The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1884-07-02
PIKE CO. SIIAD FISHING.
SCENES At NIGHT on TIE UPPER
DELAWARE KIVER-AN OLD FISH
ERMAN'S TAIk.

DELAWARE RIyER-AN OLD FISH
ERMAN'S TALK.
The Young Generation Of Fishers. md the
Manner IN which They supplied Their
Frying Pans.
81 kin remember when th' was more'n
fifty shad lish'rics within IN many mile
o Milford, said an old Delaware river
fisherman, san ov'ry one of 'cm ketch-
in their two an three hundred night;
but now, bout all that's left is this fish
'ry an the Yankee iishry mile from
here. An what are we kctchin'? If we
Hit dozen or 30 o shad cv'ry haul or
two we'm dun lucky"
The river shore ut this fishery, SAYS
Ia. Mott, who is telling the story, is
sloping beach of sand for thirty feet,
bounded by high and abrupt bank,
which is tie extremity o' the rich river
bottom lands of the Delaware valley. A
dense growth Of clms and birchcs cx-
tend up and down the bank. A great
fire on the shore lights up the scene
brilliantly, and casts weird shadows out
upon the river Near by lies q heap of
plump shad, their silver sides cleaning
IN the freight. Three mcn stand on
the rivers edge holding the end of a
seine. The "chug" Of oars in the oar
.ocks comes from out on the river, and
echoes among the jersey rocks. A man
with II long bnshy pole stands two or
three rods below the shore seine men,
thigh deep in the water. The sound of
the oarlocks draws nearer, and presently
boat appears out of the darkness. Two
men are rowing it toward the shore,
towing the further end of the seine. As
they draw within few feet of the shore
tho man with the bushy pole wildly
beats the water below them. With one
or two quick, strong strokes the oars
men send the clumsy nat-bottom boat
high on the sandy beach. The net is
dragged ashore and its contents turned
ont.
1.-TWO lonesome dun he shad T. OK
claimed the old fisherman. "Jist one
notch better'n dead haul |"
Then the men arrange their seine for
another haul, and sit down disconsolato-
ly to wait for the fish, if there are any
in the river tonight, to gather again.
"Lo's see" said the old fisherman.
CHATS the fourth haul, an we've got
iist 'levcn shad. When / think o. the
time that il we didn't git fifty in a haul
We Thought it was time To pull in an dir
for hum, them 'leven sinners layin' there
makes me sick. But they're all she
vaes, though, that's some cons'lation
an this is eetle wuss iishin' than the
cv'ridgc.
Fifty years ago this spring, at this
gerry fish'ry, We ketched on6 night
enough shad in one haul to supply the
hull county for week. That haul
fetched in over 'leven hundred shad, an
they want no bad 'uns 'mongst 'em,
nuther. We had to try to get EN- in,
leastways say we, but l didn't take
much of hand in, bein' n youngster. |
pounded the river below the net to skcer
the fish from runnin round it and away.
But then it amt no SLOUGH OF a job to
keep 'levon hundred big shad back inter
n net. Course didn't know tn was SO
many fish comm in or I'd n lost conf
dence in myself q handlin' that brush
sure. Well, now, il yo could seen that
shinin' bank Of fish Bankp Why,
durn 1t, II were q mountain can't
tell you, now, how they ever drug that
net ashore, 80 ye needn't asst me. 1
didn't know at the time, even, an [
never mow'd, an don't b'lievo any of
tho other fellers ever know'd. I got
Ihinkin' bout IL other day, on was
yointer to ast somo O. the boys az helped
make that haul how II were ever did,
out when come to go over who they
vas I'm burned il tn were ono of EN-
nut me Twin, an so I'll never know.
Boys, we'll git some this trip. I've
leerd EN- n skippin' fur minute or
wo."
The shad were now in lively-play, as
ounds of musical splashing in the
water, heard at frequent intervals, plain
y indicated. The seine was rolled up
II the stern Of the boat, one end held on
'hore. One boatman rowed out into the
liver, with the boat headed up stream.
The other played the net out from the
tern.
"When that's all out" said the old
"they'll turn down stream
md sweep around in curve t'ards shore
lgin."
The old fisherman turned and walked
oward tho rivers edge. Suddenly one
If the shad on the pile began to move
lowly away from it. 1t moved across
he sand toward clump of bushes on
he bank, at first in an uncertain and
ravering manner, and then, with sud
cn dart forward, disappeared. That
'as startling to stranger. At Md
light, in weird spot, with no sound
isiurbing the solitude but the silvery
lash of tho water, the shrill cry of the
Mysterious pepper among the shore
eeds, and the echoing thud of the oar
'cks, to see dead shad stealthily leave ,
s equally delunct companions and dart
way in the darkness, was n sight that
as, indeed, startling to nsrranger. The {
Id fisherman's attention was Immediate ,
called to the mysterious disappear {
nee a
"Dod wollop 'em |" he howled, and s
ounded along the trail of that shad up I
10 bank and disappeared. Instantly {
lother shad left the pile and travelled
into the bushes in another direction, 8
I'd then the stranger noticed that of the t
even shad there were only six left. c
i've had escaped. The stranger arose b
1T walked nearer to the men on tho n
7er's edge. There was born of the i
lowledge that five dead shad had !
capped from their captors by an over s.
nd route feeling of awe sufficient to 81
AXE him feel that il was not well to be n
one. Presently the old fisherman came
ok. He was putting rs from hard a