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Sharks (Great and small are as a rule)

great and small, are, as a rule, among those fishes which, ranking vermin, because uneatable, are not fished for on purpose. The tope is, however, the object of special fishing at the places named, and the writer knows one American sportsman at least who fits out every year for the capture of gigantic sharks of 1,000 lb. or more. In tropical seas, however, and particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, the angler, out for tarpon or some other game fish, has often no choice but to hook and play an enormous shark, since the only alternative, an expensive one, is to cut his line as soon as each is hooked. The writer once wasted a whole morning in this way when tarpon-fishing in Florida, for his bait was taken by a tiger-shark measuring 14 ft. (i.e., exactly the same length as his boat), and of an estimated weight of 1,200 lb. The fish towed the boat, with two men in it, for upwards of two hours, at the end of which time it was beaten to a finish. but the dead weight was so immense that the line would not bring it to the surface, and an attempt to shoot it through the head resulted in parting the wire leader within a few feet of the beach.

It is, as has been said, unusual to fish of set purpose for sharks. When, however, as sometimes happens even in Cornwall, a blue shark or porbeagle hovers round an anchored boat, driving away the pollack and SHOOTING] mackerel, the best plan is to take in all the other lines, and to throw out a single stout drift-line, with no lead, carrying one large hook baited with a whole pilchard. If a little tide is running, line may be paid out freely, and the shark is not, as a rule, long in taking the bait. It may, on such gear, be hauled in without ceremony and despatched with a blow on the snout (fatal to all sharks), but care should be taken not to let the blood stain the fisherman's clothes or even the inside of the boat, as the smell of it is enduring, and the reverse of agreeable. The writer has occasionally substituted his rod for the drift-line, and killed in this way sharks of both species up to 30 lb., but it is a waste of time when there are better fish to be caught, for which the boatman can get a price ashore to eke out his wages.