SEA FISHING 

 exceedingly expensive, to say nothing of the chagrin of losing what 

 might perhaps have been the fish of the year. 



The hook is tinned. Like most tinned hooks, it is often blunt and should 

 always be filed before use. It is attached by some fifteen links of fine 

 chain to a 6 -foot leader of piano wire, with a swivel at the top end for 

 the reel line. The long wire leader saves the line from fraying against 

 the sharp fin on the tarpon's back when the fish is dashing backwards 

 and forwards just before coming to the gaff. It is admirable, save when a 

 shark takes the bait. Then, and then only, the angler regrets its strength, 

 since, if it were more fragile, the shark would bite through it and go 

 free, leaving the line intact, whereas, being unable to bite or break the 

 wire, it takes out most of the line, leaving the fisherman with the dismal 

 alternative of cutting loose and fitting up a new line, or being towed 

 about for hours while those in the other boats are catching tarpon. The 

 object of the chain is to prevent the wire kinking whenever the tarpon 

 jumps into the air, and its flexibility probably saves many a smash. This 

 is the tackle used in trolling. In still-fishing, which will be described 

 later, there is neither wire nor chain. The hook is attached instead to 

 a shorter length of raw cowhide. In this method of fishing, the tarpon 

 takes the bait deep down in its inside and has far less chance of getting 

 rid of the hook, though I am assured that it fights more fiercely. 



The leads, or sinkers, weigh either a quarter or half a pound and are sold 

 in boxes at half a dollar. There used to be — ^for aught I know, there still 

 is — a way of attaching the sinker to the swivel of the wire leader with very 

 fragile copper wire. The object of this was that the first leap of the tarpon 

 might jerk the sinker free. This, needless to say, meant a new lead after 

 each fish was hooked, and so one got through a large number in a week's 

 fishing. It was, in fact, no unusual experience to use a box daily. I was, 

 so far as I know, the second fisherman at Boca Grande to attach the sinker 

 by stout line, so that one served me a whole week. The fij*st (from whom 

 I borrowed the idea) was none other than the genial Mr Vom Hofe himself! 

 When one comes to think of it there was something ludicrous in the accep- 

 tance of the theory that four ounces of lead could add anything appreciable 

 to the fighting weight of a fish weighing a hundred pounds. Anglers, how- 

 ever, are more often imitative than original, hence, no doubt, the long 

 vogue enjoyed by this curious belief, which profited no one more than 

 the man who sold the sinkers. 



The gaff is just a steel hook securely fastened to a 6 -foot ash handle. It 



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