had a length of 7 feet, 2 inches, and girth 

 of 46 inches. In a little less than a 

 ?nTRecor"d month's fishing a famous English 

 rodster, W. H. Grenfell, took 100 

 fish at Boca Grande. But this is a record not 

 often reached; it is only in a few localities, and 

 very seldom, that they are really plentiful. 



Most of the dealers have now a regulation 

 tarpon tackle; ever\-thing can be got in the large 

 cities to fit the angler out for the fr; y. Von Hofe 

 has a special rod, reel, and line of their own make. 

 A member of the firm having held the world's 

 record for a time makes it a surety that their expe- 

 37 



