Giant Fish of Florida 



I do not profess to know these vermin severally by name, 

 but two or three pictures of some that were captured during 

 my stay may be of interest. The subject of the first was, like 

 most of the tribe, a cannibal, for it took another shark (though 

 I do not know that it was of the same species) that had 

 been hooked, and the two were secured by the coloured 

 " gentleman " in the picture. 



This incident of its swallowing a fish already hooked 

 reminds me of another. An angler had to return to England 

 rather suddenly, but he was anxious to complete his catch of 

 100 tarpon for the season. He had already caught 99, and 

 but half an hour remained before his boat left. He hooked the 

 hundredth, luckily enough, but it was promptly seized by a 

 shark, and it still looked as if his century would not be com- 

 pleted, when he very cleverly landed shark and all, with a few 

 minutes to spare, and thus made up his total of tarpon. 



The end of May is the time when sharks most plague the 

 tarpon fisher, and is consequently the time for shark fishing. 

 The best way is to bait a large hook with a whole split fish 

 made fast to a long stout line. Then you fling this well out from 

 the Lighthouse Jetty, leave a good coil of slack, and make the 

 end fast. Before very long, the slack line begins to creep out, 

 then rushes, and you must, if the shark is a large one, call all 

 the help you can muster, for the fight will be a good one. All 

 hands play him from the beach, and, with a little give and take, 

 he generally comes in with a run, a nasty-looking brute perhaps 



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