Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1894-11-01
CATCHING SHARKS.
A Long Line Secures Dozens of the
Vicious Brutes.

San Francisco Chronicle: Crawling
over the rocks on the Laguna beach,
near San Juan, in southern California,
that hid countless anemones under
richly colored seawceds, came to Il
little cave where the fishermen make
their headquarters A great bluff
formed the shelter, and as deep water
came inshore Il harbor was made for
landing the dories. A little shanty on
the high sand a dozen boats, II pile
OF craWlish traps, the tails Of several
sharks told the story, and as Il center
piece grizzly old fellow, the generals
man, but Il dozen or more to bait It,
slmo He was waiting for the baiters
for the line he used needed not one
man, bat dozen or more to bait it.
AS we stood there they began to come
in from the hills and over the beach
from out of the hooks and corners.
| The tackle used was II fish line a mile
In length. On each eud was an anchor
and II buoy In the shape OF Il soluered-
up oil can, and ut every three feet or
so OF this line WAS Il hook, six hun
dred or more being needed for single
| line The line was laid ont in coils,
and the men sitting around, baited the
| hooks, replaced them when necessary,
and collrd the line rs they baited.
"lcS," said the sociablc old fisher
man, "thiS IL II pretty sure way of
! fishing, You see, we cover n mile of
ground at Il Time, and every fish that's
swimming down that territory is pref
ty sure to strike one Of the GOO hooks
They hook themselves, you sec; they
swallow the bait. then run off with it.
or try to, and the weight of the line
brings them up with II round turn.
Now we mostly take Il rock cod, but
fish change rs tn" season does. We
set the traWl at > O'Clock in the morn
ing, The line Is cOilcd In the stern of
the boat, and when we get in the right
spot, clear of the kclp, the anchor is
lowered, taking the end of the line
down with IT, Whom we strike bottom
we toss over the buoy and row away.
paying out slowly Gill the end comes,
| when the other anchor Is tossed over
ana 4 buoy; thnu we have the line
stretched over Il mile of bottom with n
bait every two or three feet, Mighty
few fish pass It. This we let stay sev-
oral hours and then we haul in gen
, orally from both ends,
"Iuck varies: I've taken In that line
when "" almost filled the boat; every
hook would have something. Then
| Ia, I,.,I
pulled out to the line, but not can
was in sight There wasn't any mis-
take, M we had our bearings exact,
SO the only thing To do was to conclude
that something had happened. We
pulled up and down the coast, and
Il en- out to sea, and just as we We're
about giving 1t up we saw one of the
cans bob up and then disappear. We
managed to hook it up, and when we
began to take it in | thought we had
II whale; but the first fish that hove
in sight was q shark about six feet
long; then came stretch Of twenty
hooks gone. then Il shark, then sharks
/ by the dozen; in fact, there must have
been twenty or thirty sharks on the
line, not to speak OF those that had
been on. We cut them loose the best
we could and figured up our losses in
tiShhooks, line and bait ut about 500.
"Nou sec. Il school of half starved.
shovcl-noScd sharks had dropped in
| Just In time and had taken the fish
/ that had been hooked, and so got
hooked In turn. Another time we lost
/ the line for Il day and finally found II
| foul of n krlp bed, aud when we got il
up II was nrNt to impossible to take
/ time but 1t was irwtlsh: there were
/ sNvrn or eight hooked, aud their com.
huCd weight wasn't less than a ton.
oSmr we took. and the rest we cut
loose. There isn't much call for hone
less cod just now said the old man,
I, with 4 mysterious wink
"Nncc or twice" he continued Il
hayr lost tine whole outfit once 4 big
hasking shark wound II up 50 that We
mover could clear It, aud another time
whalc walked on With the whole
thing Sharks are the worst; when Il
fish grtS hooked they como along and
bite i on, leaving the head; then an
other shark comes along and takes the
head and the hook We get curious
thugs, Sometimes cells get hooked.
then sting rays. Once big octopus
cot on, and when it climbed into the
boat we got ready to 80 overheard.
but 4 knock on the head with an oar
settled him"