SEA FISHING 

 his biggest fish close to the bottom. Further evidence of its preying on 

 ground game was afforded by a blue crab (not a swimming kind) which 

 I found inside a tarpon of fifty-five pounds. Now and then the tarpon will 

 follow the bait close to the boat, like a mackerel. One which looked to 

 weigh about eighty pounds followed my hook in this way and snapped 

 at it alongside the skiff, nearly pulling me over the side, as I was unpre- 

 pared for such a visit. I did not, in fact, strike, and the fish just threw out 

 the hook without even jumping. 



In appearance the tarpon suggests a gigantic herring. The sym- 

 metrical outline, the large round eyes, the deep cleft of the mouth and 

 the blunt, snub nose help to fix the family likeness. Its back fin is, 

 however, provided with a very long ray that distinguishes it from the 

 true herrings, which lack this feature. What may be the object of this 

 appendage, if it has any, we do not know, though some writers regard 

 it as part of the tarpon's steering gear, enabling it to make those 

 wonderful twists and turns with which it outdistances most sharks 

 and puzzles many fishermen. This, however, is just a theory without 

 much to support it. 



The scales are very large, recalling those of the pilchard. Some of 

 them exceed five inches in diameter. One edge is silvered, and there are 

 radiating lines like the spokes of a wheel. One edge also is scalloped. In 

 the natural position, the scales are so overlaid that they show only the 

 silvered portion. 



The tail, like that of the herrings, is deeply forked. The gills are bright 

 scarlet, and when a large tarpon rises close to the boat and shakes its 

 grisly head in its effort to throw out the hook, they look as if suffused 

 with blood. The roof of the mouth is very hard. There are no teeth in the 

 jaws, though the tongue and palate are studded with minute spines, and 

 prominent bony ridges are found beneath the tongue and on the roof of 

 the mouth. 



A question of great interest to the fisherman is that of how long and how 

 heavy tarpon grow. Unfortunately it cannot be satisfactorily answered 

 without further data to go on. Tarpon fishing is, comparatively speak- 

 ing, a new sport, and the authentic records do not include more than three 

 or four hundred large specimens. One American textbook refers to a fish 

 of 300 pounds, but I have failed to obtain details of this individual. The 

 heaviest authentic tarpon weighed 210 pounds, and even that weight was, 

 I believe, arrived at with the aid of a tape measure. There is more than 



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