The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-09-04
NOT FAIR TO THE FISH.
New Devices for Catching The"
which Are MurderOus and
Require NO Skin.

The ingenuity of a good many men
is turned toward the inventing and
perfecting of cruel and unsportsman-
Like devices for taking fish, and each
year the shops show greater variety
of them. The hook of our daddies was
a plain barbed affair, surmounted
sometimes with a piece of tin, which
was the first attempt at the artificial
minnow. They caught good fish with
it and caught them In decent way
saws the New York Sun.
II their hooks became entangled in
weeds they worked them loose or cut
the lines, and when they went to
camp at night they had the satisfac-
ton of knowing that they had cap
tured their catch fuirly.
Against the single NEEDLESS hook
there is nothing to be said. 1t opposes
a single point to the fish, which is fair
enough. Following the single hook,
NEEDLESS or not, came the hook-gangs
and they are indefensible.
The simplest and most usual form
OF them is made of three hooks, set
back to back and tailed on to a spoon
or phantom minnow. Often two OF
their points enter the fish as once and
they are so arranged as 10 catch al
most !nfalhbly from whatever point
it makes it's rush
This Is putting three hooks against
one fish and would seem to be enough
- oJ,s tn, m n q lYp hIlf
following them came the minnows and
spoons which had three hooks at the
tail, gang OF three on the right side
of the lure and another gang of three
on the left side. That made nine hooks
against one fish.
Not content, the inventors proceed
ed 10 evolve a diabolical machine
called the eagle The hooks are set
about a powerful interior spring, the
points hidden in the tail Of the lure.
When that tail Is grasped the springis
released and the barbs are thrown
outward with great force, Embedding
th ems selves In the bass mouth.
This concern does away with all
skill, strength and quickneSs Of wrist
on the part OF the angler, He has only
20 trail his lur. through the water.
When the bass strikes, the spring does
the rest.
The hooks are so large and are
thrown In so strongly that the fish
stands no chance at all 10 shake itself
free or work itself free. This year We
have the eagle" spring not only in
the tail OF the lure but along its sides,
and any bass which noses that fatal
bait s. n victim, whether the man with
the rod knows anything about angling
or not.
There Is also lnrge concern with
long-shanked hooks whose points are
spread wide apart and the bait is In
their center. II Is intended for still
fishing. When the bass puts In its head
To seize the minnow or crawfsh or
frog, these three hooks come down on
II viclously and hook II through the
top and sides u the head, sometimes
penetrating the spinal cord or the
brain-pan, and killing instantly.
This sort Of arrangement Is just one
remove from u BUCK OF uSHdlllif'
There are laws IN all the states against
using explosives or fish and laws In
many Of them against seining bassand
trout, but there Ii no law against these
spring gangs, though they are indiyid-
ually as fatal and al opposed 10 true
sport.
Indeed, the geiners and dynamiters
have rather the best Of It, since they
want the fish generally for market
sell them and need the money, while
the user Of the spring hooks poses as
n gentleman angler and carries often
an expensive outfit
The hook gangs are now placed on
all forms Uf lures and the spring
gangs are Embedded In artificial min
nows, frogs, crawhsh, helgramites,
field mice and so forth. The fish are
having a harder time OF IL with each
year and the use Of these devices goes
long way toward explaining why
certain once fruitful waters are now
nearly hEhed out,