The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 



boat, so that the fish will not be checked after 

 it has taken the bait, for it would then probably 

 eject the morsel without a " run " being effected. 

 For this reason, too, the check of the reel is left 

 off, for it is the work of an instant to put that on 

 again. Now comes the sitting and waiting. 

 Often when tarpon are not on the feed this 

 becomes monotonous. Sometimes a huge Jew 

 fish, which may weigh anything up to four 

 hundred pounds, and whose mouth is as large 

 as a small coal-scuttle, will annex your bait. 

 These fish do not fight, but remain like stones, 

 and are only reeled in by sheer strength. Then 

 a shark may, and probably will, seize the bait, 

 a shark perhaps ten feet long and weighing two 

 or more hundredweight. Its rush is sharp at 

 first, but it is very easily drowned, and soon 

 turns up the fight. Still another intruder, the 

 swordfish, an enormous brute weighing perhaps 

 three or four hundredweight ! It is interesting 

 to watch the coils of line that are loose. The 

 local expert can tell more or less what fish has 

 taken the bait by watching the line run out. 

 For instance, a shark picks up the piece of bait 

 and draws out the line in intermittent jerks, 

 whereas the tarpon takes off the line in a steady, 

 regular fashion. We will suppose that at last 

 one of these latter fish takes the bait. You give 

 him line until he has taken out some twenty or 

 thirty yards, then when he has presumably had 



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