The Tarpon 245 



The tarpon is found all along the coast of 

 Texas, but the centre of interest is Aransas Pass, 

 a narrow cut between St. Joseph's and Mustang 

 islands, eight miles from the mainland. On the 

 former stands the fine club-house of the Tar- 

 pon Club, whose hospitality I enjoyed through 

 the courtesy of Judge A. W. Houston, its vice- 

 president, a devoted tarpon angler of San Antonio. 

 On Mustang Island is the little town of Tarpon 

 and its one hotel, Tarpon Inn, where the angler 

 will find excellent entertainment, good boatmen, 

 and tackle, if perchance he is without it. Aransas 

 Pass is reached from New York or California via 

 San Antonio, the Sunset Route being the most 

 direct in either case. At San Antonio the Aran- 

 sas Pass road in a few hours takes one to Rock- 

 port, from which there is a daily mail-boat down 

 the fine bay of Aransas fifteen miles, to the 

 Tarpon Club or Tarpon Inn. The fishing sea- 

 son here is from April to December, and possibly 

 the angler would find it cooler in October, when, 

 I was informed, the fish are in the inner Pass; 

 but I found the conditions excellent in August, a 

 cool breeze blowing night and day and the fish 

 biting. I fell into the hands of one Mateo Bru- 

 jen, one of the many skilled boatmen here, and 



