CHAPTER XVIII 

 WHERE AND HOW 



IF there is better tarpon fishing in the world 

 than can be had at Boca Grande, on 

 the west coast of Florida, I have 

 never heard of it. On the north side of 

 this mile-wide, ten- fathom pass, which connects 

 Charlotte Harbor with the Gulf of Mexico, is a 

 railroad station, within three hundred yards of 

 which I have found as good all around big tar- 

 pon fishing as I have ever known. Here the 

 dark outflow of Peace Creek and the Myakka 

 River cuts through the clear water of the Gulf, 

 leaving banks that are sharply defined. Often 

 the fishing in Boca Grande itself is more ex- 

 citing, but conditions of wind and tide frequently 

 make the pass perilous to small craft. There is 

 room in the big pass for a hundred or a thou- 

 sand fishing craft and no amount of fishing seems 

 to frighten the fish. 



