The Tarpon 237 



others. A large multiplying reel is necessary, 

 one that will hold six hundred feet of wet line, and 

 this should have a leather thumb brake. The 

 regulation tarpon reels are fully equipped, and in 

 point of fact the tuna and tarpon outfits are alike 

 with the exception of the snood, which in tuna 

 fishing is always of wire and very long. The 

 boats employed vary in localities and are ordi- 

 nary light, serviceable, lapstreak boats, with a seat 

 for the angler or anglers to face the stern. 



The boatman having secured a catch of mullet, 

 you are off for the grounds, with a choice of 

 methods depending upon the boatman, the place, 

 or its traditions. You may anchor on the edge 

 of deep water, anchor inshore, or your boatman 

 may row, the gamy fish being taken in various 

 ways. Some anglers refuse to have the boat cast 

 off, preferring to fight to the finish from the an- 

 chorage. Assuming that the boat is anchored 

 in a favorable position, the mullet is cast thirty 

 or forty feet distant, and the waiting, that is an 

 accompaniment of all sport, begun. If there has 

 been a norther, if it is a late season, if cool weather 

 has been the rule for some weeks, the wait may 

 be a long one, and there is a tradition of a man 

 who never had a strike, yet is fishing on and on, a 



