240 Big Game Fishes 
end you win, and after half an hour, or perhaps 
it is two hours, the tarpon is alongside. Your 
boatman gaffs it and deftly slides it into the boat, 
and as you lean back, worn, weary, dishevelled, 
a finger nail gone, perhaps, two knuckles bleeding 
where the handle of the reel caught you at the last 
rush, yet you are happy and delighted; and so far 
from being discouraged, you are now determined 
to hook a record fish if it takes all summer. 
Such may be the experience of an angler in 
Florida. At Captiva Pass, Mr. Edwin vom 
Hofe of New York took his two-hundred-and- 
ten-pound tarpon, which was for many years the 
record, and I believe still holds for this particular 
region. It was exceeded by Mr. N. M. George 
of Danbury, Connecticut, who took with the rod, 
at Bahia Honda, April 8, 1901, a tarpon which 
weighed two hundred and thirteen pounds. Its 
length was seven feet two inches and its girth 
forty-six inches. 
This, then, is the record for American waters. 
This catch was exceeded by Dr. Howe at Tam- 
pico, Mexico, his fish weighing two hundred and 
twenty-three pounds. All these catches stand on 
a weighing basis. R. E. Farley of Aransas Pass 
informs me that C. W. McCawley of Dallas, 
