CHAPTER XVII 



THE SILVER KING 



A NUMBER of years ago I was floating down 

 the St. John's River in Florida in a small 

 steamer, dodging shad nets which the men 

 would insist upon setting in midstream and which the 

 steamer often struck, when I thought I saw a sabalo 

 leap far ahead. 



" Is there any tarpon fishing here ? " I asked the 

 skipper, who was leaning out of the pilothouse just 

 over my head. 



" Why, yes, sah, right in this identical place," he 

 said, " I saw a tarpon leap aboard the steamer and 

 land partly in the lap of a man who was leaning 



NOTE. Since this chapter was written, Mr. L. P. Streeter, Secretary of the Tuna 

 Club, has accomplished the seemingly impossible by taking a large tarpon at Aransas 

 Pass with a nine-ounce rod and a number-nine line. This catch created a sensa- 

 tion in sea angling circles, and the Aransas Pass Tarpon Club took form as a 

 result, with Mr. Streeter as president, and prizes are now offered, and every effort 

 will be made to put tarpon angling on the same high standard of sport as found at 

 Avalon, California, where the Tuna and Light Tackle Clubs hold forth, and where 

 club rods are no longer used for fishes not of the largest size. Up to the time of 

 Mr. Streeter' s catch the average tarpon rod has been an almost impossible machine 

 from the standpoint of fair play to the game, and doubtless Mr. Streeter' s catch 

 will revolutionize methods both in Florida, Texas and Tampico; at least this is 

 devoutly to be desired. The leaping tuna and large swordfishes, and the largest 

 jewfish and black sea bass are really the only fishes which require the very stiff 

 and heavy rods. 



264 



