,::/.■: 



" O silver-sided fish — the king 



Of all that swim the southern se 

 The skillful angler's vaunted art 



Too oft is triumphed o'er by thee, 

 For naught avails his deadliest hook, 



His trolling spoon, his braided line, 

 His manly strength, his Conroj' rod. 



To drag thee vanquish'd from the brine." 



The silver king — as the tarpon of the Florida coast is often termed — 

 furnishes beyond doubt more exciting sport than any other species of sea 

 fish taken with the rod and reel. As the largest of the herring family the 

 tarpon is often called the king herring, and the prodigious strength, amaz- 

 ing activity, and endless endurance of this armored knight errant among 

 game fishes, combine to make him a most coveted prize in the estimation 

 of adventurous anglers who possess the skill to handle the long line, and 

 the financial ability to carry a long purse well filled. 



The late Col. F. S. Pinckney ("Ben Bent"), in his entertaining and 

 practical volume entitled "The Tarpon, or Silver King," supplied a treatise 

 giving elaborate instructions for catching this game fish. Other popular 

 angling writers, notably J. Mortimer Murphy, of Sponge Harbor, Fla., 

 and Dr. Charles J. Kenworthy ("Al Fresco"), of Jacksonville, have contrib- 

 uted valuable articles on tarpon fishing to the sportsmen's journals and 

 standard magazines, so that the pastime is familiar, theoretically at least, to 

 the majority of American anglers. 



Along the coast of the United StateS the habitat of the tarpon is from 

 Texas to the Georgia line — the favorite haunts being in Florida waters, 

 especially St. John's River, Tampa B:iy, Tarpon Springs, Punta Rassa, 

 Calooshatchie, and the Homosassa Rivers. Among the Florida Keys the 

 tarpon may be found at all seasons of the year, and in spring and summer 

 the fish are abundant in many of the rivers and along the coast of Florida. 



42 



