Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1882 — Charles Lever and Fishing. [ARTICLE]

Charles Lever and Fishing.

Fishing when at Inistioge, Lever practiced because everybody fished, and the river Nore running through was an excellent trout and salmon stream, but he never liked it, attained no skill, aud not even bungler’s luck. He was, in truth, too social an animal for any solitary amusements. To Lever’s lack of interest in fishing, there were two exceptions. One of these was locally called cor-bait fishing. The tidal flow of the river Nore seldom reaches above Inistioge bridge, and below it for several miles the waters are merely thrown back by the rising tide, forming a still-water pond, clear, and currentless. The rapids where the large trout love to lie behind rocks, and concealed in weeds, become consequently deadwater, and the astonished fish move wildly about, deprived of their usual hiding-places. The water plants which lay flat under rise perpendicularly from their stems, causing an entire change in the appearance of the bottom of the river. Absolute silence and stillness is necessary as the bait is dropped among a population so much upon the alert. From the clearness of the water in this natural aquarium every movement of the finny tribe is visible. The bait is examined by the fish from all sides; some will visit it a secern I or third time; some, apparently in contempt, will lash it with their tails, but their general movement resembles moths flying round a lamp, until one more reckless or more daring than the rest will seize the bait. In all this Lever took an immense interest, and perhaps all the knowledge he acquired of the habits of trout was learned then and there. He came to know that fish, though unfurnished with external ears, have remarkably sharp perception of sound. A shout, even at a distance, will startle them; a shota hundred yards away will cause them to vanish. There, too, was visible the apparatus by which the air was extracted from the water, enabling those breathing animals to live and move and have their being. There is another species of fishing of yearly occurrence at Inistioge, in which Lever was an eager participant. There is the chad or shad fishing, coming off late in April, or in the early days of May. It is a sea fish, averaging about a pound in weight, and on the highest tides of the spring in favorable seasons they arrive in such multitudes as to literally cover the bottom of the river, and they make a most valuable addition to the food of the villagers, at that time a community of potato eaters. They are taken by every possible device, from the seine net to the rough and simple one of knocking over with stick or stone. When shoal presses on shoal, the early arrivals are forced into the shallows, when a scene bearing somewhat the aspect of a village festival occurs. The juveniles of the community execute a flank -movement into the water. When, by these tactics, the shoal of fish have been deprived of all chances of escape, an order to advance shorewards in close array is given, and the motley group move accordingly, beating the water with poles and branches, and shouting and j elling furiously. The frightened fish, with such enemies behind, dash forward, some leaping into the air, some on shore, all into the hands of the seniors of the village, who receive the treasure with ones of “Thank God.” In these manoeuvres Lever was an active leader, and the fun was heightened by the cheers that followed an important capture, and the laughter and screeching of the splashers aud the splashed ' rang loud and long.