Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-01

Inspired by the open winter and warm
| weather, members of the local colony oi
anglers We're Oh the river last Sunday to
try their luck, and not only were many
fish caught, but Billy Cooper, member OF
the Anglers Club, broke record. He
landed two snall-mouth black bass.
''The real gamesters. he remarked
land 1 have a witness to the CATCH
Billy Cooper was at the clubhouse Sun
day. and the weather was so fine that he
thought it possible to catch d fish He
thought if he could not get a bass that
Mississippi catfish might come along
Angling records for many years past
fail to show that small-mouth black bass
have been caught in January. Joe Hun
ter, one of the best known sportsmen in
the District stood on the canal bank at
Whitewater and witnessed the landing of
the bass by Cooper.
The fish weighed about one and a half
pounds each, and when the first one was
pulled from the water the two anglers
were very much surprised.
. "One of the fish put up pretty fight,
the angler said, and the second one was
lively enough to make the catch inter
esting''
Joe Hunter tried his luck. He got one
rise" but did not hook the fish. Billy
Cooper. rod in one hand and the fish liz
clubhouse and displayed his catch.
Mack SparrouSh and Warren Reed have
had great sport on the river the past
two weeks catching the several varieties
of catfish that are to be found in the
POtomaH. Mississippi, channel and forSed
tail catfish have been landed by them.
not only in great numbers, but also in
sizes big enough to make it a difficult
problem to get them home.
The largest of SUNDAYS catch was a
forked tail, one of the several varieties
brought here from the Mississippi river,
which weighed nineteen pounds. and it
put up fight that lasted fully twenty
minutes.
So rapidly did the fish make down
stream" said the angler, that it took
nearly all the line from the reel 1t
made a sudden turn in the direction of
up stream. After several such attempts
/ succeeded and finally managed to land
it,
The two anglers caught many as
three dozen fish one afternoon. Most of
their fishing was done at place above
the Aqueduct bridge known as Hens and
Chickens
Dan Veihmeyer and Tommy Wright
did not overlook the fish last Sunday.
Veihmeyer thought he hung the biggest
fish in the river. He did not get the fish.
he explained, but the monster carried off
part of his line and broke his rod
1.-The fish was whopper, all right,
commented Mack Sparrough. II was not
far away when he had his exciting ex-
perience and ! witnessed the entire trans
action. I am sure the fish weighed fifty
pounds"
Mack became excited while relating the
story of the near catch to friends and
seemed to enjoy the recital of the story
as much as he had the exciting scene.
Sixteen Mississippi catfish were land
ed by the two anglers, the smallest
weighing two and the largest seven
pounds.
While many anglers were on the river
landing big catfish. Gus Kneessi was on
the river at the tidal basin spooning for
plymouth bass. The water and weather
conditions were about right for spooning,
the angler said, and he saw no reason
why he could not land few fish,
He had been on the water but a few
minutes before his early season efforts