The Washington herald., 1919-11-03
FISHING By DICK PEED

The season for salt water Ash
ing is about over. Trout. which are
about the last to disappear from the
local waters. are nearly all gone
and but few catches of any conse-
/ Quence have been made recently
Cncontirmed reports of good catches
of hardheads come from Benedict
and points lower down. Bass fish,
ing is still going and this is the
real season for the big ones and
smelt is the best bait.
A. J. Moffatt caught sixteen
and one haIf-pound Mississippi cat
fish in the wide water of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal a few days ago
ago.
Harry Bartle just returned
from Hagerstown and reports seq
ing one of the local fishermen with
big string of smaIl-mouth bass.
four of them weighing over four
| pounds each.
Robert Y. Milburn and J. J.
Jeffries caught bunch of catfish
, in the 'Parlor." n well-known
place opposite Fletcher's. a short
time ago that weighed over fifty
pounds. The largest fish weighed
eight and one-half pounds I
George Burklin. one OF the local
anglers who goes to Chesapeake
! Beach frequently. reports the clos
: ing season as his best one in years.
! An amusing story IN which G.
l. Kent and Charles G. Simons were
the principal actors is being told by
some of their friends. Sometime
ago the two anglers met at Point
Of Rocks and doubled up for the
I sake of company while on the
water. 10th are good fishermen.
! Simons being particularly adept at
| long and accurate casting. The day
! was hot and the bass were not TAX
| ing the mad toms as readily as they
had anticipated and both had ac-
cumulated somewhat of crouch.
Simons was casting over Kent's
head as the latter stood up fishing
and complained OF the low casts
thrown uncomfortably near his
hatless bald head. Kent wanted
! Simons to elevate the cast and
/ Simons wanted Kent to sit down
I and put on his hat. The friction
went on and on and then came to a
! climax when the former made a
heave to land his mad tom near a
!, ledge about 100 feet away and in
stead nailed II securely to the top
OF Kent's bald head with a big bass
hook which went into the scalp
beyond the bark. What a strange
aatN
| securely nailed to crown and the
fellow who nailed 1t there shaking
with laughter. Kent was wild for
a few moments and threatened ac-
tion with a boat oar. but soon came
to appreciate the ludicrousness of
the situation and together they
went to a country doctor a mile or
so away and the latter cut the hook
out while the mad tom was still
alive and wiggling.
A party of nine local anglers made
what they termed their farewell "trip
to Chesapeake Beach a few days ago
and report the season about over so
far as bait fishing ia concerned. But
they were determined to bring home
some fish so they hailed a local mar
ket fisherman and bought several bas-
kets Of trout and rock but laid no
claims to catching the fish themselves
The party was composed of George
Hoffman, Joe Marquis, Neal Bell, Al
fred Rich, Tom Melton, Thomas and
William Collins. Eugene Heard and
Mark Sparrough. The latter per.
formed a strange feat with one of the
few fish taken A trout struck the
bait and hooked himself securely and
; then proceeded in some strange way
to loop the line around his tail fouI
or five times and in this way was
. brought to the boat sideways instead
, of head first.
The water will be drawn from the
i chesapeake and Ohio Canal in a few
weeks and unless the authorities gel
busy the bass therein will be Illegally
slaughtered as usual.
On a recent trip to Chesapeake
Beach Frank Lerch caught a peculiar
fish, a stranger to those waters. II
was about twenty inches long and
resembled both a pike and an eel
On top a few inches back of the
mouth was a fat place equipped with
a suction and the strange thing is
said to attach itself to drum and 9TH
er large fish from beneath and prey
upon them as a vampire bat does Its
victims. The FISH was taken to the
Fish Commissioner where the experts
recognized It. calling it some long un-