Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-09-13

weigh Hundreds Of Pounds.
Don't talk to man from southern
California about black bass fishing, OF
he will make your best bass story fee.
1 BILE, 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 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 1, 900 pounds call them
| jewfsh-a corruption of junefish. The
last is translation of one of their Mex.
ican names. Probably they were called
junefish 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 8
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 gaping chasm, and the spikes
of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process of catching Jewish is
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 heavier rod and a larger hook,
goes to the other side Of the wharf for
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 out after the hook,
and that is nearly all until the fish
comes along.
Incidentally toothpicks play quite
part in the fishing. Each fisherman
takes handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one in
crack at the top of pile and loosely
loop the line around 1t. The shore part
of the line is coiled on the wharf, and
the end is fast to an empty powder keg
or some such thing that will float we'll.
On the toothpiok is stuck bit of white
rag, and as half dozen or dozen lines
are used at once there is a 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 or
the impaled halibut the Jewish starts
away like the locomotive on fast ex-
press Down goes the signal flag.
Everybody around runs for the line
They 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 1t all goes, and
presently the struggle is transferred to
the water. The empty powder keg
bounces over the water most erratical-
ly, the men chase it in boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then the
real fun of jewfshing begins. 1t is just
sport for fish Of any size to tow
whitehall around the bay, and it is pret-
ty rough sailing in his wake. AS soon
as he realizes that there is a 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
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
hooks are made Of hand forged tool steel
they have snapped many of them.
If everything goes we'll, if the hook
holds and the fish does not grind the
line, if he steers away from submerged
buoy chains and docks, the fight must
end in the death Of the fish. Sometimes
he tows the boat for three hours before
his strength is gone and he is hauled
to the surface. The death struggle is
worst of all The fish is dragged to the
top and lies there, apparently all but
dead. Then they drive harpoon into
him, and the sting of the steel starts all
his life again. The harpoon line holds
him near the surface, and he makes
great race for a little while, but, of
course, it cannot last. At the end the
fish is towed back to the dock, and there
the floating population Of San Diego is
assembled Everybody gets hold of a
rope and hoists the giant fish upon the
dock, and there the tired monster foun-
ders, its mouth gaping like a tunnel
and Its eyes, big as baseballs, starting
from their sockets. San Francisco Ex.
aminer.
Two Points of View.