The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-15
NORTHERN ANGLING.
STRIPED BASS AND CHANNEL BASS
THAT WEIGH HALF HUNDRED.


Sixty-POund Channel Bass Beachcd
without Can or other Aid-1,O6I
Pounds of striped Bass in Three
Days on Port DepOsit-ExcitinE
Battles With Sharks and DOgflsh
and Stingarces--A Well Kept
sporting Secret.
New York. June 13-Now begins the
season for monster-fishing along the
Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to the
chesapeake capes. The sportsman
who wade out into the surf to catch
the big fish that swim just in the
break" Of the waters, are inclined to
sniff at the mention of tarpon or tuna
catches, for the outfit used by the men
who go after those great fish is clumsy
and murderous when compared with
the light, graceful, tapering rods, thin
lines and tackle of the Northern fish
ermen.
The Northern fishing is sport in
every sense. The fish must be fought
usually without aid of a boat. they
must be killed by the rod because the
tackle is too light to handle them by
main strength, and they must be land
ed in bad water and generally by the
angler himself for most of the surf
fishermen disdain the use of a gaff
hook.
In addition. the Northern fishermen
must wade often chest deep into bois-
ferrous surf in order to cast his line to
the proper spot.
Mighty fish are landed every season.
But the facts are not published broad
cast The big fishing" of the Atlantic
beaches is one of the best kept of
sporting secrets.
The striped bass, king Of salt water,
leads the list. There are several scores
of rich sportsmen in New York, BOs-
toni Philadelphia. Baltimore and
Washington, who fish for this beautl-
full fellow and none other through al
most all the year. refraining only for
a few months in winter. Every one
of these men dreams of a monster
weighing more than 100 pounds. Many
of them have caught fish weighing
more than half a hundred weight
Jim" Flynn of Nassau street, New
York, known to every sportsman in the
country, lost one that, being caught
subsequently in a seine with Flynn's
hook still in his jaw, was found to
weigh sixty-five pounds.
An expert fisherman has just left
New York on an investigating tour,
commissioned by a half dozen rich
anglers who want him to find a spot
where there are striped bass weighing
100 pounds or more. They have told
him that they are tired of thirty
and forty Founders. They want
real fish" The expert already has
found one place where, as he reports,
striped BASES from ten to twenty
pounds are thicker than fleas on a
dog" That is off New Brunswick N
c., but he is not sure that any bigger
bass can be found there and intends
TO hunt farther
Hundreds of bass weighing from five
to fifteen pounds are taken along the
northern beaches every season by the
striped bass anglers who go after the
"big ones" They rarely record these
catches. To really interest them, a
bass must weigh at least twenty
pounds.
Channel bass or red drum, the huge
fish that can crush oysters in their
strong jaws, also are hunted by the
sportsmen who look for big game. They
range larger in size than the striped
bass, but are not quite as game. How
ever, they are strong and determined
fighters and as they not uncommonly
weigh more than one hundred pounds.
their capture tests the mettle of man
duQ TOu. Last year, u. +. MOrOSlnl,
Jr., son of the New York banker,
caught one off Edgemere that weighed
sixty pounds.
And these great fish are taken with
rods that, save for the heavy reel seat
and ferrules, would weigh not more
than ten ounces. Except for quality, the
lines, smells and hooks used are such
as are used generally for the ordinary
angling for salt water fish weighing
from three to four pounds.
Surf fishing is the method followed
most. The angler wades out into the
sea and cast his bait to the spots
where he expects that the big fish are
feeding. Trolling with worm or crab
bait from a boat that is sculled slowly
over likely places. is another almost
equally popular method. Still fishing
from an anchored boat is third form
of striped bass fishing, but it is more
popular with the anglers who are aft
er the ordinary run of small bass than
it is with those who look for the big
fellows.
Surf fishing is the most exciting of
them all. The angler has not only the
fish, but the sea to fight. And in the
broad backed surge that ever rolls and
tumbles toward him, there swim huge
things that he is not fishing for. but
must battle with when they choose to
take his hook. Sharks and skates and
stingarees hunt along the surf just as
the monster striped bass and channel
bass and bluefish and weakfish do
Thus Morosini and John Du Til of New
York, standing waist deep in a leaping
tumble or sea one morning on Long
Beach, Long Island, hooked eight great
sharks. The biggest of them was more
than five feet long.
They were fishing without gaff hooks
and had no choice but to work the
savage creatures until they were play
ed out. Then they reeled the fish in
till they could reach them and, sud
denly Selling them by the tail ran
them up the beach. The biggest one.
being thus seized by Morosini, turned
lightning and bit at him furiously
He jumped away and was barely
quick enough to save his legs. The
shark tore away a great piece of his
waterproof waders and the fragment
is preserved as a souvenir in the Mo-
rosini home in Riverdale now
The stingaree is a customer almost
as savage as, and even more trouble
some and dangerous than the shark
He is extremely like the skate in APP
pearance. but at the end of his long
sninv tail he carries a keen thorn like
the spur of a game cock. The swiftness
r-i+h which he can thrash that armed
tail around, is astounding. Its motion
is as hard to follow as the swapping of
the lash of a Transfers whip and the
aim is as accurate. Southern
fishermen declare that the thorn is as
venomous as are the fangs of a. snake.
This is not so. But the thick nasty
slime with which the ray is coated can
and no doubt often does, produce blood