The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-10-11
CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

Don't talk to a man from southern
California about black bass fishing, O
: he will make your best bass story a fee
, bic, pitiful thing He will tell you O
black bass that could swallow the big
r gest days catch you ever made anC
take in your creel for dessert withou
as much as gulping. Voice doubt, ant
the man from San Diego will pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like a one fiuked ships anchor That il
what he fishes with for the strange
monstrous black bass in the bays anc
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 juneish. The
last is translation of one of their Mex
lean names. Probably they were called
junefsh 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 them,
magnified out Of all proportion. His
scales are as big as half dollars, his
mouth is a gaping chasm, and the spikes
of his dorsal fin are bigger than tenpen-
ny nails.
The process of catching a Jewish is a
progressive and interesting one. TIE
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 a heavier rod and a larger hook,
goes to the other side of the wharf fer
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 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 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 tc an empty powder key
or some such thing that will float well.
On the toothpick is stuck a bit of white
rag, and as half a dozen or dozen lines
are used at once there is 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 Ieads or
the impaled halibut the Jewish starts
away like the locomotive on a fast ex.
press. Down goes the signal fae-
Everybody around runs for the line.
They know they can't hold the fish, bus
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
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. The empty powder key
bounces over the water most erratical- !
iy, 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 a fish of any size to tow a
whitehall around the bay, and it is pref
ty rough sailing in his wake. As soon
as he realizes that there is 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
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 well, 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
be lows the boat for three hours before
his strength is gone and he is hauled
% the surface. The death struggle is
- I'll. The fish is dragged to the
50 les there, apparently all but
dead. Their they drive harpoon into
him, and the sting of the steel starts all
his life again. The harpoon line holds
hirl near the surface, and he makes
great rae for u 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. Every body gets hold of
rope ard hoists the giant fish upon the
lock, and there the tired monster foun-
lers, its mouth gaping like tunnel
md its eyes, big as baseballs, starting
from their sockets. San Francisco Elk.
lminer.