March, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
117 
A day’s catch at Aransas Pass 
it by the gaff around the jetty to the 
launch, but in trying to hoist it onto 
the deck he and the boatman between 
them managed to lose both fish and gaff. 
There was a 15-foot shark hanging 
around when I was playing the larger 
of my two tarpon, but we managed to 
frighten it away by pounding on the 
skiff with the oars. 
My smaller tarpon (five foot eight 
inches) jumped so high and so often 
that I brought it to gaff in a very few 
minutes, not, however, before I had re- 
ceived a thorough drenching with salt 
water, 
T HE next day the wind diminished, 
but the outgoing tide kicked up a 
choppy sea in the Pass. The first 
thing we did was to go in the launch 
around the end of the South Jetty, where 
we encountered millions of large sea net- 
tles, often termed cabbage-heads, as 
they are of the same size and shape as 
that vegetable. There were on the aver- 
age about two to the square yard, and 
they extended to the east, west and south 
as far as one’s eyes could locate them, 
but there were very few in the channel. 
One would certainly have an unpleasant 
time if he were to fall overboard among 
them. Their .sting is uncomfortable 
enough, but it does not cause the agony 
that is produced by the Portuguese Man- 
of-War. I know what the latter crea- 
ture can do to one, because years ago, 
at Galveston, while swimming at night 
in the surf, one of them got its tails 
wrapped around my bare neck and arms. 
I shall never forget the remainder of 
that night, which I passed in a chair. 
The marks on the skin, caused by the 
poison, lasted for over a month. 
After looking around, we concluded 
that it was too rough to fish near the 
South Jetty, therefore we went to the 
north side of the North Jetty, where it 
was smoother. I had four strikes and 
landed only one — a very heavy fish some 
six feet four or five inches long. It must 
have weighed 125 pounds. One of the 
strikes occurred when putting out the 
line, one was a square loss on the third 
jump, but the other was truly a case 
of hard luck. The fish was about five 
feet ten inches long, and put up a jolly 
good fight, leaping six or eight times. 
When I had it within 15 yards of the 
skiff I saw a swirl-mark on the water 
and asked Clem if it was caused by a 
shark. He said no; but I was right, for 
soon thereafter, just as I had brought 
the fish alongside for Clem to gaff, 
CRASH! ! came a heavy blow on the bot- 
tom of the boat directly under my chair. 
At the same instant, off started the tar- 
pon, pulling me nearly over the side. I 
slackened instantly on the line, but 
snap it went! Then off shot the tarpon 
and a 15-foot shark after it. On exam- 
ining the line we found that the shark 
had rubbed its sand-paper back against 
it while it was held taut. No line can 
stand that kind of treatment, for it was 
frayed nearly half through, necessitat- 
ing my cutting off quite a piece of it. 
Clem says that the tarpon escaped, but 
1 have’ my doubts about it, for I had 
whipped it to a stand-still. The jar pro- 
duced on the boat and its occupants by 
the blow of the fish was exactly like 
what would have been the result had a 
high wave dropped us suddenly upon a 
submerged rock. 
I caught also that forenoon two large 
jacks and a kingfish, and Leonard took 
in one big tarpon and four jacks. 
After luncheon we found that the 
wind and sea had gone down sufficiently 
to warrant our trying the trolling for 
kingfish outside; hence, we motored out 
around the whistling buoy, some two 
miles beyond the ends of the jetties, 
trolling with lead squids. The result 
was absolutely nil, so we returned to 
the North Jetty, where we had left the 
skiffs at anchor, and resumed tarpon- 
fishing. Each of us got a strike, but 
failed to score, and, after catching a 
few jackfish, we went around the South 
Jetty, where we found the water, as 
before, full of cabbage heads. Leonard 
landed two tarpon and I one, all three 
being big fellows, about six feet four or 
five inches long and very heavy. I had 
eight strikes during the day and landed 
two, while Leonard had the same num- 
ber of strikes and landed three. All five 
of our fish were in excess of six feet. 
(continued on page 138) 
The end of the South jetty — where the author got his best tarpon, as it was here that they seemed to strike the best 
