Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-10-18
A MILE oF FISHING LINE
Catching sharks by the Dozen On' the Cal
ifOrnia Coast


ifOrnia Coast.
Crawling over the rocks on the La.
guna beach, near San Juan, in southern
California, that hid countless ane-
mones under richly colored seawoeos,
came to little cave where the fisher
men make their headquarters. A great
bluff formed the shelter, and as deep
water came inshore harbor was made
for landing the dorios. A little ghanty
on the high sand, dozen boats. a pile
of crawfish traps, the tails of several
sharks, told the story, and as a center
piece grizzly old fellow, the generalis-
slmo. He was waiting for the baiters,
Tor the line he used needed not one
man, but a 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 a mile in
length. On each end was an anchor and
buoy in the shape of a soldered up oil
can, and at every three feet or so of
this line was a hook-600 or more being
needed for q single line. The line was
laid ont in coils, and the men, sitting
around, baited the hooks, replaced them
when necessary and coiled the line rs
they baited.
Yes" said the sociable old fisher
man, this is pretty sure way Of fish
ing. You see, we cover ~ 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 tho 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 as the season does.
"We set the trawl at B O'Clock in the
morning. The line is coiled i'll the stern
of the boat, and when we ret 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 a mile of bottom, 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 a can
was in sight. There wasn't any mis-
take, as 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, then ont
to sea, and just as we were about CIV
ing it 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 whale, but the first fish that
hove in sight was shark about six feet
long. Then came a stretch Of 20 hooks
gone, then shark, then sharks by the
dozen-in fact, there must have been 20
or 80 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 fishhoOks, line and bait at
about $50. You see, school of half
starved shovel nosed sharks had drop
ped 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 a
day, and finally found it foul Of kelp
bed, and when we got it up it was next
TO impossible to take IL in. ! thought
we had a whale that time, but IL was n
Jewish. There were seven or eight
hooked, and their combined weight
wasn't less than ton. Some we took,
and the rest we cut loose. There isn't
much call for boneless cod just now, "
said the old man, with a mysterious
wink.
"Onoe or twice" he continued, -
have lost the whole outfit Once big
baslling shark wound IL up 80 that we
never could clear IL, aud another time q
whale walked on with the whole thing.
sharks are the worst when fish gets
hooked, they come along and bite u On,
leaving the head. Then another shark
comes along aud takes the head and ihe
hook We got curious things Same
limos sels get hooked, thea sting rays
Onos Big octopus got On, and when u
elinibod luto the boat No g0i ready "
~ overheard, but knOok 1n The bead
With an 0sT settled him ''--hap franclf'
.... sHl.....at.la q