The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-11-07
EIsH IaAI BEEAZs IEE LlE.


THE questions ae to how sons @19eA
viii stay int dsh That has broken
and escaped and as 10 whether or NOS
It will prove fatsl depena for ansEer
aeat deal OH the KIND of a1h @
character Of water ia which 1T is hooked
In very weedy water says the AeW
York sun, it happens sometimes that
two or three feet Of line stHl attached 70.
the hook wrap about q bunch Of stems.
and hold the fish a prisoner until g
starves to death or dies from exhaustion
consequent upon Its efforts to break
away, In weedy water where there q
no line attached to the hook the weeds
VIII often rub the hook from Its place ln
an hour or two, the fish making NO con-
scious effort to get rid Of It, In lakes
or ponds that have rocky bottoms q fish
with a hook IN it, jaw viii sink to the
stones and endeav0r to rub the hook out
against the pebbles and sand and it viii
succeed almost invariably.
II the lure has been deeply swallowed
and ths hook is fastened Ia the dsh'a
gullet 1t must depend for relief entirely
upon the hook working out 81 dropping
ont through the decay Of the flesh im-
mediately around 81. This win happen.
generally in less than q week and it the.
fish has lasted 50 long L viii probably
recover. Sometimes the body oE & Ash
Is picked up floating which has q hook
fastened SO in its throat that there was
no passage for food and q fish hooked in.
this manner is most inevitable doomed.
There Is a great difference in the VII
tally Of fishes. The Iarge-mouth bass,
though less active and game than the
small-mouth, viii stand twice the injury
and will live out Of water almost twice
as long. If a man will put three large
mouths and three small-mouths on a
stringer and hang them in deep water
overnight, in the morning all Of the
large-mouths Will be as fresh and lively
as when captured; one Of the small
mouths will almost certainly be dead
and the other two will die during the
day IL not released.
Muskallonge live a long time out OF
water and withstand serious wounds;
Wall-eyed pike die quickly. "A man on
foot may transport muskallonge for a
mile or two from one lake to another,
simply by hanging them upon a string
and toting them. When they are thrown
into the water at the end Of the journey
they swim away and are perfectly salts
fed and fit.
The searlet-fnned perch will die al
most from a scratch. Sometimes they
are taken from hooks not deeply seated
and thrown back Immediately, but In a
little while they come to the surface
dead.
Not long ago William Kenyon, of Chi
eago, fishing on Round lake in Sawyer
county, Wis, hooked a 12-pound musk
nllonge on n Of the floating wood bats
turned out In Dowagiac, Mich. He
l fought the fish to the boat side and then
lost fEbyst
I EUre. He had time to see that one Of
the hook gangs was fastened in the
Tight corner OF the musky's mouth, and
khe other had topped over and caught
on top of the skull by m barb. Five
days later another fisherman found a
muskallonge floating among some bull
Fushes on the other side of the lake. II
was the Kenyon muskallonge and had
apparently been dead for a day or two.
The lure was still in its mouth and the
second gang wal still fastened on top
of the head.
The man was curious to see what had
killed the hsh, so he took it in and start
ed to remove the hooks. He found not
only that the cylinder Of wood to which
the hooks were attached had become
fastened crosswise of the mouth, pre-
venting the entrance of flood, but in some
way the two points Of the gang on tor
Of the head had been driven in so as to
pierce the skull. This was done proba-
bly, by the maddened fish running into
rock or submerged stump.
On the other hand, muskal1onge have
been taken which have carried deeply
bedded spoons Of large size for weeks
without suffering much apparent ais
comfort, IT is certainly true that com
paratively few escaped fish die from the
hooks they carry because large mum.
bers Of them get away each year, and j
is rare that n dead is found. Many
fish are taken which show on close ex
animation the scars Of old hook wounds
r+----. gE.- 60