GULF STREAM FISHING 



started, can disappear with remarkable rapidity. 

 I rather enjoy watching them, but my boatman, 

 who is a native of these parts and therefore a turtle- 

 hunter by instinct, always wore a rather disappointed 

 look when we saw one. This was because I would 

 not allow him to harpoon it. 



The absence of gulls along this stretch of reef is 

 a feature that struck me. So that once in a while 

 when I did see a lonely white gull I watched him 

 with pleasure. And once I saw a cero mackerel 

 jump way in along the reef, and even at a mile's 

 distance I could see the wonderful curve he made. 



The wind freshened, and all at once it seemed 

 leaping sailfish were all around us. Then as we 

 turned the boat this way and that we had thrills 

 of anticipation. Suddenly R. C. had a strike. The 

 fish took the bait hungrily and sheered off like an 

 arrow and took line rapidly. When R. C. hooked 

 him he came up with a big splash and shook himself 

 to free the hook. He jumped here and there and 

 then went down deep. And then he took a good 

 deal of line off the reel. I was surprised to see a 

 sailfish stick his bill out of the water very much 

 closer to the boat than where R. C.'s fish should 

 have been. I had no idea then that this was a fish 

 other than the one R. C. had hooked. But when he 

 cut the line either with his bill or his tail, and R. C. 

 wound it in, we very soon discovered that it was 

 not the fish that he had hooked. This is one of the 

 handicaps of light tackle. 



We went on fishing. Sailfish would jump around 

 us for a while and then they would stop. We would 

 not see one for several minutes. It is always very 



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