The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-17
HE HAD SEEN SOME FISH.
1t Was Before the Days Of Fancy
Rods, Reels and Such Gimcracks.


From the Louisville Journal
There are several old-fashioned fisherman
in the Indiana Fish and Game Association.
who look upon the genteel anglers who
talk about rods and flies with pity akin 10
that with which a student of mind disease
regards patient who angles for butter
flies with cobweb lines in rivers Of moon
shine. Among these is George w. Pitts.
who has lived in this county, man aud boy,
for sixty-three years, and looks good to
make 1t an even 100.
~ have seen some fish in my time. y said
Mr.. Pitts, retrospectively. "Ia 1SSS-I re-
member the day as clearly as yesterday
Sam aud Amos Hanway drew a 200-yard
seine on White river, at my fathers farm,
four miles north of the National 70 I'd
bridge, and got over 100 barrels-bass.
pike, salmon and suckers"
Mr.. Pitts was here interrupted by an in
credulous whistle. He paid no attention to
the offender, a fly fisherman, but continued:
Sam and Amos made business of fishing
and made their start in life selling suckers
at cents pound. No fooling with a pole
to get fish then; no talk about creels, lead
ers, flies, or any such gimcracks. | caught
over sixty barrels of fish at one draw with
a seine in this county less than sixteen years
ago.
w neros'--a dozen voices at once.
1.-THE place isn't there any more It was
right here in this county, seven miles down
the river, at a slough called Bell Puddle. 1t
has washed out 1 got from eight to ten
barrels of flsh-bass, channel cat, and red
eyes"
What weight was the biggest bass you
ever caught~ was asked.
The biggest bass l ever caught.n said
Mr.. Pitts, weighing each word carefully;
1.-THE biggest bass l ever caught with hook
and line was one | took at the Michigap
road bridge, four miles north, on White
river. 1t weighed niue pounds and seven
ounces. OF course, be gave me a great
fight, but the biggest fght ever had was
III 1878, with a smaller fish, bass weighing
seven pounds and five ounces, that / lifted
from the wet at Sclofeld's mill. He was
twenty-5ix inches long, and beauty"
"Y GU didn't measure the big bass you
speak off" inquired a listener.
''No. He was not as long as the Fall
Creek fellow, but broader and not so active.
What do you think of catching eighty
seven pounds Of bass one afternoon, inside
an hour, without hook, line, net, or gigl
Well, | did that once, four miles up White
river. The dam had broken, ahd the fish
were running up through narrow chute
threw out with my hands on the brush at
the side of the break eighty-seven pounds
in an hour"
The crowd was SILENT but Mr.. Pitts re-
lated one moro experience. 81 once
| stripped" he continued, land went into
| water eight feet deep to catch a six-pound
| bass. l caught him, too. / drove him out
of deep into shallow water and then nabbed
him with my hands. The way did it was
this: A man had shot an eye out of the fish
with a rifle, and he directed me where to
swim and wade. BY keeping on the seeing
side of the fish drove him into the shallow
water on his blind side and then captured
him. There never was a better stream for
fish than White river. But that was in the
days when few people fished Now. here's
great city full Of fishing people, aud the
stream is fished out. Then there are know
ing people who take advantage of the fish.
Once, I'm not going to say how long ago,
Sam Hanway and Dick Norwood went to
Broad Ripple fishing They were alone,
standing on the apron of the dam, when
Sam saw something in the water under the
apron. Give me that minnow net, Dick, ,
said he; no use foolin' with a hook and
line Well, in less than one hour, with
that minnow net, they lifted eighty very
pretty bass. They strung them nicely, and
coming to town, Dragged about their luck
caught eighty bass, and allowed every
one to suppose they had caught them on a
linen