FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 of 140 pounds in little over half an hour, and that, I maintain, is too quick 

 for sport. It was, in fact, butchery, and the fight was won not by the 

 fisherman, but by the uncompromising rod and the too ingenious reel. 

 Skill, with such tackle, counts for little or nothing. Only with a lighter 

 rod and with fewer drags on the reel would skill be needed. With the 

 old tackle, it was a question merely of endurance, though there were, no 

 doubt, circumstances in which experience made good where ignorance 

 of the game would have failed. One case in point was the intervention 

 of a shark. The first impulse of the inexperienced tarpon -fisherman on 

 seeing the sickle fin of a shark cleaving the water in the wake of the tarpon 

 on the hook would probably be to reel in with might and main so as to haul 

 the tarpon out of the marauder's reach. This is the very worst thing to do 

 in the circumstances. It would not defeat the ends of the shark; it would 

 further them. It makes the tarpon forget the danger behind and resist 

 only the coercion in front. Its natural instinct is to pull in the opposite 

 direction, which, of course, takes it right into the shark's jaws. The proper 

 course for the angler to take is to give it line, pulling this off the reel if 

 necessary, so that, with no other drag on its movements, it will probably 

 keep out of the shark's way long enough for the boatman to reach the 

 shallows whither the shark, being an arrant coward, is usually afraid to 

 follow. 



A tip may also break while playing a big fish, and this means good-bye 

 to the fish. Yet even in such stress, exceptional coolness and skill on 

 the part of the fisherman and his guide may save the situation. I was 

 witness of what I imagine to be one of the most remarkable cases of such 

 a recovery on record. The tarpon was an immense fish of 160 pounds. 

 Everything was in its favour. In the first place it was foulhooked, which, 

 as every fisherman will know, meant enormous fighting strength in a fish 

 of such weight. In the second place the episode occurred in bright moon- 

 light, which always immeasurably increases the difficulty of fishing by dis- 

 torting every object and altering the perspective. It was in such circum- 

 stances that the rod broke. Humanly speaking, the fish ought to have 

 been lost. Yet it was saved, though not without the guide climbing over 

 the stern, risking a capsize in water alive with sharks, and handlining 

 the tarpon to the gaff. It was a superb performance on the part of both 

 men in the boat and one that will not soon be seen again. 



One American writer, as categorical as the late Mr Gladstone, has enu- 

 merated eight different ways in which a hooked tarpon may be lost. Five 

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