The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-09-05
BIG OCEAN ACROBAT
MoIa, One Of the Strangest Crea-
lures of the Sea.
Thousand Pound Fish, all Head, but
Can Jump-DeIicate P%ompanoes
Which Glide Like an A~eroplane
Striped Shark That Leaps.


One of the strangest jumpers it has
been my good fortune to watch and
is the sunfish, or mola, in all
probability the strangest fish in the
sea, as it appears to be all head, says
a writer in the New York Press. This
is SO seemingly true that in a speci-
men three feet long the vertebra is
but an inch and a half long. Some
of the fish weigh over one thousand
pounds.
/ have had some weird experiences
with this fish. In 1875 | was fishing
at the mouth of the st. John river,
Florida, for channel bass, tarpon and
big sharks, when a monster sunfsh
came sailing I'm and, like a ship,
grounded on the bar opposite Pilot
town. l went out to watch its capture.
1t was said to weigh 1900 pounds,
and looked it. 1t was IL feet high.
The next one ! saw was off the Isles
of Shoals, in 1871. l had been trying
to take a tuna with a rod off Boon
island, and on the way, in the dory,
we nearly ran into a sunfish. l hooked
on to it with a gaff and brought it in.
Later at Santa Catalina l found a very
large one. ran alongside, seized its
fin and bent il over the rail while the
boatman cut a hole in the fin and
passed a rope through it.
While we were doing this the mon
ster nearly wrecked the launch and
towed us toward shore; when we final
ly got it in tow our launch could not
move when the fish felt like swim
ming the other way. 1t took two
launches to tow this suntish, which
must have weighed over 1000 pounds,
into Avalon bay, where l had an ex-
cellent opportunity to watch and study
it, after which l released it uninjured.
Off Santa Catalina or San Clemente
in summer thousands of the young OF
this fish are seen from a foot to three
feet in length. They swim in small
schools: are very social, swimming
about the boats, engaged in a contin-
ual game of leaping. Sometimes wher-
ever you look you see a leaping sun
fish. At times they leap very clumsily,
but generally come down with a re-
sounding crash. To see dozens of these
big heads in the air coming down
in a continual patter is fascinating.
The big barracuda and the kingtish
of Florida are jumpers of high degree
The former is a wild and splendid
jumper after it is hooked, while the
latter makes magnificent leaps after
the bait before it is hooked; so it is
in the class with the tuna. | should.
not care to go on record with a mere
guess as to the length of the jumps,
but they are supreme in vivacity,
length and %exhilaration among the wild
. tinny tribes of the sea.
That there should be so great a
difference in the mere leaps of game
fish seems impossible to the layman,
but your keen observing angler no
tees all the niceties of the jump and
is quick to see it.
Several years ago was fishing just
outside of Arkansas pass, Texas, for
channel bass, which we took with
shrimp bait in extraordinary holes in
the lagoon when the g%afftopsail catfish
would allow it. This was an extra
ordinary locality for jumping fishes.
Apparently everything leaped, and at
the slightest suggestion. If splashed
the water with an oar a score OF
mullets would go into the air, and over
what appeared to be a variety of tule
there was a constant fash of scales in
the hot August sun.
Suddenly the pompanoes began tc
leap and | was afforded a remarkable
opportunity to watch their methods
The pompano is a little fish, hut very
broad. An ordinary leap covered ter
or Is feet. But the peculiar feature
was that this little fish, about the size
of the palm of your hand, did moi
jump high, yet covered incredible dis
tances. After watching several be
lieve l solved the mystery.
In leaping the pompano did not &c
up; it dashed out of the water at al
angle and when at an elevation of foul
or five feet l distinctly saw it turn OF
its side, and so, like an ~aeroplane, will
its broad surface to the air, 1t sliC
away in a long and graceful parabola
l saw this repeatedly, as the fish
we're Jumping by our boat every few
minutes, and one or two fell into tn
boat. A friend told me that In beat
ing up a narrow river in Florida h'
alarmed a school of these delicious
delightful little fishes and they cam
out Of the water in swarms, lombard
ing him, hitting the sail and falling
into the boat.
At Arkansas, in the pass, l hooked
shark, which jumped so exactly like
tarpon that l was more thar once de
ceived by it. In Catalina Harbo1
Cal, there is a striped shark whicl
" ka, hoolaa and u{uaG a YER