The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1894-09-07
CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS lN
SAN DIEGO BAY
Tho Process Is of the Progressive Kind.
Tlle Fart ToothpIcks Play The Run with
weg-SEenbers Of ths Bass Family That
weigh Hundreds Of Pounds
Don't talk to man from southern
California about black bass fishing, or
be will make your best bass story q fec
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 1nuch as gulping. Voice doubt, and
the man fro6l San Diego will pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like one fiul1ed 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
plissioners say they are, and the natu'
ralists have identified them by fms and
bones and form with the gany two and
three Founders that make men tickle
even to trout,
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh |, 900 pounds call them
jewfish---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 tho shores in tho late
spring and carly summer No matter
how he got his name, the jewish is q
wonder He looks like bass flsherman's
nightmare when they get him out OF
the water. Every fin and mark Is there,
magnihed out Of all proportion. His
scales arc as big as half dollars. bis
mouth is gaping chasm, and the spikes
Of his dorsal flu are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process of catching jewish Is q
progressive and interesting ono. The
fishers begin ut tho beginning. With
bent pins or dip nets they look for min
nows or sardelles. Tho quarry secured,
it promptly becomes bait and tho con-
course il treated to smelt fishing. Then
comes the 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 tho 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 tho bolas and hurls
il seaward. Tho great line, as thick as
a lead pencil, coils out after the hook,
and that is nearly all until the fish
comes along.
Incidentally toothpiclrs play quite a
part in the fishing. Each fisherman
takes handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one in
d crack at the top of pile and loosely
loop the limo 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 the toothpick is stuck o bit Of white
rag, and as half dozen ora dozen lines
are used at once there is string OF
these little signal flags all along the
dock. The fisherman has nothing more
10 do for awhile than TO watch tho flags
When one goes down, it means that
something has taken tho bait After
gathering Ia tho barracuda heads or
the inipaled halibut tho jewish starts
away like the locomotive on fast OK
press. Down goes the signal flag
Everybody around runs for the line
Thoy know they can't hold the fish, but
the resistance makes 1t harder foT him
and helps them to tire him out---tha 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 it all goes, and
presently the struggle is transferred to
the water. Tho empty powder keg
bounces over the wator most erratical-
\ ly, the men chase " la . boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then the
real fun Of jewfshing begins Il Is just
sport for fish of any size to tow q
whitehall around the bay, and itispret'
ty rough sailing In his wake. Az soon
as he realizes that there is fight on the
iewtish seems TO forget that be is staid
bottom fish. All tho steam OF his black
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plungei
and turns, twists and strikes. Some
where down in tho cavern of his gnllei
ho has an arrangement Of bone like q
couple Of millstones, and when be dis
covers be cannot spit out the hook he
tries to swallow it and grind the lne
apart, 90 the slack has to be carefully
attended to- There are some tremendous
ash IN San DiegG bay, and though the
hooks are made OF hand forged tool steel
thcy have snapped many Of them.
ii everything goes we'll, II the hooE
holds and the fish does not grind ths
line. il he steers away from submerged
buoy chaius and docks, the fight must
end IN tho death Of the fish Sometimes
! he tows tho boat for three hours peiors
lis strength Is gone and he is hauled
10 tie surface. The death struggle II
worst Of all. The fish IL dragged 10 thu
TOP and lies there, apparently al bul
dead. Then they drive . harpoon intt
him, and the sting of the steel starts Al
his life again The harpoon line hold
him near tie surface, aud he makes
oreat raee for little while, but, q
course, IL cannot last, Az the end th'
asa Is towed back 70 Che dock, and tlaer'
the hoating population u San Diego Il
assembled. Everybody gets hold Of
rope aud boists the giaEt fsh upon th'
dock. and taure the tired monster Aoun
ders, its mouth gaping Ike q tunEe
aud its eyes big as basehalls, startini
from 4hair sockets. ---San francisco kA
aniner
TWO Points u yIew.
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