The Drum 323 



ous method of gaffing, but possibly excusable 

 under the circumstances and dragged it out 

 upon the sands, remoras and all, the four attend- 

 ants refusing to leave until they were forced off. 

 This fish weighed, if my memory serves me rightly, 

 about seventy pounds, and was the largest " big 

 porgy " ever seen at Garden Key, at least by 

 the fishermen I knew. I gave it to the man I 

 often fished with. He was not a Tamisio, and I 

 fancied he looked at me reproachfully the next 

 day when I asked him how it tasted. His reply 

 was that it might have been " fine fishin', but it 

 was mighty tough eatin'." So my biggest drum 

 undoubtedly went to feed the sharks, which were 

 the principal scavengers along the key of the 

 Gulf. 



Small drums, or " porgies," from eight to twelve 

 pounds were highly valued and caught in the 

 same localities as sheepshead, though in deeper 

 water, one of the best places being on the edge of 

 a deep channel opposite Sand Key, where " Long 

 John " could soon fill the well of the " Bull Pup," 

 as he called his old sloop, which went to the bot- 

 tom one day in a hurricane. The fishes were 

 probably revenged by using her as a retreat until 

 the teredos reduced her to dust. 



