Giant Fish of Florida 
“Look out! There’s a shark after your tarpon. Where’s 
your gun ?”’ 
‘““ Now, then, you there ; where are you shooting?” 
And so on, and so on. Six mad tarpon, six mad fishers, 
six mad guides, and six quite unmanageable boats dashing 
about in confusion among near a score of others. This it is 
that makes tarpon fishing so fascinating once you get the true 
spirit of the thing. In those two hours that we have been out 
just nineteen fish were landed out of fifty or sixty strikes, and 
more than one boat never got a touch. 
As soon as the tide runs too strong boat after boat is 
pulled ashore, and every one seeks a shady nook for luncheon, 
generally under the lighthouse. Here in the cool we munch 
our sandwiches and talk tarpon, every other subject being 
tabooed at Boca Grand. And how wonderfully has that big 
fish of yesterday increased in the night! It was really a fine 
fish, scaling, as a matter of fact, 171 lb., and needed no 
editing. Yet the man who weighed it called 181 lb. The 
fortunate angler added a matter of 10 Ib. for loss of weight 1n 
transport to the scales. This somewhat generous allowance for 
wear and tear brought its already respectable weight up to 
191 lb. That was last night. To-day he speaks of it as 
“close on 200 lb.,” and we can infer what that will mean as 
soon as he gets back home. 
Then, as to its measurements, he left it hanging out last 
night, and measured it alone this morning. It hung by one 
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