Sport: On Six-thread Line

Many a brawny fisherman felt like a minnow last week as he read about the feat of a handsome Miami girl named Frances Laidlaw. With a 3-ounce bait-casting rod and a small bait-casting reel which held 85 yards of No. 6-thread linen line—about the same tackle appropriate to sporty bass fishing—loa-lb. Frankie Laidlaw had landed a tarpon weighing 102-Hb.

Frankie had gone out off the Florida Keys in a rowboat by moonlight, fishing for ladyfish. She had caught a few when a sudden lunge at her line warned her that she had hooked no ladyfish. In a split second a huge tarpon vaulted out of the inky sea, “his eyes glaring like the headlights of an automobile and his body shining like an electric sign.” For 55 minutes they struggled—the big “silver king” making 27 frenzied leaps before he was finally brought to gaff.

Miss Laidlaw’s catch not only put to shame the heavy-tackle anglers who think they have accomplished something when they land a tarpon with 24-thread line, but also went on record as the outstanding achievement of this year’s 99-day Miami Fishing Tournament. Deep-sea angling experts could not remember a more remarkable feat in Atlantic waters.