1920, Point Isabel was described as a sleeping fishing village, had one restaurant that had 13 plates, a coastal resort hotel and some really great fishing.
Due to a number of happenings at the Republic National Convention, President-Elect Harding finds himself committed to a post-election trip to Point Isabel for some Tarpon fishing.
HEADLINES ENSUED:
Harding Hooks Big Tarpon, but It Gets Away
Elusive Fish Shows No Respect for the President-Elect, Who Waits All Day in Hope of Another Bite
Sacrifices Golf Game
Crowd Gathered at Tee Is Told Senator Is Detained by “Important Business”
Important business indeed.
President-Elect Harding selected Point Isabel as his celebratory destination after being elected President in 1920. The reason? TARPON! He’d been promised an epic angling adventure followed by a big catch. Here’s how that went.
Texas Governor Hobby’s efforts to send a boat worthy of a president failed and local fishermen stepped up with a skiff, a couple of chairs and lots of expertise. Harding and entourage made their way to the deep bay of Brazos Santiago at daybreak.
Sporting a wide brimmed hat specially flown in from Brownsville, white cotton gloves, yellow dungarees, white tennis sneakers and a patience suitable to the task, Harding put off a golf game in Brownsville to boat a Tarpon.
Bait was fixed to Harding’s line and the wait began. One hour, then the start of the second…
Harding was involved in the publishing world and had a number of newspapermen and videographers with him to capture the President-Elect’s every move. Much is recorded of his stay in Point Isabel. The weather, the food, the accommodations, the mosquitoes and veiled references to bootleg alcohol brought in by local boat captains. Harding’s media fixed themselves on the wharf at Brazos and in boats they could commandeer. Friends and colleagues lined the hardpacked sands on the beach and cheered him on. Local anglers had caught themselves a President, the President was going to catch a Tarpon, and the videographer was going to catch the shot.
An article published in the New York Tribune on November 9, 1920 continues, “… the rod was almost jerked from his arms and 30 yards away a gleaming fish, more than 6 feet in length, leaped more than its length from the water and then fell back with a great splash.
Continuing…
“There was a loud shot from the Senator. Then from Senators Elkins and Frederick Hale, from Harry Daugherty and other observers, there came a flood of advice. A moving picture camera man chugged up in a launch and pleaded for a chance to photograph the struggle.”
There was a presidential decision to be made. Perhaps Harding made the wrong one. He replies, “Go ahead; this is a whale!” Both the Tarpon and Harding put up a fight, 15 minutes, then 30. The Tarpon is beginning to show signs of surrender. The boatman begins to row toward the Brazos Island beach to land the fish. The photographer pleads for a few more shots. Harding, “…with a perfectly human vanity in his prize, agreed”.
“That was fatal. A few moments later the fish, with an uncanny display of intelligence, darted into some piling, flashed its tail in the air and broke the line.
“It is possible that Harding spoke his mind freely in the next few minutes.”
A coast guardsman jumped in and tried to catch the trailing line. The Tarpon regained strength and disappeared.
Harding did eventually get a Tarpon, “but His Wife Hooks a Bigger One”, a headline in the New York Tribune declares on November 11. Harding’s Tarpon, a “thing of pure silver”, measured 4 ½ feet and weighed 80 pounds. Mrs. Harding’s Tarpon was described as a “whale”. The fight was described as a near abduction before she handed the rod and reel to Senator Frederick Hale, admonishing him not to lose the Tarpon. Result? 200 pounds and 5’ 9 ½” of Tarpon lay on the beach.
Note Harding’s (right) distance from the Tarpon he is helping to support. Harding is credited with this catch, but it is actually Senator Elkins’ Tarpon. Left: Senator David Elkins (WV). Center: Mrs. Florence Harding and Mrs. R. B. Creager. The Creagers owned the house in Point Isabel where the Harding’s stayed.
Tarpon and other sport fishing continued to grow in popularity in Port Isabel and in 1934 the Tarpon Rodeo (present day Texas International Fishing Tournament) was created.
REFERENCES:
New-York Tribune (New York [N.Y.]), November 10, 1920
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1920-11-10/ed-1/?sp=1&q=point+isabel&r=0.434,0.349,0.471,0.284,0
Herewith a Tale of Piscatorial Battle in Southern Waters, in Which a Senator From Maine Brings on Timely Reinforcements https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1920-11-11/ed-1/?sp=1&r=0.097,0.076,0.334,0.205,0
Palladium-Item [Richmond, Indiana] 11/18/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=point+isabel&dr_year=1920-1920&offset=13 [photo of Elkins and Harding with Elkins’ Tarpon credited to Harding.
Posted by: Valerie D. Bates