Arizona republican., 1905-06-23
A SALT RIVER SALMON
An Eight Pound Fish Brought to the
 City Yesterday.

A huge fish head hung in front of the place of business of Pinney & Rob inson yesterday. It had been brought in by Elder Roberts the inventor of the Salt river eat fish. But this was not the head of eat fish but of a Colorado river salmon which was twenty eight inches in length and weighed eight pounds. It was taken from the Salt river about six miles west of the city and is supposed to be the biggest fish ever caught in the Salt.
 It will be remembered that the first cat fish ever caught in the Salt was taken about eight years ago by Brother Roberts who at that time was sup plying the pulpit of the A NJ F. church lin the temporary absence of Q regular pastor. Brother Roberts made the mistake of eating the fish and then telling about it. At first it was thought that he was joking. There is not much harm in joke though it is not a very dignified thing for a minister of the gospel to spring a joke and !, his par ishioners thought SO But when he told them that he was in earnest and that he had actually eaten a cat fish found ih the Salt the storm broke Ly- ing was infinitely worse than joking. The spiritual leadership of Brother Roberts ended right there.
 But some of the members of. the church were inclined to side with him. They were. of the more credulous fac tiOn. To them a nineteenth century miracle was possible and they were drawn rather more closely to Brother Roberts than they had been before for was he not one to whom the Salt river cat fish had been revealed rather than to more Drofane eyes.
 Frank Shirley was among those of the incredulOus faction and he offered Brother Roberts a dollar for every eat fish he could produce. He even ex- tended the offer to any other producer of cat fish. Thus was the incipient cat fish industry stimulated. It was not long before cat fish began to be brought in. in a little while the tide of cat fish threatened to swamp MT Shirley out of the prOprietOrship of the Fash ion barber shop and he was compelled to cancel his order for dollar cat fish The cat fish was here to stay and Bro ther Roberts was fully vindicated. But he had learned something out of his bitter experience and that is that a fish story without ocular proof is null and void. Hence when yesterday he caught llliS tlSnL pound salmon he dld not go straight way and eat it but put it on the scales in the presence of reliable witnesses and then had the head hung up where it might be seen or all men.
 Mr. Roberts said that in the vicinity of the place where this fish was caught he hooked another much larger one But it got away and he recovered only a remnant of his tackle. He said he believed it would measure four feet but he does not want to be understood that it was actually that long. He be- Heves that something ought to be aI- lowed for the piscatOrial excitement under which he was then laboring.
 Speaking of fish of the Salt he said that the first ones found Were salmon For years no other kind worth men tioning had been seen in the river. About the time of the appearance of the eat fish the salmon diminished in mum Der and almost disappeared. Now they are coming back and there seem to be fewer catfish than formerly.
 Last year Mir. Roberts caught two fish which he believes were sunfish an unheard Of resident of these waters He is not however prepared to say that they were really sunfish. He prefers to investigate this discovery q little further.