Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-11-11
QUEER WAY OF THE TARpoN.
REGULARITY of the Big Fish Is Its
Habit of Dumping Into Men
and Boats.

A recent dispatch in the New York
Sun, telling of a large tarpon which
jumped into pirogue on Timbalier
bay, south of New Orleans, and
stunned hunter named Albert Lefert,
adds another to the list of the tar
pon's vagarieS when in a leaping hui
NOR.
The tarpon weighs from 40 to 200
pounds and all of it is bone and mus
Gle. In rising out of the water it
sometimes goes five feet above the sur
face, and the amount of force needed
to send it SO high is considerable.
Either the fish is unable to see when
out of the water, or it, does not care
where it lands. 1t often jumps int
sAiffs and canoes, as one did in the
Letert instance; it often jumps clear
over them; sometimes it bounds from
the brine, over the side of passing
tug, and lands on the deck, where the
deckhands club it to death.
Any number of men have been
Knocked from the light boats by the
tarpon, and some of them, stunned like
Lefert, have drowned. An instance OF
this kind occurred not long ago, when
a negro fisherman off the mouth of the
Brazos river. on the Texas coast, was
knocked from his skiff by tarpon and
never came UP after he sank.
In this river three years ago, a low
sitting tug was running toward the
Old harbor improvement works, mile
out at sea. when a tarpon, weighing
$50 pounds, 1eaped on the forward part
OF the deck. The fish was rushing to-
ward the boat at great speed when it
leaped, and the impetus carried it
to the planking.
When curving downward it struck
an iron stanchion nearly an inch
through. and bent this stanchion sew
eral inches out of true. The fish was
killed by the impact.
in the summer of 1902 George Sam
son, Greek fisherman, was trying for
reddish in Matagorda bay, also on the
Texas coast. He hooked tarpon and
brought it to the boats edge without
trouble, though it was a big fish. His
skiff had only six inches of free board
and he was using a handline.
When the fish got near the boat il
gave mighty fiirt. came over the gun
vale. fell against Samson knocked him
out of the boat and then Topped out
itself. In some way the mans right
foot was tangled in the fishing line.
1t is supposed that the hook at the
other end was still in the tarpon's Jaw
At any rate Samson was dragged sc
feet from the boat and was drowned
there. His body was found attached tC
the boat by the line; the tarpon had
escaped
The speed of the tarDor. is tremen.
dous. Going at full speed it probably
does not see clearly individuals are
sometimes killed through smashing
themselves against piles and sub
merged timbers of various kinds;
good many of them are hurt in col.
lisions with one another.
1t is customary to shoot the tarpor
when it has been fought to the side OF
the boat, or else gaff it heavily; but
fishermen hook one when
they have neither gaff nor pistol. II
a man in rowboat gets a tarpon OF
$50 pounds in it with him, there is not
room for the two and the best thing
the man can do is to go over the side
anG hang on with his hands until the
fish jumps out or succor comes. If he
stays in it is pretty certain that the
fish will knock him out.