Giant Fish of Florida 



seemed to think it was a tarpon, manoeuvred in the 

 orthodox way, and presently a pound-grouper flew into the 

 boat ! 



There have now been some seven strikes, with only 

 two tarpon landed, and sport is somewhat slack. A fair angler 

 carelessly trailing her bait over the side is suddenly 

 startled by the magnificent leap of a thirty-pound kingfish, 

 a mighty mackerel, which all but wrenches the rod from 

 her hands. Away it dashes, taking out line at an appalling 

 pace, foul-hooked in the eye, but unable to free itself, and 

 at last duly brought to gaff. What a handsome fish ! 

 Particularly noticeable are the knife-edged, conical teeth, 

 that can cut baits just below the hook as with scissors, and 

 the small proportion of its fin to its swimming power. 



The kingfish is one of the swiftest swimmers in those 

 seas, and the Spaniards recognise this by calling it " cavalla," 

 or the horse. I have shown two figures of kingfish, the 

 one chasing a skipjack, its favourite food, below the 

 surface, the other leaping in the air and throwing up a 

 newly-hunted skipjack, an almost invariable habit. Indeed, a 

 kingfish breaking water always appears to have a skipjack 

 in readiness to throw up, and this, its next meal, accompanies 

 it for about a third of its flight. Although the skipjack 

 appears to be knocked out of the water by the kingfish, 

 and sometimes shows bleeding rents in its sides, it may be 

 that the leap is a voluntary one to avoid capture, for it is 



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