Giant Fish of Florida 



Boca Grand are fully occupied in procuring sufficient mullet to 

 provide bait for the anglers. Thirty fishers would require about 

 150 mullet a day. It is, therefore, scarcely surprising to hear 

 that mullet are seriously decreasing in numbers. I very much 

 doubt whether several other fish would not produce equally 

 killing baits. I can answer for the moon fish and its allies, also 

 the devil-fish and rays in general, whose milky-white under 

 sides were tried with success. 



SHARKS AND SHARK-FISHING 



I conclude this little book with a few notes on sharks and 

 on bird life on that coast. Shark-fishing can now and then be 

 very good fun, although the fish are vermin. After all, we do 

 not eat tarpon, and the saw of the sawfish makes as good a 

 trophy as the scale of the great herring. I am not, of course, 

 for one moment comparing the one fish or fishing with the 

 other, but on days when it is too rough to get afloat, or when 

 the tide does not serve, it is better to catch great sharks from 

 the beach or pier than to loaf on shore doing nothing. 



Having named the sawfish (Pristis pectinatus), 1 will start 

 off with the picture of a fine specimen, measuring 18 feet, 

 which was taken on a night-line set for sharks. It moves slowly 

 and prowls on the bottom, close in shore, for food. A sucking 

 fish was still adhering to this one when caught. For all its 

 shark-like appearance, the sawfish is in reality one of that 

 kindred group, the rays, of which some pictures have already 



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