32 THETARPON 



cally and thirty feet horizontally. I have observed a 

 fish make a horizontal leap of about twenty-two feet. 

 Sometimes a fish will go into the air ten or twelve 

 times, dependent upon the way the angler plays it or 

 the depth of the water, but so many successive jumps 

 are rare. When a strain is placed on the fish it 

 frequently will leap and while in the air shake itself 

 violently to dislodge the hook. It falls back into the 

 water just as it happens, and whether free or line 

 bound it makes no particular effort to make a clean 

 dive. Males are more active than the females as they 

 are usually lighter and more lithe. The tarpon has 

 been known to jump upon a man sitting in a chair on 

 the deck of a steamboat. One knocked a negro guide 

 out of a boat at the mouth of the Brazos River. The 

 man was stunned and drowned. In Galveston Bay a 

 tarpon leaped and broke a boatman's neck. At 

 Avery's Island, La., a man fishing in a skiff was hit 

 and died from his injuries. "Net fishermen dread to 

 see him in their nets for they have known of men being 

 injured by their attempts to leap out" (Stearns). 

 Many people have suffered injuries from its wonderful 

 leaps. One must have the experience of welcoming an 

 active and vigorous tarpon into a small boat to obtain 

 a just appreciation of its liveliness and strength. A 

 fairly large fish will scale six feet in length and if it 

 jumps straight out of the water so that its tail is six 

 feet above it, its snout will be twelve feet in the air. 

 Such a jump will be frequently observed. But to say 

 that a tarpon can leap clear of the water for twelve 

 feet is another matter. A clean vertical jump of ten or 



