The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-08-31
CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

Tho Process Is of the Progressive Kfnd.
Tho Part Toothpicks PIaylThe Run With
q Keg-NIembers of the Bass Family Tint
Weigh Hundreds of Pounds.
Don't talk to man from southern
California about black bass fishing, or
he will make your best bass story fee
ble,. pitiful thing. lie will tell you of
black Bass that could swallow the big
Rest days catch you ever made and
take in your oreel 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 f1uked ships anchor That Is
what he fishes with for tho 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
mtssioners say they are, and the natu-
ralists have identified them by fins and
bones and form with the gamy two and
three Founders that mako men tickle
even to trout.
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh l, 900 pounds call them
iewfish--a corruption of junefsh. The
last Is o translation Of one of their Mex
lean names. Probably they were called
junefish from the fact that they are
plentiful along the shores in the lato
spring and early summer. No matter
how he got his name. tho jewish is a
wonder. He looks like bass fisherman's
nightmare when they get him out of
the water. Every fin and mark is there,
magnifled out of all proportion. His
scales are rs big as half dollars, his
mouth is gaping chasm, and the spikes
Of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpoh-
ny nails.
The process of catching jewish is n
progressive and interesting one. The
fishers begin at the beginning. With
bent pins or dip nets they look for mill
nows or sardelles. The quarry secured,
1T promptly becomes bait, and the con-
course is treated to smelt fishing. Then
comes tho smelt's turn in the success
sion. He is impaled, and tho fisherman,
with heavier rod and larger hook,
goes to the other side of the wharf for
halibut or q sea bass.
When the bait, dead or alive is ready,
the stoutest armed man on tho wharf
picks up tho 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 rs
o lead pencil, coils out after the hook,
and that is nearly all until the fish
comes along.
Incidentally toothpicks play quito n
part i'll the fishing. Each fisherman
takes "a handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one i'll
crack at the top of 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 keg
or some such thing that will float we'll
On tho toothpick is stuck n bit Of white
rag, and as half a dozen or dozen lines
arc used at once there is O 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 on
press. Down goes the signal flag.
Everybody around runs for tho line.
They know they can't hold the fish, but
the resistance makes it harder for him
and helps them to tire him out-tho ul-
innate object. The great fish does not
struggle at first, but moves steadily sea-
ward, pulling the line through tho
mems hands. Occasionally, when tho
fish weighs less than 200 pounds, they
Can tire him out without paying out all
of tho line, but usually it all goes, and
presently tho struggle is transferred to
tho water. Tho empty powder keg
bo0nccs over tho water most crratical-
~, the men chase it in boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then the
real fun of jewfishing begins 1t is just
sport for n fish Of any size to tow q
whitehall around the bay, and tits pref
ty rough sailing in his wake AS soon
as he realizes that there is flight on the
Jewish seems to forget that he is staid
bottom fish, All tho steam of his black
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plunges
and turns, twists and strikes Some
where down in tho cavern of his gullet
he has an arrangement of bone like a
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 i'll San Diego bay, and though the
hooks are made of hand forged tool steel
they have snapped many of them.
If everything goes well, if the hook
holds and the fish does not grind the
line, if he steers away from submerged
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