Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-11-04
ANGLERS At THE SEA WALL.
F1shermen In Harlem Who Come and Go
Regularly the Tides.

F1shermen In Harlem Who Come and Go
As Regularly as the Tides.
Hot in summer and cold in winter is the
stretch of wall along the Hudson from
I:9lhtieth street to One Hundred and Nine
t;r.u, but on even the hottest days in sum-
mer-and at all seasons save midwinter-
this wall is dotted with anglers. sort of
semirural spirit still holds place in Har-
lem, and this spirit takes comfort in an
CLING, even though the angler must stand
upon the edge of an artificial stone bank,
with railway track at his heels. Every
angler from Fiftieth street to Washington
heights has fished somewhere along the
sea wall. There are all sorts of traditions
and superstitions as to the advantages of
various points along the wall A great
rock near the point that One Hundred and
Sixteenth street would reach were it ex-
tended is famous for striped bass. Tomcod
are plentiful at the One Hundred and
Thirtieth street wharf. Sand porgies or
sinners are caught all along the sea wall.
Fishermen who may choose their time fish
as the tide runs in. Those who must fish
when they can disregard tradition and su-
perstition.
The fishermen are of all sorts, from we'll
dressed young men of leisure to mechanics
in working clothes. The most approved
style is to fish with rod and reel and to
pay out about $50 feet of line, well weighed
with lead sinkers. The bait is sand worms
and white worms, bought of the bait pur-
veyors at ten and twenty-five cents per
dozen. Many of the roughtest looking fish
ermen are scientifically correct In the mat
ter Of tackle. Much of the sea wall between
Ninetieth street and One Hundred and
Twenty-fifth street is difficult of access,
and the fishermen have the place pretty
much to themselves.
The best anglers prefer week days for the
sport because of the crowd on Sundays.
.,l
ing wharves out from the sea wall rent
seats upon them to Sunday fishermen. A
few chairs and great many empty beer
kegs furnish the seats. The fishermen are
thus from ten to fifteen feet above the
water, and it is nice matter to land a fish.
Anglers agree that fishing along the sea
wall is worse each year. The ever increas
ing trade of the river tends more and more
to drive away the fish, and perhaps the
foreign impurities of the water kill a good
many. 1t happens just now that moss
bunkers, or alewives, are floating dead by
the score along the front of the wall.
These fish move up and down the Hudson
in enormous schools mum bering thousands.
They swim near the surface, and as they
move the river is --..-.- ,,..-I their ripple.
Fishermen have a t'.C~-- that the moss
bunkers are killed by the blasts of quar-
ries above the Palisades, but more plausi-
BILE belief is that the fish are struck by the
wheels of steam craft. Nobody cares to
catch mossbunkers, save by wholesale for
the making of fish oil or manure.
The favorite fish with the anglers of the
sea wall is the striped bass. They are run
ming small, and many half Founders are
caught. There are stories, however, of
five Founders and of even larger ones. The
tomcod, according to the Hudson fisher
men, is never caught save with hook and
line. and he does not bite well until after
hard frost. Those caught are scarcely
more than four inches long. The sinner,
or sand porgie, seldom weighs more than
half a pound, but he is respected by the
anglers, as he bites when the striped bass
are sulky, and is very good pan fish at all
times-New York Sun.