Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-15
SUCKER-SPEARING.
THE FAVoRITE SPORT OF COUNTRY
YOUTHS IN SPRING.
Night and Daytime Methodist Core
spondent Relates His Experience
With the Latter.

1
the excitement of spearing suckers in a
creek, in the early sprngtime, has missed
a great deal that goes to make up the va
riety of life. The average country lad
would not forego day Tor night among
the suckers for the best week 8 trout fishing
ever enjoyed. At this season of the year
the creeks in the foothills of the Coast
Range afford much sport of this character
to the boys and men on ranches, who are
| denied many of the more popular oppor-
| tunities for heightened sport enjoyed bv
residents of the cities.
The common method of spearing suckers
is to take position on a shallow rifle in
brook in the evening, after dark, armed
with lantern, a spear and a grain bag
hung from the shoulders, into which to de-
post the bony fishes The suckers ascend
in schools or drOves, and if the water is
sufficiently clear and the lantern throws
bright light an expert with the speer has
little difficulty in making good bag.
Sometimes suckers are speared in the
daytime, as they lie in the deepest pools
of the creeks waiting for the shades OF
night 70 fall before resuming their journey
up the streams. Sucker-spearing under
these circumstances requires considerable
less skill and more patience than the night
methods, as the fisherman has simply to
plunge his weapon into the DARK pools and
under the rocks and logs, and-trust to
luck for success.
p. D., the Whisky Diggings contrib
utor TO the RECORD UNION, recently figured
IN daylight sucker-spearing episode, and
describes his experience in the following
manner
L determined the other day to 90 afsh-
ing. Wild rumors had been flying about
for several days IN regard to the quantity
and gullible quality of multitude of suck
ers which had recently assembled neigh
boring creek, and | ACCORDINGLY made up
my mind that il other people could catch
a barley sack full or wagon load in few
hours, might stand show to get a few
specimens if il was a good day. Accord
ingly, l borrowed a twenty-foot spear hav.
ing fourteen proDgs, a lateral sweep of
about twenty eightinches, and staff like
weaver's bean, preparatory to setting out.
tied couple of grain bags to my saddle,
and struck out like Don Quixote about to
assault windmill, for the field of more
active operations.
"A ride of mile and a quarter lat full
speed soon brought me to the bank of
Sucker creek, where l dismounted and fas-
tened my steed to small tree and made
ready for business. Now, some people
have an idea thai a sucker will run and
jump out OF the water on to the end of a
spear, or into barley-sack Just to amuse
himself; but such is not the case. The
truth is, every sucker you catch you gener-
ally earn. | had been told that the water
was black with millions of them, but
found on actual inspection that the water
was black as stated, being very deep in
places and about twenty feet wide on an
average, though not with suckers, else they
must have kept very dark indeed. saw
few suckers, will admit, here and there
and now and then, but they always lit out
about the same time l discovered them, as
though they had been shot from cstapult.
This was very fine sport for the suckers,
l haven / the slightest doubt but not being
sucker myself didn't enjoy it, Finally,
getting one into corner, took deliberate
aim and made luDge at him, but before
my spear struck the water the sucker had
skipped.
l tried several scientific methods of Of
hand spearing on them, but they ALWAYS
got the best of me some way or another,
until l had scared them all up into deep
water, when ! came to the conclusion that
the best way to catch a sucker, anyway,
was to Jab away at him in the dark | &C.
cordingly commenced to jab at the bottom
= chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck,
chuck, chunk lone sdckerG chuck, chuck,
chuck, chuck. chuck, chuck. chuck, chuck,
| chuck, chuck, chuck, chunk two suckers
Chuck, chuck, chuck. chuck, chuck,
choo-oo-oo- ooh l had struck sudden off
| set in the bottom and my spear when
H. "a IL.
| ground, leaving me suspended between the
| bank and end of the spear, over about ten
| feet of cold, blue water. What could do Z?
/ must pray; which l did as follows:
Now lay me down to sleep; I pray
| the Lord my soul to keep; if should die
| before l awake; | pray the Lord my soul
to take. Amen
Well, blank the blankety blank luckr
| methought, when l had finished, L am
still here, and prayers won't save me
| from a bath, either. So / might as well
take it now as at any time; so here goes =
And away went. kerfap! into the midst
| of the relentless waters, the biggest sucker
in the creek.
Little adventures like this, however, do
not discourage me, and after scrambling
out and recovering my spear with staff
| like weaver's BEAM, continued the jab-
| bling process until had accidentally assas-
sinated about dozen large fish, six of
which had slipped back into the water and
got away. The remaining six l divided
into two groups of three each, multiplied
each group by twenty. six, and, filling two
| grain bags, mounted my horse and worked
my way slowly homeward with them, hay
| ing placed one ssckful in front and another
| sackful behind me.
Next day told some boys that l caught
156 suckers, or about 400 pounds of fish, in
two hours"