SEA FISHING 

 if they are to be successfully deceived. One very successful tarpon fisher- 

 man, who, with his wife, made great catches in the early days of the sport, 

 foretold that tarpon would not be long in learning the ways of man, after 

 which the clumsy tackle and crude baits would be ineffectual. When I 

 visited the Gulf of Mexico, there were no signs of the tarpon having pro- 

 fited by experience, nor is it likely that they would, for out of the hundreds 

 of tarpon that enter the Passes during the month of May only a very few are 

 hooked without ultimately being caught. Where, however, it is the prac- 

 tice to return each fish alive, it is probable that the lurking danger of 

 hooks becomes more generally known in the dim underworld, and the 

 tarpon are more in the position of trout in a Hampshire stream, most of 

 which must, at one time or another, have been pricked by the hook. The 

 most unsophisticated tarpon in all my travels were those of the Spanish 

 Main. I recollect how, more particularly when moored off the quay at 

 Colon, Captain Laws, of R.M.S. *' Tagus," and myself hooked these fish in 

 crystal -clear water alongside, but on that voyage they invariably broke 

 away. On a later occasion, however. Laws succeeded in catching a couple of 

 them. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



Something was said above of the excessive strength of the old style of 

 tarpon tackle and of the welcome introduction of lighter gear by our 

 American friends, who, to do them justice, are usually the fij-st to condemn 

 abuses of their own creation, whether these be fishing tackle or freak 

 dances. The reform was a desirable one, for "logey " monsters, like the 

 black sea -bass of California, or the more sluggish jewfish of Florida, 

 tackle modelled on a derrick is quite appropriate, but so gallant a fish 

 as the tarpon calls for more chivalrous treatment. Small tarpon, up to 

 forty pounds, have been killed on salmon tackle in the estuaries of Jamaica, 

 and, though it would perhaps be going to the other extreme to use it 

 for the big fish, one of which would take a day at least to kill on such gear, 

 lighter rods and finer lines should appeal to every sportsman. I am not 

 advocating too long a spell of cat-and-mouse play, but, on the other hand, 

 sudden death is not the ideal either, else we might as well catch our 

 tarpon with dynamite. The old salmon standard of a minute for every 

 pound was hardly reasonable,* yet, on the heavy tackle, I killed a tarpon 



*Suoh a standard is quite inapplicable to salmon-fishing. Five or ten minutes often suffice to bring a twenty- 

 pound salmon to the gaff. — BD. 



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