FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 97 



sently be explained, a considerable economy can be 

 effected. 



This tackle bill, heavy enough for the average 

 ambition, does not satisfy wealthy Americans, many 

 of whom take the outfit in duplicate, determined not 

 to be baulked of their sport by want of tackle. 

 There is sound reason in the spare rod, for both 

 tips are sometimes broken by sharks (my own were) 

 in the course of a week, and in careless hands even 

 large tarpon will put them out of court. The 

 second reel I regard as mere extravagance, for Vom 

 Hofe makes these reels so near perfection that the 

 bare idea of anything going wrong with them in so 

 short a time is not to be seriously entertained. 



Those who go to the tarpon grounds by way of 

 New York will certainly buy their outfit of Vom 

 Hofe, for since he himself has fished at Boca 

 Grande almost every season since tarpon were first 

 caught with rod and line, he has first-hand know- 

 ledge of all the difficulties and requirements of the 

 sport, and has been able to embody in his tackle 

 virtues that he could never have arrived at without 

 such close personal study of the rules of the game. 

 No man in his senses would go to him for salmon 

 flies for the Tweed (and if he did Vom Hofe would, 

 in all probability, see him to the door), but he is the 

 man to go to for tarpon tackle for use in Florida. 

 His wonderful reel touches the high-water mark of 

 efficiency. So, as the Scotsman said at the end of 

 an expensive railway journey, it ought to, for it 

 costs as much as many a complete outfit for fish in 

 other waters. For those, however, who seek 

 moderate tarpon-fishing in the West Indies, where, 

 though less known, it is sometimes excellent (I 



