May 26, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
NID ROVER FISHING 

Tarpon Fishing at Boca Grande. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Little did I think when reading Mr. New- 
berry’s article in your issue of Feb. 17, that I 
should ever catch kingfish, much less come to 
consider them “small fish” and a bother. To- 
day there are nailed to my office wall two scales 
of tarpon taken on the West Coast of Florida— 
one of which is from the record fish up to April 
I of this year. 
On Feb. 24 I went to Florida on the special 
with some patients, reaching Fort Meyers on 
the West Coast, where we boarded our house- 
boat and spent the next two weeks towing down 
the coast, stopping where the spirit moved us, 
fishing for small fish and doing some shore bird 
shooting. The river leading down from Fort 
Meyers to the Gulf is a wide, rather muddy 
stream, and at times contains some tarpon, but 
most of the fishing is for small fish. By-that I 
mean jackfish, redfish, grouper, sheepshead. If 
one could catch such fish near New York it 
would be considered splendid fishing, but there 
only one fish is considered—namely, tarpon—all 
else are “small fish.” 
The places we stopped at were about in order, 
Nigger Head, Redfish Point, Punta Rassa, 
Estere Island, Big Pine Island, St. James City, 
from which we towed to Captivi Island. Of the 
beauty of the coast only a poet could write, 
and only Kipling describes the wild life con- 
dition of the people, part colored fishermen, 
part Spanish, who have always lived here since 
the earliest settlement of the State. 
Imagine a great inland sea, many times the 
size of Long Island Sound, dotted with hun- 
dreds of islands whose shores are fringed with 
the vivid green of the mango and whose centers 
are grassy fields, with here and there cabbage 
and coaconuts palm trees with their sides to- 
ward the Gulf, one long stretch of sandy beach 
pounded by the breakers in one long line of surf, 
and you have some faint idea of this paradise 
for the sportsman, 
Captivi Island, where we finally stopped, 
guards one side of Captivi Pass, the other side 
being La Costa Island. At the north end of 
Captivi is a pretty cove, not shown on the map, 
where we had safe anchorage with one or two 
other yachts and the Government survey 
steamer, Gopher, engaged in survey and geo- 
logical work. 
While there I saw my first tarpon, caught by 
Emma K., a schooner built in Florida, but hail- 
ing from New York. They had him proudly © 
hung from the stern, and we passed him each 
morning On our way to the fishing grounds with 
compliments to them but bitter envy in our 
hearts, and vowing if they could catch His 
Majesty, we could. 
Before proceeding to the actual fishing and 
the different methods, I want to give those of 
your readers who may want to try this finest 
of all fish next winter some useful hints about 
the proper tackle to use for the king. 
Tarpon Tackle. 
Two of the men of. our party had fished the 
East Coast in the neighborhood of Palm Beach 
for the five years previously, had fished at Ma- 
tanzas, Cuba, and knew the game thoroughly— 
the results proved the soundness of their judg- 
ment about tackle. Our rods were made in two 
pieces, a butt about twenty inches long wound 
with cane; the tip, of which each rod had 
several, about six feet and made of iron wood, 
with a large agate guide at the end and guides 
on both sides, so that each day it could be re- 
versed and so prevent bending. This I con- 
sider important, because some of the English 
rods used by Englishmen fishing near us had 
the guides only on one side, and soon became 
warped out of shape. 
The reel holds six hundred feet of tarpon line, 
about as heavy as codfish line and green in 
color. The leader is six feet of soft steel wire 
and fastened to the usual large hand-forged 
hook by six inches of chain. Here I wish to 
make two remarks which the makers of these 
justly celebrated reels can take to heart or not 
as they please—but they are true nevertheless. 
The reel has three drags; one small click but- 
ton to prevent backlashing, like all reels; one 
strong drag on the left side worked by pulling 
down on a lever to hold any heavy fish when 

MITCHELL SABATTIS. 
running, and an “automatic” drag on the right- 
hand side, which stops the handle from re- 
volving, making the pull entirely off the spool. 
This is an excellent device, but should be made 
to work with a lever like the one on the left, 
because while it is easily shut off or on when 
showing the reel in a store or even with small 
fish like kingfish, but when the king rushes it 
is sometimes difficult to work, the strain being 
so great; in fact, I should probably have lost 
my big fish if my guide, Julius, had not reached 
over my shoulder and cut the automatic off. 
The other hint I wish to give is that the wire 
leaders are too thin, and, while they won't 
break if not kinked, they kink too easily and 
then part. Take your wire with you and have 
your guide make your leaders. Also the dealers 
will impress upon you the need of fastening the 
sinker to the leader lightly, so it will be shaken 
off by the fish, and furnish fine wire for that 
purpose. This is a mistake. I fastened the 
sinker on with my second fish with a piece of 
tarpon line, and got the sinker back when the 
fish was landed. The guides also agree with 
me on this point. Tarpon fishing is expensive 
enough in all conscience, and any hints to save 
the expense are worth while to any of us. 
Lest some think they can take any good, 
strong rod, say a salmon rod, for instance, and 
catch this fish, I tell the following true story 
of what happened to a good sportsman from 
England last year. 
I will let Julius, my colored guide, tell it: 
“Las’ year one of dem English boats come over 
and we was engaged to guide one ob dem gentle- 
men. I done go on board and ask to look ober 
his tackle. He show me one of dose long 
salmon rods .and an English reel, and when. I 
asked him what he gon’ do wid dose, he say he 
gon’ catch one of dem bloomin’ tarpon. I done 
tell him tarpon break dat all to pieces; and den 
he say, ‘Me good man; you put me fast to your 
old tarpon, and if he break that, I give you 
two pounds.’ I asked him how much dat was, 
and he say ten dollars. Den I knew I had de 
ten all right. De next day I takes him still- 
fishing and bait de hook, make de cast, coil 
de line in de boat and hand him de rod. Den I 
sot on de seat waitin’ for de fun to commence, 
and she done commence right soon. 
“Presently de tarpon pick up de bait and move 
off slow-like. Den he ask what’s that. I say, 
‘Dat’s a tarpon; don’t strike till he jumps.’ 
Presently up jump de biggest tarpon I see dat 
year, and I yells to him to strike. He sure 
struck hard, de tarpon hit de water and run, 
and, Doctor, as shure as I sit in dis yer boat, 
dat reel bust in free pieces—one of dem nearly 
hit his friend fishin’ in de other boat—de line 
snarled, de rod broke in half and way went de 
tarpon, and dat Englishman had nothing but 
de butt of dat rod in his hand. Den he turned 
*round to me and say, ‘De bloomin’ beast; de 
bloomin’ beast; where’s me rod, where’s me reel, 
where’s me line? You never tole me he goin’ 
to do dat.’ ‘No sir,’ I said, ‘I didn’t; where’s 
me two pounds?’ ” 
To the credit of the Englishman, be it said 
that he not only promptly produced the money, 
but that he insisted on going to the nearest 
telegraph and wiring to New York for an outfit, 
and before he returned home he killed twenty- 
five tarpon. 
Methods of Fishing. 
There are three ways of fishing for tarpon on 
the West Coast. Still-fishing, trolling in shal- 
low passes without any sinker or only a light 
one, and deep trolling with a heavy sinker, as 
practiced at Boca Grande. I often used to 
wonder when some man or woman _ proudly 
showed me a tarpon mounted at their homes 
how the owner ever caught it, especially when, 
as often happened, I knew them to be both 
rather moderate sportsmen and often weak phys- 
ically. I know now that they were caught still- 
fishing. In the celebrated old hotel at Punta 
Gorda, now seldom used, the walls of the main 
hall are covered with tarpon scales signed by 
the older generation of sportsmen, some of 
whom are the great men of our day. They 
used short, very heavy rods, hooked the fish 
in the stomach, and of course in striking tore 
the stomach wall, producing severe hemorrhage, 
and so killed the fish quickly. I noticed one 
scale there on which the record read: “Weight 
II5 pounds; 7 minutes.” In this method your 
guide rows to some shallow place, where the 
tarpon feed, generally in some small bayou near 
a channel, anchors the boat, baits the hook with 
about half a mullet, with the hook hidden 
through an incision through the back of the 
