174 Recreations of a Sportsman 



of sharks. I have described this catch not to 

 show how difficult it was to accomplish, but to 

 emphasize the fact that to land such a fish fairly 

 with rod and reel is a feat worth the trying, 

 and a test of endurance of high order. Even 

 then the success of the trial depends upon the 

 boatman to a great measure; the management 

 of boat and cleverness of the gaffer is an im- 

 portant factor. 



On the Gulf coast is found a leaping shark. 

 The last one I took was at Aransas in 1906. I 

 supposed I had a tarpon as up into the air went 

 the fish, so far away that I did not see it plainly ; 

 then it made a fine rush across the pass and 

 into the air again, lashing itself from side to 

 side in a graphic fashion. If tarpon are not 

 biting, as they generally are, this fish is a fair 

 substitute. I have had excellent sport with a 

 twelve-ounce rod, twenty-one line, with a leap- 

 ing shark in a bight or harbor on the south- 

 west side of Santa Catalina. It is really a small 

 fiord, and at its head in very shallow water 

 these " oil sharks " gather in July and August. 

 They are beautifully colored and range up to 

 seventy pounds, the largest I have seen taken 

 with rod and reel being a sixty-three-pounder. 

 The fishing was all from the sandy beach; the 

 bait, a six or seven-pound fish, being towed out 

 by a fisherman to a point sixty feet in the bay. 

 The moment the strike came, up into the air 



