Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1872-08-22


line and bait MS deity as everangler coax
7d gudgeons from the ooze of the New
River or salmon from the flashing torrent
of the Spey. Witness this clumsy.ooking
monster the fishing frog; frightful and
hideous is he according to our vulgar no.
tions Of loneliness, which the lOphius pos.
sibly might disagree with. The beast is
sometimes five or six feet in length with
rest of its body, and with huge sacks like
bag nets attached TO its gill covers, in
which it slows its victims; and what a
cavernous mouth Surely fish SO repul-
sive and with capacity so vast and APP
parently 0mnivorous, would brighten from
its neighborhood all other fish, and would,
If its powers of locomotion were in ac-
cordance with lis size, be the terror of
the seas to fish smaller than itself;
but Providence knoweth how to tenn
per its gifts, and the lophius is hut an
insufficient swimmer and is too clumsy
TO support predatory existence by the
hectness of its motions. How, then, is
this huge capacity satisfied? Mark those
two elongated tentacles which spring
from the creatures nose, and how they
taper away like veritable tishingrods; To
the end of them is attaCed by line or a
slender tilament a small glittering morSel
of membrane, This is the bait. The
hooks are set in the mouth of the fisher
man down below. But how is the ami
NAL to induce the fish to venture within
reach Cf those formidable hooks? Now
mark this perfect feat of angling. How
does the Thames fisherman attract the
gudgeons? They are shy; he must not
let them see him, yet he must draw them
to him, and he does it by stirring up the
mud upon the bottom 'ln that cloud of
mud is food, . say the gudgeons. Then
the angler plies his rod and bait, Just SO
the lophlus proceeds, and he too stirs up
the mud with his fins and tail This
serves not only TO hide him, but to Mt
tract the fish Then he plies his rod, and
the glittcring bait waves to and fro like Il
living insect glancng through the turbid
water. The gudgeons, or rather gObieS,
rush towards it, Beware! beware
Bnt when did gudgeon attend to warning
yeCs suddenly up rises the cayernous
Nemesis from the cloud below, and
"snapm the gobie5 are entombed in the
bag-net, thence to be transferred to the
lophus' stomach, when there are enough
of them collected to form satisfactory
mouthtul.
But we have still other sportsmen fish;
we have fish who hunt their prey singly,
or in pairs, or even in packs, like hounds.
The reader, possibly, has never witnessed
skall in Scandinavia. 1t is species Of
hunt in which number of sportsmen
take in a wide space of ground, where
game circle, drawing a Gordon around it,
and narrowing their circle little by little,
and driving the game together into a
flock, when they shoot them down There
was, some years ago, a capital desCrip-
ton Of porpoises making skall upon
sand-eels, written by the late Mr.,
James Lowe, some time editor
Of the critic and "ChronicIer' of the
/ Fye'd, who saw the sight while fishing
near the Channel Islands with Peter lie
| Nowry, the pilot, Having searched for
this passage several times, without being
able to find it, am reluctantly compelled
to quote from memory. They were fish
lug of Guernsey, when Mr.. Lowe called
Peters attention TO several porpoises,
which seemed to be engaged in q water
frolic, swimming after one another in a
circle. THAT is no frolic, but a very
sober earnest for the sand-ecls,n said
Peter. Now" he continued | will
| show you sight which | have only
CHANGED to see two or three times in my
life, and you therefore are very lucky t.
have the opportunity of seeing it at all.
There is u great shOal of sand-ces yon.
der and the porpoises are driving them
into mass; for, you see, the sand-eel is
only very small morsel for porpoise,
and to pick them up one by one would
not suit Mr.. Porpoise, who would get
/ hungry again by the time he had done
feeding on them singly; so they drive
them into a thick crowd, in order that
when they make dash at them they may
get dozen or two al a mouthtul. But,
as we want some for bait, we will Join IN
the hunt And they edged down to the
spot till they were within the circle. The
porpoises, following one another pretty
closely, were swimming round, now rising
to the surface, now diving below, and
gradually contracting the circle The
terrified sand.eels were driven closer and
closer, and in their fear came to the sur
face all about the boat; and just as two or
three pOrpOiSes made u dash into the
crowd, swapping right and left, the fisher
men plunged their nets into the water,
and brought them up quite full OF these
little fish. OF course the shoal soon
broke up and dispersed; but the skill
with which the skall was conducted, and
the beauty Of the sight, were much dj-
lated on by Mr. Lowe, and it must have
been very interesting one.
There are many fish which hunt their
prey singlv, as the pike and trout, and the
way in which large pike or trout will
course and run down "A smaller fish, re
sembles nothing go much as greyhound
CourSng a hare. Now the unhappy lit
tie fish turns from side to side in its et-
forts to escape, while its pursuer bends
and turns to every motion, following
close upon his track, and cutting him of
exactly as a greyhound does hare. Now
he rushes amongst a shoal Of his fellows,
hoping to be lost sight of in the crowd
and confusion; but the grim foe behind is
not to be batfled ordeCeyed, and singing
him out and scattering the small fry,
which fly in all directions, rutiiing the
surface OF the water like rudden squall
OF wind in their fright, follows up his vic
rim with unGrring instinct. In an agony
of terror, the poor little quarry springs
again and again franticallv from the wa
ter, only to fall at last exhausted into the
gaping jaws of his ravenous foe, who,
gripping his body crosswise in his mouth,
sails steadily away to his lair, there to de
your his prey at leisure Other fish
hunt their food, like dogs or wolves, in
packs, as does the bonitO chase the flying
fish; and one, perhaps, of the fierccst,
most savage and resOlute of these is the
pirai, of South America. SO fierce and
savage are these little pirates, when their
size and apparent capability il taken int