Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-14
THE MISSISSIPPI FULL OF MEM.
BEERS OF FINNY TRIBE.
IT is The GREATEST IN THE WORLD
ottumWa Fishermen Need Not Go to
Wooded Lakes to Enjoy Their Fa-
vorite Sport But May Find 1t in the
Father Of Waters to Hearts Content

oSeuuWd pSOple WHO WduU 10 SpGuu
their summer vacation wooing the fes-
tive game fish need not HE themselves
away to some deep-seated lake far
away from civilization in the northern
forests but may spend the time very
profitably and pleasantly, and within
the reach Of restaurant victuals and
daily papers while they cast their flies
in the waters of the Mississippi. The
biggest game fish stream in the world
is the Mississippi. 1t contains wall
eyed pike, pickerel, muskallogne and
three varieties of bass-the genuine
small-mouthed. pingeyed black bass.
the Oswego, or large-mouthed bass,
with yellow eyes, and the large mouth
of slender form, with red eyes, which
some anglers believe to be cross be-
tween the small mouths and the large
mouths. To the man used to fishing in
small streams or on wood lakes the
Mississippi offers pleasant change.
The game fish part of the river does not
extend great way south from It's head
waters. That is there is not much of 1t
compared with the rivers total length
only about 800 miles or So
It begins little way south of Itasca,
though the fishing there is only fair 1t is
good at ST. Paul, tiongh not notably so,
and is at Its hest hundred miles below ST.
Paul It ends, practically, close to the
southern end Of Illinois. little way
above st. Louis the catfish and buffalo wa
tiers begin and continue to the Gluf
The upper Mississippi for hundreds Of
feet high. Always they are steep and Of
ten they are broken into precipices inacces-
sible to anything save fhe ruffed grouse
which whir up their surfaces and make
phenomenally difficult shooting.
yhe country in spring, summer and fall
is one Of the most beautiful in America
though 1t has escaped the pencils OF mr.
lists. Between the unbroken bluffs of the
river, a mile or two miles wide, rolls to
the sea, and 1t is split into fifty channels
by small willowcoyered islands built first
of sand-bars, on the atoll principle, with
little lake In the centre.
Always at the lower end of an island Is
mn eddy, and always In the eddy are bass
and other 6ghters.
The NIississlppi, In Its upper reaches is
very beautiful water Except In flood
time 1t is clear and bright. fairly transpar-
ent, and In deeper places has a blue tinge
Z It offers remarkably handsome color con-
trasts flowing between islands covered
with the pale green of the willows, and in
the fall, when the bluffs on each side are
masses of all woodland hues, there is n riot
or pigments unsurpassed where In the
world. Viewed from one of the bluffs It
seems a vast chasm, with bottom of pale
green, blue, brown and silver. and por-
tions of 1t much broken by the islands are
not unlike cheekerboard, with some
sqpares Of green and the others of many
cOlors
There are SO many islands and SO many
channels, forming a labyrinth of narrow
passageways, that a man unaccustomed to
the stream will do well to take a guide
with him when he leaves bank in the morn
Ing, for he can become lost as easily as In
the thickst woods and after rowing all day
be forced to camp out that night. There is
story OF green angler from the city
with an expensive outfit who disdaned
guides and started out from Lansing be-
low Lacrosse one morning, and when he
got to the bank he was at Moline, some
thing like 1aO miles below For three days
he had eaten nothing save unsaited fish
broiled on Goals, he had been bitten by an
unimaglnable number of mosquitoes and
he was ready for a bath and a steak
The world does not hold Il more eonyeni-
ent fishing stream than the Mississippi
1t is reached by three or, four railways
and the accommodations In the small towns
along Its banks, while poor, are cheap
There is any quantity of water TO fish In
No man is restricted to any certain bit of
water II is not preserved anywhere.
Any kind of game fishing common to tho
west may be had. One may cast or still