8 i 8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 22, 1909. 
the one that did not get away makes two; the 
one I did not get and the one I am going to 
get makes two more; that makes four, I take 
it.” 
“Suffering smoke! Only one fish,” I ex¬ 
claimed. 
“But how many did you get?” 
“My friend,” I returned, imitating his slow 
speech and smile, “you helped eat the first and 
last for dinner.” And we both laughed. 
When it comes to fishing in the snow I take 
it that one is not apt to catch many fish, but he 
will enjoy a unique experience, and he will re¬ 
turn home satisfied to wait for old Sol to do 
his beneficent work. At least, that is the con¬ 
clusion the Other Fellow and I have come to. 
O. W. Smith. 
SURING, Wis. 
Fishing in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., May 12.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The trout season opened on May 
I and since that time anglers have been visit¬ 
ing. most of the streams in the State, and the 
sport is now well under way. With but few 
exceptions high water is interfering with the 
.-.port in the northern section of the State, but 
these conditions are being bettered rapidly, and 
within the course of the next two weeks it is 
expected that fishing will be good in most locali¬ 
ties. Steelhead trout fishing has been in prog¬ 
ress for a month past and many of the smaller 
streams are about fished out. This is particu¬ 
larly true of Paper Mill Creek and the famous 
White House Pool, which has been visited by 
hundreds during the past month. 
Conditions on the Klamath River are said to 
be very favorable and several large parties of 
anglers have left for there this week. Among 
the anglers who will try this field early in the 
season are A 1 Cummings and his wife and H. 
Hilligist. In Plumas county trout are very 
abundant and the local anglers are making ex¬ 
cellent catches. But few anglers from the out¬ 
side are attempting to reach these waters on 
account of the lack of transportation facilities. 
When the Western Pacific Railroad is completed 
through the mountains this summer it will open 
a region of great promise to the fishermen. 
The second annual field day of the California 
Anglers’ Association was held on the Paper Mill 
Creek at the White House Pool May 2 and was 
a great event, there being over eight hundred 
persons present. Members and visitors arrived 
early and fishing commenced immediately to 
secure a chance for one of the valuable prizes 
offered for the best catches made. The water 
was low and but few good catches were made, 
these being secured early in the day. Chas. 
Urfer took first prize with a catch of thirty- 
seven steelhead with fly only; F. E. Bishop was 
awarded second prize and H. J. Ladd, third. 
An immense barbecue lunch was served, and 
after this field sports were indulged in. Direc¬ 
tor George Wentworth was surprised at the 
finish of the lunch to have a gold watch with 
chain and locket presented to him. John Watt, 
the dean of the association, made the presenta¬ 
tion speech, and he in turn was surprised when 
Wentworth arose and made a speech and pre¬ 
sented him with an engraved gold locket. 
A. P. B. 
Tarpon Fishing on the Panuco. 
Concluded from page 779. 
After lunch we set out with the heavy rod, 
determined to catch a tarpon worthy of being 
mounted. It was but a few minutes when the 
bait was seized and, in spite of drag and thumb 
brake, the reel positively screeched. When 
fully fifty yards away the fish, evidently of great 
size, made his first jump. Words cannot do 
justice to the extraordinary display made by 
that tarpon. Right from one place he made 
three jumps in such rapid succession that the 
air seemed to be literally full of fish. He 
fought so desperately that in fifteen minutes he 
was worn out, and in twenty minutes he was 
actually landed. He proved to be six feet nine 
inches in length—one of the longest fish taken 
at Tampico during the year. 
As if our experiences had not been suf¬ 
ficiently varied for one day, we were treated 
RISING. 
to another sensation. We had returned to the 
launch for the light rod, eased up the drag 
a trifle, and scarcely had the bait gone down 
ten feet before it was seized and the fish went 
under the boat. I swung the rod around and 
gave it a good jerk. Immediately there was a 
loud hammering behind me. Turning, I saw a 
three-foot tarpon jumping around in the bow 
of the boat and little Pablo so confused that it 
was really funny. It was only a few seconds 
before the fish cleared the side of the boat and 
struck the water with a loud splash. The hook, 
leader and bait were all in the boat behind me, 
so the identity of the fish was established be¬ 
yond peradventure. It was very amusing, but 
one could not help imagining the consequences 
should a full grown tarpon be equally sociable. 
Soon we hooked a large fish which, after 
about ten minutes’ fighting, and just as I let 
go the reel handle to manipulate the thumb 
brake, made a sudden rush. The reel over-ran, 
the line backlashed, and without difficulty the 
fish broke the line and escaped. Then I dis¬ 
played the first sign of intelligence since I had 
begun tarpon fishing. Telling Pablo to hold 
the end of the line, I grasped the reel handle, 
raised the rod to right angle with the line, and 
pulled. The rod bent to the breaking point, but 
the drag held fast. A screwdriver loosened 
the drag a trifle, and we tried again. Un¬ 
fortunately for my purse I have a very inti¬ 
mate acquaintance with split bamboo, so by the 
exercise of a little care and patience I suc¬ 
ceeded in setting the drag so that it would run 
out just in time to save the rod. 
“Now,” I told Pablo, “no letta go reel till 
pescara on shore.” Which shows how rapidly 
one learns a foreign language when living in 
the country. 
However, as soon as a tarpon was hooked, I 
lived right up to the spirit of that remarkable 
sentence. Holding both ends of the handle in the 
palm of my hand, I ran my fingers into the reel 
and rested them on the exposed portion of the 
plate. This was made possible by not having 
the reel too full of line, and proved to be the 
correct method. The drag kept a steady strain, 
which was bound, after a time, to wear out the 
fish, while at the same time the dangers of each 
sudden rush and jump were obviated by its nice 
adjustment. Whenever the rod was lowered, 
to “pump” the fish to the surface or to stir 
him into a harder fight, a very slight pressure 
of the fingers kept the reel from turning. Al¬ 
though this tarpon was six feet two inches in 
length and weighed exactly the same as the 
larger fish, iii pounds, we had him gaffed in 
exactly fifty minutes from the time he was 
hooked. My watch said half past four, and as 
I had, during the day, been engaged in actually 
fighting tarpon for fully four hours, we photo¬ 
graphed our prizes and started for Tampico. 
It was amusing to see the excitement of Mr. 
Poindexter and his guests when discussing our 
“feat.” To get revenge for the night before, I 
modestly (?) let them think I had done some¬ 
thing very remarkable. As a matter of strict 
truth, however, if rod, drag and line are nicely 
balanced, it requires no more science to catch 
a tarpon on light than on heavy tackle. The 
only requisites are a knowledge of how much 
strain a given piece of bamboo will stand and 
the endurance to keep up that strain no matter 
how long the fish decides to fight. This I have 
since proved to my entire satisfaction and that 
of the several anglers who were at Tampico at 
the time, by landing on the light rod a fish five 
feet six inches long in exactly eight minutes. 
To put my theory to a still harder test, I 
used the same butt with a tip which gave me an 
8^-ounce rod SVz feet long. The reduction in 
weight is negligible, but the extra six inches 
in length necessitated a tip of much smaller 
caliber, with a very great sacrifice of both 
strength and stiffness. As a tarpon’s jaw is 
very hard, I did not depend upon this rod for 
the strike. Leaving six feet of slack in the 
boat, I held the line in my left hand. A couple 
of sharp jerks usually hooked the fish, and be¬ 
fore he could break through the surface, the rod 
would be in position and ready for the fight. 
From then on it was simply a matter of time. 
And now I shall make a statement which will 
probably call down upon my head all manner 
of abuse from the great majority of anglers 
who have been so patient as to read up to this 
point. While, of course, in the interest of good 
sportsmanship, light tackle fishing of all sorts 
should be encouraged, and while, for the sake 
of the thing, every true angler should try how 
large a fish he can land on the lightest tackle 
