Giant Fish of Florida 
over the real art of tarpon fishing, made too little of its 
difficulties, laid too much stress on the simplicity of success. 
Well, these are matters of opinion. I never, in my own 
tarpon experiences, found a single instance where real 
skill and expert knowledge were nearly so important as 
brute strength and endurance, and I write only of what 
I know. Those who like detailed instructions in the art 
of tarpon fishing should consult the back files of Forest 
and Stream, the great American fishing paper, and in 
these they will find innumerable excellent articles and 
letters on the subject. In a quite recent volume, for instance, I 
find an admirable series of tarpon papers from the pen of 
Mr. J. A. L. Waddell, and I append, as a specimen of the 
detail with which some of these writers lovingly handle 
their subject, Mr. Waddell’s twelve ways in which a 
tarpon may be lost by the careless or ill-starred. 
1. By failure of the hook to penetrate a soft place. 
2. By the cutting of a hole in the mouth, from which the 
hook drops when the line is slackened. 
3. By breaking or corkscrewing the hook. 
4. By breaking the line, owing to :— 
(a) its deterioration. 
(b) fouling of line by overrunning of the reel. 
(c) tangling of something by the reel handle. 
(d) too severe application of the brake or reel 
handle in order to stop the fish. 
126 
