
Pe 
Angling for Common Fishes 
ROBABLY there is no fish known 
to the American continent (at 
least to the United States) so 
familiar to the average person as the 
bullhead. It is well distributed far 
and wide throughout our country and 
is always esteemed for its food value. 
It does not lay claim to greatness and 
never will. It-is unobtrusive and lives 
amongst its enemies as though. they 
were his pals; he loves them, or at 
least that-is the: way it seems. They 
love him, too, for his meat, but one 
would as lief eat hot mush right off the 
stove as a pickerel would be to gorge 
himself on Ameiurus. nebulosus what 
with the spines set straight out threat- 
ening gullet and stomach should. the 
attempt be made to swallow him. This, 
is not to say that some of the larger 
fishes do not make that foolhardy ex- 
periment, but the risk is so great that 
I doubt whether it is tried save.only 
in isolated instances. I have seen a 
six-pound large-mouth bass taken on a 
live frog that was being trolled close 
The Bullhead 
By ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN 
to the bottom that had two five-inch 
bullheads in its mouth, half swallowed, 
half digested, the tail of one sticking 
out at one corner of the mouth and 
another tail decorating the other side 
of the countenance. True to the in- 
stinct to swallow everything they take 
as food head first, this bass had 
done so. 
T the time I do not remember well, 
but I think the spines were lodged 
in the throat, although the heads and 
part of the bodies were decomposed or 
digested. This is either proof of what 
gluttons bass will be (for he had 
seized the frog evidently for food) or 
he probably thought it well to swallow 
something to push the bullheads down 
much-as we would swallow dry bread 
to. remove a bone in the throat. It 
is.-probable that various of the fishes 
do--at one time-or another consume 
bullheads—although I should think that 
one. attempt in this-direction would be 
aplenty; and ‘it teaches a lesson that 
no fish should ever forget if he knows 
what is good for him. I was told by a 
certain gentleman that he found at 
one time a six-inch bullhead in the 
stomach of a large bass taken in Can- 
ada that was completely surrounded 
with grass, so that it formed a ball “as 
large as my fist.” It was the belief 
of this fisherman that the bullhead had 
darted into the grass and the bass 
had seized the spiny one, grass and 
all, and had contrived to swallow it. 
Some enterprising writer would at once 
seize upon this as basis for a story of 
how a bass seized a bullhead, wrapped 
it around with grass and then swal- 
lowed it to prevent having his stomach 
ripped up with the serrated pectoral 
spines. 
UT we who are prone to examine 
into the stomach contents of every 
large fish we catch are sure of one 
thing—that rarely indeed will you find 
trace of a bullhead in the “bread bas- 
ket” or “container” of any of the large 
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