The Yale expositor., 1897-07-16
CATCHING THE FIRST FISH.

1
If all the great anglers who are now
beginning to make ready for summer
and fall of satisfactory sport could on
ly bring themselves back TO the days
when they were not such successful
disciples of the gentle art" and would
tell the story OF the first fish that ever
came to their hook, some narratives
without parallel would be given to the
world.
The writer OF this has never come to
be much of a fisherman. so he violates
no confidence and imperils no reputa-
ton by openly averring that his first
catch was O minnow-"mInnie" In
those days-and 1t was taken In an old
straw hat after brief pursuit in the
placid waters of the Desplaines river,
eventually being consigned to an anna
teur aquarium, along with a painted
turtle as big as a quarter and two very
small crayfish. This was the only real
ly true story of first fish" on record
until Mr.. Bradnock Hall published a
book called Fish Tales, and Some
True Ones" which opens up a number
Of possibilities in regard to the sub
ject sufficient to form a new chapter in
piscatorial annals.
There was once boy who was very
anxious indeed to become fisherman.
He had associated with him a number
OF other boys animated by the same
desire. They lived near a stream
which was known to be filed with large
salmon. 1t was also known that there
were a number of men who did little or
nothing but see that the boys did not
fish for the salmon.
Well, upon certain day this boy and
the other boys were a good way up this
salmon stream and there were no keep
ers visible in any direction. AS they
were crossing a bridge over the stream
the boy happened to look down, and
there, just beneath him, was a salmon
that looked as big as a behemoth. No
one had hook and line in that juven-
lie party, but the boy saw big bowlder
little way off. With considerable as
sistance he persuaded the rock over the
side Of the bridge, the fish obligingly
waited a moment too long for his
health-and then he proudly waded in
and caught his first fish. 1t weighed Is
pounds.
Another boy went over to the house
of friend of his fathers to learn how
to fish in pretty little pond there was
on the property. His father had never
fished, but he managed to scare up a
hook that was almost big enough for
sharks, long hank of cod line, or its
equivalent, a dozen champagne corks,
and the boy knew where there was a
dead sparrow and on the way over
caught frog, which died before Ae ar
rived.
The boy did not find his fathers
friend in the least glad to see him. He
was busy, for one thing, and there had
not been fish worth looking at in that
particular pond for term of years.
So, to get rid of the boy on the easiest
terms, he tied the corks together and
the hook with them, placed the expired
frog thereon, fastened everything to the
line, tied that to tree, and told the
boy to watch those corks and not say
a word to him until they had been un-
der water at least five minutes. Then
he went back to the house with a good
conscience.
In less than an hour that boy came
running in to say that he thought
something might be caught, for the
corks had been under water for ever
so long. The two went back together,
and there was ten pound pike.
And that was this boys first fish.
This last isn't boy, but a woman.
She had never tried to catch anything
like fish; but her husband was a
clever angler, and she was a great deal
more willing to learn than he was to
teach her. He had gotten out Of il on
one Pretext or another until one day
their maid servant disappeared and
there was nothing for them to do but
close up the house and run down to the
seashore until their household could be
completed once more. They had very
few miles to go, and on their way they
stopped at the girls home-her name
was Mary Ann-only to ascertain that
she had not been there.
The next day the woman and her
husband hired a boat and sailed out
into the bay. There was pollock and
mackerel, and the man got his share of
them and something more, for his wife
did not catch thing. Presently her
line made fast, and strive as she might
she could not draw it in. Finally. much
against her will, she had to appeal to
her husband for help. AS she had ex-
pected, he derided her, saying that it