| Show FISH CAUGHT IN angler has a strange adventure with a bass finny prey escapes at he the 9 last moment S george benz of st paul Is probably I 1 the only man in the country who ever k caught a bass or came near catching one with a line on which there was not hot hook bait or sini er it happened in this way the I 1 ne a silk no 5 had become t considerably twisted in trolling so twisted in fact that it would kink badly when reeled in all ines 1 nes get that way though spoons and most oth er artificial baits hae haie swivels on them to straighten 0 liten out the I 1 ne benz took atif bait and hook from it and trolled tehina it behind the boat it is an old trick but known to comparatively few fish i ermen the line in going through the water without a spoon on it reveres the twist and straightens out in a lit tie tle while ahil trolling in this fashion benz felt a jerk and then a succession of sharp tugs with no idea other than that his line had become fouled by a floating weed or branch he reeled in slowly when not more than twenty f feet was out he became convinced that he had fastened to a fish in some manner he then played it as carefully as he could anxious to see the outcome of the strange happening the fash fought gamely and tried all it t I 1 new to get away but was brought in until it showed plainly in the water it was a half pound red eyed bass and it was caught about the body near the middle it lv wc s broi brol to the boat boats edge all right but in the attempt to I 1 ft it in gave one final flirt and got clear falling back into the water and darting away finhen hen benz removed his spoon from th I 1 ne he left in its end the plain loop which is known as the fishermen s bend this loop was about four inches long and when the line was aas dragging through the water must have floated open the fish either struck at the line or was swimming fast when it ian into the loop which was just big enough to permit of the passage of a part of its body in fighting the rod it kept the I 1 ne at a stiff tension and there was no chance for the loop to slip off benz would have given something to land that fish but as it was had an experience that will never come to him or to anyone else again fish have been caught or partly caught in many ways but a red eyed bass in the loop of an unhooked an baited line Is unique |
