Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-05-28
Old Times.

LIU. I69tStGT-
What splendid, glorious morning for
fishing for speckled trout. How well |
| can remember how, on just such rainy
| morning as this is. my father woald, Just
as soon as he could get bis breakfast and
his horn of bait, take his long pine fish
| pole and start for one of the numerous
brooks that come tumbling down the
| rocks, and canons, whose banks over
hung with hemlock, spruce and alder.
| trees. How fast he would catch those
handsome fish, just as fast as he could
bait his hook and take them off of his
hook. Oh, it was some fun to fish in
those days. And how many times
| have heard my mother tell how her tath-
er would get up as soon as it was light,
and, with his hook and line, 60 to large
| brook that ran past where their home
was, and, In an hour, come home with
great strings of trout. Some of those
| would weigh over two pounds each .
What delicious breakfasts they had of
! fried trout. and how often l would hear
NY old grandmother tell of the good
; fishing times they had when she was a
girl. l have often, in my boy days.
heard the old people talk of how thick
| the fish were in the little river called,
"Skantic" that passed by our town.
How, in the spring salmon and shad.
olewives and trout would fill streams so
full of fish. The folks would run wag-
on in the stream and, with pitchforks,
spear the fish and fill the wagons with
fish in a short time. And this is 10 fish
story, for We have accounts of the vast
swarms of fish that ascend the Columbia
River and other rivers that empty into
tie Pacific Ocean, and as late day as
now living at Greenyille, Wayne county,
told me they had seen the red horse and
buffalo fish so thick in the st. Francois
River, that men and boys would gather
all along the bank of the river, armed
with long handled spears or gigs, with
lay lines attached to the spear From
where they stood would throw those
spears into the river among those fish
and not one throw in hundred would
miss fish. Sometimes when they pulled
the spear out of the water there would be
two fish hanging in the prongs of the
spear.
| know men now alive, that with
seine, would catch hundreds of great big
fish at a single haul. Can you do that
now? Now, [ know, the river is Just as
large as it was in those days. and as much
water runs in the river as then, bat are
the fish there? | have seen and heard of
quite a number of fishing parties who
have been to the river fishing for days at
a time. If those parties had had nothing
to eat but what fish they caught l think
some of them would haye Jared badly.
Has anybody heard of any fish being
brought home by those fishing parties?
If so, how many.
At the rate the streams are becoming
the generation to come will know of fish
only by name? We read ofthe mastadon
and other animals that were, but have
become extinct. often feel sorry for
The future generations, when all the Tsh
in the streams and all the game shall
have become extinct. And what is the
remedy? The future generations will
have to r,ise their own fish and game.
A great many think it costs too much
to make a fish pond. Any one can have
pond that will hold all the fish he and all
his families could use with very small
outlay. Many think they haye no suita-
BILE place. Any place is suitable, if you
have the ground. All it wants is spot
of ground, one side of the ground little
lower than the other. With a pair of
horses and plow and scraper, you take
the dirt from the highest side to make
levy or bank on the lower side. Just as
you see the railroad is built, only make it
of the dirt that you scrape out of the
pond. Don't put stone or rock or tim
ber about the levey. Make the levy the