The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-10-04
CATCHING JEWFA SH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS III
SAN DIEGO BAY.

The Process Ii Of the Progressive Kind.
The Part Toothpiclxs Play-The Run with
q Keg-Members OF the BASS Family Tha
weigh Hundreds of Pounds.
Don't talk to O man from southern
California about black bass fishing, or
he viii make your best bass story o fee
BILE, pitiful thing. He will tell you of
black bass that could swallow the big.
gest days catch you aver made and
take in your creel for dessert without
much as gulping. Voice a doubt, and
the man from San Diego viii pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like a n fluked 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
to trout.
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh /, 900 pounds call them
jewish-a corruption of junefish. The
last is o translation of one of their Mex
lean names. Probably they were called
1unefish 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 q bass fsherman's
nightmare when they get him out Of
the water. Every fin and mark il There,
magnified out Of all proportion. His
scales are as big as half dollars, his
mouth is q gaping chasm, and the spikes
Of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process of catching o 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,
il 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 O heavier rod and q larger hook,
goes to the other side of the wharf for
o halibut or a sea bass. 3
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
a 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
a 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 an empty powder kee
or some such thing that will float well.
| On the toothpick is stuck o bit OF white
rag, and as half q dozen or a dozen line:
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 thai
| something has taken the bait. After
gathering in the barracuda heads O
/ the impaled halibut the jewish starts
away like the locomotive on a fast ex
press. Down goes the signal flag.
Everybody around runs for the line
They know they can't hold the fish. bu'
| the resistance makes il harder for hin
and helps them to tire him out-the nj
innate object. The great fish does no
struggle at first, but moves steadily sea
ward, pulling the line through thu
mems hands. Occasionally. when thu
fish weighs less than 200 pounds. the,
can tire him ont without paying out al
Of the line, but usually it all goes. ant
presently the struggle 10 transferred y
the water. The empty powder kei
bounces over the water most erratical
", the men chase ii LIN q boat, ant
when they catch il hold ON. Then th
real fun of jewfishing begins. 1t 10 jus
sport for q fish of any size to tow
whitehall around the bay, and tits pref
ty rough sailing in his wake. As sool
as he realizes that there 10 afight ON tn
Jewish seems TO forget that he 10 stat.
bottom fish. All the steam of his blacl
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plunge
and turns, twists and strikes. Some
where down i'm the cavern Of his guile
he has am arrangement of bone Hike
couple of millstones, and when he dis
covers he cannot spit ont the hook b
tries TO swallow it and grind the LIN
apart, so the slack has to be CAREFUL
attended to- There are some remendou
fsh in San Diego bay, and though 70
hooks are made of hand forged tool stee
they have snapped many OF them.
IL everything goes well, If the hoo
holds and the fish does not grind th
line, If he steers away from submerge
buoy chains and docks, the fight mus
end In the death Of the fish. Sometime
he tows the boat for three hours befoz
his strength Is gone and he Is haule
to the surface. The death struggle
worst Of all. The fish il dragged 20 th
top and lies there, apparently all br
dead Then they drive a harpoon Int
him, and the sting of the steel starts a
his life again. The harpoon line hold
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