The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-23

ed and the hook is fastened in the
tish's gulet it must depend for relief
entirely upon the hook working out or
dropping out through decay of the
flesh Immediately around 1t. This will
happen generally in less than a week
and if the fish has lasted so long 1t
will probably recover. Sometimes the
body of a fish is picked up floating
which has a hook fastened so in it's
throat that there was no passage for
food and fish hooked in this manner
rs almost inevitably doomed.
There is a great difference in the VIZ
tality of fishes. The large -mouthed
bass, though less active and game than
the small-mouth, will stand twice the
injury and will live out of water al
most twice as long. If 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 ana lively as when cap
tured; one of the small mouths will
almost certainly be dead and the other
two will die during the day If not re-
leased.
Muskallonge live a long time out OF
water and Withstand serious wounds;
wall-eyed pike die quickly. A man on
foot may transport live muskallonge
for a mile or two from one lake to an
other, 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 perfect
ly satisfied and fit.
The scarlet lined perch will die al
most from a scratch. Sometimes they
are taken from hooks not deeply seat
ed and thrown back Immediately, but
in little while they come to the sur
face dead
Not long ago William Kenyon of Chi
cago, fishing on Round lake, in Sawyer
county, Wisconsin, hooked a twelve
pound muskallonge on one or the float
ing wooden bats turned out in Dowa-
gic Mich. He fought the fish to the
boat side and then lost 1t by the line
parting just above the lure. He had
time to see that one of the hook gangs
was fastened in the right corner of the
musky's mouth. and the other had
Topped over and caught on top of the
skull by one bark. Five days later
another fisherman found muskallonge
floating among some bulrushes on the
other side of the lake. II was the Ken
yon muskallonge and had apparently
been dead for a day or two. The lure
was still in its mouth and the second
gang was still Fastened 10 the top OF
the head.
The man was curious to see what had
killed the llsh, so took 1t in and started
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 food, but in
some way two points of the gang on
top of the head had been driven is so
as to pierce the skull. This was done
probably by the maddened fish run
ming into rock or submerged stump.
On the other hand, muskallonge have
been taken which have carried deeply
bedded spoons of large size for weeks
without suffering much apparent dis
comfort. 1t is certainly true that COM
naratively few escaped fish die from
the hooks they carry, because large
numbers of them get away each year.
and it is rare that one dead is found.
Many fish are taken which show on
close examination the scars Of old hook
wounds.