THE BOOK OF THE TARPON 



work and recorded the capture of nearly a score 

 of tarpon on an eight-ounce rod. The fish varied 

 in weight from two to twenty pounds each and it 

 was one of those rare days when they bit at any- 

 thing. It might well have happened that twenty- 

 four hours later not a rise could have been coaxed 

 out of one of them. But there were few minutes 

 of that day when my little rod was not in action 

 with a tarpon at the end of it. 



Several tarpon escaped by leaping among the 

 branches of overhanging trees and tangling the 

 line till it broke. Twice tarpon jumped over the 

 canoe and one little one fell squarely within it. 

 The Camera-man's luck was hard. He could 

 never choose his position to advantage and the 

 shots he got were in shadows so deep that it was 

 cruelty to lenses to try them. At the close of the 

 fishing he announced that another day of photo- 

 graphing jumping tarpon in the dark would 

 ruin his disposition for keeps, so we brought the 

 Irene down to the crooked creek ready for an 

 early start the next morning. 



184' 



