914 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

and browns. He may want good red and 
orange-bodied flies, also. 
An old gentleman hooked a very large trout 
on a store fly last week and played it to the 
point of exhaustion. He had no net with him 
and led the trout up to a shelving beach. Then 
he gave the rod into the hands of his son and 
bid him hold it steadily. Thus far all was well, 
but, as he says himself, “I got excited and took 
hold of the line just above the leader and tried 
to drag the fish ashore; the gut broke and away 
went the great fish.” He knew better, you see, 
but he became excited, lost his head for a 
moment and thus lost his trout. Car old friend 
thinks that this was surely a five-pcunder. Alas! 
alas! THEODORE GORDON. 
The Tarpon Season in Mexico. 
Now THAT the kingly tarpon, 
afforded so much sport to local and visiting fish- 
ermen during the past winter and spring, have 
departed northward té make the summer fishers’ 
hearts glad at Aransas Pass and Corpus Christi, 
it may not come amiss to place before your 
readers the results of the five months from Dec. 
tr until May 1, which constitutes the season at 
Tampico. 
The score, as accurately kept in the hotel office, 
of the tarpon fishermen’s headquarters, formerly 
known as the Hidalgo, now newly added to and 
enlarged and known as the Southern, is as fol- 
lows: December, 142; January, 238; February, 
293; March, 355, April, 259; total for the season 
1,287. 
In this winter fishing for the celebrated silver 
king, Tampico neither has nor can have a rival, 
for latitude and geographical position are things 
which no man can change. When one must take 
into consideration the fact that the tarpon season 
has entirely closed at Aransas Pass, that famous 
Texas fishing resort, before it bégins in the Pa- 
nuco River at Tampico, and that the best fishing is 
when all the Northern resorts are tightly closed 
in the grip of the ice king, it may readily be seen 
on what strong grounds the Mexican fishing 
retains its reputation. When the early summer 
rains have colored the great Panuco River to a 
muddy brown, and changed its gently flowing 
current into a strong seaward-bound tide, then 
the tarpon desert their winter feeding grounds 
here and depart, returning again about the end of 
November. 
All through the winter the fishing is good, save 
the few days when a chilly so-called norther 
sweeps down the Gulf of Mexico, from its start- 
ing point in the United States, and then it is but 
a short respite that the tarpon obtain, for directly 
the warm tropical sun beams forth the fish be- 
come ravenous and strikes come to the trolling 
fisherman galore. There being nearly twenty 
miles of fishing ground, one can always have a 
choice and opportunity for changing the daily 
routine of his day’s sport. 
Fred M. Stephenson, of Chicago, a noted fish- 
erman and slayer of many tarpon, and who landed 
thirty-two fine fish this spring during a short 
stay, fished from La Barra, at the entrance of the 
jetties, as far as Tamos, twelve miles above the 
city, and quite frequently had the passengers and 
crews of the many ocean-going steamers at the 
Custom House dock, at the city’s front, lined up 
on the port rail, to watch him land a six-footer. 
The writer was engaged in subduing a large tar- 
pon, which was making frantic leaps in mid air, 
one evening, as the captain of a foreign steamer 
was making for his berth at the dock, and the 
steersman became so engrossed in the leaping 
tarpon on the end of the 200 feet of line, that a 
sharp warning was all that saved the vessel from 
colliding with the pier. 
Mr. and Mrs. H. Whiting and Mr. and Mrs. 
C. Coe, of New York, enjoyed fine sport, both 
above Morolia Bridge, four miles beyond the city, 
and also at the bend of the south shore, about 
five miles beyond Morolia. Mrs. Whiting’s score 
of four magnificent tarpon in one afternoon is yet 
to be beaten for the ladies’ record. 
Mr. M. A. Rice’s party from New York cap- 
tured thirteen tarpon one day and twelve the 
next, and their score would have been consider- 
ably larger had it not been a strictly first experi- 
ence for most of them, The numbed and fre- 
which have 

quently barked fingers of many of the newcomers, 
and the expressions of regret at losing “my big 
tarpon,” and, as one remarked, “I had seventeen 
strikes and only landed one fish,” are very com- 
mon. The hotel office could repeat many tales of 
woe in that line, but silence is golden. 
Another fine spot for the tarpon, especially in 
late December, is about a mile up the Boca of the 
Laguna del Puebla Viejo, where a swirling pool 
of swift flowing water at certain stages of the 
tide is alive with the gamy “Savolo,” which is 
the Mexican term for silver king. This pool is 
not over seventy feet in diameter, and one can 
hardly troll a bait across it without seeing a huge 
form of gleaming silver rise in air and feeling 
the vicious tug of the line, which shows the lure 
has reached its mark. And not only are men who 
are seeking a strike amply rewarded if they suc- 
ceed in landing a five and a half or a six-footer 
there, but the “Savalos grandes,’ or big tarpon, 
are there lying in wait for the passing schools 
of mullet, which form their most sought for food. 
It was at this self same pool that Mr. H. St. 
KINGFISHERS IN CAMP. 
Mr. Hickman on the right. 
Clair Boyd, of San Francisco, had the strike of 
his record fish of the season, and after an hour 
and a half of battling with the fish brought it to 
the gaff. This was the largest fish of the 1905-06 
season, measuring seven feet and two inches in 
length with weight of 190 pounds. The girth 
measure of this tarpon was forty-four inches as 
compared with the forty-six inches of the record 
fish of 1904-05 captured by H. W. Wilson, the 
English Vice-Consul at the port of Tampico. 
His fish, which is now in a museum in Liverpool, 
was seven feet and two and one-half inches in 
length and had a weight of 202 pounds. It was 
a somewhat wider or heavier fish than that of Mr. 
LBoyd’s, although the scales only showed a differ- 
ence of twelve pounds. 
The writer, while fishing for “Savalo,’ in the 
tidewater pool above mentioned on Jan. Io last, 
hooked a jewfish. At first my light tarpon outfit 
seemed to have met a Waterloo, but by judicious 
handling, which Florida and Aransas Pass, as 
well as the Panuco fishing had helped to acquire, 
the line and rod held good and strong, but it was 
considerably over two hours before his huge bulk 
adorned the stern sheets of my boat, and fisher as 
well as boatman were about all in. Just as the 
sun faded out of the day in the western horizon 
our boat was made fast at the foot of the landing 
steps by the bridge in front of the plaza. Leaving 
the “bogadoro” in charge of our prize, we 
wended our way across the square to the hotel, 
with considerable doubt as to the ability of the 
“mozos” connected with the establishment being 
[JUNE 9, 1906. 

able to handle our prize and bring him to the 
concourse of fishermen there for weighing. 
Entering the hotel office we were immediately 
greeted by a sturdy individual hailing from our 
immediate neighbor, the State of Texas. In a 
tone which gave the impression that possibly we 
had landed something not out of the ordinary, the 
gentleman from Texas said, “Well, where is your 
fish? Did not catch any, did you?” 
“My friend,” was our remark, “how much do 
you weigh?” 
“About 135 pounds,” was the reply. 
“All right,” we responded, “if our one fish does 
not put down the scales at over a hundred pounds 
more than you can, we will treat the crowd.” 
Undoubtedly it must have looked like easy 
money to him, for he immediately exclaimed: 
“Do you take us for suckers, just because we 
come from Texas?” : 
“No,” we said, “nothing of the sort, and as see- 
ing is believing, your party had better come down 
to the river at the bridge and help me get him 
out of the boat.’ 
With a good stout rope in my hand we formed 
a procession to the river, the “what they would 
not say to me’ when they found that we were 
fooling them, being the burden of talk from the 
Texas contingent. Arriving at the bridge, incre- 
dulity gave place to amazement at the size of the 
fish caught on such light tackle, but as this did 
not have the effect of weakening their muscular 
ability, we made good use of that in hauling our 
capture out of the boat and up to the bridge walk, 
about six or eight men hauling on the rope which 
the boatman made fast in its gills.) Then by the 
aid of a baggage truck borrowed from the Mexi- 
can Central Railroad, the station of which being 
just across the Tamasee, on the turther side of 
the bridge, our capture was taken to the hotel 
and placed on the scales. In the presence of quite 
a goodly number of witnesses it brought down 
the scales to the amount of exactly 412 pounds, so 
that there was considerably more than the hun- 
drec weight to spare between the weight of our 
Texas friend and that of the fish. 
Besides the above mentioned fishermen and 
fisher ladies who made a long or short stay at 
Tampico during the season just closed, may be 
mentioned Mr. E. Spencer Fox, Mr. G, A. Tan- 
query, Mr. R. E. Gill, Capt. F. T. Middleton and 
Mr. T. Kilner Clarke, from London, England; 
W. A. Windatt and F.. W. Drury, Winnepeg; 
Maj. J. F. Michie and Colonel Robertson, of Tor- 
onto, Can.; W. B. Jordan, Miles City, Mont.; 
A. R. Loomis, Fort Dodge, Ia; N. H. Carten- 
hour, E. H. Brown, W. H. Dilg, W. A. Jones, all 
of Chicago; C. d’Autremont, of Duluth, Minn.; 
W. J. Abram, Louisville, Ky.; Judge O. M. 
Spencer, St. Joseph, Mo.; Daniel Heaton, Wi- 
chita, Kas.; O. L. Smith, Denver, Colo.; F. M. 
Shelton, Independence, Mo.; Judge John C. Pol- 
lock, Topeka, Kas.; C. A. Pierce. S. C. Davis, 
both of St. Louis, Mo.; A. T. Allison, Denver, 
Colo.; R. L. Bullington, Wyoming; J. Schaetzel, 
Elk Point, Wyo.; F. J. Weber, Buffalo, N. Y.; 
Theodore Foucar, Cincinnati, O.; G. W. Du- 
laney, Hannibal, Mo.; F. P. Kirkendall, Omaha, 
Neb.; George Black, Hamilton, O.; C. A. Fay, 
Clinton, Ia.; E. M. Tyler, Sheepshead Bay, N. 
Y.; S. C. Edgar and his son, and J. G. McNair, 
St. Louis, Mo.; J. G. Artberg, Berlin, Germany; 
M. S. Rosenfield and F. Lewald, A. B. McCall, 
all of Chicago; C. B. Riker, M. McLeod and 
E. Gallagher, of New York; S. P. Kennedy, 
Bradford, Pa.; D. E. Lowry, of Belfast, Ireland; 
Max Muller, Chargé d’Affaites of British Lega- 
tion, Mexico; G. O. Good, Lock Haven, Pa., and 
a host of others who had fine sport. 

A SAILor, in describing his first efforts to be- 
come nautical, said that just at the close of a dark 
night he was sent aloft to see if he could see a 
light. As he was no great favorite with the lieu- 
tenant, he was not hailed for some hours. “Aloft 
there!” at last was heard from the lieutenant. 
- Ay, ay, sir.” “Do you see a light?” “Yes, sir.” 
“What light?” “Daylight, by jingo.” 
SUBSTANTIAL NOURISHMENT. 
The chief concern of every camper is to obtain sub- 
stantial nourishment in compact form. No camp or cabin 
is complete without its supply of Eagle Brand Condensed 
Milk and Peerless Evaporated Cream. They have no 
equal for Coffee, Fruits and Cereals.—Adv. 
