The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-23
BIG CATCHES OF FISH.
They Are Made at Night SEEMING on
the Mississippi.
New York SUM-


AS device for taking fish alive and in
quantity nothing has ever been. found
equal to the seine, and it is used on
many OF the rivers of America with
great effect. It is so destructive to fish
life, does so much to break up their
haunts and breeding grounds even
when it does not take them outright
that its use has been forbidden by law
in most of the states.
Seiners, however like the dynamiters
continue to bid the game wardens GO
hang, and to ply their nefarious trade
in spite of laws and shotguns loaded
with small shot. On the upper Missis-
sippi, which is populous with many
kinds of fish, the seine is dragged often
but the penalties for its use are severe
and the wardens are active, so it does
its work almost wholly at night
Two things may be said in its de-
Tense: 1t is used wholly by poor peo-
pie who need the money it brings and
not any of the fish taken by it are
wasted if they be of any value at all.
Dogfish caught are generally allowed to
rot upon a sandbar, but all others find
their way quickly to the Chicago mar
ket, where the commoner kinds are
sold in restaurants as lake trout and
the bass and muskellunge go to the
tables of the wealthy at a high price.
A SEEMING party will consist generally
of four men and the seine will be fifty
feet long by ten deep. Along its bot
tom edge are heavy laden sinkers 20
keep it straight in the water, and along
its top are wooden buoys to mark the
Mo Tu-1aA, Z,
top edge runs rope which is grasped
at each end when the haul is to be
made
The seine is taken in a boat after
dark to some fiat that runs up to a
bank where it is known the fish are
congregated. 1t is let down into water
fifteen feet deep and worked toward
the bank by men in two boats, driving
the fish before it.
When water not more than four feet
in depth is reached the men get out,
take the rope in their hands and march
steadily toward the bank. AS they go
the lower edge of the seine is caught
and pulled forward, forming a sort of
sack into which the fish are imprisoned
When two feet of water is reached the
net is rushed to shore and the fish have
no chance to escape.
The sizes of the hauls vary consider
ably. 1t may be that not more than
dozen catfish and buffalo are caught,
or 1t may be that the fish taken at one
haul may number hundreds
If the fiat be well chosen three or
four hundredweight of fish of all va
rieties common to the Mississippi are
apt to be inclosed. That most plenti-
fully caught is the buffalo, large and
savory fish enough, though not COM
handing a high price.
There will be also yellow and blue, or
channel catfish, dogfish. gaspergoos. or
drums, pickerel, muskellungs, bass,
perch and croppies; also turtles which,
If they have soft shells, are saved for
soup, and if they have hard shells are
left to find their way back to the wa
ter; also occasionally cells.
There is a certain amount of sport
and excitement about SEEMING even to
the amateur angler who does not de-
pend upon the sale Of fish meat for his
bread and butter. One never knows I'M
til the writing, twisting, tapping mass
is piled on the sandbank just what is in
the seine.
If the catch is good one the water
boils with the strugglish fish long be-
fore the meshes come to shore Some
great bass or muskellunge may be OBJ
served to leap high and clear of the
water in the effort to break through.
then to fall back and be swept onward.
The men are forced to- work with
torches, though the light may attract
the wardens, and they work with great
rapidity, being anxious to get their fish
into the boats and to get away before
SEEMING has been made illegal mainly
because it Injuries the bass and muskel-
lunge fishing and great quantities of
bass are taken in this way. In a big
catch it is not unusual to find two or
three dozens of bass, running in weight
from a pound to four pounds, and the
smaller muskellunge are often taken,
though not in such numbers.
A favorite place for SEEMING is in
narrow deep channel between a viii
lowed island and the mainland, and in
such a place ii somestimes occurs that
so many fish are imprisoned the four
men can hardly force the seine to shore.