The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-04-13
TROPICAL FISHING.

Tho Good and had Features of Equatorial
Angling-Iieauties brought Up From the
Deep Seattle Varying Appetite OF the
Finny Quarry.
Fishing in the tropics, as in every other
spot where the writer has ever cast his lines,
is vested with most acute uncertainties.
BOT only most wise in their generation, but
decidedly whimsical and eapriclous are
these soaly races OF hot zones. | have cast
my baited hook ia school Of them SO
thick that il gave darker color to the white
coral bottom, yet without suggestion Of a
nibbe, At other times, it ia said, every
fish rushes madly for the bait, as though az
the point of starvation, and they are hauled
up two at time, until the hsherman's
| rashed fingers can endure the pain no
longer, In some respects, too, this is the
mefest travesty OF sport. To pull up, hand
| over hand, u hundred and fifty feet OF mimic
rope, To barely feel the struggles of three
| pound fish at the other end, so tense
is the strain OF the line with its huge sink
ers; to find the captive, when he reaches
the surface, SO exhausted by his upward
trip that he is scarcely as gamesome as so
many pounds OF floating wood; and to wait
several minutes before even the heavy lead
can take the line TO the needed depth-au
| this has its smack of the ridiculous for the
sportsman who has pulled in a ten.pound
nlue-iish oil Barnegat, or played an Adiron.
dack trout on his eght-Ounce rod. But, on
the other hand, tropical fishing has special
charms and novelties of its own. The i'm
mense variety aud wonderful shapes and
| colOrS OF the fish make one watch with
eager excitement for each new specimen
hauled over the rail. 1t may be the tropi-
cal turnot, with blue and gold markings,
and his dorsal fin six inches
long or the pine, scarlet red
dotted with black spots: the rock fish
| yarlegated az the RAINBOW; the hog-lsh,
with teeth countericiting tusks and A
snout opening like the telescopes the Grim.
son snapper, the sllyery margate, the red
notified grouper, and twenty other species
might be named 20 ill out list, none of
which would lack strange attributes of
color or form. have known friend here
| alter n lew hours sport, bring in no less
| Than nineteen different varieties OF fish
which fairly transligured the interior of the
boat with their mass OF radiant hues The
wu'cr-g'as sO-caled, also adds a
unique attraction to this deep-watcr fish
ing. 1t IL simply n window. pane set into A
Placed on the waves it makes a smooth
water surface III l contact with the
glass through which the trained
eye of the negro mariner looks down to in.
credible depths often his Look out dere
massa, dere's big porgy ut yer hook"
VIII signal BIKE, and be followed presently
by the coming ol the indentcal fish over
the ral. II smacks OF the weird and sun
erhatural. this prediction of iiehy doings
hundred feet down in the brine.
Or, take the glass yourself, If momenta.
rliy tired OF the sport, and II little practice
will show you fresh realm of wonders-the
deep bottom, with 1t rocks, weeds and
sands; the fish moving here and there; the
graceful curve OF the long fish lines as
they taper away to nothing lar below; and
every now and then an upward CLEAN of
whltehess ASA companion draws up new
victim, whose struggles can be mark ed
fully Two minutes before he is dropped,
gasping on the boards.