The Tarpon 237 
others. A large multiplying reel is necessary, 
one that will hold six hundred feet of wet line, and 
this should have a leather thumb brake. The 
regulation tarpon reels are fully equipped, and in 
point of fact the tuna and tarpon outfits are alike 
with the exception of the snood, which in tuna 
fishing is always of wire and very long. The 
boats employed vary in localities and are ordi- 
nary light, serviceable, lapstreak boats, with a seat 
for the angler or anglers to face the stern. 
The boatman having secured a catch of mullet, 
you are off for the grounds, with a choice of 
methods depending upon the boatman, the place, 
or its traditions. You may anchor on the edge 
of deep water, anchor inshore, or your boatman 
may row, the gamy fish being taken in various 
ways. Some anglers refuse to have the boat cast 
off, preferring to fight to the finish from the an- 
chorage. Assuming that the boat is anchored 
in a favorable position, the mullet is cast thirty 
or forty feet distant, and the waiting, that is an 
accompaniment of all sport, begun. If there has 
been a norther, if it is a late season, if cool weather 
has been the rule for some weeks, the wait may 
‘be a long one, and there is a tradition of a man 
who never had a strike, yet is fishing on and on, a 
