Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1878 — A Fight With a Bass. [ARTICLE]

A Fight With a Bass.

The Norwich (Ct.) Bulletin tells a story of a remarkable struggle with a giant bass, caught in a seine, at Niantic. One escaped by breaking the meshes. A second they got upon the beach. They had hardly dropped the cords before he broke from the meshes, and, springing high in the air, plunged down the shore toward the sea, ten or twelve feet away. The men dashed excitedly after him, and vainly sought to stop him with desperate kicks from heavy fishing-boots, arid blows from such implements as they could pick up on the beach. No one dared to grasp the monster, as a bass of large size, armed with its sharp fins and razor-like teeth and gills, is one of the fiercest and most dangerous of sea fish. The shore water was already reached, and the bass was splashing furiously in the desperate endeavor 1 to gain water that would float him. An instant more and the prize would be lost. At this moment Mr. Winship threw himself on the struggling monster, clasping his arms around its neck, with one foot under its body, and shouted for help. The struggles of the fish and its captor had carried them into deep water; but the stout arms of the other fishermen were quick to the rescue, and both man and bass were rolled up to the shore, and the bass was secured. The whole party at the end of the struggle were breathless with exhaustion, bu 1 escaped with scarcely a wound. ‘ Th c fish weighed 46f pounds.