Giant Fish of Florida 



There will no doubt be disparaging anglers who despair 

 of tarpon fishing as a sport when they read my frank 

 admission that it calls for little special knowledge beyond a 

 useful husbanding of one's strength that can be acquired only 

 with practice. At the same time, attention to the business in 

 hand will often save many little inconveniences, such as 

 getting your finger broken by the reel handle, or cut through 

 by quick-running slack line. 



In thus discounting the skill at present necessary to the 

 killing of tarpon, I do not overlook the fact that this state 

 of things will not in all probability continue indefinitely, since 

 there are already signs that the tarpon may become both 

 scarcer and better educated as the sport gains more ad- 

 herents ; nor is it other than probable that we do not yet 

 know the best methods of catching this splendid fish. In 

 Boca Grand Pass, for instance, we fish for tarpon with a strip 

 of mullet used close to the bottom. In other places where 

 the sport is followed they use a whole mullet near the surface. 

 The probability is that we know no more of the life history 

 and habits of the tarpon than our fathers knew of the salmon 

 forty years ago. It is when greater art is called for in the 

 capture of the scarcer and more wary fish that the more 

 intelligent guides and sportsmen will inevitably score in a 

 measure that, it must be confessed, is not always the reward 

 of superior intelligence to-day. 



As to season, the most agreeable time for tarpon fishing 



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