Evening star., 1905-11-04
THE WAY THEY FISH IN KANSAS.
River Floods Cornfelds and Farmers
Go After Fish With Pitchforks.
From the Kansas City Journal.


Going up in the mountains flshingE L
asked the insurance man who was telling
fish stories in the Pullman smoking room
Not much-better sport right here at
home 1 have just been up in Nebraska
City in an old river bottom of the M ssouri
and had more fun than I could have in
mountain stream in month. l go there
every summer for q few days. The river
cut off few hundred acres and left a mill
out on dry land. The old bed fills with wa
ter every spring, holding enough the year
round to keep the cat and bass alive"
IAN fish out of the Missouri taste mud
dy" came from a railway man opposite.
Not much" defended the insurance
agent 1.-The Missouri is simply colored
from the clay banks of Montana, and 1t
does not affect the taste Of the fish in the
least.
"T go up in Minnesota for the best of my
fishing" put in another. There is where
you get the 'muskies; and it is fun, too.
Every year I and my partner take our
wives and go up to the headwaters OF the
Mississippi river-Lake 1tasca and the little
lakes around there. We leave the women
folks at little settlement and we take our
traps and go inland to another lake, where
is the bull pen.
"Up in the stockyards districts?" inquired
the railroad man.
mo; it is an old Indians invention. He
has built a log house perfectly round, with
an opening in the center of the roof Dig
fire is kindled on the floor under this hole,
and there are ten beds around the wall,
every man with his head to the outside and
his feet to the fire. There are Indians and
whites mixed up in the bunch, but we all
sleep hearty, tell you
Fish in the lakes. l suppose?"
Lots of them. The finest fishing in the
west anywhere doubt if the mountains
could beat 1t.
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 partner and I hire a
boat and boatman and ship them up to the
head of one of the creeks or little rivers
that flow down the foothills of the Ozarks
in southern Missouri. Clear bright little
streams with rocks and pools and long
islands-no white man crosses them once a
week, and mighty few others. The fish
don't know what 1t is to be hunted
Seine emp inquired the insurance man.
quietly.
mot much. We get some provisions to-
gether and start downstream. The water
runs about eight miles hour, and IL
would be too hard work to row against the
current-that is why we ship upstream. The
boatman has nothing to do except keep the
craft headed right and help lift over an oc-
three miles an hour.
LAS the boat goes downstream We whip
the water for smallmouth bass. They have
been undisturbed so long that they Will bite
at anything. 1t is exciting, Tor the boat
makes all shorts of sharp turns. and the
skill II takes to stand and handle pole Is
something not often acquired
"They fish with pitchforks out in Kan
sas" put in the conductor, who had been
listening Zone day last summer we were
sidetraeked alongside the Kaw. and l went
out on the bank of an old river bed that
had been dry long 1t had been planted
to corn The crop was six feet high. and
the water had backed in from the river un-
til it was three feet deep over the whole
field. A farmer came driving through the
field. the horses spashing the water over
themselves and him.
Suddenly he stopped and reached over
the side of the wagon box with a pitchfork.
as IL driving for lost pumpkin. But 1t
| was a fish he was after. He got it-squirm-
| ing and wriggling. to the surface. hoisting
| II into the wagon. The next lunge brought
| up a twenty-pounder, and the third was
| bigger still. and he had hard work to land
1t. That old cornfield was fairly alive with
| catfish and carp, come in from the river"
Ibid he get them all?" asked the insur-
ance man.
mot that day. He took 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
! ths corn and kept fat. Every day he went