The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-27
OLD IRISH WH|SKEY
HELPS FISHERMAN
Commercial Club Man Tells of
Thrilling Experience in
Idaho.
HAD A BATTLE ROYAL
WITH IMMENSE TROUT
Angler Also Would Have
Drowned, but Head Was
Too Light.

Sunday afternoon, ut the Commercial
club, 4 quartette of old cronles fell to
telling fish stories. 1T may appear to
some that Sunday is not propitious
day for spinning plscatorial yarns, but
the usual objection could not be urged
in this case, because the stories were
all guaranteed to be absolutely true,
The banner story of the series, told by
a well-known Salt Laker, was as fol-
lows:
cone season, not so many moons ago,
q party of four gentlemen from Salt
Lake, myself included, went up on
Snake river for some Of the greatest
sport on earth. We had been in camp
one day and everything was going
beautifully. On the second morning
there one of the boys and myself went
out for some sport, 1t was cold in the
water and as We were within few
hundred yards of each other my com.
panion, whom l shall call Bob, called
to me, saying that he was so cold he
could not make a cast, and wanting
to know If l had any warmth on my
hip.
''I replied that I did not, but that
one of the boys, Jim was his first
name, had told me that friend of his
had given him n quart of old Irish
Lake. | Immediately started to camp
for it, jim tented with me and |
located the whiskey, II was in grip,
for jim was so very proper about his
dress that he donned a Tuxedo each
evening after fishing, and always kept
it in the grip with other valuables, in
order to prevent the boys from drown
ing it.
Performed Raffles Act.
S'I performed the Rafles act on the
grip and found the booze, Hurrying
10 poh al
which lowered the high water mark, or
rather the high whiskey mark, on the
bottle about three inches.
.'Sticking the bottle in my pocket, |
started to work down stream. | took
one drink Of the 'Old Irish before
starting down stream, and as | pro-
gressed, SO did the stimulant.
''The water was cold, so / took
another drink The water was still
cold, so ! took another l then made
a luckv cast and after lnnding
beauty, I said to myself: 'I'll take q
drink every time I catch a fish, And
gentlemen. as / live, those blessed fish
Immediately quit biting.
''When l discovered this fact, l said
TO myself 'I'll Just take drink every
time L don't get fish; then IN have
'em comm and goin'.
We'll, did so, and it was not long
before l was singing all the old boy
hood songs / could remember; and, un-
derstand. when L sing, things are
doin' L still kept working on down
stream and ] am afraid my gait was
not as steady as that of father 8 barn
yard fence. Soon l came to some riff
fies, ones which would have looked
impossible TO a sober man. I imme-
diately fell to wondering if anyone had
ever landed fish there. Stendying my
self carefully, [ made q cast, missing
my point by several feet, but l didn I
care for that. In fact, 1 didn't care
for much of anything at that particular
time except to sing.
Strange as it may seem, got rise
and was soon fighting the fight Of my
like a balky burro and played his field
like general
Land Down in Water.
''Finally, in the excitement, 1 |
dropped my landing net, paid no at
tention to this, but decided that | was
not in proper position to land that
fish, so I laid down in the water. filing |
my waders. The fish. which had re-
gained it's strength while I was trying
to lie down, began to fight again, and |!
after a few minutes I decided that J. |
was still IN the wrong posture; so L |
raised myself on my elbows and after
Ihlee VI 1puE IullIe dtCempCS 0Qdlly |
managed TO sit down in the water.
Then, with my elbows resting on nv |
knees, [ was sure that 1 was on the |
right tack.
'fWell, [ fought and played with that
fish. don 7 know how long, and finally |
landed him.
HWhen the fight was over I was
feeling little more sober, the cold |
water having had good effect, and / |
started for camp, convinced that | had |
landed the only fish ever brought out |
of those rifles.
81 have visited the place since and |
after seeing it in sober moments T am
more convinced than ever that no |
other angler ever landed his fish there.
The only wonder TO me, however, is !
that / did not drown, and the only wav |
can account for it is that NV head |
was too light to sink
All things being in favor of the Home |
Product, does it not deserve your pa.
tronage? Are you an eater of |