- So You Wanna to Go Fishin? -

Everyone has a fish story or a favorite way to catch fish, but the best of the stories is not the fish that was caught but the eating of them (or else how they were prepared). Here's a short list of how to catch fish (the parenthesis refer to either a reference or the story in detail) and some fish stories as well.

Bow & arrow

Chumming

Cormoranting (a)

Using live ducks(x)

Grapling (b)

Explosives (c)

Fly fishing

Gill nets (d)

Harpooning (e)

Jigging (f)

Jigging - mackerel (g)

Telephoning (h)

Snaggin - paddle fish (i)

Snagging a schooling bait fish with bare hook to catch larger fish (j)

Shrimpers (k)

Rotenone (l)

Froging (m)

Long line (n)

Purse seines (o)

trolling (p)

Tub trawling (q)

trawling (r)

Throw net for bait fish (s)

Throw net for mullet (t)

And the other ways (u)

Vaccuum (also a way to catch chickens) (v)

By the tail (w)

In a small pond (x)

Cookin - guts an all

Fish frys (at Henry Cannon's and Cross Roads)

Shrimp - first experiences on what they look like and how to prepare

sniggle - Walton's method(c)

Mullet roe

Smoked mullet

Oysters - then and now.
Mr. Gibson's tale
Oysters from Aplachacola Bay
Oysters at Lexington Street Market

Lobsters at the Bay Cafe in Baltimore

Swordfish and the EPA

Mussels

Octipus, squid and other delicacies

Pompano

Flounder

Jew Fish - over 15 hundred pounds and it had to be towed back out to sea

There for the taking (Jim Moore's stories)

Blue crabs and crab cakes

Catfish

Baiting with dog food

x - Catching fish using live ducks

Now here's a story that was told in a novel by D. P. Thompson. The Story is about Gaut Gurley and entitled, The Trappers of Umbagog and was written (or at least published in 1860) Now this is a time shortly after our Great War when the West was being rapidly possessed by Americans as they displaced the Indians. Trapping and hunting was still a way of life for hardy soles that could bear our Midwest winters.

The group which had been assembled were spinning tales after the evening meal and it fell the lot of one to relate a story which was no doubt true.

" Some years ago I was out on the Umbagog, for a mess of trout, but couldn't get a bite; and, seeing a flock of black ducks in a neighboring cove, I hauled in my line, and rowed off towards them, thinking I might get a shot, and so have something to carry home, by way of mending my luck at fishing. But, before I got near enough to count with much certainty on the effect of a shot, if I fired, they all flew up, but one, which, though it seemed to be trying hard enough could not raise its body out of the water. As my canoe drifted in nearer, I once or twice raised my rifle to fire at it; but it acted so strangely, flapping the water with its wings, and tugging away at swimming, without appearing to gain, scarce a single foot, that I soon laid down my piece and concluded I would try to take it alive, supposing it must have got fast tangled with something, but with what, I was wholly unable to conceive. So, taking my oar, and gunning my canoe, so as to send it by within reach of the bird, I gave two or three strong pulls, threw down the oar, put out my hand, and sat ready for the grab, which the next moment I made, seizing the panting and now sinking duck by one of its outspread wings, and pulling it in, with a big trout fastened to its foot and leg so tight by the teeth that the hold did not give way till the greedy fish was brought slapping over the side, and landed safely in the bottom of the canoe. That trout, when I got home, weighed just seven pounds and nine ounces."

No mention of the duck which I suppose joined the hapless trout as guest for dinner.

(c) Sniggling is thus performed: in a warm day, when the water is lowest, take a strong small hook, tied to a string about a yard long; and then into one of the holes, where an eel may hide herself, with the help of a short stick put in your bait leisurely, and as far as you may conveniently: if within sight of it, the eel will bite instantly, and as certainly gorge it: pull him out by degrees.

Crow Cats Bears Squirrel Snakes

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