The first tarpon were taken bottom fishing. It was the custom to anchor
the boat at some chosen spot that was frequented by the fish and then
to chum with pieces of cut mullet. Two hooks baited with the better
part of a mullet on each hook were cast out. The angler watched one rod
and his guide took charge of the other.
I always took pains that my rod pointed towards the spot where my bait
lay so that when the latter was picked up the line would run free
from the reel. The fish was allowed to take fifty feet of line before
striking because a tarpon will pick up a bait and move off with it in
his mouth before gorging it.
The theory that loose line must be coiled in the bottom of the boat was
for novices that could not pick up a rod without checking the fish.
Tarpon that have gorged the bait, unless hooked in a vital spot, fight
much harder than those that are hooked in the mouth.
The drawback to bottom fishing was that the fish were all destroyed and
could not be set free.
The snoods were made of deerskin or cotton cord partly for the reason
that wire is stiff and the fish would drop such a bait and also that
if a shark picked up the bait he would bite through the snood and free
himself.
I always used snoods made of three strands of fine wire twisted. They
were not so easily seen, were pliable and took more fish, besides I
enjoyed playing the mackerel sharks for they are great jumpers and
strong fighters.
When the Van Vleck hook was invented the general method of fishing
changed. It had been discovered that when trolling the greater part
of the fish were hooked over the incisors which are very large in the
tarpon and that the fish would jump and throw the hook. Mr. Van Vleck
had hooks made with the belly nearer the point of the hook, which made
it more difficult for the fish to get rid of the hook when jumping.
I say this hook was invented, yet I have seen in the Naples Museum, the
very same hook found in Pompeii (destroyed A. D. 79) and probably used
for trolling for tunney-fish.
We then either trolled for tarpon or anchored in strong tideways in the
Passes with a strip of mullet for bait and with one hundred feet of
wet line. When a tarpon was hooked your guide would throw the buoyed
anchor rope overboard and you would follow the fish. Having your anchor
buoyed saved time and it also gave you a reserved position to return to.
When Mr. Mygatt discovered Boca Grande as a fishing possibility (1898),
owing to the great depth of water there drift fishing was adopted.
The leader used is of heavy strong piano wire six feet in length and at
the upper or rod end of the leader a sinker is fastened to the swivel
or ring with a light piece of string. The hook is baited with a live
blue crab or a strip of mullet. The launch goes under power to the
entrance to the Pass and drifts in with the tide. The fisherman keeps
the hook off the bottom, in other words slowly trolls the bait close to
the bottom where the tarpon lie.
As the depth of water changes, the length of line is changed. If you
hook a fish his first jump frees the sinker. The drawback to this
fishing is that the sharks are numerous and steal the hooked fish.
To my mind this is the most uninteresting form of tarpon fishing, for
to hook a fish near the bottom in 60 feet of water does not give the
same sensation as travelling along at four miles an hour and hooking
near the surface, a fish that immediately leaps in the air. A tarpon
will also jump twice as often in 8 feet of water.
I have seen forty or more boats drifting fairly close together at Boca
Grande on a moonlit night and consternation caused among them by the
sudden jumping of two or three large hooked fish.
It is a popular and lazy form of sport where fish are plentiful, and
as the tarpon is an elusive fish and difficult to find, Boca Grande is
much frequented for the fish are known to be there in numbers.
To me the great charm of tarpon fishing is to hunt for the fish and
find them, which you can do in rivers as they often swim along the
surface, or if lying on the bottom come up from time to time for air.
Fish hooked in the mouth can readily be set free. Your guide is
provided with a large barbless release-hook which he inserts in the
fish’s jaw and then removes the fishhook with his gloved hand.
The season for tarpon fishing in Florida is from the month of May to
October.
At Aransas Pass, Texas, they fish in the Gulf outside the jetties with
live or dead silver mullet. The drawbacks are the rough water and the
numerous sharks. June and October are the best months.
When I was at Tampico, Mexico, the method of fishing was trolling a
dead silver mullet behind a row boat. We fished at the jetties seven
miles below the town or ten miles up the Panuco River above Tampico.
There is also a Laguna that contains small tarpon. Owing to the trade
wind, afternoon fishing is difficult. The best months are February and
March.
In the Panama Zone the fishing is done from the shore below the
spillway of the Gatun Dam. The method of fishing is with the fly and
the season is from May to November. If the Canal had no locks the
tarpon would now be in the Pacific as well as in the Atlantic Ocean.