The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-01-19
AN INTERESTING FISH.

CALL
AN INTERESTING FISH
| From the New York Sun.
No more beautiful fish than the
Spanish mackerel swims the salt sea-
1t is true it lacks the mighty strength
and size of its only rival in southern
waters, the tarpon, but pound for
| pound and inch for inch it is not one
| whit less gamy and courageous. The
| long-pointed head is set with pair OF
| cleaning eyes that see for many rods
| every moving thing beneath the sur
face of the sea. Each jaw is armed
with scores of tiny teeth keen as a
razor and dazzlingly white. When the
mackeral are feeding. and shoals
of them break the water into
ripples, one can hear the snap
of those fierce jaws as they
close upon the hapless young mullet
of barracuda. 1t is beautiful sight to
see the whole sea for hundreds of feet
grow dark as if ruffled by squall when
an army of mackerel suddenly bursts
into sight. They are handsome and
lateral fins and broad fuked tail,
which give them the power to outswim
any fish of their size and weight. They
are as erratic as they are fierce. A
great school after feeding for hours in
one locality may all at once sink ont
of sight, and not another may be
caught for hours or perhaps days. An
enemy. unseen by fishermen, has
alarmed the sharp-eyed fellows, for the
sharks and dolphins are ever prowling
on their trail.
In the autumn days about everyone
who is big enough to hold rod and
bait his hook is mackerel fishing on
the Florida Keys. The gulf of Mexico
is the real habitat of these fish. Oc-
casionally they drift northward in
scattered shoals, following the gulf
warm months along the Atlantic coast
to the Canada line. Quarantine, on
the extreme south end of Mullet Key,
is center of the excitement in the gulf
now. Strings of mackerel that num-
Der in the hundreds are being made
every day when the weather is good.
Unlike most saltwater fishing,
stormy day is better for this. work than
a fair one.
Take day when the clouds sink
down upon the sea, senor," says old
Pedro MenendeZ, the veteran Spanish
pilot and angler, between the gasps of
his long black pipe, when the wind
from the southeast beats the waves till
they cry along the shoals, and the sea
birds hug the shore, then, senior, if you
will have the heart of a man and put
out beyond the Palmetto Keys in
stout boat, you shall kill and bring
home such harvest of bonita as your
northern eyes have never gazed upon"
And true it is that on the widest
days that little stumpy boat of his,
with its patched yellow sail and short
mast, can be seen thrashing out into
the gale, and that at night he brings
in big catches. When the wind drives
dead on shore the best fishermen cast
against it from the piers and catch
many and big mackerel.
Old hands use long, springy rod, a
big reel holding fifty yards of good
braided linen, and Limerick hooks
snelled in wire gimp. A float is Il ne
cessity, and corks are the popular kind.
About four feet above the hook the
float should be fixed, and too much at
tention can not be paid to this detail.
On the same pier or in the same boat
with men who catch seventy or more
bonita, as the mackerel are often
called, will be other fishermen using
the same bait who get only four or five
fish. The reason is that they are fish
ing too shallow or too deep, and the
whole shoal passes them by.
The minnow used as bait should be
firmly hooked through his back just
above the spine on line with the
pectoral fins. There is seldom any
trouble about striking the mackeral
too quickly. Indeed, it is only the
lively man who hooks his game. Their
action in rushing on the bait, grab
ging and swallowing it, seems to be all
one and to require only an instant.
The cork goes down, the bubbles rise,
and a sharp tug for freedom answers
the uplifting o. the rod, The bonita
are short-lived, though so savage in
their attack, and holding them TO the
sea, mouth open, quiskly tires and
browns them. The weakffsh and blue
fish haunt the same localities. and are
caught in great numbers by the mack
erel fishers.
In weight the Spanish mackerel run
from one pound to four ar FIVE, and
average two pounds When freshly
caught they reflect all the hues Of the
rainbow as they flap in the sunlight.
The back is dark blue and the belly
spotless white The sides are gorgeous
with notified amber and bronze. Only
few moments exposure to the air de-
stroys all this beauty. The countless
iridescent tints grow pale and fade
away, the dark back turns light
greenish hue and the wonderful SHIN
mering scales. as the fish dies. fall
away as if by magic