Evening star., 1936-01-05
Bv ". r. McCaHutn.
. HE longest 10 seconds IN the

world?
They are the 10 seconds
l. which seem like a century
while you are waiting for sailflsh
to circle your sinking bait, or tarpon
to take your mullet firmly in his
mouth You may live through them
If you are going to Florida this VIM
ter to find some of the finest fishing
anywhere on the American contl-
mentor on any other continent.
Down there off that Sun-bathed
peninsula. sticking out like a thumb
between the Atlantic Ocean on the
east and the Gulf Of Mexico on the
west, the waters TEEN with millions OF
the worlds finest game fish, which are
waiting for the succulent tuna belly,
the split mullet, or the spoon Of the
Northern angler. Hundreds OF Wash
ingtonians are planning fishing trips
to Florida to match wits and strength
and skill with the speedy denizens OF
the st-fowing Gulf Stream or the
equally gamy fish which swim the
shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico
off the Coast Of Florida.
It must be a revelation to those
who do their fishing in Chesapeake
Bay for the complacent hardhead,
the rapacious blueflsh or the tender
mouthed sea trout to find a spot
where fish from to 200 pounds will
hit his trolled bait for a scrap that
may last for a few minutes or sew
eraI hours. And to find fish that are
stronger than the fisherman, faster
than an arrows flight, game enough
to die in the water from sheer ex-
haustion and strong enough and fast
enough to break a line testing at more
than 100 pounds as if it were bit
OF cotton thread.
There's so much variety, so much
diversification to Florida fishing any,
where along the East Coast from
Jacksonville south around Cape Sable
to Pensacola that the angler who
would catch all species must outfit
himself with everything from tooth
pick-guage bass rod for stream fish
to veritable MINDLESS for a reel
mounted on a rod which weighs 20
ounces or more.
Florida fish are like that. They
never quit, they hit fast and fight
hard, and their variety is as endless
as the play of light on a coral reef.
Every one has heard of the scrap
ping tarpon, that aerial gymnast the
sailfsh, the Fred Astaire of the ocean,
a slim, spear-headed warrior of the
Gulf Stream; the marlin Swordfish Of
the white and blue persuasions, the
dolphin, fast as an arrow in his flight
after trolled bait; the vicious bar
racuda, the deep-sounding tuna and
the speedy bonito. The sportsman
who hasn't caught tarpon, a sail
fish, which bounces on his tail over
rs feet of ocean, or the tooth-snap-
ping barracuda hasn't had the thrill
of fishing.
They are all there, in the SUM-
1aved waters of the Guf Stream,
along with big shark that will test
your temper, your courage and your
strength, that become nuisances as
they sharply sever your live tuna or
your bonito and that fight with you
for your sailfish or marlin. The
waters are full of them and probably,
no matter how many sport fishermen
go to Florida to fish, never will those
warm waters be depleted Of the game
sportsmen that swim in them.
OFF the East Coast, if you go to
Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale,
Hollywood, or that angling hotbed-
the city of Miami-you will find out
In the swift flowing Gulf Stream
waters, 3 or miles offshore, no still
fishing of the kind where you fling
q bait overheard and wait for the
fish to come along. Out there on
those blue waters the fish catch
their bait on the fly and you must
take it to them. There you will find
endless schools of kingflsh, kind of
mackerel, which hit a spoon so hard
1t frequently Is broken; the wahoo,
monster kingfish which grows to 60
pounds and more; the barracuda, saw
age ravager of the deep, whose teeth
are SO many guillotines. Better keep
away from that hideous dental arma-
ment when you boat him, for heswtl
snap of a finger, or even hand,
quick as q wink. Even the guides are
afraid of the barracuda. They take
the hook out with the aid of piece
of wood and big club, commonly
called the persuader, with which they
wallop Brother Barracuda over the
dome before they dump him in the
fish box.
You will find your bait snapped up
by small tuna, deep-boring and fast.
which fights its fight far below the
surfaces and which run between 5
and rs pounds of the firmest red
meat you ever saw; by the swiftest
fish of them all-the dolphin-which
can outswim flying fish two to one;
hy the deep-lying wahoo, attracted to