The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-30
EELS AS SURGEONS.
A story True ~ Gospel by the Vet.
eran Angler Of Eagle Lake.

To THE EDITOR or THE SuN-Sir: !
think the follow ing story. vouched for
by Judge" Hotaling Of Eagle Lake. may
interest SrS readers. III GELS have not
the wisdom OF snakes they certainly can
give them cards and spades on surgery"
SAID the veteran angler. Maybe YOU
wont believe what I'm going to tell
YOU" he continued. but ITS gospel
true, and every fisherman who goes
after them strange critters will back me
up. You row out some nice warm
evening in June and set a long night
line with thirty or forty hooks hi,chcd
10 1t on short lines running down TO the
bottom Of the lake.
Along about IL o'clock. we'll say. go
take up that line and there'll be twelve
or fifteen big cells caught that have
swallowed the FORM bats. They'll be
swimming about. and many OF EN- will
Rave the hook hsrhs actually sticking
out If their throats and stomachs so
that any n can see them. because
' they've pulled SO hard on the lines TO
get away.
Now YOU just throw them ccls into
a sieve box. cover EN- over with heavy
boards and leave EN- unit, daylight, as
I'VE done myself dozens of times. Youll
he surprised when you look into that box
the next morning. Every blessed one
of them cells will be crawling around,
and there won't be "A single hook in one
Of their slippery carCasses. Just how
they manage to get shut of them barl,s
Ia more h ] know. but they'll turn
the trick every time the hooks and lines
will all be lying In a pile In one corner
OF the box, just AZ though a man had
done the job himself.
"l've tried many times to catch EN-
At their unlocking game. but they we're
too wise TO let me into it. I'd like ia
know whether the cells operate ON them.
selves or help each other out.
"bf course you'll not believe that the
critters can do this, I wouldn't IN self
If ! hadn't seen IL done. Just YOU leave
the hook in the mouth. Of the next eel
YOU catch and see how soon that hook
VIII he lying on the bottom OF your
Ash basket.
"Eels. You know" continued the ex-
pcrienced one. ARE mighty queer crit
tiers, They are supposed to spawn In
the salty water near the ocean and run
down there every year for that pur.
pose, The little fellows come crswline
along back with their fathers and
mothers To the old lakes and ponds In
the spring. There used To Ice "A lot %,
EN- in our lake. hut some dams built
across the Hudson down Albany way
keep 'em now from coming back here
where they were first pu, in by fisher,
men from Lake Champlain, where the,
are mighty thick.
zone was caught here n few year.
ago ON Fox Island more than n ward
long, ana was az thick as my arm
below the elbow. That's the only ON,
I've heard OF around here for the las
twenty years. They are all gone, Ions
with the suckers that weighed thre,
or four pounds apiece. We used I,
smear en- up in Sucker Brook ahnu,
May 10. Why, we took barrels OF en-
In that way, or else ny hand. THROWN
OF EN- out on the bank.
suckers are most too bony to eat
nut they taste very sweet in the spring
long with cowslip green's on the side.
~; a!n't often that sucker, vii; i,h,
a bait. hut when one does you'l hay,
quite "A fight TO land him.
PETER FLINT.
EAGLE LAKE. April %.