The Compleat Florida Angler 



by Philip Wylie . . . paintings by Morgan Douglas 



THE tourist angler generally approaches Florida in a mood 

 of worried excitement. 



He may be an old salmon man from Maine or Puget Sound; 

 he may be a caliph among the pike and muskellunge of Wis- 

 consin; perhaps he is a trout wizard whose waders know the 

 upland brooks of half a dozen states; still the name of "sailfish" 

 and the awesome reputation of the Gulf Stream will put him on 

 his mettle. 



"Tarpon" is another word calculated to shake his aplomb. 

 Quite often, at about the point in his drive south at which 

 Spanish moss begins to dangle from the trees, he bolsters up his 

 intrepidity by telling himself that salt-water fish are a brutish, 

 sluggish sort and the taking of them is hardly a fine art. 



The sad thing is that the tourist angler may go back home 

 with that opinion even after a good deal of conventional fish- 

 ing. For much of the best of Florida fishing is unconventional: 

 as sporting as any quest with rod and reel can be or not sports 

 fishing at all, but always odd and fascinating. 



Sailfish and tarpon, the standard quarry, are commonly taken 

 from charter boats, operated by two guides in the case of the 

 former and one or two in the case of tarpon. And while I would 

 be a great hypocrite to disparage either sport, I would be less 

 than honest to deny their handicaps, especially for the novice. 



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