OCR Text |
Show BIG CATCHES OF FISH. They Are Made at Night Seining on the Mississippi. j (New York Sun.) As a device for taking fish alive and in quantity nothing has ever been, found equal to the seine, and it is used on many of the rivers of America with great effect. It is so destructive to fish life, does so much to break up their haunts and breeding grounds even when it does not take them outright, that its use has been forbidden by law in most of the states. Seiners, however, like the dynamiters, continue to bid the game wardens go hang, and to ply their nefarious trade in spite of laws and shotguns loaded with small shot. On the upper Mississippi, Missis-sippi, which is populous with many kinds of fish, the seine is dragged often. but the penalties for its use are severe and the wardens are active, so it does its work almost wholly at night. Two things may be said in its defense: de-fense: It is used wholly by poor people peo-ple who need the money it brings and not any of the fish taken by it are wasted if they be of any value at all. Dogfish caught are generally allowed to rot upon a sandbar, but all others find their way quickly to the Chicago market, mar-ket, where the commoner kinds are sold in restaurants as lake trout and the bass and muskellunge go to the tables of the wealthy at a high price. A seining party will consist generally of four men and the seine will be fifty feet long by ten deep- Along its bottom bot-tom edge are heavy laden sinkers to keep it straight in the water, and along its top are wooden buoys to mark the place where it has sunk. Along this top edge runs a rope which is grasped at each end when the haul is to be made. The seine is taken in a boat after dark to some flat that runs up to a bank where it is known the fish are congregated. -It is let down into water fifteen feet deep and worked toward the bank by men in two boats, driving the fish before it. When water not more than four feet in depth is reached the men get out, take the rope In their hands and march steadily toward the bank. As they go the lower edge of the seine is caught and pulled forward, forming a sort of sack into which the fish are imprisoned. When two feet of water is reached the net is rushed to shore and the fish have no chance to escape. The sizes of the hauls vary considerably. consider-ably. It may be that not more than a dozen catfish and buffalo are caught, or it may be that the fish taken at one haul may number hundreds. If the flat be well chosen three or four hundredweight of fish of all varieties va-rieties common to the Mississippi are apt to be inclosed. That most plenti-' plenti-' fully caught is the buffalo, a large and savory fish enough, though not commanding com-manding a high price. There will be also yellow and blue, or channel catfish, dogfish, gaspergoos, or drums, pickerel, muskellungs, bass, perch and croppies; also turtles which, if they have soft shells, are saved for soup, and if they have hard shells are left to find their way back to the water: wa-ter: also occasionally eels. There is a certain amount of sport and excitement about Feining even to the amateur angler who does not depend de-pend upon the sale of fish meat for his bread and butter. One never knows until un-til the writhing, twisting, flapping mass is piled on the sandbank just what is in the seine. . . If the catch is a good one the water boils with the strugglish fish long before be-fore the meshes come to shore. Some great bass or muskellunge may be observed ob-served to leap high and clear of the water in the effort to break through, then to fall back and be swept onward. The men are forced to- work with torches, though the light may attract the wardens, and they work with great rapidity, being anxious to get their fish into the boats and to get away before Interference. Seining has been made illegal mainly because it injures the bass, and muskellunge muskel-lunge fishing and great quantities of bass are taken in this way. In a big catch it is not unusual to find two or thrpp l(rpTlo rtf Vtiacc rnnnino- ir from a pound to four pounds, and the smaller muskellunge are often taken, though not in such numbers. . A favorite place for seining Is in a narrow deep channel between a wH-lowed wH-lowed island and the mainland, and in such a place it somestimes occurs that so many fish are Imprisoned the four men can hardly force the seine to shore. |