The Reel. 



Tarpon Fishing in Florifa 



with the rod and 

 reel, to say noth- 

 ing of 

 the un- 

 scientific 

 hand -line. 

 To Mr. 

 W. H. 

 Wood, a 

 New York 

 gentleman, belongs 



the honor of having been the first to cap- 

 ture one with sportsman's tackle ; an event 

 to which the London Observer of Aug. 

 25, 1886, refers in the following enthusi- 

 astic language : " Here, at last, there is a 

 rival to the black bass of North America, 

 to the Silurus glanis of the Danube, to our 

 own European salmon, and possibly even 

 to the sturgeon, were that monster capable 

 of taking a hook and holding it in its leach- 

 like sucker of a mouth. Sportsmen may 

 yet go to Florida for the tarpon, as they 

 now go to the Arctic zone for the rein- 

 deer, walrus, and musk-ox." (By the way, 

 why does the Observer claim for Europe 

 sole proprietary rights in the salmon ?) 

 Up to the present date the largest tarpon 

 taken with rod and reel was one killed by 

 Mr. John G. Hecksher of New York, 

 183 



