TARPON IN FLORIDA 261 



you sure that your fish is a tarpon, and the other fishermen 

 envy you, but edge away to give you and your fish plenty of 

 room. It is a time of intense excitement. The moment you 

 feel what seems to you like the strike of a tarpon, your guide 

 pulls for dear life in the direction away from the fish in order 

 to put all possible strain on the line and drive in the hook, 

 while you support his efforts by checking the whirling reel to the 

 best of your ability. After the first jump you reel in as much 

 as ever possible, in order to be ready for the next rush, which 

 is followed by more glorious jumps, and so on until at last the 

 fish becomes tired, and allows you to get him near the boat. It 

 has been a steady and very heavy drag all the time, pulling in the 

 line inch by inch, giving only when absolutely obliged and you 

 cannot hold the fish, whose rushes gradually become less and 

 less determined. Your arms ache, you have almost lost the use 

 of your thumb, which presses against the brake of the reel ; 

 but when at last the beautiful tarpon lies on his side close 

 to the boat, apparently tired out, you have to hold him there 

 and drag him along while your boatman rows towards the beach. 

 There, perhaps, you have another fight, but with your remaining 

 strength you at last drag your prize on to the sand. He is now 

 quickly measured, a silvery scale taken, and away he goes 

 back into the sea. After such a battle, it always gave me great 

 pleasure to watch the grand fish slip back into his native 

 element ; he had afforded plenty of exciting sport and all the 

 hard work wanted ; he was not really much the worse, and lived, 

 one hoped, to fight another day. It seemed such a cruel thing 

 to see these tarpon lying dead and dying on the shore, only to 

 be thrown back into the water, food for sharks alone, for with 

 the exception of the crews of occasional sponging schooners, no 

 one would eat them. 



But not by any means is every hooked tarpon landed ; indeed, 

 the great majority is not. So many accidents occur to suddenly 

 change joy on the fisherman's part to disgust and intense 

 disappointment. The interior of a tarpon's mouth is constructed 

 of plates of hard bone jointed by ligamentous tissue, and covered 

 with a thin membrane. It is impossible to force a hook into 

 the bone, even by hand, and unless, therefore, it catches in one 

 of the joints or in the lips the hook is certain to come away, 

 generally 'during the second jump, which seems the critical one. 



