Part 3

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.