Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1895-02-18
A BULL On A FLY ROD.
LIVELY EPISODE or A DAYS FISHING
IN CALIFORNIA.


fuI Angler Save an Exhibition Sot Conn
mon en- a Trouting Trip.
Travelling overland from Sais a Bar
bara to san Luis Obispo, said tourist
recently returned from southern Cali
fornia. ssonr Journey as far as Los Olives
was by stage. OF the beautiful la-ld and
water scenery along the route Of our
stage ride two features particularly i'm
pressed me. One was the backward view
from the summit of the coast noun
tains, with Santa Barbara, IL miles
back, clustered ON the left and right Of
its white Main street, the islands be-
You'd and the bl1e Pacific.
1.-The second was the river that we
forded shortly before arriving at Los
Olives 1t was a type of water course
common in California, with a wide,
deep bed, perfectly dry, except where
clear little stream rippled its way along
a narrow channel through sand and
gravel, winding and eddyiDg round bars
and powders A man might leap across
it in many places, and the water did not
come nearly to the wheel hubs as the
stage rolled through it,
'At Los Olives. which we reached at
5o'clock p. m, one of the dishes served
at our excellent supper was trout,
caught, as we learned, in the pretty,
/ clear stream We had crossed. That deter
mined us to stay over day at the sta
ton to try the fishing We got out our
| tackle and had day of great sport. To
reach the water we had to get down the
steep river banks and follow the dry bed
through which the little stream seemed
to pick its way The trout we caught
were Of the black spotted mountain va
riety. ranging from to IA inches in
| length and averaging about three to the
pound. Smaller ones we put back in the
water.
But there was an experience more
| exciting than fishing to come before the
day was ended. At noon the ladies of
our party came by wagon to join us at
luncheon, and they accompanied rs in
the afternoon S fishing. Toward night.
when we had worked well up toward
| the mountains, some cattle came down
to the stream to drink. and without APP
| parent provocation lively young bull
began to paw the ground and below I'M
| pleasantly and followed these demon
STATIONS up by charging upon our party.
| Looking mp from my fishing at this
| juncture, saw that it was the red plaid
| shawl of one of the ladies that had ex-
/ cited the animals hostility. Calling to
her to throw down the shawl and for
| them all to run, / threw stones at the
/ bull to divert his attention, while the
other gentlemen of the party helped
| them up the steep bank, where the bull
could not follow. The bull stopped at
| the shawl, tossed it about in an ugly
manner, and then, turning his attention
to me, gave me a sharp run across the
sands to the bank. got there all right,
| carrying my rod, with tho line and
leader flying behind, but just as / struck
| the top of the bank felt sudden jerk
| of the rods tip and turning saw that
one of my fly hooks had caught the ball
in the nostril.
ut was one of the queerest catches
imagine that ever fisherman made,
and literally played that bull with a
| fly rod for quarter of an hour. / owed
him no good will, and besides wanted
to save my tackle. The nostril of a bull,
as you probably know, is exquisiteiy
| sensitive to pain, and with my strong,
| flexible split bamboo rod, duplicating
reel and stout gut leader at the end of q
| hundred feet of braided silk managed
| to hold the big creature under control.
| He couldn't seem to make out what had
| got him by the nose, but be knew that
il hurt him worse whenever he tried to
break away. and to increase the mystery
there was all the time dangling and
| switching before bis eyes big, bright
red bass fly that l had left on my leader
as an experiment in trout fishing He
would strike at it with his horns, and
| his rage at finding he couldn't hit it,
| and that it came back at him every time,
| was comical to witness-from place of
safety, of course.
From time to time the bull would
| charge upon the shawl and toss that
| about, and then had to work the reel
and tip for all they were worth to save
| all my tackle from going by the board.
| At last, in one of these furious charges,
| as he lifted the shawl on his horns felt
something give away, and at the same
| moment the shawl went up into the air.
| The hook had torn loose from his nostril,
and two of the hooks on the leader
were fast in the shawl l dropped the
rod and pulled line and shawl in, hand
| over hand, like a Cape Cod fisherman
hauling pollock The bull didn't tumble
TO the situation until | had got the
| shawl nearly to the bank, and then he
came for it. but it was too late. Iwhip-
| ped the shawl up to where we were
| standing just as his head butted the per-
| pendicular bank with thud that
| brought down shower of earth.
1.-THE shawl carried q good deal of
sand and had some holes in it, but there
was no disposition to complain ON the
part of its owner We thought we had
enough fishing for one day. and leaving
our enemy down in the river bed paving
sand and believing his anger we took
our wagon thankfully for the hotel. -
New York Sun.
ssnn