Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-03-14
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CATCHING JEWISH.
ANGLING FOR MARINE MONSTERS IN
SAN DIEGO BAY.

The Process Is of t!le Progressive Kind.
The Part ToothpicIis T'lay'-The Run With
Keg-NIembers OF the Bass Family That
Weigh Hundreds of Pounds.
Don't talk to man from southern
California about black bass fishing, or
he will make your best bass story a fee
bic, pitiful thing. He Will tell you of
black bass that could swallow the big
gcst days catch You ever made and
take i'll your creel for dessert without
as much us gulping Voice doubt and
the man from San Diego will pull from
his fishing traps something that looks
like a one 1luked ships anchor. That is
what he fishes with for the strange
morstrous black bass i'll 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
missioncrs say they are, and the natu-
ralists have identified them by fins and
bones and form with the ganly two and
three Founders that make men tickle
even to trout.
The men who catch these fish that
sometimes weigh 200 pounds call them
jcwfsh-a corruption of junetsh. The
last is o translation of one of their Mex
lean names Probably they We're called
junefish 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 Il bass fisherman 5
nightmare when they get him out Of
the water. Every fin and mark is there,
magnifiod ont 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 q Jewish is a
progressive and interesting one. The
fishers begin at the beginning. With
bent Plus or dip nets they look for min
nows or sardellcs. The quarry secured,
it promptly becomes bait, and the CON
course is treated to smolt fishing. Then
comes the smclt'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 for
a 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
a lead pencil, coils out after the hook,
and that is nearly all until the fish
comes along.
Incidentally toothpicks play quite q
part in the fishing. Each fisherman
takes a handful with him when he leaves
the breakfast table. They stick one i'll
q crack at the top Of pile and loosely
loop the line around it. The shore part
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 well,
On the toothpicll is stuck a bit of white
rag, and as half q 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 q fast eX-
press. Down goes the signal flag.
Everybody around runs 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
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 TIE struggle is transferred to
the wat-r. The empty powder keg
bOunces over the water most eITatical-
ly, the men chase it i'll boat, and
when they catch it hold on. Then the
real fun Of jew1ishing begins. 1t is just
sport for fish of any size to tow q
whitehall around the bay, and it's pref
ty rough sailing in his wake. AS soon
as he realizes that there is Il fight on tho
Jewish seems to forgot that he is staid
bottom fish. All the steam of his black
bass ancestors gets riley, and he plungc5
and turns, twists and strikes. Some
where down in the cavern of his gullot
he has an arrangement of bone like q
couple Of millstoncS, 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
attended to. There are some tremendous
fish III San Diego bay, and though the
hooks arc made Of hand forged tool steel
they have snapped many of them.
If everything goes we'll, 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 i'll the death Of the fish. Sometimes
he tows the boat for three hours before
his strength is gone and he is hauled
to the surface. The death struggle is
worst of all. The fish is dragged to the
top and lies there, apparently all but
dead. Then they drive a harpoon into
him, and the sting of the steel starts all
his life again. The harpoon line holds
him near tho surface, and he makes a
great race for q little while, but, Of
course, it cannot last At the end the
fish is lowed back to the dock, and there
the floating population of San Diego is
assembled. Every body gets hold of u
rope and hoists the giant fish upon the
dock, and there the tired monster foun-
iers, its mouth gaping like tunnel
and its eyes, big us baseballs, starting
from their sockets. San Francisco tx.