Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-11-06
They're Mighty Onsartin.
CATCHING NICE FAT BLCE-Fsa BY
TIE THOUSAND.

"Blue.f1sh is mighty onsartin," re-
marked Ezekiel Waller, as We trudged
over the sand dunes together to have q
gam with Skipper Perry, Of Sandwich,
and find out what he had caught in the
last haul. "Blue-fsn is mighty onsartin,
emmy haow you can dix it. They're jest
as onsartin as a woman's tongue-you
don't know when yer goin' ter git 'em,
or how long they're goin' to last after
YOU do cit 'em. There's one thing we
do know-tbey alters foller the msckrel
when they know where the mackrel is.
and that's how they come to strike in on
this side oil The bay jest now"
Ezekiel Waller Is out of the fish bust.
ness and liabla to speak the truth in re-
gard to it. That is why | hunted him up
and took him along. The hunting up
was not al easy task. OLD fishermen are
not ind genouS TO the soil OF Sand wich al
the present day, and the men who Sit
around III shady places a. noontide are
not the old barnacles which tradition
has fastened TO every part Of old Cape
Cod. Ezekiel himself didn't belong in
Sandwich. but had drijtej IL for q day
and was floating around with an out-ot
your-lalitude air which made him look
lonesome. l supposed he knew about
blue.fsh, their habits and baunts, and
no doubt he did. What he chose to state
however, was what l have quoted, and
he was certain only on the question oil
uncertainty. So much for the revelations
of Ezekiel.
Seven or eight men, with legs pro
tected by rubber boots and oil skins, So,
on fish house down by the creek yes.
terday while 800 big fat bluehsh lay in
wet and giisteniDg heaps in their midst
Each man was armed with sharp
sheathknife, aud each second each man
deity olsen oweled one Of the shining
creatures and threw it aside.
"They struck in last Saturday nig ht,'
said one of the men. Last week we had
big run of mackeIel, and though good
made a good haul. Then the bluef1sh
struck in. Bluefsh are everlastingly
hot after mackerel and CHASE them into
shoal water and destroy them. When
the bluehsh comes the mackerel goes, il
he can get away. III can't the blueish
gets the better of it. That's one thing
that makes mackerel scarcer. Well, you
see, the big run of mackefel last week
was running away from bluefsh, and
when the bluedsh struck in the mackerel
went cut-that is, all that didn't get
eaten up. We don't so out to the traps
Sunday, SO
WE FAD a BIG HAUL,
About 1000, Monday morning. Some o,
them weighed eighteen pounds cleaned
and that is about as big as you ever find
l1,nEeh Ea,, 10 r-c.oI
age. We got 1870 more this morning
and If yea are on hand about three.
quarters ebb tomorrow morning you
can see Us make another haul. calcu.
late the hotse-mackerel will make 'em
scarce now. We caught three Of them
this morning. Do you know what 8
horse mackerel is?'
] believed that did, and spun a yarn
about one that ! had seen captured in
the more northern latitude of the Gul.
Of st. Lawrence. 1t had weighed ton
and had been caught with chain cable
baited with round of pork.
THAT was pretty betty one" said
the skipper. The biggest We got here
this season weighed something short o,
100. Any Of 'em is big enough to eat ul
the bluetish, and break up our traps, too
sometimes"
Fish is good deal like Christians
interposed Z-kiel. "When the bluefish
gifts dead sot on eatin' up the mackrel
then the horse-mackrel pays the lawye,
on 'em. and ends the quarrel by eatin' o;
'em both, Jest like Christians for all the
world"
ave catch about twenty. FIVE of them
in a season." resumed the skipper. ~
have seen a bushel of fish inside of one
when We ripped it open. All that they're
good for is for compost for the farme1s.'