FISH WHICH CAUGHT MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 146, 17 July 1909, Page 3

FISH WHICH CAUGHT MEN.

DANGEROUS EXPERIENCES OF ANGLERS. Spinning for trout on a small river in! Devonshire, the writer once hoked a' ; salmon. His rod aad tackle being totally inadequate to deal with the flashing monster, he soon found that the fisli was playing him—not he the fish. i (He could not stop the salmon's frantic rushes, and had to run practically down stream after it. The result, as might he expected, was disaster. The cast parted and the salmon departed. Slimy a fisherman has had similar experiences, and sometimes painful and , even dangerous ones. Fishing 111 a boat off tile Florida coast. J. A. ISrpnton l hooked a monster tarpon the fish known in the Gulf as the •"Silver King/' j The great fish went straight off, tow-1 ing the boat behind it; the wind got up, and so did the sea; night cainc on, anil the tarpon showed no sign of giving iu. But the angler was made of stern stuff, and, in spite of imminent danger of I swamping, he stuck to his captor, and eventually landed it, six miles away | from the spot where he had hooked it. This fish weighed 1551b. Even more exciting was the engage-1 went 'between C. R. Scuddcr and a gigaatdc tuna, which he hooked off the California coast. The tuna did as he liked with Mr. Seudder's boat for seven hours, during which time it towed liiiu a distance of nearly twenty miles. The creature weighed 181b over the hundredweight. One of the fiercest, wickedest fish that swims is the barracuda, found from the Gulf of Mexico down to the Brazilian coast. It poesesses a fearful equipment of knife-pointed teeth, and has' large, black, evil-looking eyes. No negro will' bathe where barracudas abound. That famous naturalist, C. F. Holder, once harpooned a large barracuda off the , Florida reef which towed his dinghy round and round in circles and very nearly swamped it.' Eventually, when brought clos-c to the coat, it seized the oars in its teeth, actually snapping! pieces off them. The green moray of the Bermudas! looks like a conger eel, but it is larger, I and of a bright-green color. It* vicious■ncss is so proverbial that when the' native fishermen hook one they at once I cut the line. On one occasion, when an! English sportsman insisted on bringing j one into the boat, the awful brute' snapped three fingers clean off his negro | boatman. " The power and ferocity of the ham-i mcrliead- shark arc almost incredible. J!r. Holder, above-mentioned, once iiooked a large hammerhead oil' .S.i,iLa| Catulina Is' mil, which simply ran awav with him, and over and over again near, j l.v pulled the boat under water. If other! lout>i had not come to his assistance he' would have been forced to cut the line; I but it was not until five boats were all pulling together that the brute could be turned shoreward.—Tit Bits.