The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-09-15
A Sad Surprise ..

A couple of Toledo gentlemen, a law
yer and q journalist, under the guidance
Of q local waterman, were engaged IN
fishing for black bass on the st. Clair
fats. The middle Of the day found
them anchored at the mouth of the big
Bassett, casting their minnows in the
current and letting their lines drift
forty or fifty yards outward into the
lake. Brown had run out the full
length of his line, and feelings vigorous
strike, proceed to "reel in" He caught
no glimpse of the fnny prey till the
end of the line had nearly reached the
boat, when .r
Shades of the unfortunate and much
abused Jonah! There rolled to the sur
face, weighing not less than 100 pounds,
q broad, brown, brawny muskallonge,
which cast his eye inquiringIy toward
the boat as though to ask, whats the
row aboutp" then sank slowly to the
bottom ofthe lake. It was as though q
t~hirty-foot alligator had risen from the
peaceful waters with q capias for the
whole party AS though q six-foot bully
had walked into the editors room on q
balny morning. with blood in his eye
and q club in bis hand. and demanded,
'"Who wrote that articlep" The party
had come out to catch fish. but the indi-
cations were that the fish were better
able to catch them. Indeed, he as much
as intiinated that he came up to the
boat more from curiosity than anything
else, and that he proposed to 60 away
again-when he gotready.
The first thing to do was to hold q
council of war. Here was 8 light brass
rod carrying q small linen line and 8
hook attached to IL by two slender
strands of silkworm gut. At one end Of
the arrangement was q wicked, raven
GUS muskallonge, at the other a quiet,
m~ild-looking gentleman, who never did
any harm, and who, even if the tackle
held, was not sure whether the fish
would pull him into the'boat or he
would pull t.s, fish into the water.
What was to be donep
The first proposition Of scooping him
in a landing net fell through because the
net was only about one-quarter as long
as the fish. The plan of gafing him was
given up when It was discovered that
there was no gaff hook in the boat.
The idea of shooting him through the
head when he came to the top OF the
water to spout was pronounced extra
hazardous, and, beside, nobody had q
revolver. Thenext plan was to sink the
boat and tow it under the fish, bailing
the water out after he had crossed the
gunwale, butit was discovered that two
Of the party could not swim, and the
lu~nch-basket would get wet. Finally
the newspaper man hit or the brilliant
expedient of reading the fish to sleep
with a New York Herald political edi-
torial, and then pounding him to death
with an oar. But the lawyer protested
vigorously. This, he said, was begun
as an honorable campaign against the
fah, and he did not propose, to allow
the capture of even a muskallonge by
such disreputable means as would COM
pei him to secrecy when he went ashore
among his friends.
It would doubtless thrill and interest
the reader to learn how the great fish
made desperate rushes from side to side
in his efforts to escape the hook-how
the line smoked as it flew through the
rings, and the reel grew so hot that one
man was kept busy wetting 1t to pre-
vent the rod from taking fire. 1t would
make his nerves tingle to read how the
monster repeatedly spranghis length into
the air and made the water boil about
him with his fury and tail. All these
things might happen frequently in the
chronicles of veracious writers of sport
ing adventures. In point of fact this
fish might have made q great deal big
ger row than is described above, but he
wasn't obliged to do anything Of the
kind. For when the idiot who had
hooked him handed his rod to the boat
man and took hold of the line about
three feet from the fish, his aquatic
majesty rolled under the boat, gave the
line a strong, nervous flap with his mus
cular tail, and drifted idly away with
the hook and his sinker.
And there was silence in that boat for
the space of half an hour.-Ioledo
Blade. .-.