The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-03
THE WAY THEY FISH IN KANSAS.
Rivers Flood cornfields and Farmers
Go After Fish With Pitehforks.
(kansas City Journal.)

(hanSaS City Journal.)
Going up in the mountains fish,
ing?" / asked the insurance man who
was telling fish stories in the Pullman
smoking room.
mot mueh-better sport right here
at home. l have just been up by
Nebraska City in an old river bottom
of the Missouri and had more fun than
/ could have in a mountain stream in 4
/ month. I go there every summer for
q few days. The river cut off 4 few
hundred acres and left a mfll out on
dry land. The old bed fills with water
every spring. holding enough the year
round TO keep the cat and bass alive"
"All fish out of the Missouri taste
muddy" came from railway man op-
I posite.
mot much" defended the insurance
! agent. "The Missouri is simply co)ored
from the clay banks of Montana and it
does not affect the taste OF the fish in
the least"
/ II go up in Minnesota for the best of
my fishing" put in another. There =
where you get the muskies and il is
fun, too. Every year 1 and my partner
take our wives and go up to the head
waters of the Mississippi rivel Lake
lldSNd anu the lllllE ldhtS al OhilO StiNAf-.
We leave the women folks at little
| settlement and we take our traps and
go inland to another lake, where is
| the bull pen.
7 Up in the stockyards districts" in
CURED the railroad man.
mo: it is an old Indians invehtinn.
He has built a log house perfectly
round with an opening in the centre Of
! the roof. A big fire is kindled on the
4 Frf1
| beds around the wall, every man with
| his head to the outside and his feeJ 20
1 the fire. There are indians and whites
mixed up in the bunch, but Ne all
sleep hearty. tell you"
Fish in the lakes. / suppose
J Lots OF them. The finest fishing IN
the west anywhere doubt if the
mountains could beat it."
| The railroad man, who had been
/ listening closely, turned TO The speaker.
! "Oh, l don't know" he drawled. did
you ever fish in a Missouri creek"
The crowd laughed. The railroad
man was indignant.
THAT is no joke. Let me tell you
what / do once a year. My partn+"
and / hire a boat and boatLan AMI
ship them up TO the head of one or tie
creeks or little rivers that slow down
| the foothills of the OzarKs, III southern
Missouri. Clear. bright little streams,
with rocks and pools and long Islands
no white man eros ;es them oEce
week, and mighty few others. The
J fish don't know what It is to be
hunted"
Seine 'em?" inquired the insurance
| man quietly.
Not much. We gat some provisions
/ together and start down stream. The
water runs about eight miles an hour
/ and Ii would be too hard work 10 row
against the current-that is why We
/ ship up stream. The boatman has
nothing to do except keep the Graf:
/ headed right and help lift over an &C
casional falls. The fish so up stream
about three miles an hour.
LAS the boat goes down stream we
whip the water for small mouth bass.
They have been undisturbed so -ms
! that they will bite at anything. 1t ~
exciting, for the boat makes all sorts
| of sharp turns and the skill II takes 10
stand and handle a pole is something
! not often acquired
I They fish with pitchforKs out IN
| Kansas" put in the conductor, who
! had been listening. zone day las-
! summer we We're sidetracked alongside
/ the Kaw and I went out on the bank OF
/ an old river bed that had been dry so
! long it had been planted to corn. The
crop was six feet high and the water
/ had backed in from the river until 1t
was three feet deep over the whole
! field A farmer came driving through
= the field, the horses splashing the
water over themselves and him.
suddenly he stopped and reached
over the side of the wagon box with
! pitchfork as if driving for a lost
, pumpkin. But it was a fish he was
| after He got it-squirnling and wrig-
| Cling, to the surface. hosting it into
the wagon. The next lunge brought up
/ a twenty FOUNDER, and the third was
/ bigger still, and he had hard work TO
| land il. That old cOTnfeld was fairly
! alive with catfish and carp, come in
| from the river"
did he get them alp" asked the in
/ suranCe man.
| mot that day. He took a wagon
| load to town and then stretched
/ barbed wire fence across the opening
/ that led TO the river and held the
! others In. They fed on the corn and
/ kept fat. Every day he went in and
/ speared another load. The crop lasted
| most of the summer and he made
enough out Of the fish 10 buy an auto
! mobile and an imported bull pup"
/ The conductor did not wait for COM
ments. With the last words he called
I out, kansas City, Union station. All
! change!'