The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-10-25
C1rCHfNE JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

Keg-AIembers of the Bass Family That
Weigh hundreds of Pounds.
Don't talk to a man from southern
California about black bass fishing, OF
he will make your best bass story fee
bic, 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 f1ked 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 fel1le
even to trout.
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh l, 900 pounds call them
jewfsh-a corruption of junefsh. The
last is translation of one Of their Mex
fcan names Probably they were called
3unefish from the fact that they are
plentiful alang the shores in the late
spring and early summer No matter
how he got his name, the jewish is
wonder He looks like bass fisherman's
nightmare when they. get him out Of
the water. Every fin and mark is thera,
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 a 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
1t 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 larger hook,
goes to the other side of the wharf fGt
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
q lead pencil, coils out 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 handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one in
a crack at the top of pile and loosely
of the line is coiled on the wharf, and
the end is fast to an empty powder key
or some such thing that will float we'll
On the toothpick is stuck a 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 faE-
Everybody around rms 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 Ill
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
ish weighs less than 200 pounds, they
AN tire him out without paying out all
# the line, but usually. it all goes, and
PRESENTLY the struggle is transferred TO
he water. The empty powder key
,ounces over the water most erratical
v, the men chase il in . boat, and
When they catch it hold on. Then the
cal fun of jewfishing begins. 1t is just
port for fish of any size to tow a
vhitehall around the bay, and it is pref
Y rough sailing in his wake. As soon
S he realizes that there is fight on the
ewfish seems to forget that he is staid
ottom fish. All the steam of his black
ASS ancestors gets riley, and he plunges
nd turns, twists and strikes Some
where down in the cavern of his gullet
e has an arrangement of bone like
ouple of millstones, and when he dis
overs he cannot spit out the hook he
ries to swallow it and grind the line
part, SO the slack has to be carefully
ttended to. There are some tremendous
sh in San Diego bay, and though the
ooks are made of hand forged tool steel
hey have snapped many of them.
If everything goes well, if the hook
olds and the fish does not grind the
ne, if he steers away from submerged
uoy chains and docks, the fight must
nd in the death Of the fish Sometimes
e tows the boat for three hours before
is strength is gone and he is hauled
} the surface. The death struggle il
-orst of all. The fish is dragged to the |
,p and lies there, apparently all but
cad. Their they drive harpoon into
i'm, and the sting of the steel starts all !
is life again The harpoon line holds
i'm near the surface, and he makes
reat rae for a little while, but, OF :
purse, it cannot last. At the end the |
sh is towed back to the dock, and there
le floating population of San Diego is
ssembled. Every gets hold of a
,pe ard hoists the giant fish upon the
eek, and there the tired monster floun.
ers, its mouth gaping like tunnel
nd its eyes, big as baseballs, starting
ON their sockets. San Francisco Ex
miner.
PERGUfNS FEEDING.
be Transformation That Takes Place wheK