FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 suffers little, and chaff or congratulation is received in equally good 

 spirit. Very different from the hot days in the Pass are the nights, with or 

 without moonlight. On a bright night the scene is beautiful, and the 

 water is usually still, as the strong afternoon breeze normally dies away 

 after sunset. On some evenings, too, the fish feed better than during the 

 day, and one moonlight night I had a brace, each of them 108 pounds, 

 within an hour. Quite distinct, and to my taste much less pleasant, is 

 the effect of a pitch-dark night. Indeed, I actually dislike it, for not only 

 do the conditions make the playing of so large a fish a very difficult and 

 comfortless operation, but the sensation when a giant ray suddenly leaps 

 in the air and comes down on the water with a terrific crash close to the 

 boat is anything but soothing. Although these leaping rays always manage 

 to rise clear of the skiff on moonlight nights, I was never quite sure that 

 one of them might not miscalculate in the darkness, and the prospect of 

 having to swim for it in a narrow strait teeming with sharks was no part 

 of my programme. Yet, when we remember the size and strength of the 

 sharks and other fishes in those seas, accidents are curiously few. The 

 only fatality of which I have any record was that of a boat found adrift 

 off Galveston, in Texas, containing two dead bodies, one of a tarpon and 

 the other of a fisherman. The unfortunate man must have gone out with- 

 out a guide and paid for his economy with his life, since a guide at the 

 oars would have been able to keep the boat clear of the falling fish. Mr 

 Vom Hofe once "jumped " a tarpon so close to a neighbouring boat that 

 it fell on one of the oars and broke it, and Mr Otis Mygatt was badly hurt 

 one dark night by a porpoise falling on him. It was, I think, the memory 

 of Mr Mygatt's porpoise that chastened any joy I might otherwise have 

 felt at being out those dark nights. Mr Dimock is of opinion that tarpon 

 and other leaping fishes can actually change their direction while in the 

 air, steering clear of boats into which they might otherwise fall. 



OTHER FISHING IN FLORIDA 



The tarpon, while undoubtedly the first prize of such a trip, is not the 

 only good fish in those seas. There is a variety of big game in the Pass 

 itself, and on boisterous days, when Pass fishing is out of the question, 

 the shallows round Useppa Island give excellent sport with fish of smaller 

 size but good fighting mettle, which afford first-rate opportunities for 

 light tackle. On the heaviest gear they give no excitement, and the very 

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