The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-10-05
A Mhs OF FISHING LINE.
Catching Sharks by the Dozen on thu Cal
norma Coast.

Nhtchthk Shurhp by tuc h~Ach ou tAsp Ssesr |
hornia Coast.
Crawling over the rocks on the La
guna beach, near San Juan. In southern
California that hid countless ane-
homes under richly colored seaweeds, l
came to o little cave where the fisher
men make their headquarters, A great
bluff formed the shelter, and as deep
water came inshore harbor was made
Tor landing tho dories A little shanty
rn tho high sand, dozen boats, q pile
of crawilsh traps, tho tails of several
sharks, told the story, and as center
piece grizzly old fellow, the generals.
simo, Ho was waiting for tho baiters
for the line he used needed not ons
han, brt 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 fishline q mile in
length. On each end was an anchor and
buoy in the shape of soldered up oil
can, and at every throe feet or so OF
this line was hook--600 or more being
needed for single line. The line was
laid out in coils, and the men, sitting
around, baited the hooks, replaced them
when necessary and coiled the line as
they baited.
"Yes," said the sociable old fisher
man, this is pretty sure way OF fish.
ing. You see, we cover a mile OF
ground at a time, and every fish that's
swimming down that terriotry is pretty
sure to strike one of the 600 hooks.
They hook themselves, you see. They
swallow the bait, then run off with it,
or try to, and the weight Of the line
brings them up with round turn;
Now we mostly take rock cod, but fish
change rs the season does.
1--WE set the trawl at O'Clock in the
morning. The line is coiled In the stern
of the boat, and when we get in the
right spot, clear of the kelp, the anchor
is lowered, taking the end of the line
down with it. When we strike bottom,
we toss over the buoy and row away,
paying out slowly till the end comes,
when the other anchor is tossed over
and buoy. Then we have the line
stretched over q mile of botto.l, with a
bait every two or three feet Mighty
few fish pass it. This we let stay sew.
eral hours, and then we haul in, general
ly from both ends. Luck varies. I've
taken in that line when we almost filled
the boat Every hook would have
something.
: "Then again luck changes. One day
we pulled out to the line, but not cal
was in sight. There wasn't any mis-
take, as we had our bearings exact, 81
} the only thing to do was to conclud
that something had happened. W.
pulled up and down the coast, then on
to sea, and just as we were about CIV
ing it up we saw one Of the cans bob ii
and then disappear.
"Wo managed to hook it up, AM
, when we began to take it in | though
we had q whale, but the first fish tina
: hove in sight was shark about six fee
long. Then came stretch Of 20 hook
: gone, then shark, then sharks by tn
dozen-in fact, there must have been 2
or 80 sharks on the line, not to spea
Of those that had been on, We cut ther
loose the best we could and figured u
our losses in fishhooks, line and bait a
about $50. You see, school OF hal
starved shovel nosed sharks had droI
ped in just il time and had taken th
fish that had been hooked and so &C
hooked in turn.
s Another time we lost the line for
day, and finally found it foul Of KEEL
bed, and when we got it up it was ne1
to impossible to take it in. | though
we had whale that time, but it was
| Jewish There were seven or eigf
hooked, and their combined weigh
q wasn't less than ton. Some we tool
and the rest we cut loose. There ism
much call for homeless cod just now,
said the old man, with a mysterior
wink
'sOnce or twice." he continued, ;
- have lost the whole outfit. Once b
basking shark wound it up SO that "
never could clear it, and another time
whale walked off with the whole thing
Sharks are the worst When fish ge
hooked, they come along and bite 1t OF
leaving the head. Then another shal
comes along and takes the head and Il
hook. We get curious things. Som