14 THE TARPON 



tarpon. I landed 14 in an hour's fishing and 

 must have "jumped" 25 more fish. At another 

 time and in another river I "jumped" 52 large 

 tarpon in three days' fishing of the flood tides. 



My fishing journal tells me that I landed 254 

 tarpon in Cuba, which means that I must have 

 hooked over 1,000 fish, for it is not possible to 

 save more than one hooked tarpon out of five 

 fish hung on a Wilson spoon. The weight of the 

 spoon helps the fish to free himself. 



I invariably turned the hooked fish loose 

 unless they were damaged. They sometimes 

 bruise their gills in jumping and bleed profusely. 

 In such cases the fish will not live if liberated. 



The natives of Cuba spear tarpon and I am 

 sorry to say net the small ones. Both there and 

 in Mexico the fish are eaten fresh as well as 

 salted. 



My method of fishing in Cuba has been trolling 

 a large sized Wilson spoon with sixty feet of line 

 over the stern of a small launch. The launch 

 travels at the rate of four miles an hour. If a 

 fish is hooked in a wide part of the river I have 

 the launch circle the fish. It is easy to land a 

 100-pound tarpon in 8 minutes by this method 

 if you understand fighting fish. 



If a fish is hooked in a narrow stream it is 



