240 Big Game Fisbes 



end you win, and after half an hour, or perhaps 

 it is two hours, the tarpon is alongside. Your 

 boatman gaffs it and deftly slides it into the boat, 

 and as you lean back, worn, weary, dishevelled, 

 a finger nail gone, perhaps, two knuckles bleeding 

 where the handle of the reel caught you at the last 

 rush, yet you are happy and delighted ; and so far 

 from being discouraged, you are now determined 

 to hook a record fish if it takes all summer. 



Such may be the experience of an angler in 

 Florida. At Captiva Pass, Mr. Edwin vom 

 Hofe of New York took his two-hundred-and- 

 ten-pound tarpon, which was for many years the 

 record, and I believe still holds for this particular 

 region. It was exceeded by Mr. N. M. George 

 of Danbury, Connecticut, who took with the rod, 

 at Bahia Honda, April 8, 1901, a tarpon which 

 weighed two hundred and thirteen pounds. Its 

 length was seven feet two inches and its girth 

 forty-six inches. 



This, then, is the record for American waters. 

 This catch was exceeded by Dr. Howe at Tam- 

 pico, Mexico, his fish weighing two hundred and 

 twenty-three pounds. All these catches stand on 

 a weighing basis. R. E. Farley of Aransas Pass 

 informs me that C. W. McCawley of Dallas, 



