Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-06

autumn, when the fiat founder begins II
bite, many of the railroads send out "fioun-
der trains early IN the morning for the
sole accommodation of anglers. They are
crowded to the guards every time.
To the salt water angler the season is all
the year. There never has been a snow
storm so fierce that search would not have
disclosed some hopeful spirits casting the
line into the sea off New York. 1t is OF
record that during the famous blizzard of
So an amateur angler of parts caught a
Goldfish off the point Of Rockaway Beach.
That angler is dead noW-dr.ven to his
grave, it is said, by the jeers with which
lis simple tale was received whenever he
offered 1t for consumption.
A Perpetual Season.
If the season ever may be said to be
dead, it IS dead from the beginning of De-
cember to the last week in February Dur
Ing that time only the hardy ones go forth.
Clad In oiiskins and boots, they SILVER off
the Coney Island beach, over The Rockaway
shoals and far off shore for miles down the
New Jersey coast, angling for the useful
but not brilliant Goldfish and ling
Washfngton's birthday is the opening of
the real season. Then the fleets go forth
to seek the spring run of cod and ling and
hake. The trains roll out loaded with men
who aim to capture the founders All
around New York there is no vessel so
mean that it Is not eligible as a receptacle
The number of founder fishermen that
crowd into any particular boat when the
rush is on is estimated simply and beauti-
fully on the basis of the room in it. Alb
Stract questions of buoyancy and sea-
WorthinesS do not enter the problem eX-
cept occasionally, when a faut-fnding cur
mudgeon happens to be of the party.
Why several hundred do not drown each
week is past finding out. New York's salt
water angler, as a class, is too deeply &C.
cupied with speculations as to catching
fish to devote much time or attention to
the means; and he goes FORTH with SUI
preme Inconsistencies of danger, in craft
whose condition would make an old sailor
shudder if he saw them essay to cross a
duck pond in a fiat calm Sloops whose
every timber bear convincing testimony to
their having been launched from Ararat
before the water subsidized: tugs that roll
guards under in the wash from ferry
boat; launches that toss as erratically as
empty barrel: rowboatS whose lines are
appallngly and prophetically coffin-like--
all go out filled with truStful persons with
fishrods, and to prove that truth is Strang
err than fiction, they always return. There
has been only one really great accident to
fishing parties in New York waters in many
years. This exception was the capsizing of
the tugboat Nichols off Sandy Hook.
A Mighty Fleet.
There are at least 200 sloops and schoon-
ers around New York that are devoted eX-
clusively to taking out fishing parties. The
demand for them is so great that after May
it often is impossible to hire them except
for a date far in the future. They are
kept busy until well into October.
Their owners generally sail them. and
provide bait and sometimes tackle. These
men know the best grounds from long ex-
perience. They know the waters so thor
oughy that they can drop anchor in the
right spots even in fog. They are among
the best sailors on the coast and they rare
ly have an accident.
The fishing parties that go out in these
boats or in the many tugs or other craft
that are chartered daily are surprisingly
der to shoulder. They drink from the same
flask, lose the same kind of whoppers, and
tell about 1T afterward in the same way.
Next to the sloops and schooners the IA
vorite vessel for private parties is the tug
boat There is an elaborate fiction that
only sea-going tugs may go outside of the
harbor. The anglers are not narrow mind
ed men. Their conception of a sea-going
tug is primitive. If it steams top-side up
they are content.
A noble and imposing craft that is I'M
pressed in the service Of oceanic sport is
the steam lighter. The owners of these
craft have discovered that they can turn
an honest penny with them on Sundays
and holidays when they cannot be used for
their regular work. So many of them may
be seen in the great feet that steams, sails,
rows. paddles and wabhles out to the fish,
ing grounds in the early morning.
The best fun Of all Ii on the fishing banks
boats that go out daily with the regularity
OF any other passenger vessels. There are