The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-05-19
CATCHING BIG FISH
ON THE UPPER JAMES
Interesting Renlinscence of Disciple OF Izaak Walton
Whose Patience Was Well Rewarded

ehbv. As the cork on the line just
settles on the water. il Ia drawn out
of sight, almost instantly. You give
Ii little jerk, and up comes a nice
little minnow, dark brown on the
back, and white underneath Gently
now: it is nice one; don't hurt him
in taking him off the hook. All. YOU
have him, just lie, him drop into the
bucket. which is filled with water aud
then you repeat the operation until
you have caught all that are large
enough Ia the hole, and then, go to
another, AS you proceed onward,
there are occasional short level pools.
sometimes six to eight yards long
Here now is your chance 70 get your
seine. into use, by creeping up gently
to the lower end OF the pool. You I'M
roll your seine, which has wooden
staff at either end, get these ends IN
TO the water on each edge OF the
stream. allowing the lead line to
form itself in the shape OLA cres-
cent, which causes the seine to bag"
in the middle.
Your scribe holds the seine. while
Joe runs ahead to the head of the
pool. bea ting the water with a stick,
which causes ali the minnows and
crawflsh to urn down stream and
.stserst-arrrri .setna, i7ss'.t.
being raised saddeHir tha whole
school Is captured. anywhere from
fifty to one hundred are taken at
once. After using our seine several
times. and giving fresh water to the
catch, we return 10 our boat. and
take up the large bucket. which holds
several gallons, and perforated all
around, into this We put about half
gallon of sand and sink ii TO within
six inches OF the top in the mouth
OF the creek. Now vie 20 TO catch
. supply OF Helgomites. which is Il
small black varment, found under
the loose rocks of the stream in shall
low. swift water, we wade in, one
holds the seine stretched, the other.
just ahead, turning owe revery stone
the swift current washes the Hegol-
mites off and lands him in the seine
He has pinchers on his head, and a
number OF legs on each side like a
centipede. with these he cIings to
whatever he touches. An old coffee
pot is the best thing have ever used
TO hold them. Bass and perch arc
very fond of them Next ne proceed
to a spring, and take ffFe4aa the. grass
and n1oss near it any number OF
crawfish hidden underneath, togeth-
er with spring lizards.
After getting through with this
task, we eat our lunch and lie down
under tho dense shade of the trees.
out from the brotling sun, and after
nice nap, We return to our boat and
deposit our bait in the large tub and
wend our way to the other side of the
river, taking the dead minnows along
to put on short trot line, made OF
grapevine, to which we attach sew
eral hooks baited with dead min
nows. Then we go home" to rest
before trying our luck with. bass,
until the following morning. The
next morning, Zoe and are early ut
the boat landing and upon lifting
our trot line. we discover four large
cat, Of tho blue variety. futtering on
the line. We put them on a string
and consign them again TO the water.
We then anchored our boat where
there had been an old dam washed
out many years ago. On the left
was pool about eight or ten feet