892 
FOREST AND STREAM 
swamp, so long as it has a muddy bottom and is 
not largely composed of sodium chloride solution. 
He is also democratic in all his instincts. He 
never looks at the clothes of the man who throws 
in the bait. It makes little difference to him 
whether the angler is correctly dressed accord¬ 
ing to the dictates of fashion or looks like—oh, 
you know what! He takes what is offered to 
him and submits to the inevitable with the cheer¬ 
fulness of a born optimist. That is, he accepts 
everything that is offered to him with certain 
restrictions. He could hardly be expected to 
indulge in such lobster palace dainties as prunes 
and Scotch woodcock. 
He has a decided preference for large, fat 
angle worms, sometimes called night walkers, 
and he does not give a hoot whether they are 
served table d’hote or a la carte. If they are 
not to be obtained he will just as cheerfully ac¬ 
cept porterhouse steak, turkey breast, sturgeon 
roe or raw liver. Furthermore he is a creature 
of wisdom. He persistently refuses to accept 
as food false flies, imitation bugs, or any atroc¬ 
ity of the tackle maker’s art, unless on the verge 
of starvation. 
Because of his democratic nature it does not 
require a lot of expensive tackle to induce the 
bullhead to bite. A small hook, a few feet of 
cotton cord, and a fourteen foot iron wood pole 
cut from the nearest clump of timber will answer 
every practical purpose, and will land just as 
many bullheads as a silver mounted split bamboo, 
six ounce rod, with a tapering casting line. 
Some fish are dainty epicureans by nature. 
They nibble their food like a pretty debutante 
enjoying Harold’s first box of chocolate bonbons, 
but the bullhead is plebian and crude in matters 
of etiquette, observing no conventional decorum. 
When he spies a bit of red worm on the muddy 
horizon he rushes over and gives it a prelimi¬ 
nary sniff to assure himself that it is the pure 
quill, then bolts it like a dyspeptic eating cus¬ 
tard pie in a dairy lunch. You can always tell 
when it is down by the way your dobber disap¬ 
pears or by the vigor of the thump that is tele¬ 
graphed up your line and down your pole. Either 
one is the signal for instant action. With a 
quick upward heave you unceremoniously land 
your bullhead kerwhock! on the bank where he 
lies grinding his jaws madly together waiting an 
opportunity to do you bodily harm. And he is 
entirely capable of doing it. Being possessed of 
two barbels, each as sharp as a surgeon’s lance, 
the instant you touch him he will endeavor to 
squirm around until he drives one deep into your 
hand. While exceedingly painful such wounds 
are not considered dangerous. They seldom de¬ 
velop into anything more serious than blood 
poison. 
Early in the spring bullheads are found in 
weedy shallows near the shore, where they scoop 
out a little nest in the mud and raise a large 
family of bullheadies caring for them with the 
devotion of an old hen. 
During the breeding season they are a bully¬ 
ing, blood-thirsty set of buccaneers with ever a 
pike pole set and ready to do furious battle with 
any inquisitive visitor. As soon as their off¬ 
spring gain sufficient ruggedness to shift for 
themselves they return to their haunts on the 
mud flats of deep water where they are quickest 
found by asking the small boy or village “rum- 
mie.” They both know. 
As an object for legislative consideration the 
bullhead has been sadly neglected. There is 
neither special privilege nor special interest be¬ 
hind him to plead his cause, so you never hear 
legislative halls ringing with thunderous demands 
for his protection. However, being remarkably 
prolific, he has managed to struggle along with¬ 
out legislative assistance, to the vast pleasure of 
small boys and grown-ups who love a fat bull¬ 
head for breakfast. 
Although there is no legal open and closed 
season the bullhead has provided one for him¬ 
self that is far more effective. When he is not 
biting, he is not biting, and that’s all there is 
to it. For definite information consult aforesaid 
small boy or village “rummie.” 
Throughout the day the bullhead loves to lie 
on the mud and think. Very often he will re¬ 
main perfectly quiet for an hour contemplating 
a worm before it seems to occur to him that it 
was put there for him to eat, which affords the 
angler plenty of opportunity for reflection. Just 
about the time mother commences to cut up the 
hashed browns for supper he begins to display 
active symptoms of acute hunger, particularly 
if it chances to be a dark, dismal, rainy after¬ 
noon. 
Anglers who fish for the whimsical trout, the 
leaping tuna, king salmon or the fighting bass 
are prone to look upon bullhead fishing as an 
old man’s diversion, barren of pleasure and the 
height of dead monotony. We will concede 
them the privilege of thinking what they please 
so long as they don’t attempt to compare the 
bullhead favorably with the carp as an article 
of diet for white men or a source of recreation 
for anglers. 
There is more than a little right down good 
sport catching bullheads even though some peo¬ 
ple can’t see it—-that is if you don’t go at it 
bullheaded. Now suppose that you are a pessi¬ 
mist and there comes a day when the sun re¬ 
fuses to shine and everything looks as black to 
you as the Republican vote in the cotton belt. 
You feel the necessity of doing something to 
cheer yourself up, like going fishing for instance. 
Take down your pack basket and put into it a 
little pepper and salt, tea, bread, butter, a few 
potatoes and a slice of steak, together with your 
cooking utensils and fishing gear and blankets. 
Dig a can of worms and go fishing after lunch 
prepared to make a night of it. 
When you reach the place where you intend 
to fish, knock off a few panels of pasture fence 
and construct a lean-to in which to sleep. It is 
easier than to build it of browse. Besides the 
farmer wiL appreciate your thoughtfulness in 
not destroying his growing timber, and will wel¬ 
come you with open arms the next time you 
come, for the gap in the fence will enable his 
cows to get into his neighbor’s corn and save 
him a lot of pasturage. When your shelter is 
completed build a roaring fire between it and 
the shore so that it will cast a strong reflection 
over the water, then drive a couple of crotched 
sticks in the mud to rest your poles on and you 
are ready to fish. 
The bullheads will probably display few, if 
any, symptoms of hunger until you have com¬ 
menced to broil your steak, then your float will 
dance up and down as fast as you can attend 
to it until you have eaten and can give your un¬ 
divided attention to your fishing, when you will 
seldom have more than a reasonable number of 
bites an hour unless the mosquito season is at 
its height. 
As soon as you have caught half a bran sack 
full stop. This number will add just the proper 
amount of weight to your pack basket to make 
the straps fit snugly all the way home. How¬ 
ever, your sport is not complete until your fish 
are cleaned and stored away in the ice box ready 
for cooking. 
It is no trouble at all for a woman to clean a 
shad or similar scale fish. She can take a curry 
comb and the butcher knife and have them ready 
for the pan in no time, but owing to the fact 
that nature saw fit to cover them with a hide as 
tough as a well seasoned fiddle string cleaning 
a bullhead is a man’s job. There are only two 
ways to remove it. The least preferable and 
easiest is to parboil the fish just enough to loosen 
the skin, incidentally spoiling its flavor; the 
other way is to pull it off by main strength and 
perseverance. These are the methods usually 
employed although absolutely the best way is to 
hire a devoutly religious old colored man to do 
it for you. 
I have no hesitancy to recommend Good Old 
Doctor Bullhead to suffering humanity. He has 
done wonders for me. I consulted him last 
summer and in three hours I felt like a new man. 
If you happen to be suffering from lack of recre¬ 
ation, are pessimistic, accompanied by a pro¬ 
nounced tendency to be exceedingly peevish or 
grouchy, or have liver trouble, sour stomach, 
neurasthenia, lack of appetite, tired feeling just 
previous to going to bed, headache, nervous ex¬ 
haustion, twitching of the eyes or legs, sleepless¬ 
ness in the morning with periods of moodiness 
during the day, your health is threatened and 
you should consult him at once. He can cure 
you cheaply and economically. To delay is dan¬ 
gerous. Try him to-day. 
I Consulted Him, and in Three Hours I Felt Like a New Man. 
