__^ ^F0UNDED A.D. 1873 
FOUNDERS 
yjrnm 
OTCIETy 
18 8 6 
Vol. LXXXVII 
FEBRUARY, 1917 
No. 2 
THE SILVER KING IN HIS 
FLORIDA DOMINION 
T ROUT and salmon have been taken 
in various way for food for market 
and for sport for many generations, 
but it is less than a generation since the 
tarpon was elected to first rank as a sport 
fish. The first record we have of tarpon 
fishing is by A. W. Dimmock, at the mouth 
of the Homosassa River on the west coast 
of Florida. 
The establishment of tarpon fishing took 
several years, because the equipment of 
the fisherman was ill adapted to this spe¬ 
cific variety of submarine. All gear was 
too light and the character of the Silver 
King was not understood. There was an 
early period of harpooning tarpon, and if 
this is the best a man can do, he can, no 
doubt, have some sport and get some fish. 
It is on a par with jacking deer, or sgear- 
ing salmon. Sportsmen and clubs have 
now introduced sportsmanlike methods 
which give a maximum of sport and a 
minimum of slaughter. 
The St. Petersburg Tarpon Club has a 
high ethical standard and a sportsmanlike 
propaganda. It encourages the rod and 
reel in all game fishing and light tackle, and 
uses its efforts to protect all game fish. 
The president of the St. Petersburg Club 
By G. M. RANDALL, M. D. 
is elected by the tarpon. The largest tar¬ 
pon of the season casts one vote which 
elects his captor. Mr. Keith Neville, of 
North Platte, Neb., is the president this 
year. Other officers are elected by the 
members. Membership in the club is open 
to any person acceptable to the directors. 
Competition for the club prizes is keen. 
Prizes are offered for tarpon, kingfish, 
mackerel, redfish, channel bass and several 
other fish which abound in these waters. 
It is erroneously supposed that summer 
on this coast is disagreeably warm. The 
writer has had three years’ experience on 
and about these waters, summer and win¬ 
ter, and has found it nothing but delight¬ 
ful every month in the year. Newspaper 
reports and Government weather reports 
and personal experience all agree that this 
summer the west coast of Florida was the 
coolest and safest place in the U. S. (1916). 
There is always a breeze and cool nights. 
No cold storms, fogs or gales, no rock- 
bound shores to get “cast upon.” It is a 
friendly shore. Landing can always be 
effected anywhere. The shore line is al¬ 
ways a broad beach, usually backed by 
palms and pines. The gulf coast of Florida 
is the yachtman’s, the canoeist’s and the 
fisherman’s paradise, summer and winter. 
If a man wants strenuous sport and 
thrills, he can have it right here. One 
graduates from the bent pin and alder rod 
class the minute he essays to hit the tar¬ 
pon trail. 
I was in the boat with Col. J. A. H., last 
June and as he was hauling a tarpon over 
the rail with his gaff, a shark stuck about 
three feet of jaws out of the water and bi¬ 
sected his tarpon like cutting butter with 
a hot knife. T^his is no time for fish 
stories, because there is more truth dis¬ 
believed than there are lies told about Flor¬ 
ida fishing. 
F any fisherman has exhausted his supply 
of thrills and is looking for new worlds 
to conquer, let him on any June day get 
into a motor boat at St. Petersburg and 
head her for Egmont Pass. The bright 
sunshine, the clear air, the blue sky, just 
enough wind to ripple the dark blue waters 
of the Gulf and blow the cobwebs out of 
his brain, he will be in the best tarpon 
ground in the world, and he will see things 
without marine glasses or liquid bait. 
He will see the “Silver King” in all his 
