"This'll be a short fight," moaned Wendell Aiken after eyeballing the silver king that ambushed his 1-1/2-ounce jig and cleared the water by six feet during its initial leap.

Aiken, a veteran Florida west coast tarpon angler, connected with his scrappy 130-pounder while drifting Boca Grande Pass with Captain Charlie Cleveland and me.

Standing at the bow of Captain Cleveland's 20-foot Mako, Aiken was frozen to a bowed 6-1/2 foot light-action rod, mesmerized while watching 12-pound monofilament evaporate from a diminutive but strong Daiwa spinning reel.

His fish did its two- or three-jump number before nosing to the depths. It didn't spit the lure offering early in the battle as often happens, nor did it snap the puny line, which is a frequent occurrence in this fish-filled honey hole lying at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor on Florida's Gulf Coast between Fort Myers and Sarasota.

Unlike hooking a silver king in shallow water where it'll often soar skyward a dozen or more times, Boca Grande tarpon generally jump a couple of times in the initial stages of combat before retreating to deeper haunts where the dispute becomes physically taxing for the angler, tackle, and fish.

Aiken and his foe battled for some 30 minutes under a hot sun. First, the fish would peel line against the reel's drag system, forcing Cleveland to push forward on the throttle and follow, enabling the angler to regain precious line.

Minutes ticked away and, nearing the one-hour mark, we became optimistic that Aiken would be successful in landing his impressive fish as it began rolling on the surface to gulp air before heading back to the depths, with each dive a little less deep and every new run a bit less forceful than the one before.

"It shouldn't be much longer," Cleveland predicted, watching the duel while manning the controls of his center-console fishing machine.

At the 1:15 mark into the aqua-shootout Aiken was finally able to inch his tarpon to within five feet of the boat when the unexpected happened.

The line snapped!

Sounded similar to the firing of a .22-caliber rifle.

Although Aiken may have lost a skirmish, the battle was far from over and, within moments, he was fast to another tarpon, this one in the 90-pound class, which was subdued and released 40 minutes later.

During that particular seven-hour safari, the trio managed to jump 17 fish, land and release four before calling quits to a "fair" day.

Granted, 17 tarpon in the air from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. could be described as spectacular anywhere in the world--except at Boca Grande.

In nearly 100 trips to this spot (ranging in length from one to six days) over the past couple of decades, there have been several instances in which three or four of us have jumped more than 100 silver kings on just two tides.

Only once during the past 20 years have I gone down swinging, and this was a few days after the passing of the 1982 "No Name Hurricane" which suddenly and without warning hit the settlement of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island with winds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Depending upon weather conditions, tarpon usually start showing up in Boca Grande Pass in late March or early April, and are often caught in limited numbers well into October. Best prospects are between May 1 through the end of July, when thousands of big fish are concentrated in a dinky area roughly measuring one square mile.

In the spring and summer months, you can often see 100 or more boats, ranging in size from 12-foot jonboats to 75-foot yachts, drifting through Boca Grande Pass on an incoming or outgoing tide. Aboard each boat--large or small--anglers will be fishing with a variety of tackle ranging from light spinning outfits to heavy-duty boat rods equipped with 6/0 star drag reels and 80-pound test line.

They will also be fishing with lures and baits ranging from those "little green devils" that cost less than a dollar each to small crabs that run $8 or more per dozen and are sold at three or four marinas on the island.

The great equalizer bringing such contrasting variables together is the tarpon, a gamester that many think is tops among all saltwater targets.

It's been this way at Boca Grande Pass since the late 1800s and early 1900s when people such as John Astor, Barron Collier, Frank Crowninsheld, Henry DuPont, and J. P. Morgan established winter homes on Gasparilla Island, a seven-mile stretch of sand named for a pair of notorious pirates, Jose and Leon Gaspar.

Local historians say pirates, led by the Gaspar brothers, were at the zenith of their bloody careers in the early 1800s and used the island as a base from which to raid shipping plying the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Dr. James M. Ingram, Gaspar's crew named the nearby islands for the particular use that was made of them. Thus, Captiva was the site of the stockades which held captives for ransom. Useppa is the Angilicized corruption of Josefa, the name of Gaspar's mistress. Ship's stores and loot were hidden behind the long white beaches of Cayo Costa.

"Even the pirates," said Dr. Ingram, "had their less desirable element." These ruffians were said to have lived a beatnik-type life among the rum kegs and rice pots of Cayo Pelau.

All of this came to an abrupt end in 1821 when the warship "Enterprise," disguised as a crippled British merchant craft, covered her gunports with painted canvas and limped temptingly northward along the beach.

Legend has it that the attacking pirates were either wiped out or captured in the one-sided battle that followed. It's also said that a defiant Jose Gaspar wrapped an anchor chain around his neck, shook his fist at his conquerors, and jumped overboard to his death.

The village of Boca Grande was born shortly after a wooden lighthouse was erected on the southern tip of Gasparilla Island in 1880. Phosphate from the Peace River and the Arcadia area was brought to the town by barge and loaded onto three- and four-masted schooners for shipment elsewhere.

Gasparilla Island was first linked to the mainland in 1909 when the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad Company put down rails leading to the natural, deep-water port. Boca Grande continued to be a phosphate shipping center until the late 1970s when the loading dock was closed down and its rails removed.

A toll bridge connecting the island with the mainland was constructed by Bert Cole in 1958, retiring a ferryboat service that had operated for 50 years. So far as is known, Cole's creation remains the only privately owned toll bridge still operating in Florida.

Historical accounts tell us that only 15 permanent residents lived on Gasparilla Island in 1900. Today, there are about 1,500 in residence on a year-round basis and perhaps twice that number who have built homes or purchased condos for part-time usage.

Industrialist Edward vom Hofe, a regular winter visitor to the island and the inventor of the famous vom Hofe reel, caught the largest tarpon ever taken in Boca Grande Pass--a 210-pounder--early in the century. Until recent years, vom Hofe's fish was also the largest ever landed on Florida's west coast.

In the old days, guides used to tow small skiffs to the pass with a steamboat where guides would then move their parties around in search of tarpon by using oars. At day's end the rowboats would be towed back to the dock.

Just what is it that makes Boca Grande Pass such a hotspot for tarpon? First, it's located in a tropical climate where sudden dips of water temperature are rare. It's also the outlet for gigantic Charlotte Harbor and silver kings in staggering numbers gather to eat crabs, shrimp, and various types of baitfish being swept along by the tide.

During Florida's warmer months you can see vast schools of rolling tarpon on the surface. When not rolling, tarpon can be located on a recording fathometer in areas ranging from 40-foot depths to Nat's Hole, the deepest spot in the pass at 74 feet. A chart literally turns black when marking fish located between the bottom and the surface.

With 50 to more than 100 boats all operating in such a confined area, a fishing procedure has evolved to keep things running smoothly. You simply circle the fleet and position your boat into the tide at the upper end of the armada, put your engine in neutral and drift with the current. Other boats, having reached the end of a drift, will then circle out and reposition at the head of the fleet. This system works well on either incoming or outgoing tides, providing one person stays alert at the controls to prevent his boat from drifting too close to other fishermen.

Most charter skippers at Boca Grande fish the pass using a stiff boat rod, 50- to 80-pound-test line, a 4/0 to 6/0 star-drag reel, 3/0 to 6/0 hooks, and baits consisting of small, dollar-sized "pass crabs." Other favored live baits include squirrelfish and jumbo shrimp. Depending on inclination, tidal flow, or the tarpon's location below, some use a heavy "throw-off" sinker that separates from the line when a fight begins.

However, there are simpler, cheaper, and far more effective lures now being used by a majority of anglers in Boca Grande Pass that dramatically multiply the number of hook-ups. It's called the "little green devil" by some and is nothing more than a one or 1-1/2-ounce Cottee Liv'Eye Action Jig with a small Kelly green or golden glitter Chubby Grub plastic tail. Another is the 12-Fathom Jig ranging from one to two ounces.

A recent development, a four- and six-ounce throw-off jig by Cotee and 12 Fathom, has proven most effective in upping catch rates.

I stumbled onto the effectiveness of deep jigging for tarpon in Boca Grande Pass in 1973 while fishing with Vic Dunaway and Lefty Kreh.

Fishing "conventionally" that day resulted in zilch, as Vic began experimenting by lowering a two-ounce jig with a large, three-inch fluorescent pink plastic tail. No sooner did the rig hit bottom than he was fast to a rampaging silver king in the 80-pound class. Within a couple of minutes, Lefty and I each put fish of equal size into the air after we had hurriedly re-rigged.

We hooked more than three dozen fish in the following two hours while others in the fleet drew blanks. Later, with input from guys like Cleveland and Tampa's Bobby Croft, we began to modify and improve upon the technique.

Through trial and error we discovered that a one-ounce head with a small, green or golden glitter plastic tail (the size you'd use for saltwater trout on the grass flats) is the preferred combination for tarpon. On fast-moving tides, it's necessary to step up to a 1-1/2 or two-ounce head in order to get the offering to the bottom.

We favor medium-weight, medium-action rods, either spinning or baitcasting, with 12- to 17-pound test line. Cleveland recommends the use of 24 inches of 30- to 40-pound test leader material between the line and lure, while I prefer tying directly to the line. My theory is that, even though I'm cut off occasionally, I'll get more strikes without a leader. We both agree that a steel leader significantly lowers the frequency of strikes.

Anyone can quickly master the jigging technique. You simply cast the jig out, let it sink to the bottom, then slowly retrieve while raising and lowering the rod tip. Or, you can fish straight down by dropping it over the side while drifting, keeping the lure active by slowly working your rod tip up and down. A general rule-of-thumb: keep the jig about two feet above the bottom, where most of the fish seem to be feeding.

An outgoing tide in the early morning or late afternoon is the best time to fish. But, you can jump more than your share of silver kings almost any time, day or night, no matter what the tide, by deep jigging.

When a tarpon strike comes, be prepared to forcibly set the hook into its bony jaw. Then get ready for a show as the fish performs its initial aerobatics which will usually be followed by long runs that can completely strip the line from your reel unless you're prepared to follow it with the boat.

Naturally you'll want to release every fish you're lucky enough to land because nobody in North America advocates serving tarpon on a dinner menu. Besides, Boca Grande has been the hottest tarpon hole in the world for 100 years and, with a little consideration, it can remain so for another century.

Unless the water is unusually rough, your bass boat or open sportfisherman is adequate. There's no need to go out and purchase a ton of big-game equipment since normal bass or saltwater gear is all you'll need. I'd suggest, however, that if you're planning to drift the pass with jigs that you purchase them on the mainland for less than one dollar because shops at Boca Grande have been known to "bootleg" jigs with green tails for anywhere between $4 and $6 apiece, proving those "little green devils" are the way to go for maximum fish production in Boca Grande Pass.