The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-02
beware OF
IT MAY DO
YOU HARM
RATHER THAN
GOOD.
CATCHES TROUT BY HAND,
A FiSherman'S Neat Trick of
Filling His Empty
Basket.
Some Big Stories Told Of a Massa-
chusetts Disciple Of
Walton.

This is the true story of the man who
catches trout with his hands. To open the
season and as guarantee of good faith in
dealing with our customers in the months
to come we present this extraordinary
value in the fish line. We viii call the
man John Smith, for various reasons, prin-
cipally because his name is John Smith,
John B. Smith it is, the agent of Clark,
Ward & Co., in this city. One of the first
things you will notice about Mr.. Smith is
his hands. He has remarkable hands-in-
sinuating, restless, facile; thin and narrow
hands, with long fingers, which he uses
often in gesture. BY training them he has
become in later years an impresario of
the far-sounding telegraph, but they at
forded him more amusement in his youth
when employed in catching trout
The ordinary man who walks twenty-five
miles once year to bring back from the
woods half ton of muck and macadam
on his person and four badly decomposed
five-inch trout has been accustomed to
regard the trout as coy and difficult of
approach. He will scott at this tale. On
the contrary, trout are perfectly easy to
handle, if properly treated. They lie, of
course, under bank, when you attempt to
get them. You must reach carefully I'M
derneath and bring your hand up to them
slowly, the fingers moving gently to and
fro. In this way, partly because it is dark
under there and partly, no doubt, because
the trout is not zoologist enough to con-
struct the dread whole from the part
which it sees, it is possible to handle the
fish with ease. Indeed, when they are
just too far away to grasp, you
can work them gently back into reach.
They are accustomed to jostle against
~ %lA Il
pay no attention to being touched. Then
finally. when you have gotten them into
the right position you slowly close down on
them. Two hands are best one behind the
gills and one upon the tail to keep the fish
from wriggling away. In this way Mr..
Smith has tickled the bellies of thousands
of trout, who Immediately after, in a spirit
of reasonable reciprocity, performed the
same functions for himself and friends.
Mr.. Smith was raised in place where
there were trout jacksonville, Delaware
County, N. W, and spent most of the
spare time of happy boyhood paving
over the brooks of the vicinity after them.
His father used to say in jest over the fam
lily trout that he'd bet there wasn't log
or stone in the brooks between Benefits
vile and East Masonville Pond, distance
of seven miles, that didn't have its under
side periodically scratched by John. He
had felt over the bottom of every stream
| In that. country till lts topography was as
familiar to him as that of his own bed
| room, says the Springfield Republican.
Mr.. Smith remembers one time particu-
| larly. 1t was in midsummer, when the
brooks were very low. He was going
through swamp thicket with his little
brother when he looked over into deep
hole in the brook and saw whole school
OF big trout summing themselves near the
| surface. They saw him at the same time
and darted back under the bank at the
side. Reaching underneath he found he
| started Immediately digging hole in the
bog some three feet from the edge. After
considerable work with sticks and his
| tigers he made hole and put his hand
carefully down through it right in the
midst of them. They all lay together in
bunch, wagering slightly back and