The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-08-28
A Strange Fish.

Some travelling men swere talking
over their experiences, at the Plankin-
ton House one evening last week, when
the subject turned on fishing. and each
gave racy experience One told how
some Sparta fellows got him to so out
trout fishing by telling him that about
eight miles out there was a stream that
was alive with trout. and how he hired
q livery team and took the boys with
him, and how they put him on to u
stream and told him to follow it down
miles where they would meet him at q
bridge with the wagon. He broke
brush all the forenoon, got mired in
the mud, had a cow chase him ap q
tree, and farmers drove him out of
fields with pitchforks, and finally he
arrived at the bridge. without having a
bite except from mosquitoes, and found
the wagon gone, and he walked TO
Sparta and found that the boys had
come home, supposing he had got to
the bridge ahead of them, and got a
ride to town with farmer. He swore
they played it on him on purpose, and
said it cost him twelve dollars.
Another told of hiring a man to row
him on Lake Winnebago, to troll, aud
how he trolled all the afternoon and
never got bite, and being near-sight-
I'd, never found out until he got back
to the hotel that his oarsman rowed
right around in one place all the time,
where there was no wind and no fish,
| being too lazy to go out where the wind
blew and the fish would bite. Others
told of spearing suckers, and bobbing
for catfish on the Mississippi river, un-
til finally it came the turn of a man
who sells platform scales, and he opened
up. Said he:
'Boys, / have caught something that
no live man ever caught"
'.lf there is anything we have never
caught we want to hear of it, said the
| boot and shoe man.
"Well, you shall hear about it," said
the scale man, lighting cigar. 81
was trolling for bass in a lake up north
with a man rowing the boat for me.
We had noticed loon swimming
around and diving, and keeping watch
of rs. and | was wishing l had rifle,
when the loon deve. and [ got about
half asleep when all of a sudden | felt
yaRk Gu my fiIo that nearly palled
! me out of sie boat II was just as
| theugh a horse was hitched on the hook
and running away. The oarsman turn
ed pale and said had got muscal-
| longe. | grabbed the line and began
to reel in, when there was the awfulest
pulling and fighting l ever felt on a
tishline. Pretty soon the loon came to
the surface with the hook in his mouth,
flew a few yards, got tangled, and dove
| again and began 10 swim off. Then
we saw that the loon had been swim
ming around and mad seen the minnow
on my hook and swallowed it. 1t was
a new experience, and | reelcd him in
until he got near the beat, when the
oarsman was going 10 Kill the bird, but
| insisted on keeping him alive, to give
to some historical society as the only
loon ever caught with q hook and line.
be came near swamping US getting
him in the boat, and fought us after he
was in. We sat on him and held his
wings to keep him from beating our
hands black and blue, and he was more
trouble than white elephant drawn in
a lottery. The hook was SO far down
his neck that we couldn't get it out
without killing him, SO | cut the line
| near his bill and put on another hook.
The boatman put the loon down in the
bow of The boat, under the end seat,
and piled coats and the lunch basket
on top of him, but he kept fighting,
plnching the Oarsman in the pants with
his long sharp bill, and finally he
worked the coats off his body and flew
out OF the boat and dove under water,
and when he came up he was thirty
rods away, shaking his head and try
ing TO get the hook out. He went down
again and came up further off and
looked around at Us and squealed as
though he was expressing his opinion
| OF Il man who would deceive a poor
| bird that way. We lost sight of the
loon and were sorry 10 lose him, but
never think Of that experience without
| laughing right out, when l think of the
disguised look about that looms eyes
when he was pulled up to the boat,
and how he seemed to say, You think
you are darned smart, don't yous' when
he got loose and bid us gOod-by. |
suppose a man might fish lifetime
and not catch another loon,
The boys looked at each other with q
sort of disbelief in the story, though it
was true, and when Chicago grocery
man started TO tell about catching an
ostrich on pin hook once. they all :.d-
| journed to the cigar stand where the
cigar man was telling about catching
| the aguc. Everything is catching
among the boys.-Geo. ". Peek, IN
PecG'S Sun.