New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-08-29

CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
. SAN DIEGO BAY.
The Process II Of the Progressivo Kind,
The PartToothpicksP lay-The Run Witl,
aKeg-Members Of tho Bass Family That
Weigh Hundreds Of Pounds.
J Don't talk to q man from southern
California about black bass fishing, OF
he will make your best bass story fee
bic, pitiful thing. He will tell you Of
black bass that could swallow the big
gest days catch you ever made and
take in your creel for dessert without
as much as gulping. Voice doubt, and
the man from San Diego will pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like a one fuked ships anchor. That is
what he fishes with for the strange
monstrous black bass in the bays and
about the islands of the southern Cali
fornia coast. They don't call them black
! bass down there, though the fish conf
missioners say they are, and the natu-
ralists have identified them by fins and
bones and form with the gamy two and
three Founders that make men tickle
even to trout.
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh 1000 pounds call them
jewfsh-a corruption Of junefsh. The
last is translation Of one of their Mex
lean names Probably they were called
junefsh from the fact that they are
plentiful along the shores in the late
spring and early summer. No matter
how he got his name, the Jewish is a
wonder. He looks like bass fisherman s
nightmare when they get him out of
the water. Every fin and mark is there,
magnifed out of all proportion. His
scales are as big as half dollars, his
mouth is 3 gaping chasm, and the spikes
of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process Of catching Jewish is a
progressive and interesting one. The
fishers begin at the beginning. With
bent pins Or dip nets they look for min
noWs Or sardelles. The quarry secured,
it promptly becomes bait, and the con-
course is treated to smelt fishing. Then
comes the smelt's turn in the success
sion. He is impaled, and the fisherman,
, with a heavier rod and larger hook,
goes to the other side Of tho wharf for
a halibut or sea bass.
When the bait, dead or alive, is ready,
the stoutest armed man on the wharf
picks up the line. He swings the two
Or three pounds Of bait around his head
like all Indian does the bolas and hurls
it seaward. The great line, as thick as
lead pencil, coils out after the hook,
and that is nearly all until the fish
comes along.
Incidentally toothpicks play quite a
part in the fishing. Each fisherman
takes a handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one in
q crack at the top of a pile and loosely
loop the line around it. The shore part
of the line is coiled on the wharf, and
the end is fast to al empty powder keg
Or some such thing that will float we'll.
On the toothpick is stuck bit of white
rag, and as half O. dozen or dozen lines
! are used at once there is string OF
these little signal flags all along the
I dock. The fisherman has nothing more
! to do for awhile than to watch the flags
! When one goes down, it means that
, something has taken the bait. After
gathering i'll the barracuda heads or
the ilnpaled halibut the Jewish starts
away like the locomotive on fast ex-
press. Down goes the signal flag.
Everybody around runs for the line.
lThey know they can't hold the fish, but
the resistance makes it harder for him
and helps them to tire him out-the ul-
innate object The great fish does not
struggle at first, but moves steadily sea-
ward, pulling the line through the
mems hands. Occasionally, when the
, fish weighs less than 200 pounds, they
can tire him out without paying out all
Of the line, but usually it all goes, and
! presently the struggle is transferred to
the water. The empty powder key
| bounces over the water most erratical-
~, the men chase it in boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then the
real fun Of jewfshing begins It is just
sport for fish Of any size to tow a
whitehall around the bay, and it is pref
ty rough sailing in his wake. AS soon
as he realizes that there is fight on the
Jewish seems to forget that he is staid
| bottom fish. All the steam of his black
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plunges
and turns, twists and strikes. Some
where down in the cavern Of his gullet
he has an arrangement of bone like a
couple Of millstones, and when he dis
covers he cannot spit out the hook he
tries to swallow it and grind the line
apart, so the slack has to be carefully
attended to. There are some tremendous
fish in San Diego bay, and though the