CHAPTER IV 



A LIVELY MORNING IN THE PASS 



I WILL now endeavour to describe a typical morning's 

 tarpon fishing in the Pass, and one such morning will, with 

 varying results, be found much as another. The tides of 

 Boca Grand are erratic, yet the guides must have an accurate 

 knowledge of their vagaries, since on them depends the 

 duration of the fishing-time. Only in slack water can tarpon 

 be fished for with any comfort. The tide is, in fact, slacking, 

 as four and twenty boats drift rapidly down through the Pass 

 and out towards the Gulf, to row back close in shore and out 

 of the current, and repeat the process. 



Presently, as the tide is all but done, some one gets a 

 strike ; up comes a hundred-pounder a second or two later, 

 eight feet in the air, shaking his head in fury until his gills 

 rattle loudly, then, with a plainly audible grunt, shaking free 



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