FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 145 



opinion that skill goes for very little. This is not 

 an agreeable attitude to take, as it may easily 

 give offence to hypersensitive sportsmen who have 

 prided themselves not a little on their success with 

 tarpon. Nevertheless, I can honestly take no 

 other view of the case. I desire, however, to 

 make exception in favour of three difficulties that 

 only skill and judgment can retrieve : pursuit by 

 a shark, a broken tip, or a large fish foul-hooked. 

 As for the ordinary correct manner of handling a 

 jumping fish, or one that dashes towards the boat 

 with the object of snapping the slack line by a 

 sudden change of direction, it is, or should be, 

 known to everyone who knows anything of fishing 

 at all, and may therefore be passed over. The 

 remedy is in either case a mere matter of common 

 sense, though lengthy discussion on the subject of 

 whether or not to lower the rod-top when a fish 

 jumps are occasionally welcomed by angling editors 

 during the dog days. Exceptional skill, of a kind 

 not perhaps called for in any familiar kind of fish- 

 ing at home, is, I think, restricted to the three 

 cases allowed for. Only for the first, pursuit by a 

 shark, can any suggestion be offered, and that only 

 to the effect that when a shark is seen chasing a 

 hooked tarpon, the latter should be given every 

 chance of eluding capture. Where the fisherman 

 is very apt to err is in trying to reel in his fish 

 faster than the shark can catch it. This is fatal, 

 for the natural and uncontrollable instinct of a 

 hooked fish is to pull in the opposite direction if 

 hauled, and as soon as the fisherman applies the 

 closure, the bewildered fish, finding itself between 

 the devil and the deep sea, is certain to let itself be 



