Profitable Scallop Fishing

New York, 1895

The baymen at Jamesport have hit upon a profitable scheme for catching scallops when the boats are held at their moorings by the ice. The enterprise has proved most remunerative. Two or three of the baymen club together and cut a horse shoe shaped hole in the ice, about 150 feet across. They then draw their dredges through the space of open water. One man can easily draw a dredge over the bay bottom in this way and can catch from thirty to sixty bushels of scallops a day. Such a catch will average from fifteen to thirty gallons worth. In New York scallops bring $1.25 a gallon.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 2.

What Sukey Caught

1916

Marian Churchill Graves

Although Janet and Sukey had fished together many times and never caught a thing, they were not discouraged. Almost every Saturday they sat on the sixth step of the high back porch and fished in the rainwater barrel below.

"It's your turn now, Sukey," said Janet one day, as she pushed the branch of a tree that served for a pole into Sukey's limp hand. But Sukey, being a rag doll, did not grasp the pole as she should, and the pole — twine fish line, bent-pin hook, and all — slid off into the barrel. Besides, the sudden push upset Sukey's balance and she followed the pole into the water. Janet almost fell down the steps in her hurry to rescue her dear playmate, but the barrel was so deep that she could not reach the pole or Sukey. Billy Austin, who lived next door, came when he heard Janet's cry for help, and with his father's hoe soon pulled Sukey out.

"Oh, look, what's this funny thing?" called Janet as Billy dropped the doll on the grass. "Has Sukey caught a fish?"

"Why, it's a pollywog!" cried Billy. "Sam Martin had some around here in a pail last night and he must have put one in there. It's a little frog, you know."

Janet looked carefully at the shiny brown body on Sukey's skirt. It seemed to be all round head and long tail, with no legs. Two bright eyes near the front of the head looked almost too big for such a little pollywog.

"Oh, Billy, let's feed him and keep him here, will you?" begged Janet.

Billy put the pollywog in a glass jar full of cool water, and every day after that he and Janet added fresh water and fed the little fellow leaves and seaweed. They could see quite plainly through the glass walls, and one day they discovered that the pollywog was growing two pairs of tiny legs. Every day the legs grew larger, and soon he looked like a frog with a long tail. Then the tail grew shorter and shorter until it was almost gone.

Billy said that now they must carry the frog to a frog-pond, where he could get enough to eat. Both children would have liked to keep the little fellow, but they knew that he would be happier with his friends.

Janet and Sukey still fish in the rain-barrel, but they never caught another thing. Perhaps Sukey would rather keep dry than catch even a pollywog. — Rome, N. Y.

He Lands 95-Pound Catfish

1916

Winona Man's Catch Is Thought Season's Record.

WINONA, Minnesota. — William Dixon of this city made what is thought to be the season's record catch along the upper Mississippi, when he landed a catfish weighing 95 pounds, near Dresbach, this county. The fish measured four and a half feet from tip to tip. It is said to have been caught on a set line.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Says Frogs Kept Him Awake

1916

Now Wants $2,000 Damages From Owner of Pond.

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Because bullfrogs made such noise in a pond near his home that he lost sleep during the hot weather, Charles H. Barton, retired capitalist, filed a $2,000 damage suit against L. H. Hughes, wealthy Riverview grocer and postmaster.

Barton charges that the pond was constructed by Hughes so he could fish from the rear step of his store.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 7.

Big, Impudent Black Bass

1916

Jumps Into Rowboat and Occupants Nearly Drowned.

LAKE MILLS, Wisconsin. — While boating up the Fox River a 5½-pound black bass jumped into the rowboat of Lloyd and Ione Thomas, of Waukesha, 10 and 12 years old, respectfully, and because of the confusion that followed a serious accident narrowly was averted. Other fishermen came to the rescue of the children.

It has been reported that on at least six different occasions this summer fish have jumped into boats on the Fox River and other Northern Wisconsin lakes. They become frightened, it is said, when struck by the motorboats which they are unable to see at a distance because of the muddy water.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 7.

Engineer Stops Train to Do Some Fishing

1916

Lumber Dealer Files Suit for $2,000, His Alleged Loss by Railroad Man's Act.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana. — Admitting that fishing is alluring, but contending, that business is business, Edgar Wright, lumber dealer, has filed suit for $2,000 against an engineer on the Baton Rouge, Hammond & Eastern Railroad.

In his petition Wright alleges he lost a lumber contract worth $2,000 because the engineer halted his train two hours to try his luck at fishing in a pond along the line.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

And They Didn't Exercise

1910

William M. Evarts, who lived until he was nearly ninety, said he kept his health by never taking exercise. The celebrated Dr. William George Mead, who lived to the surprising age of 148 years, spent nearly all of his time in the open air and played a little golf. Dr. Mead used to drink two or three quarts of water every day, and perhaps there is a suggestion in that. Old Dubois, who lived in Canada for the better part of 119 years on the north shore of Lake Erie, never worked and never took exercise. He spent seventy-five years of his life fishing with hook and line and ate nothing but baked apples and milk and brown bread and unsalted butter. Perhaps you can live that long if you do nothing but fish and eat what old Dubois did. But take notice that these long livers never exercised. — New York Telegraph.

Meant to Have His Life

1910

Vicious Attack by Australian Natives on Trespassers in Their Country

Men who venture into the interior of northern Australia are likely to meet with adventures at the hands of hostile natives. Here is a matter-of-fact yarn concerning one James Runine McPherson, engaged in pearl-shelling operations:

On July 18 he was fishing for trepang (sea cucumber or sea slug) at the mouth of the Liverpool river. He landed in a dingey on the east bank of the river, where a bush smokehouse for the curing of trepang had been erected. He dispatched a Malay with canoes and working natives to gather trepang around a distant point, while two natives who paddled the dingey went off to the lugger, which was anchored more than a mile out, with a load of fresh water. He remained at the smokehouse with three old Junction Bay natives, who assisted him in manipulating the trepang. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, feeling tired, he was reclining on the floor of the smokehouse, with a rifle across his knees, when he was startled by the loud swishing sound of several spears passing through the bough-covered enclosure.

McPherson immediately rushed out and saw seven or eight Liverpool river natives at the back of the smokehouse with spears shipped and with murder in their faces. Another shower of spears fell around him and he retired toward the water's edge and as he dodged one another long-barbed spear struck him in the hip. He felt no more, he says, than a burning twinge from the wound at the moment and instantly broke it off with his hand, leaving about eight inches of the barbed point buried in the fleshy part of his hip, The natives at this time were about forty yards away, having never shifted from their first point of attack near some thick bushes.

The man who had wounded McPherson was in the act of throwing another spear when McPherson shot and hit him. He then emptied his revolver at his assailants, who immediately disappeared in the adjacent scrub. Hearing shots, the two Daly river natives came hurrying ashore with the dingey, and conveyed McPherson to his boat, where he subsequently succeeded himself in tearing the barbed spearhead from the wound. Several barbs shaped like fishhooks were broken off in the process and remained in the wound.

The following day McPherson shifted his trepang gear and crew to another part of the coast and started for Palmerston to report the matter and have the wound attended to.

Telephone in the Woods

1905

"I've been reading," remarked a citizen who spends five months of every year in the woods, "that the telephone is a great convenience in the wilderness. The Electrical Review says that throughout the forests, from St. John to Vancouver, the telephone brings the lumber camps into touch with one another, letters are read to lumbermen snowed in 50 or 300 miles from civilization and the human side of life is made warmer and more vivid by this means of communication.

"A telephone does heat up considerably anywhere, especially when it won't work; but I'm inclined to think a telephone in the wilderness is a great nuisance instead of a great convenience. What an angler, hunter or botanist wants of one of the things is more than I can understand. They've got the Adirondacks fixed so that there's a push button in every other tree, and if you stub your toe a waiter'll pop out of the bushes with a champagne cocktail or a telegram. That's all right, perhaps, but why not stay in the Waldorf?

"A telephone in the woods is a good thing for game, though. We had our cabin wired to a village down at the end of the railroad one summer. Never again for me. I'd be dangling for trout. 'John, John,' would come my wife's voice, resounding through the aisles of pine and hemlock. 'What?' I'd say, mad clean through. 'Your Boston brokers want to talk with you a minute.' Or I'd be almost within range of a deer and that same 'John' would come floating on the air from the shanty. 'What?' I'd have to call back, and the deer'd be in the next county. 'New York's waiting; long distance,' the servant would holler. "Line's held open for you.' The only trout I got that season was a tame one I bought of a man who fattens 'em for market, and the only thing I shot was the ace of spades. I tacked it up the last day and blazed at it for spite. And now," he concluded, "when I go into the woods the central office can't find me with a guide and a brass band." — Providence Journal.

Lassoing Fish Through Ice

1905

Unique Sport Enjoyed on a Potomac Branch Stream

In Hardy county, W. Va., the south fork of the south branch of the Potomac resolves itself into a series of fishing or swimming holes connected by riffles. The water is from two to five feet deep and quite clear.

When the ice forms on these ponds the men and boys indulge in a unique mode of fishing.

Three holes are cut in the ice in line across stream, at which are stationed as many men with snares or strip loops of soft copper wire that will tighten on being drawn round an object. These men kneeling by the holes watch for the fish to pass.

The others in the sport go, some to one end of the pond, others to the other. Those downstream, by stamping or beating on the ice with rails, start the fish upstream, when the men stationed at the holes try to snare them. The men upstream in turn drive the fish back past the holes.

The process is repeated again and again, until the mess of fish is obtained, or the enthusiasm of the fishermen is exhausted. — Country Life in America.

Fish Bites Girl's Finger

1915

She Lands Prize Pickerel but Loses the Digit

MONTICELLO, N. Y., Dec. 16. — Miss Kittie Evans of Jersey caught one of the largest pickerels of the season here, but she is now minus one of her fingers as the result of her prize catch.

Miss Evans with her arm bared to the shoulder, reached down under the log to dislodge the hook, which had caught on the log. An instant later she fell back screaming into the boat, and when she drew her arm from the water a large pickerel came flopping into the boat. When Miss Evans attempted to loosen the hook, the large pickerel, which apparently must have been under the log, "struck" at the live minnow and also seized Miss Evans' finger.

The young lady was taken in an automobile to a physician's office at Centerville. The fish's teeth had so badly mangled her finger that the doctor found it necessary to amputate the injured member. The pickerel's weight was four pounds and three ounces.

All Comforts of Home While Hooking Trout

1915

Rancher Invents Fishhouse, in Which Stove and Camp Chairs Help Some in Zero Weather

B. Maynard, a rancher in the mountains near Bozeman, Mont., who is a devotee to the art of fishing, has contrived a unique fishhouse by means of which he and his friends can enjoy all the comforts of home while pulling in the sportive trout in below zero weather.

A good sized tent was boarded up four feet high on the inside, a floor put in it and a trap opening about a yard square was cut in each of the four corners. A stove was set up in the center with the stovepipe running up thru the canvas and several camp chairs were added for furniture. The tenthouse was mounted on wooden runners and tied in a convenient place at the shore of Madison Lake.

On fishing days a horse is hitched to the house and it is taken to any part of the lake desired. Holes are chopped in the ice under the trap-doors, a good fire is built, then each member of the party chooses a corner, seats himself on a camp stool and drops in his line attached to a short length of pole. The trout can be plainly seen at the hook and are easily captured. A number of record catches have been made this winter. A ten-pound steelhead was one of the prizes recently hooked.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 9.

Wave Tosses Fisherman Out of Dory in Storm

1915

Victim of Accident Drowns Out From Boston

BOSTON, Mass., Dec. 16 — Just as the fishing schooner Elk, Capt. Patrick Murphy, arrived at the Fish Pier, South Boston, in the gray of dawn the other morning, with her colors at half-mast, Philip Kusa, aged 24, one of two men lost from the schooner a fortnight ago during a gale on Browns' Bank, came in aboard the Yarmouth steamer, reporting that his dorymate, Gordon Goodwin, aged 22, of East Publico, Mass., had been washed from his dory and drowned.

The drowned man was a brother of Griffin Goodwin of the schooner Flavilla.

The Elk had been fishing on Browns' for several days. One morning recently, the dorymen, fishing two in a boat, were out hauling trawls. At sundown, Kusa, making his first fishing trip, and Goodwin failed to report aboard.

There was a high wind blowing and a terrific sea. Captain Murphy sailed about searching for the two men, but without success.

Meanwhile the two dorymen were battling with a terrible sea. Their little boat was tossed about like an eggshell. Finally a vicious wave washed Goodwin clean out of the boat, while Kusa clung on for dear life.

Unable to do anything to save his companion young Kusa clung to his boat and watched his companion sink. All that night he was tossed about by the waters and all next day. About 5 o'clock that night, weak from lack of food and drink and unnerved by the fearful experience of seeing Goodwin drown, Kusa was picked up by the schooner Pauline.

The schooner landed him at Shelbourne and he secured passage to this port.

Bruin as a Fisherman

May 1902

Old hunters say that the black bear does a good deal of fishing at this season. It is said that carefully studying the sun and approaching so that his shadow will not be cast upon the waters, bruin creeps cautiously to where he sees the telltale fins, and dexterously throws the fish out of the water with a sweep of his paw.

A couple of lads came across a different kind of bear at St. Mary's Lake, near Hull, Canada.

This one preferred having some one else do the fish catching for him.

The boys had got a good sackful of pike, which they had left near a stump while they amused themselves on a raft they had thrown together. They looked ashore after a time to see a big bear walking off with the bag of fish over his shoulder.

He paid not the least attention to their shoutings, having, as it transpired, taken the precaution of breaking the stock of their gun across at the grip before carrying off the fish.


Lovers' Thrilling Experience

Fred Tieman and Miss Rosie Beard, living a few miles below Evansville, Ind., in trying to reach a preacher's house to be married, were forced to cross a long streak of bottomland covered with about ten feet of water. The buggy was upset and the occupants thrown out. Tieman held his sweetheart in his left arm while he cut the harness, freeing the horses from the buggy. The lovers then held on to the horse's tail until the shore was reached, a distance of nearly a mile. The wedding ceremony was postponed for a day. — St. Louis Republic.

Blow-Line Fishing

1900

Advantages Not Possessed by "Invisible" Line Methods

"Some fishermen dislike a heavy line," says an old fisherman, "believing that it is more easily seen, and consequently alarming to the fish. I am convinced that this is an erroneous impression, however, as if a proper length of leader be used and the fly correctly handled it is impossible for the fish to see the line, not to mention the enormous advantage in accuracy and distance obtainable in the cast, particularly in a wind.

"A line which has never to my knowledge been used locally is known as the blow-line. I should have tried it long since for lake fishing were it not for the difficulty in obtaining one and my failing to remember this fact until too late each year. The line is constructed of very loosely woven silk, and is very light and porous. The fisherman proceeds to that shore of the lake from which the wind blows, armed with a very long, stiff pole (not rod), some live grasshoppers, willow or May flies and a small hook attached to a long gossamer leader. The bait is impaled on the hook and the pole given a quick jerk upward, throwing the line directly overhead, where the wind catches it and blows line, bait and all well out into the lake, where the bait struggles in an enticing manner. I believe the method to be a deadly one, and hope to try it some day, if my memory improves."


Dyed Birds

A resident of Presourg, Austria, after years of experimenting, has succeeded in coloring the plumage of birds by the administration of food mixed with aniline dyes. In this way he has produced red and blue pigeons, and has imparted to canaries all the tints of the rainbow.


Only Half?

Half the suicides in France are caused by losses at horse races.

A Leaky Reservoir — What NOT To Do When Fishing

1900

How the Heart of the Disciple of Izaak Walton Was Saddened

"These gloomy days," said an old citizen, "recall a gloomy day when I was a boy and went fishing in a famous creek not far from my home. It was a well stocked creek. There were bass in it and shiners as big as a man's hand, and quite a lot of whitefish that would run a pound or a pound and a half, perhaps.

"I got out my tackle on this particular gloomy day and went down to the creek. It was a muggy day and a warm rain fell from time to time in light showers. I found my favorite pool and set to work. By George! I never had such luck! It seemed as if those fish were waiting in shoals to seize my hook. I yanked them up as fast as I could bait my hook and throw in, and they came out so fast that I couldn't spare the time to string them.

"I looked around. Some eight or ten feet from the stream was quite a good-sized round hole full of water. A heavy rain the night before had filled it up and it must have contained a couple of pails. A happy thought prompted me to toss my captured fish into this receptacle. I fished and fished until I was actually tired of the sport, and then as it came on to rain harder I thought I would quit and tote home the biggest catch of the season.

"I rolled up the line on the pole and drew from my pocket the stringing string. Then I went to my little pool of captives and, by George! there wasn't a fish in it! No, sir; not one! You see, it was a muskrat's hole and there was a tunnel reaching from it to the creek, and every fish I caught had wriggled through this opening back to his native lair. There was no help for it. I stared at the hole and I started back at the creek and then as the rain began to come down harder, I reluctantly turned away and trudged home a wiser, though a sadder boy." — Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Get 10,000 Pounds of Fish

1920

Two Men Using Seine Make Record Catch, Mostly Carp

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Edward and Joseph Larbey, fishermen, caught 10,000 pounds of fish with a seine at Grafton, Illinois, thirteen miles above Alton on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Illinois River.

The fish, mostly carp, were driven out of the Illinois by the breaking up of the ice, it is believed, and took refuge behind a dyke, where the Larbeys placed their seine.

The haul is valued at $600, and is said to have been sold in the St. Louis market.


"Dead" Soldier Returns Home Finds Wife Remarried and Is Granted Divorce by Court

NEW YORK, N.Y. — John C. Ries, an American soldier, who had been officially listed as killed and who later turned from overseas to find his wife had married again, was granted a decree of divorce today in the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Ries served with a machine gun company of the 27th Division. He was gassed, wounded and left for dead upon the battlefield, but later he was picked up and sent to a hospital.

The Trout in His Lair

1907

He Is an Alert and Elusive Unpictured Beauty

Whoever has had the privilege of lying at full length on some mossy overhanging bank while watching a large trout in his lair perceives that a true figure has yet to be drawn of him.

Even photography can give no hint of the wavy circles from the spotted dorsal fin undulating loosely athwart the broad back, of the perpetual fanning of the pectoral fins, of the rapacious gills opening and closing, the half open round mouth, the luminous brown eye, the ceaseless slow vibration of the powerful tail, nor can pen adequately describe the startling suddenness of the dart at some idle fly touching the surface, the quick return to the old position and the resumption of the poise with head elevated at a slight angle, pectorals all tremulous and floating watery circles emanating from every slight motion of the body.

It is also worth while to watch a trout rush four feet up a perpendicular fall of water, pause, tremble violently all over and in a moment throw himself clear of the stream and fall into the basin above at an elevation of about three feet more. — Arthur P. Silver in Outing Magazine.

Slips of the Tongue

1914

Most amusing are the slips of the tongue which so often lead to embarrassing situations.

At an evening party a lady said to her partner, "Can you tell me who is that exceedingly plain young man opposite?"

"That is my brother," was the reply.

"Oh, I beg your pardon," she said in great confusion. "I did not notice the resemblance."

At a certain concert a lady asked a gentleman how he liked the duet she had just sung. "You sang charmingly," was the reply; "but why did you select such a horrid piece of music?"

"Sir, that was written by my late husband," was the indignant reply.

"Ah, yes, I did not mean — but why did you select such an ass to sing with you?"

"Oh, you brute!" screamed the lady. "That is my present husband."


Charity

Charity begins at home, and often ends there. It is usually divided into two kinds, namely, public and private. Public charity consists of a salaried office force and a subscription list. Private charity is what we give when we don't know what to do with the surplus.

There is also a species of charity known as genuine. Inasmuch, however, as it is never advertised in the newspapers, scarcely anything is known about it. — Life.


Saves Fisherman Trouble

Harness to hold a fishing pole, so as to leave a fisherman's hands free to manage his bait or catch, is an English invention.

Here's a Question for Anglers

1914

What Sort of Fish Hooks Did Our Remote Ancestors Use? Is Up for Discussion

What sort of hooks did our ancestors, our really remote ancestors, use "when wild in wood the noble savage ran?"

I am inclined to agree with the American view that the earliest type of hook, if hook it can be called, was a straight bit of flint buried in the bait. When the fish had swallowed the bit of meat, or whatever the bait was, the tightening of the line pulled the flint across its throat, and, as it stuck there, the fish could be hauled ashore without more ado.

Perhaps some bright innovator of that misty past one day tried a bit of flint which had a double curve like a pair of buffalo horns, and found it effective, and perhaps out of that developed the genuine double hook, which seems to have been a very early form. And perhaps the single hook that came into being because it was realized that one bend was as efficient as two for most purposes. — London Telegraph.


Another "Limit"

The stingiest man in Jamestown, the Optimist says, loafs around the drug store in the hope that the odor of the drugs will cure his cold. — Kansas City Times.


Quite So

The man who never laughs at himself misses many a chance for a good giggle.