Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-17

NJ 10 slid 70 osss ~ 40 "a Catch o.e Of n
Game Fish.


From the cAscaxo Insrr-ocrsn.
Chicago man who has been 10 Florida and
has taken part in the much-salked-of sport. tar-
pom fishing, gives the following interesting &C.
count Of his experience before be succeeded in
landing . tarpont
81 had heard . great deal" sid he. ''sbcut
tArpon fishing before went south, and the de-
sire possessed me 10 try my hand st the sport
Down at Jacksonville people say IL costs si.oco
70 catch tarpon and si0o more 70 mount IL
and get il home. I replied 10 such remarks rs
these that was going 10 catch . tarpon n q
took all season. When / got 10 the fishing
ground on the Peace river I soon learned that
ninety-nine out Of every 100 men who go fish
ing are mere automstons who hire fisherman
or guide to row the boat, bait the hooks and do
the fishing. while, IL any t~rpons are caught,
they get the credit Of It.
''when learned the situation said I was
going 20 be nv own fisherman. and II vas 60
! ing TO catch tarpon was going 10 catch them
myself and not have them caught for me. In
tarpon fishing Il is not considered good sport
to hook q big fish with heavy line. The line
used for q lso-pound fish 10 supposed 10 stand .
strain of only twenty-five pounds. The length
Of time the fish takes 90 XIII after IL IL hooked
depends on whore il il caught. II the hook en-
tiers the vtals IL will tire itself out and die I'm
short time. Bat II caught by the hard sub
stance Of the mouth it will fight for hours and
the chances are that il will get away IL not wen
handled
II decided that the best thing 10 do was 10
hire q roustabout instead Of the ordinary cuide
and pay him Sl.50 q day for rowing the boat
My experience was an amusing one. started
for the fishing ground and hshed for ten whole
days, from morning 20 night. without getting Q
bite from tarpon. During that time I caught
nothing but sharks, Jewish and catfish I
simply supplied the catfish with bait On the
tenth day n Mr.. Dean came along. He WINS .
real tarpon fisherman. not automaton. he
had guide in the boat with him, and his wife
and daughter were in another boat with Q
kodak ready to photograph him when he hooked
tarpon. He anchored his boat fifty yards
off the spot where i had been fishing for ten
days. and in an hour and a half from the time
he came on the ground he had tarpon caught,
photographed and in his boat. IL you can
imagine a man in swearing mood was the
man. turned 20 Sam. the negro. and
told him he had hoodooed me. otherwise I
could have caught something long ago. then
said IL didn't get one within an hour should
go somewhere else. l put on nice new bait.
made beautiful cast. at least fifty yards from
the boat, and stood up 20 stretch my legs Be-
fore was fairly on my feet my reel went "Trip
and a monster tarpon was hooked. Hesuccee,ied
In taking off the hook and line leaving the rod
aud reel. In taking the line the reel un~ound
70 quickly that IL overrun and the result
that the line snapped letting the fish Co.
The tarpon jumped al least twenty feet In the
air. This is trick the fish have of trying 10
eject the bait and hooks. That was experience
number one.
Il fshed four days before getting q bite
again. This time was left with no one in the
boat but my eight-year-old boy, NV roust-
about had gone Of and got drunk at Ponta
Gorda after L paid him his weeks wages.
When the fish struck me the boy was asleep in
the stem Of the boat andiI was almost helpless,
wrestling with big tarpon and irving to steer
the boat well. got hold Of an oar and tried
to wake him up. Finally, when did manage
| TO poke him up and get him TO work. he lifted
the anchor and let the boat 60 ashore. A conn
tryman Of mine was On shore and I got him
aboard to help the boy. After had tired the
| fish and thought we were going TO gan him l
told the man to back the boat a little 20 get q
good shot at him. When il came 90 the
emergency he became dazed. and the fish
took a fresh turn and swan into deep water.
! The next time l got him toward the shore
i resolved not TO trust my countryman.
but gaff the fish myself. started 70
gaff the tarpon with one hand. keeping the rod
in the other. and forgetting that the FISH weighed
nearly two hundred pounds, while my fingers
were benumbed with humping the reel. To
hold such u fish with one hand was like holding
on TO the tail end OF a runaway wagon. gated
the fish beautifully in the throat, when 10. IL
whipped the gaff through nv fingers and eloped.
Before got him ashore again he chafed the
line with his mouth and escaped. All the peo-
pile watched me working that fish and they were
sure | had II. My wife was told at the hctel
that had hooked fish 200 pounds in weight.
She came down in a boat TO see me land the
monster tarpon. But the fish had gone before
she arrived. That experience number two.
AT the end of four DAYS / hooked a monster
| tarpon that acted in a most extraordinary man,
ner. Ins tead of trying 10 get away il came out
of the water and headed for the boat. real
lied that before NV colored man, who wass
new hand, could get up either his anchor q
hand line with which was fishing for Jewish
the tarpon would get foul Of everything. I
stood with my back to'the stern of the boat,
paving out line as fast Ne possible, so that when
| the tangle came / would have NJ much slack as
| possible. Imagine my surprise when found
! the line come taut over NV shoulder Turn
! ing round found the line on the opposite side
| of the boat and foul Of the hand line. The col
| ored man trying TO disentangle IL, yelled to
him to get his knife, which he did, and cut the
large line and we got away all clear. I then
learned that in the ish's third Jump he went
/ clear over the boat, taking the hand line with
him. This was at O'Clock. From that time
till 6:45 | worked to land that fish. He towed
| the boat seven miles up the river and finally
/ got past a sunken tree and broke the line.
After breaking the line he did not seem q bit
more. tired than when 1 commenced ss he
jumped at least distance of forty feet clear
out of the water. then had 10 row home, ten
miles. without my fish.
Il began to feel kind Of cheap by this time
and people looked upon me a tenderfoot
In a day or two ii struck me that this fsh
might have gone where he had been before and
i started next morning for the spot where lost
the lart fish. When got 90 the place didn't
dare speak above n whisper, for il was alive with
tarpons. They were swimming in shoals thick
as psrpoises. After about four hours fishing
hooked a tarpon and landed him in the boat in
five and a half minutes. j tested my line that
morning to see how much il would stand and I
held on 20 that fish just much ne thought the
line would bear. This faster time than was
ever heard of among fishermen. They didn't
believe il, but had witnesses who saw IT, Mr..
Williams, the president Of the Gulf Phosphate
Manufacturing Company, was coming down the
river in a tug. and he and the crew saw the fish
landed In ten days lost about twenty fish and
killed six and the longest time took 20 kill any
fish twenty-four minutes The fish
weighed from 20 10 155 pounds.
"As it turned out this point of the river had
never been fished before by the Oldest fisher
man. II was a very deep bend in the river,
filed with sunken trees. eleven miles above
Ponta Goria. In five weeks the other twenty
boats caught only eight fish between them. was
afterward known while I stayed In Florida M the
Peace river ranchman."