A Florida Paradise. 
It is a hard day’s journey from Jacksonville 
to Homosassa by way of Ocala. But we arrived 
at 7 P. M. and daylight found us in a launch 
headed down the Homosassa River. An hour’s 
ride and Shell Island was reached, then five 
miles straight out into the gulf and fifteen miles 
south brought us to one of the many mouths of 
the most wonderful rivers for fish and game 
upon the American continent—the inaccessible, 
nature-protected Chessahowitzkie. Another hour 
and we were at the landing where the house¬ 
boat was moored and three large tents pitched, 
shaking hands with the 
guides — clever fellows 
all and good comrades. 
The river is formed 
by three huge springs. 
Here is hard ground 
carrying a virgin Flor¬ 
ida forest with its im- 
penerable tangle of un¬ 
dergrowth, there is a 
truly magical and beau¬ 
tiful river, in places so 
clear that twenty feet 
of water seems but so 
mariy feet of air, and 
small objects can be 
distinctly seen upon the 
bottom. Startled fish 
pass and repass be¬ 
neath the boat in silent, 
swiftly moving clouds. 
A narrow channel and 
then the water spreads 
out in still shallows 
over green moss flats 
that, when the tide is 
low, resemble a well 
kept lawn. When the 
tide is high this moss 
is covered and then 
the fish leave the channel for the feeding 
grounds. 
In the main channel there are stretches of a 
slender, filmy grass that sleepily bends and sways 
in the changing current. In this the fish lurk, 
darting upon their prey, or at sight of danger 
vanishing like shadows. It is a winding river 
that lazily makes eight miles out of three miles 
as the crow is supposed to fly, dotted with little 
islands and bars of moss upon which the coots, 
ducks and river wildfowl feed and roost; a 
channel that at low tide is ioo feet wide and 
at high tide is 300 yards wide. Here and there 
a creek wriggles, snake-like, its way through the 
marsh from the dense forest in the distance to 
furnish its contribution of finny life to this mar¬ 
velous river. A river that stealthily and slowly 
finds its way to the sea amid a silence, broken 
only by the splash of some leaping fish or the 
cry of some bird; a river ever enveloped in the 
subtle spell of the wilderness. 
Here is the most prolific, varied and best pro¬ 
tected haunt of fish in the State. The banks 
with two exceptions are marshy and cannot be 
built upon. The moss and grass protect from 
nets and only the fly and line can be used. 
Nature built it with intent to make it inexhausti 
ble. The temperature of the water never 
changes, and herein lies one reason why fish 
life is so varied and abundant. For miles out 
the bottom of the gulf is lime rock, and the 
water so shallow that a boat drawing but three 
feet must at high tide go five miles, and at low 
tide eight miles, from land. In winter a cold 
wave quickly chills the shallow water and the 
fish seek protection in the warm water of the 
A TYPICAL SCENE ON THE CHESSAHOWITZKIE RIVER. 
In this fresh, then brackish, and then salt 
water are grouped in miscellaneous, conglomerate 
mass every variety of salt and fresh water fish 
upon the gulf coast. Think of taking nine dif¬ 
ferent kinds of game fish upon the fly in one 
day! Believe also, if it be possible, that out 
of the same boat in the same pool you can take 
either fresh or salt water fish by simply chang¬ 
ing the bait. 
If any touch were needed to complete this 
paradise it can be found in the added fact that 
you can also determine what size fish your day’s 
sport shall gather. If your 31/2-ounce rod calls 
to you appealingly, then take it,* and with a gos¬ 
samer leader and a No. 12 yellow May, gratify 
its hunger with red-breasted or blue bream; or, 
with a larger and gaudier fly, fill the fish box 
with brown snappers—a gamy hard fighter that 
frequently runs to two pounds, and will make the 
little rod assume many a curve before the net is 
used. This is a ravenous striker and three at 
a cast is an expectation often fulfilled. If the 
large-mouth black bass is wanted—and they in¬ 
habit the river in myriads—then any bright 
colored fly or a bare hook carrying a small strip 
of pork rind is used. In one dark, deep pool 
thirty feet in diameter, surrounded by moss 
banks and in the midst of which the long grass 
grew nearly to the surface, I made eleven casts 
with a silver doctor and Jock Scott, taking eight 
fish, the smallest of which weighed 2*4 pounds 
and the largest 7V2 pounds. 
When a southwester comes the wind picks 
up the water of the gulf and builds a dam with 
it across the river. Then the moss banks and 
grass plots are soon covered a foot or more. 
This is the hour for the fly-caster, and in a flat 
bottomed boat he reaps 
a harvest which stag¬ 
gers his belief in his 
own eyesight. If larger 
fish are wanted then he 
hies him to the brack¬ 
ish and salt water, he 
selects a stronger rod 
—eight ounces is not 
too heavy—puts on a 
twisted salmon leader, 
dropper loops of simi¬ 
lar character, a 2/0 
cracker tail fly, and a 
couple of salmon silver 
doctors Nos. 1 and 2. 
takes the reel off and 
puts it behind him and 
to the side and sees that 
the line will run free. 
Then a cast or two to 
get the flies out, a 
last hard, driving cast, 
shooting the line to the 
limit, it does not mat¬ 
ter there how the flies 
fall, and he is ready 
for business. The rod 
is held nearly hori¬ 
zontal and the flies 
brought in by the left hand with little short 
jerks, the line as it returns falling in loops 
upon the bottom of the boat. By using these 
methods you get, at such places in the river, the 
three gamiest of the gulf fish—the cavalli, sea 
trout and channel bass. The trout run large and 
are, to my mind, the brook trout with nautical 
tendencies. 
Can you comprehend fifty-eight being caught 
in three hours, averaging three pounds each? 
Yet this was done as a test, a io-ounce iol 4 -foot 
rod with three flies was used and the fish 
handled roughly. 
The last cast of the trip was with a silver 
doctor and a Jock Scott. The instant the line 
was straightened in the water two struck fiercely. 
As the rod weighed but five ounces, not less 
than forty-five minutes were consumed in bring¬ 
ing them to the net. The tail fish weighed 5 
pounds 6 ounces, and the dropper 6 pounds 3 
ounces. 
Across the river in many places run out rock 
bars or ledges which come within six to ten 
river. 
