Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-01-10
FISH STORIES.


a prize OF big fish-hook for the best
story of one fish swallowing another.
it is receiving some very entertaining
yarns from the numerous gentlemen in
TIE land who go fishing. One CORES
Mich, says his understanding of fish
"iishy," liable to be untrue. One Of
his stories is of Pike which swallowed
a Bladder. He writes: Sometime
late IN the season. we go 'bobbing.'
The manner is this: We take large
bladders, which we get from somo
| slaughter house, and when we reach
the fishing ground-some quiet and deep
pool with little or no current-the blad-
ders are inflated and hook, with line
four to eight feet long, attached, bait
ed and cast into the water. Often we
have fifteen or twenty of these to each
boat. When fish bites it is shown by
the bladder bobbing up and down, and
away we 90 to haul him in. Now, ,on this
particular occasion one Of our bobs went
out OF sight like flash and we vainly
looked tor it to appear again. We
watched until tired out, and finally gave
it up as lost supposing some monster of
the deep had gone to sea with it or tan
gled the line in weeds or snags, entirely
out OF sight. Some twenty or thirty
minutes atterward, nearly In the centre
Of the pond there arose to the surface a
strange looking object. We proceeded
to investigate, but it was so hideous
looking, that neither would go near it
tor some time; however, we finally
mustered up courage enough to get it
into the boat. 1t was alive, but help
less, and had the color, scales, fins,
head, eyes and mouth OF the pike, but,
oh, my! what shape. From tip OF
nose to end of tail it must have measur-
ed ten inches, and the circumference OF
it body could not have been less than
thirty or thirty-fve inches at its middle.
We finally concluded it was pike and
that it had swallowed something which
so unnaturally distended its body. So
we butchered him and held post NOR
tenn examination, and what do you In
agine we found? Our bladder. The yo.
racious fool had snapped ut it while in.
ilated and floating on the surface of the
water, we presume punctured the skin
with one OF his sharp teeth and it col.
lapsed, then taking it under tho water
with him, made a meal of it. But he
disposed OF it in his stomach in bad
shape, and the action of his breathing ap.
ratus again inflated 1t. The more he
breathed the worse the matter became,
until he finally lost control of himself
and rose to the surface. We presume
if this circumstance had taken place i,
some coal-oil country where the TOO
could have had gas to initiate his balloon
NxfIfl, oh h.,y
cies of flying fish"
The editor OF Forest and Stream wei,
says of this tale: "Uno's" is the mos
ingenious OF all the automatic, nOiseless
duplex, ne plus ultra stories OF this
series. The tale bears intrinsic evi
dence of its truthiulness. Had q MAJ
started out to spin the yarn he would have
found no difficulty in getting the pike
outside of the bladder, but how to dis.
tend the bladder again, would hav,
staggered the ''oriuIcst'' liar of tn,
land.
Another correspondent writes: 81,
my younger days had often heart
what fine sport it was to catch trout o,
the fly; so one cloudy morning in Jun,
| started tor neighboring brook, equip
ped for the occasion. Arriving ther,
Just after sun-up, | chose Il tavorabl,
pool and made my first cast. To m,
surprise a fine trout darted at it, ane
Just when he seemed to be in reach O
it, turned like flash, aiming a blow
with his caudal appendage at my fly
Very much surprised and being, :
ballplayer, | scored one strike and trie,
it again, with like results BY this tim,
| became convinced that | did not civ,
him chance, 50 | cast again u littl,
slower. Now that fish was either trcn
zied with hunger or else desperate at
ter his repeated failures, for with on,
mighty rush and slap he shot that fly il
his throat, and so great was the fore,
that he swallowed himself, tail end first
and before | could recover from my as
tonishment there were two more fish OF
my flies, making three in alone OF
each hook, and the desperate specimen
inverted, strung on my leader"
Another correspondent reports catch