I have had the best sport with tarpon, as early as 1878, up the fresh water rivers, using a salmon fly-rod and large gaudy flies. These were the small fry, however, running from ten to forty pounds, but even at these weights they demanded the best skill of the angler, inasmuch as they were hooked in the mouth, and only occasionally could one be landed.
Fishing at Mayport
At that time my old friend, Dr. Kenworty, of Jacksonville, Florida, was wild over tarpon fishing at Mayport, at the mouth of St. John's River. But the Doctor and his friends were using handlines, believing it impossible to kill one on the rod, and moreover, thought it quite a feat to land one with the handline, hooked in the mouth, as indeed it was. I remember well a wonderful array of big hooks attached to a metal strip that the good Doctor showed me as his latest invention to hold fast to a silver king. I think it was owing to Dr. Kenworty's enthusiasm in the matter that induced Colonel W. H. Wood, of New York, an old striped bass angler, to go to Florida to try conclusions with the tarpon with striped bass rod and tackle. At any rate, to Colonel Wood belongs the credit of bringing rod fishing for tarpon into the prominence and popularity it now holds.
The First Tarpon on a Rod
In the winter of 1880–1 Mr. Samuel H. Jones, of Philadelphia, while trolling with the spoon in the Fort Pierce channel of Indian River Inlet, hooked and landed, after a contest of two hours, a tarpon weighing one hundred and seventy pounds with striped bass rod and tackle. This was the first tarpon of more than one hundred pounds killed on the rod. I was at that locality the following winter, and learned the full particulars of the extraordinary performance from Mr. Thomas Paine (son of Judge Paine, of Fort Capron), who was Mr. Jones's boatman on the occasion. Afterward I received a full account of it from a son of Mr. Jones, who was with him and witnessed the capture of the immense fish. It is worthy of note that the fish was hooked in the mouth and not in the gullet. Honor to whom honor is due.
Record Tarpon
In 1885 Colonel W. H. Wood, of New York, made rod fishing for tarpon famous at Puntarassa. In March, 1886, I was present when he brought in from Estero Bay his record fish of one hundred and forty-six pounds, and two others weighing nearly a hundred each. They were hung up and photographed by my shipmate, Judge Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati.
The Largest to Date
My friend, Mrs. T. J. Bachmann, of Florida, formerly Mrs. Stagg, of Kentucky, was high hook for many years with her two hundred-and-five-pound fish, which was mounted and exhibited in my department at the Chicago World's Fair, together with one of one hundred and ninety-six pounds caught by Mr. McGregor, of New York. Mr. Edward vom Hofe, of New York, in 1898, caught one at Captiva Pass weighing two hundred and eleven pounds, and Mr. N. M. George, of Danbury, Connecticut, afterward took one at Biscayne Bay of two hundred and thirteen pounds.
Tarpon Tackle