The Yellowstone journal., 1894-09-22
CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

~ Process Is Of the Progressive Kind.
The Part Toothpicks Play-Thc Run With
Kee-Members Of the Bass Family That |
weigh Hundreds of Pounds.
Don't talk to man from southern |
California about black bass fishing, or
be will make your best bass story fee
BILE, pitiful thing. He will tell You OF
black bass that could swallow the big
Rest days catch you ever made and
take in your creel for dessert without
Is much as gulping. Voice doubt, and
the man from San Diego will pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like a one fiuked 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 COM
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 / 200 pounds call them
jewfish--a corruption of junetish. The
last is a translation of one of their Mex
lean names. Probably they We're called
iunefish 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
nightmare when they get him out of
the water. Every fin and mark is there,
magnified out of all proportion. His
scales are as big as half dollars. his
mouth is a gaping chasIn, and the spikes
of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process Of catch ng a Jewish is a
progressive and inter sting one. The
fishers beginsat the ueginning. With
bent pins or dip nets they look for min
nows or sardelles. The quarry secured,
il promptly becomes bait and the con-
course is treated TO smelt fishing. Then
comes the smelt's turn in the success
non. He is impaled, and the fisherman,
with heavier rod and a larger hook,
goes to the other side of the wharf for
q halibut or a 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 an Indian does the bolas and hurls
it seaward. The great line, as thick as
lead pencil, coils ont 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 pile and loosely
loop the line around it. The shore part
of the line is coiled on tie wharf. and
the end is fast to an empty powder kog
or some such thing that will float Well
On the toothpick is stuck a bit Of white
rag. and as half dozen or "A dozen lines
are used at once there Is string OF
these little signal flags all along the
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 in the barracuda heads OF
che impaled halibut the Jewish starts
away like the locomotive ON fast ex-
Everybody around runs for the line.
They know they can't hold the fish, but
the resistance makes 1T harder for hlm
and helps them to tire him out-the ul-
timate 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 roo pounds, they
can tire him out without paying out all
of tho line. hut usually Ii all goes, aud
presently the struggle is transferred tt
the water. The empty powder kea
bounces over the water most erratical
3Hrt the men chase it in a boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then tht
real fun of jewfishing begins. Ii Is JUS
sport for fish Of any size to tow
whitehall around the bay, and tits pret
ty rough sailing in his,wake. As sooI
"a he realizes that there is fight ON tn
iewfish seems to forget that he Is sfait
bottom fish. All the steam of his blacl
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plunge
and turns, twists and strikes. Some
where down in the cavern OF his guile
he has an arrangement OF bone IKE
oouple Of millstones, and when he dis
.oDvors he cannot spit out the hook n
txias. to swallow it and grind the I'm
apart. SO the slack has to be CAREFUL
.xSHerded to. There are some tremendou
=. In San Diego bay, and though tn
Laoky are made of hand forged tool ste'
~ have snapped many Of them.
II syerything goes well, if the hoo
.ho2ds, and the fish does not grind IL
line. if he steers away from submerge
boy chains and docks, the fight mu
I'D in the death of. the fish. Sometim
.hs tows the boat for three hours oefo
his strength is gone aud he is haui'
- the surface. The death struggle
.voest of all The fish is dragged to Il
too and lies there. apparently all b
dead. Then they drive harpoon IN
him, and the sting of the steel starts
,his life again. Tho harpoon line hol
him near the surface. and he makes