A BOOK OF FISHING STORIES 



are present in Boca Grande in large numbers, and that they 

 seem to lack the fear of man usual in their kind. It would 

 not, moreover, take much to upset one of the skiffs used for 

 fishing, as these have to be lightly built for use in these passes, 

 where the tides run strong, and a sudden squall or an over- 

 anxious gaffer, more particularly at night, might easily send 

 the occupants overboard. True, no harm might result, yet 

 large and audacious sharks might conceivably attack a white 

 man struggling in the water, and I think that a word of 

 warning on the subject may not be out of place. 



The next danger, that of being carried out to sea while 

 fishing on the ebb tide, is a very real one. The ebb tide runs 

 at Boca Grande with amazing swiftness, and once it starts 

 the ordinary fishing-boat can make no headway against it. 

 If, with any sea on, a boat is carried beyond a certain point, 

 it cannot possibly get back without assistance. You may hook 

 a fish some time after the tide has begun to ebb. Intent on 

 playing it, you do not realise, until it is too late, that you have 

 all the while silently, but with ever-increasing velocity, been 

 swept right out towards the open gulf. During my stay at 

 Boca Grande, I saw two cases of this which might have ended 

 seriously. In the one, a lady hooked a shark after the ebb 

 had begun to run, and in incredibly short time she was out 

 of sight of the rest of the fleet, and was recovered only with 

 the aid of a naphtha launch that was sent in pursuit of the 

 truants. The second case was more serious. A friend of mine 

 hooked a tarpon on the ebb tide, and it took him out to sea. 

 After having played the fish for an hour, he suddenly realised 



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