The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-09-09
HAPPY, DREAMY FISHING.
ONE BRANCH or THE SPORT THAT
BRINGS PEACE AND SLEEP.
Il !, the Art Of the suli Fisher. which Il a.
Old as the world and Requires No skill
Condition. which May Make IL Hard work
or Mere Pleasant, Thou ghtiess Murder,

Old as the World and Requires NO SkHl
Conditions which May Make IL Hard work
or Mere Pleasant, Thor ghtless Murder
ASHLAND, Wis, Sept Where there Is one
fy caster there are four bait casters, and where
there are four bait casters there are siIty-four
still fishers Still fishing requires no deGterity,
Therefore the ranks Of lis votaries stand twenty
deep. There have been always still fishers
since there were fish Noah. perched on the
sharply angled roof Of his ark and wildly swing
ing a hand line with three hooks on II, was a stul
fisher. Cleopatra on the Nile was another OF
them. Praad's Rec Fisherman" did a little
casting. but he permitted his hook 10 dangle
so that Nell Gwynnc should snap at the coronet
bait. on every sunny English stream for
five centuries past the still fisher has had sway
He has II yet, for the man who goes among the
modern Englishmen looking for casters VII
have his return passage pam by the Consul at
Liverpool Champion still fisherman OF them
all was old lzulk. n some astral preembodi-
ment of the future had shown him a quadruple-
multiplying reel he would have toppled over
In a dead faint and been too busy thinking
thereafter TO write anything. The boy with
bent pin and wriggling worm. splitting on his
lure and carefully dropping It into the deeper
places Of the shallow brook that runs from the
hills down through the peaceful valley, Is a
blll UsneTllhus 1tIUhps io may " W ei""
up and run a grocery store In a large town,
and II he does he will still fish until he dies
Everybody. in fact. who fishes and does not
know how to nsh is a still fisher.
This art consists simply In selecting q bait
and dropping ii into the water and waiting for
something 10 come along and take hold OF It
It IL a reflective art and, II persisted in, pro-
duces chronic somnolence. Lawyers who
leave the heated city in July and spend their
vacations in still fishing go 10 sleep in the court
rooms and wake suddenly To object" TO some
thing they have heard in their dreams Ply
sicians, wearicd Of night cabs and attempts 10
collect fees. spend thirty days where still fish
ing is rife and for six weeks aftcrward prescribe
morphia in place OF Quinine. Newspaper men.
their nerves worn a little fine by twenty-five
hours work a day eight days In tho week, sluin-
her for a half month In the lotus land OF the
bobbing cork and the untaut line and when
they return 10 the ONCE are eminently fitted TO
write editorials on the southwark march OF tho
Balkan frontier. II De Quincy had been a stnl
fisher he would never have penned his Com
lessions." He would have found surcease from
toothache and utter rest in other things than
laudanum. Also N Bresci had followed this
gentle calling he would have stuffed his largest
perch and sent II 10 Humbert as a token of
flial regard. There are no Anarchists among
the still fishers. Being an Anarchist is too
much like work.
The deadlineSs 81 this method, "A compared
with fly casting or bait casting, il supreme.
The still fisherman will catch more fish at al
most any time than tho perfected scientific
sharp able To get out q hundred feet against
the wind, and some times he will catch forty
four hundred times a. many fish. fills success
does not depend upon the selection Of gaudily-
coIorsd ARTIFICIAL sinulations n, ,nsac,s that
80 49,
heNel "eie "h 4e" VI "nu ~ On " siFeu
~ W
throush 'he wafer IL uepenus upon "hether
or not the fish arc hungry. II they are hungry.
no vanks them in hy The cord and ~ thew ara
- - oot.h ,haa, uuh
mr. not depends gensraIly upon the stage n, the
y. ~ ~ 49, sorr -, ,Ln moan q. ~. g.
OF moonlees nights, the underwater feeders
ara hungry hacstsa they cannot see m avi,,
md foad after the snn goes down In the IIsh,
I tme moon, "nen NIL n,r,e uineieIne
I'll" ~ hui.5iie o. ~ or, ~ II I'M w"o""rII
dhrk ana Gayhsht, ',eg esI az nasnt long eha
cohseluently when the Isherlnah sets aittr
!hrin tne htNt udH I.eS 'aAc h' in'''e'' III ahH-
'"TT Eor az = 70 no do % that e.b or. hunorsou.
anu tnat IheS prefer o,e na,t 10 aho'.tI ~
various ZINES Win no apparent reah.h there-
''" - 800 -[t'F.l'ts
must thus have q Earlety or io"dS win which
20 tempt, JUS as tle ny H9Uerflan carries ms
book stuffed with a dozen standard fieS ana
my Others thdt ar" mercy variations OF the
standard and Of no practical service. on all
The American game hSh, pr"hhbIE the OsWego
bus, or green bass, or bi~g-mouthed bass, IL
the most onnivGrou- and general feeder. Or
dinarly il may be predicted safely that II IL
hungry, and If II j. not it, lack Of appetite IL
due either 10 the fact that II has fed all night
long. or else il is IN. For this reason on West
ern lakes and rivers the plymouth Is the SWIM
mer most often sought by the still-fsher, With
this angler weight Of catch and number are
superior to quality, and when the Oswecos
are hungry they may be- hooked and ierked
or reelcd in as fast as the man with rod cares
Ia work. To the voraCious and hungry big
mouth all bats look alike. 40 that they have
meat in them and smell 10 them. Worms. salt
pork. dead minuows. dead frogs, old venison,
chicken entrnils and pieces cut from other
bass are seductive to its NAV. Drop the bait
over the edge Of the boat. or danglc IL from a
bank. and wait until the exploring glutton
hangs itself. that is the secret. So far az the
sport Of il is concerned, It is a good deal like
shooting a mans cow In his back yard. or fish
ing In a pond filed with German carp. but II
tho stiII fisher likes II, il is not 10 be contended
that any one else has the right 10 object.
Still. fishing for big mouth bass is practised
generally from a boat on some small inland lake,
Tho man az the oars paddles lazily along the