National Republican., 1883-03-24

bait and hook were being rapidly taken away
and l struck ~ That motion settled matters
for that east" for when | took up my line
| found the leader had parted close to the
hook. This thing was repeated several times,
until we took piece of silk line, and twist
ing and doubling it made a much stronger
leader and with it attached a hook to the
line, and then my rod broke square of below
the top joint, and the ferule from the joint
fell into the water, and of course sank. Thus
had parted several leaders, lost many hooks,
and had finally broken my heaviest rod and
had not yet even seen channel bass. l sug-
gcsted sharks" or "sting rays,"-but no,
the boatman said had hooked bass.
With sinking sort of sensation now took
out my beautiful split bamboo rod, which had
never been used or strung with line and
with the most comical look on his face my
boatman helped me to rig it up with 100
yard silk line, three heavy sinkers, and the
best hook had, put on with one of our inn
provised leaders. As / dropped the baitcd
hook iuto the water this time, confess |
hoped the change of the tide, the weather, or
the wind, or the time of day, or something
had occurred to disturb the drift of the ideas
of those bass so they would stop biting for
that day at least. But alas they were yet
hungry, aud the little minnow on my hook
was taken almost the instant it reached the
bottom. According to well settled regula-
tions proper to be observed at such q moment
to hook the fish | again Struck" and us IL
shot out Of gun the huge thing darted out
from the shore, making the reel whistle aS
il paid out line. MY thumb pressing the reel
was burned to blister in twinkle, yet
held on, taking caro- not TO attempt to check
the reel by catching tho crank, at the same
time looking in tho direction my line was 50
rapidly running, when full fifty yards from
whore he was hooked | saw u huge, reddish
FISH rise clear out of the water and apparently
l. i Ill
line ceased. Losing my equilibrium ut this
turn of events / tumblcd back into the boat
with u thump, fully realizing that L had not
caught him. But then | had seen my game
and knew 1T was fish. After few moments
of meditation in my prostrate position ven
turcd to ask the boatman what that was. He
promptly replied, THAT was blank big
channel bassa forty FOUNDER if he weighed
an ounce" The color of the fish gave me the
impression that IL must have been u red
snapper; and, by the way, while there arc
plenty of the gray snapper here, there are
none of tho red
When | took in my line found my hook
broken, and thus 1t has been with all the
large bass | have struck" the heaviest /
have had the satisfaction of taking with rod
and line weighing but Il pounds l have
caught many from to pounds, but to
handle the large fellows it requires larger and
stronger hooks and a reel that will hold 600
to 800 feet of the best silk line the Van Hoif
reel made in New York, looking very much
like u windlass for drawing water, is the one
used here Tho extreme whalebone like
elasticity of my light bamboo rod is all that
saves it, but it is much too light to hold these
fish.
The channel bass is q swift runner and hard
fighter, yielding only to the landing net"
when completely whipped out at the end of
ten or fifteen minutes struggle in n strong
tide. But it is not an excellent fish to cat,
and think is wrongly classed with the bass.
His mouth is shaped like that of the sea
trout, and the scales and general appearance
are like those of the "red horse " of the west
ern rivers. which is not, however, II game
fish, and is taken only with nets or seincs.
The gray snapper is the handsomest, finest,
and most gamey fish in these waters, more
nearly resembling the black bass of the north,
and is decidedly the best food fish have met
here SO far. b.