nny ours was.
Fortunately it is now past tense. If I am ever conceited again I hope no
one will read my stories.

My brother and I could not bring ourselves to try for bonefish with
heavy tackle. It was preposterous. Three--four--five-pound fish! We had
seen no larger. Bass tackle was certainly heavy enough for us. So in the
innocence of our hearts and the assurance of our vanity we sallied forth
to catch bonefish.

That was four years ago. Did we have good luck? No! Luck has nothing to
do with bonefishing. What happened? For one solid month each winter of
those four years we had devoted ourselves to bonefishing with light
tackle. We stuck to our colors. The space of this whole volume would not
be half enough to tell our experience--the amaze, the difficulty, the
perseverance, the defeat, the wonder, and at last the achievement. The
season of 1918 we hooked about fifty bonefish on three-six tackles--that
is, three-ounce tips and six-thread lines--and we landed fourteen of
them. I caught nine and R. C. caught five. R. C.'s eight-pound fish
justified our contention and crowned our efforts.

To date, in all my experience, I consider this bonefish achievement the
most thrilling, fascinating, difficult, and instructive. That is a broad
statement and I hope I can prove it. I am prepared to state that I feel
almost certain, if I spent another month bonefishing, I would become
obsessed and perhaps lose my enthusiasm for other kinds of fish.

Why?

There is a multiplicity of reasons. My reasons range from the
exceedingly graceful beauty of a bonefish to the fact that he is the
best food fish I ever ate. That is a wide range. He is the wisest,
shyest, wariest, strangest fish I ever studied; and I am not excepting
the great _Xiphias gladius_--the broadbill swordfish. As for the speed
of a bonefish, I claim no salmon, no barracuda, no other fish celebrated
for swiftness of motion, is in his class. A bonefish is so incredibly
fast that it was a long time before I could believe the evidence of my
own eyes. You see him; he is there perfectly still in the clear, shallow
water, a creature of fish shape, pale green and silver, but
crystal-like, a phantom shape, staring at you with strange black eyes;
then he is gone. Vanished! Absolutely without your seeing a movement,
even a faint streak! By peering keenly you may discern a little swirl in
the water. As for the strength of a bonefish, I actually hesitate to
give my impressions. No