(_Tarpon Atlanticus_)
This game fish has the local names of Tarpon, Tarpum, Grand Ecaille,
Savalo, Sabalo, Savanilla, Savalle, Silver Fish, and Silver King.
He belongs to the family of Elopidea, and is the largest of the herring
tribe. His habitat at sea is in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean
and of the Gulf Stream. He is found along the coasts of Brazil and
Central America, as well as among the islands of the West Indies and
also along the gulf coast of Mexico. In the summer time tarpon are
numerous all around the Gulf of Mexico and on the east coast of Florida.
A few fish have been known to appear in midsummer as far north as the
New England coast. I have seen some in the New York Aquarium that had
been taken in nets in New York Bay. In the summer of 1919, I saw a fine
specimen that was caught in a net in Narragansett Bay near Newport.
Little is known of the habits of the tarpon when in the open sea. I
never met them at sea but once, and that was in the month of February
along the edge of the Gulf Stream off New River Inlet. On that occasion
I sailed through a large school on the surface swimming south.
Tarpon are often taken in the nets off Hillsboro Inlet, which is not
far from where I met them.
They arrive among the Keys of lower Florida in small schools of an
average weight in February, and from then on their numbers increase
until midsummer. These schools of fish dwell in Bahia Hondo, Matecumbe
Sound and other channels for a few days before working their way into
the Gulf of Mexico. If a Norther blows they go to sea, and return
later. Other fish enter the rivers of the east coast of Florida.
The building of the East Coast Railway greatly disturbed their customs,
for many of the fairways they were in the habit of journeying through
were closed by trestles and viaducts. At that time schools of fish
appeared in Biscayan Bay, and many were taken off the mouth of Arch
Creek. These fish were evidently looking for a passage through to the
west coast, having found their usual route further south barred by the
railroad.
On the west coast tarpon are to be found in Shark, Harney, Broad,
Turner’s and Losman’s rivers, and among the Thousand Islands. In
Surveyor’s Creek, Estero, and the Caloosahatchee River, also in the
Passes that divide the outer islands such as Captiva and Boca Grande,
and up along the Gulf of Mexico.
These fish are supposed to return south in early November, but many
remain in the deep holes of the rivers during the winter and do not
show unless the water is at least as warm as 68 degrees.
Where these fish come from is not known, but they appear to arrive from
the West Indies via the Gulf Stream.
There is another migration up the west side of the Gulf that appears to
come from the rivers of Mexico. They begin to arrive at Aransas Pass in
March.
It is not known where they spawn. Some people believe it happens at sea
but, from what I have seen, I believe they spawn in brackish water at
the headwaters of streams, or at the head of the tide, for it is there
only that you find small fish.
Fifteen miles up rivers in Cuba I have taken large tarpon that were
evidently spent fish, not only from their appearance but because they
had little strength. It is possible they also spawn on the flats and
sandbars inside the outer islands.
Tarpon are very susceptible to the cold, and love warm water. When in
the rivers and not looking for food they will lie on the bottom, coming
up from time to time for a mouthful of air and then retiring to their
resting place, after which air-bubbles will arise to the surface.
It is this action that makes the natives insist that these fish have
lungs and use them for breathing. Then again they will lie on the
bottom for hours as other fish do, with little or no motion of the fins.
I once saw quite a school of large tarpon lying on the bottom in the
Los Angeles River in the Isle of Pines. They took no notice of the
launch, although we passed over them twice in seven feet of clear water.
I once caught a baby tarpon five inches long in a gill net in New
River. He was badly gilled, yet lived all day in a tub. He did not
act as other fish do, but allowed me to stroke him gently and,
tarpon-like, showed no fear. From time to time he would rise to the
surface as the large fish do in the rivers, then go to the bottom of
the tub again, and in a moment the bubbles would slowly issue from his
mouth.
The long lower jaw of the tarpon shows that he is a bottom feeder, and
lives on crabs; yet he also feeds on school fish such as mullet, needle
fish, and the like.
Although the tarpon’s mouth is as hard as stone, there is a very
sensitive cuticle that covers the roof of the mouth. When you see a
tarpon in a river jump you may be sure that a crab has nipped this
cuticle. When they jump in the sea it may be done to get rid of ramoras.
I believe that the tarpon not only come to the rivers of Florida in
the spring and early summer for the purpose of spawning, but that like
the salmon they return to the same river as a rule, and that many fish
remain in deep holes in the rivers throughout the winter.
This belief is based on the fact that in the late 80’s and early 90’s
there were many tarpon to be found in the Peace River. During the
freeze in 1894 many hundreds of tarpon were killed by the cold in this
stream. The banks were lined with dead fish of the largest kind. Since
that time, few tarpon are to be found in the Peace River.
I was in Florida at the time of the “Big Freeze,” living in a houseboat
on the St. Lucie River. The mercury went to 18 degrees, and the river
water steamed and smoked. It was not the cold that directly killed the
fish, but the cold seemed to have consumed the oxygen in the water, for
the fish died from asphyxiation.
For two hundred miles both shores of the shallow Indian River were
banked with dead fish, mostly so-called surface feeders such as snook,
bluefish, and the like. The bottom fish did not seem to be affected.
I saw many bluefish of five pounds flopping along on the surface, but
no mullet. These wise fish went to sea in schools the day before the
Norther arrived.
We picked up nineteen green turtles that were benumbed by the cold and
floating on the surface. These turtles were stacked on the lower deck
of the houseboat and revived much to the consternation of the crew,
although they were compensated for their troubles the following day
when they disposed of the turtles at Fort Pierce for $200.
I have fished for tarpon in the St. Lucie River in midwinter. For days
you would not see any fish, but if you waited until after a few days of
hot sun had warmed the water to 68 degrees they would begin to roll and
show themselves and would then take live silver mullet bait.
It took me some time to find out how to keep mullet alive, for if you
put them into a well in a boat they bruise their noses against the
sides of the well and die.
I procured oat bags and laced barrel hoops around them on the outside.
I then ran drawing strings around the mouths of the bags. After placing
half a dozen live mullet, taken by cast-net, in each of several bags
I practised with them to find out in what depth of water the mullet
were most comfortable. I then tied the bags to the roots of trees along
the bank of the stretch of river I proposed to fish. In this manner I
always had fresh, live bait at my convenient disposal.
I found the new moon was the best day of the month to fish. One winter,
on the new moon in January, I took a 187-pound tarpon; and on the
following new moon, in February, I landed a fish weighing 165 pounds.
This fishing was done from a row boat; but in later years and since the
advent of the Wilson spoon I have fished in a small launch. A live bait
behind a launch soon dies and revolves like a pin-wheel which destroys
one’s line, but the Wilson spoon skitters and does not revolve in the
water.
Tarpon are greatly attracted by this spoon, and it has been a blessing
to me in Cuba where no mullet were to be had.
I built two fishing yachts, the Savalo and the Kona, for tarpon fishing
in Cuba, and fished there almost every winter from 1904 to 1920.
I have cruised from Nipe Bay to the westward around Cape San Antonio
and as far as Cienfuegos on the south coast, and also to the Isle of
Pines 60 miles south of Cuba.
Tarpon are to be found in certain rivers in Cuba at all times of the
year. I say certain rivers, for the tarpon is a clean fish and does
not favor muddy water. The soil of Cuba is red and rich, so that the
streams that drain the cultivated lands are mostly muddy; in such
rivers no tarpon are to be found.
There are large swamps in Cuba, and the rivers that drain these swamps
run clear. It is in these rivers that the most fish are to be found.
The Rio Negro and Jatibonico drain over one hundred square miles of
swamp, and in these rivers the tarpon abound.
The Damuji River is also a river of fairly clear water, and at times
there is good fishing there.
These rivers are all on the south coast of Cuba. On the north coast a
small river with a long name, the Zaraguanacan, is often full of tarpon.
The fish do not seem to go above the tide. The limit of the mangroves,
which do not grow along fresh water, seems to be the limit of the
tarpon from what I have seen, yet Mr. Zane Grey says he found tarpon
one hundred miles up the Panuco River in Mexico.
The fish do not run as large as at some places in Florida, although I
have taken fish of 130 pounds in weight and have lost heavier ones. The
headwaters of the rivers abound in small fish. I have at times seen
hundreds of tarpon that would weigh from 10 to 15 pounds and have taken
them four inches long.
On one occasion I found a narrow stretch of the Jatibonico River simply
alive with 15-pound tarpon. I landed 14 in an hour’s fishing and must
have “jumped” 25 more fish. At another time and in another river I
“jumped” 52 large tarpon in three days’ fishing of the flood tides.
My fishing journal tells me that I landed 254 tarpon in Cuba, which
means that I must have hooked over 1,000 fish, for it is not possible
to save more than one hooked tarpon out of five fish hung on a Wilson
spoon. The weight of the spoon helps the fish to free himself.
I invariably turned the hooked fish loose unless they were damaged.
They sometimes bruise their gills in jumping and bleed profusely. In
such cases the fish will not live if liberated.
The natives of Cuba spear tarpon and I am sorry to say net the small
ones. Both there and in Mexico the fish are eaten fresh as well as
salted.
My method of fishing in Cuba has been trolling a large sized Wilson
spoon with sixty feet of line over the stern of a small launch. The
launch travels at the rate of four miles an hour. If a fish is hooked
in a wide part of the river I have the launch circle the fish. It is
easy to land a 100-pound tarpon in 8 minutes by this method if you
understand fighting fish.
If a fish is hooked in a narrow stream it is necessary to keep the
boat away from the fish until he is well spent. In narrow streams you
lose many fish for they jump into the over-hanging branches of the
mangrove trees which line the banks and tumble back into the water
leaving your tackle entangled among the branches.
The Cauto on the south coast is the only river in Cuba that is
navigable. The other streams are often from eight to ten feet deep,
excepting where they flow into the sea; here you will find wide bars
with but four feet of water.
It is a delight to fish in these rivers in winter for there are no
sharks to rob you of your fish nor any insects of any kind excepting a
few mosquitoes at sunset if your yacht happens to be five or ten miles
up a river and moored to the windward bank. The rivers are lined with
mangroves and dotted here and there along the banks with royal palms,
the most beautiful of trees.
Of this tree Davis wrote: “The royal palm is the characteristic feature
of the landscape in Cuba. It is the most beautiful of all palms and
possibly the most beautiful of trees. The cocoanut palm, picturesque
as it is, has a pathetic resemblance to a shabby feather duster and
its trunk bends and twists as though it had not the strength to push
its way through the air and to hold itself erect. But the royal palm
shoots up boldly from the earth with the grace and symmetry of a marble
column.”
At sunset the small white cranes and egrets fly upstream to their
roosts. They flit along close to the surface of the river and it is
amusing to watch the tarpon rise at their shadows as they fly by.
There is a pond of brackish water on Pine Island, Florida, which has
no outlet to the sea and contains many quite small tarpon. The spawn
must have been dropped by birds or carried to the pond on the backs of
alligators. Owing to the poor food these fish do not increase in size.
I do not take any interest in fishing for tarpon with so-called light
tackle. I believe a 15-thread line is quite light enough and that the
“punishment should fit the crime.” In other words the charm of heavy
fishing is being “up against” a big fish and landing him as quickly
and as humanely as possible. The chief pleasure is the give and take
between man and fish.
The theory that fish are cold-blooded creatures and therefore do not
suffer is all very well as a theory but I never want any fish to
dangle at the end of my line and eventually commit suicide.
What anglers mean when they tell stories of fighting a salmon for an
hour or longer is beyond me. Any salmon up to 45 pounds in weight ought
to be killed in twenty minutes even with light grilse tackle if the
angler knows how to fish.
Fishing with a 16-ounce grilse rod I once rose, hooked, landed and
weighed in 50 minutes, 5 salmon that weighed 128 pounds. This was not
done with intent but in the regular course of fishing.
What I do believe in is fishing for tarpon with a plain reel without
any drag. The science of tarpon fishing was lost when the reel drag was
invented. It came about in the following manner:
The science of sea fishing was first developed along the Atlantic
seaboard in the early 60’s and the Striped Bass (_Roccus
lineatus_) was the interesting fish which started this development.
The multiplying reels and Cuttyhunk twisted linen lines were invented
for this purpose, it being discovered that these fish were too quick
for the old single action reels and that the braided cotton lines were
not strong enough to hold these active, agile fish.
The method of fishing was casting a bait into the white tumbling surf
from the rocks or from stands built for that purpose.
The three jointed rods of ash or lancewood used at first were later
abandoned, for two-piece rods of Japan or Calcutta bamboo, and these
rods were later developed into the two-piece split bamboos with guides
and tips of agate of the present day.
The reels had no drag but were supplied with a musical click of small
value. Later on in the 80’s a light drag was placed on the left side of
the reel for tarpon fishing, to prevent the line from over-running in
case of carelessness.
The first tarpon fishermen were old bass fishermen who had learned the
trick of playing heavy fish with rod and reel and they all fished with
the right thumb on the reel as it had been their custom so to fish when
casting.
A few of us took up tarpon fishing without ever having done much bass
fishing and we fished with the left thumbs on the reels and pumped the
fish with our right hands.
This method had a great advantage for the right hand was always free,
away from the reel handle and out of danger, yet always ready to reel
in the slack.
The man who attempted to check a fish with his right thumb on the reel
and then reel in the slack with his right hand was always in danger of
the back lash of the reel handle.
E. H. Vom Hofe, the celebrated tackle manufacturer, was one of the
first and most successful tarpon fishermen, and, being an expert bass
fisherman as well, always fished with his right thumb on the reel.
We often discussed the two ways of fishing and I could not persuade him
that my way was right and his way was wrong until one day as he was
playing a heavy fish at Captiva Pass the reel handle broke his right
thumb.
The Rabbeth drag had already been invented but was taboo according to
the Tuna Club Rules, so Vom Hofe sat up nights until he had perfected
the reel drag as we know it to-day.
He showed it to me and I had the first reel made with the new
invention. He described it to me at the time as a “reel with which a
man can fish who has no thumbs at all.” (1902).
Later on the B-Ocean reel was adapted by Mr. Boschen, the greatest
fisherman of all time, with a free running spool and stationary handle
for heavy sword-fishing, for this fish takes sudden dives of two
hundred feet and more and if you cannot quickly free the line your rod
is pulled out of your hands or broken.
The tackle as it exists to-day is capable of holding and landing a
1,000-pound game fish and the reels will hold 1,200-feet of 24-thread
line.
The drag is necessary for swordfish, marlin, and giant tuna, for
you cannot fight such heavy fish for four and more hours with thumb
pressure only, but for tarpon and tuna up to 200 pounds in weight thumb
pressure is quite sufficient and much more sportsmanlike.
I killed 5 tuna that weighed 491 pounds in six hours with a plain reel
and have landed very many tarpon weighing from 187 pounds down without
any reel drag, so I write of my own personal experience.
With the invention of the reel drag the science of tarpon fishing
received a _coup de grâce_. It is no longer fishing but “coffee
grinding” and the fish have no chance whatever.
I have seen men at Boca Grande block the line at the first jump of a
tarpon, start the launch engine and tow the fish ashore with his mouth
wide open.
That is not fishing; it is murder!
Tarpon can readily be killed on light tackle, only it takes more line
and more time and the rod enjoys most of the fun.
With light tackle you must follow the fish, with heavy tackle the fish
comes to you. As hooked tarpon always float with the tide or current it
is at times hard work, but when you hear of a fisherman who has been
an hour or more killing a tarpon you may be quite certain he has been
trying to pull the heavy fish against the tide.
The Light Tackle Club at Aransas Pass died a natural death, for many
members have told me they gave up going there because they wearied of
light tackle yet did not like to go back to the only real sport, heavy
tackle.
Mr. L. G. Murphy holds the Aransas Pass record for light tackle, a
tarpon 6 feet 9¾ inches long.
At Catalina Island a marlin of 185 pounds and a tuna weighing 145½
pounds have been landed with light tackle by Mr. Jump. This is done by
setting the drag at the proper tension so that a long run of the fish
will not break the line. The angler holds the handle of the reel which
works but one way when the drag is on. The fish takes the line from the
reel with the set drag and the fisherman reels in the slack when he
can get it. It takes skill, time, and patience but to me it does not
give the satisfaction of being “up against” a big fish.
If the advocates of light tackle for tarpon would go back to the plain
reel instead I can promise them plenty of exercise and entertainment.
I am greatly interested in all fish and have a real affection for the
tarpon. He is a gentleman among fishes. He is not in the least afraid
of man or boat and when once hooked does not attempt to run away or
take advantage of his great strength.
His one idea is to get rid of the hook which annoys him and he will
jump clear of the surface many times and attempt to free himself.
If these tactics fail he will then swim close up to the boat, raise
himself out of the water and shake his head. It is then that he is
usually lost.
He is the grandest and most beautiful silver fish that swims and he has
the best manners of any of the denizens of the deep, for he avoids all
snags, stumps, or obstructions in a river when hooked and never takes
advantage of the fisherman but fights square.