Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1890 — TALL FISHING STORIES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALL FISHING STORIES.

AS TOLD AT A MEETING OF THE I)ENVEB FISH CLUB.

Saint Historical Facts train Sketch Books Describing Kxperienc-s in the Forest— Grappling for Salmon Trout on the Fly —Tackling a Gr'ziiy Bear.

GW that the season II of the year which is . I marked by long evenings has arrived, the Denver Fish Club, a very exclusive organi ization, has resumed its usual weeklv meetLast says f News, the Secretury was called to the platform to give the first experience. j T“Weil, gentlemen," • he began, “I am quite unprepared for the

occasion, and if you could have waited till the next meeting I would have prepared a story worth your hearing. However, I will do the best I car), and give you a simple little iucident which occurred last June. I was fishing in a stream near Ouray for mountain trout,

and had been there ten days, fishing every day. It was delightful weather, and I spent each day on the stream, taking my lunch with me from the ranch. At one turn in the stream there is a cliff about eighty feet high, and nt the bnse of the cliff is a deep pool. A smaller stream fell over this’ cliff into the pool, and cverv few minutes a dark object would come headlong over the cliff dashing with this smaller stream of water into the darkness of the pool. These were trout, nnd in a few seconds they would reappear above the surface of the pool nnd ascend in the air five or six feet and then fall back ngain, look a little tired and very much surprised and then sink below the surface to rest. I bad been fishing with bait, but could not get a bite and finally determined to chan.e my tactics. I made a small raft, nbont six feit square, and paddled it over to the foot of the fall, and as the trout came up out of the pool (after coming down the fall) with the rebound I caught as many as I wanted with my hands, some of them weighing as much as three pounds. ” “That was not sportsmanlike. What kin l of fishing would you call that?” asked the President indignantly. “Well, I should call it catching them on the fly,” And the story w T ent down on the minutes. “You can tell your story now, Frank,” suggested the President, as soon as order had been restored. Frank is one of the younger members, and his tale was as follows:

“Some years ago I was in British Columbia at a Chinook camp on one of the rivers there. The Chinooks are a tribe of Indians there who live bv hunting and fishing, and so plentiful is the supply of fish and game that they do not have to work very hard. They are clean Indians —for Indians—> nd I had a pleasant visit of several weeks among them. In the rivers there, when the salmon are running, it is really an indisputable fact that the water rises eight or ten feet in height to make room for the salmon to ascend the river, and when they are returning

down stream after spnwn’ng they push a solid wall of w. ter m front of them. I know th s is true, because I have seen it myself. To catch these salmon, many of them weighing thirty to forty pounds, all one had to do was to throw a grapplinghook into the river anywhere and pull it in to shore with a salmon or two hooked. There was no need of any bait or anything else. It used to bo a nuisance Sometimes these fish were so (hick in the stream that

we could not use the canoe till nighttime, when the salmon woold be asleep and still. Two or three feet of water would running over them Ike over a dam. A»e had all the salmon we wanted to eat and more, too." “I have hear 3,” said the Vice President, “thatthe Chinooks eat the salmon raw.” r “That is not true,” said Frank; “ull oul salmon were boiled in the river.” “How could you boil them ia the river?” "Boil them? Why, the river was teeming (steaming) with them.” “Oh!” and the story was duly recorded. The President had fallen asleep, so the Secretary called on one of the oldest members to contribute something of an interesting nature. “I do not know, friends,” he began, 'that I have anything of an interesting nature to communicate,andyou know the rules of the club forbid our telling anything that is not true; 60 I am in rather a quandary what to tell you. Years ago I was up in Montana near a place now known as Three Forks, Gallatin County, and a powerful place it was f<v grizzlies, too, I can tell you. Why, I have seen as miny as thirty grizzlies in one afternoon, and big fellows, too, and they did not seem to be afraid of any one, either. Well, one day an old scout and I determined we would kill a few for the r skins, and to frighten them a little, an they were beginning to be a little too familiar op such short notice. We set out about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and got three fine males in about two hours within a mile of our.prospective camp. We soon came across another fellow, the biggest we had yet seen, and got quite close to him in order to m ike sure work of him. We fired together at him, or rather intended to do so, but my rifle missed fire for some unaccountable reason, and the bullet from the scout’s rifle only wounded the grizzly in one of his fore paws. He was onto ns pretty quick, lon tell yon, and we made for trees in a hurry. I got up all right, but the scout missed his grasp and fell to the ground. Before he could get up the grizzly was onto him. and a terrific tussle ensued. The brute hugged and hugge 1 and bit fiercely, and the scout kept stabbing and slashing with his knife. I got an opportunity finally and fired, taking chances. Fortunately I shot the besr through the brain, and the scout was saved, and, do you know, he was not much hurt after all. I asked him how he like 1 the hugging, and, do you know, he actually said he did not mind it very much. He said he was used to something of the kind. I asked him how that was, and he replied that he had been married seventeen years in Utah, and had eight wives. "No; he was not afraid of grizzlies.

He afterward si id he preferred to tak« his chnnces with them than to go back tc Utah.”

GRAPPLING FOR SALMON.

TROUT ON THE FLY.

TACKLING THE GRIZZLY.