Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1899 — BLUEFISHING IN JERSEY. [ARTICLE]

BLUEFISHING IN JERSEY.

Tcwttd tiks Give a boy a dog, a gun, aad * long reach of sandy beach, wi&JM©casional chance to wing a curlew, or blaze into a flock of peeps, and distance holds no terrors for him. Thirty-five years ago the beach ami sand dunes lying between Long Branch and Sandy Hook mere amt used by summer residents, but wasthe home of Jersey fishermen, wham houses, built of driftwood, mem grouped together in small settlement at intervals of a mik or so apart. These people always proved kindly 3b their greetings and became, after a few weeks of acquaintance, set friendly that you might drop in upon them t© take a midday bite, or to haveun oldfashioned fish talk. The day had proved unusually balmy, and the off-shore breeze m zephyrlike that the Atlantic, as far as the eye could span, was without at breaker and softly undulating like* mill pond. As I slowly neared omeeff | the larger fisher settlements, sm unusual bustle was noticeable, the me* scurrying about carrying fish Tmsa and squids to the water edge. Ha - | ing one of them, who was usually the most loquacious, “Hello, Hank!! going to use your tackle to hang out a weekis wash?” he fired back: “Xarw! yer durned fool, don’t yer see that banks” , bluefish chasin’ the moss bunkers a* shore?” “Yes, it was all plain now, far right before me, only a few hundred yar& from the beach, came this wave’ «ff darting, swirling fish life. Often m bluefish, in his voracious desire is feed upon the moss bunkers, would jump clean out of water, and the snap of his ugly jaws sounded distinctly where I stood. Nearer and nearer they came toward the beach until the fishermen, their wives and children, seizingthear lines, swung the squid around their head, casting it far out into the smf. Hank, who had a lot cf lines., sang out to me with more empharirthanam invitation to dance: “Dura yer. Boh, ketch holt! and grt in. git in all yer kin.” and fired a parting injunction as I scooted away to have a clear space to myself. “Bun ’em high on the beach, look keerful they don’t snap yer. they kin rut clar through Ter boot.”

The 20 minutes that JoHowefi proved the maddest rash to and fire that could be dreamed ofi. Running down to where the rolling ocean broke upon the shore. I whirled the squid about my head and let it fir far ont into the straggling mass. It had hardly tonched the water when * frightful jerk on the line by a 15 pounder nearly threw me off my JseL Hesitating for a moment, uncertain what to do. but holding last, I was jumped into action by Hanks voice roaring: “Over yer sh onlderi run up the bank yer dirraed fool, M’s to* heavy fur yer!” Bun I did, as if the sheriff was after me. landing my fish, which flopped itself loose from the hook far above Hie safety line. Then back and up and away with another one again and again, then before yam could credit it, and as if * wizard’s wan had been shaken, there came * change of motion in the water and a* an instant the fish were ganel The whole thing was so sndden and madly exciting and so quickly ended that it hardly seemed real; but there I stood surrounded by sneh spoil that even a crusty old fisherman, as he counted my pile and slapped me an the hack, growled out to “Dura me, if Bub hain’t ketched most as many as any of ’em.”—New Hagland Grocer.