The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-04
BIG CATCH.
Ffty-seven Ling and . Skate on one Line
n He Never Came back.

and He Never Came Back.
They were telling fishing stories in front
Of the buffet in Stillwell's, at Gravesend
Beach, and several accounts Of remark
able catches had been given, when Capt.
Kenney OF the auxiliary sloop Jennie r.
spoke up.
The Jennie r. Is a stanch little vessel
that takes out fishing parties. and these
parties are mossly made up OF devoted
fishermen who know what kind Of fish are
running at various seasons and what sort
Of tackle to bring along to get them. But
once in a while a freak fisherman with freak
tackle turns up at the pier and goes along
too.
Talking about big Catches said Capt
Kenney. when he spoke up, "the biggest
catch I ever saw made on a single line
was ~ffty-seven ling and a skate. IL was
on a Thanksgiving Day. two or three
years & {.
I'VE started out about 9 o'clock in the
morning with some sixty fishermen aboard,
most Of whom had been with mo often
and knew how to catch fish. II was but
little past low water. and In going out We
stuck on the bar.
while we were getting on there was
q commotion on the float and a skin put of
with a man in it who was waving his hands
e1citedly and shouting for me to wait. He
got aboard. all right. for it took US fifteen
minutes or so TO get across the bar.
while we were going down TO the bell
buoy the fishermen overhauled their tackle
and baited up. The stranger who had
come out in the skiff also got out his tackle.
You should nave seen it.
with a fathom OF chain for q leader IL
would lave been just the thing TO catch
sharks with. The line was a small hawser
and the hook would have anchored the
sloop in a blow.
well, we came TO down bv the bell buoy
chain with the tide the fishermen were
pulling in lines. The bay was alive with
them.
1T was cast and haul in all the time for
everybody but our friend who had come
aboard in the skiff. He had taken for him
his hook and solemnly lowered It over
board: b't he wasn't getting a bite.
when il was getting to be time for US to
ret M anchor and start for home because
the fishermen had more fish than they could
carry, the stranger got busy. Something
was IN his hook.
His line tore through the water back
and forth from stem TO stern OF the sloop.
II described circles along TIE side OF tire brat
and zigzagged here and there. The lines
OF the fishermen were wound up in &skein
and some of them were snapped from the
rods.
THE stranger fisherman braced himself
and hung on 10 his line desperately and the
others BEGAN to CIT their lines IN save their
rods and reels. The water fairly billed.
AT len 9Th two or three Irishmen went to
the aid OF the stranger and helped him to
bring up his line with a steady pull. The
catch -as landed on deck.
In me midst OF it was a skate as big as
the top of a cook stove, and twisted about
the line that held him were all the other
lines that he had entangled while skating
through the water.
@On the way ur from the bell buoy the
fishermen untangled some of their lines.
but most OF them had to be cut. Every
line had a ling on it and every line was
tangled up with the line that caught the
skate; and the total number OF fish hauled
up on that one line was ffty-seven ling
and a skate-and I can prove IL.
The stran ger said that his name was
and that he wasn't very used to
fishing. He was so gratified over his big
catch that he offered to pay for all the
damage his skate had done.
The fishermen good naturedly refused
to be compensated and insisted that he
should take the fifty-seven ling and the
skate home. He left the skate, n the
last l saw OF him he was going up Harway
avenue with the ling on his back in a burlap
bag. No, he never came back"