TARPON FISHING IN THE PASS 



with partial paralysis of the thumb that has to press on the 

 brake from start to finish. When the first mad rushes are 

 over, the boat is headed for the beach, where an attempt is 

 next made to land the fish. Some fishermen use the leather 

 rest in a belt, holding the butt of the rod in it and walking 

 backwards up the sloping beach till the guide can get close 

 enough to the fish to gaff it. Others, however, finding that 

 the belt throws too great a strain on the stomach, prefer to 

 remain in the boat, with the butt of the rod in the rest screwed 

 to the seat, and in that position to play the fish to the gaff. 

 The great weight and strength of the fish, even though handi- 

 capped by the shallower water, makes either performance an 

 arduous one, and more than once I have seen the angler more 

 exhausted than the tarpon, which, at the last moment, would 

 once more run out all the line and break away. On another 

 occasion, I saw a fish played by three men in succession, with 

 the honours divided. The most exhausting fights I ever had 

 with tarpon were with three fish that I hooked exactly in the 

 middle of the back. How they manage to get hooked in that 

 spot, no uncommon experience, is not easy to determine. In 

 all probability they roll over the bait whenever it is allowed 

 for a moment to lie on the bottom, and get impaled as soon 

 as the angler reels in. They were all large fish and very diffi- 

 cult to manage or guide. Indeed, each of them required an 

 hour of brute force before yielding, and, even so, one of the 

 biggest towed me some distance out to sea. Another source 

 of trouble was a five-foot shark hooked through the fin, but it 

 did not hold out so long as the tarpon. After a little experi- 



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