Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/53

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Chapter III.
Novel Modes of Fishing.
The Bell Pole.

In the Gulf States, upon some of the plantations that border the sluggish streams or bayous peculiar to that part of the country, the field hands have a simple and ingenious contrivance by which they are enabled to fish without interfering with the discharge of their duties.

The apparatus used consists of an ordinary cane-pole to which a long line with any number of hooks is attached; an old bell is hung at the end of the cane where the line is fastened.

The sable sportsmen set a number of poles, rigged in this manner, thrusting the butt ends of the rods into the soft bank so that they stand almost upright along the edge of the water upon which the plantation borders.

After the hooks are baited the lines are cast out as far as they will reach into the stream and left to take care of themselves. As soon as a fish is hooked it struggles to free itself, but the first plunge the unwary creature makes rings the bell at the end of the rod and summons the laborer from the field, who leaves his ploughing or planting just long enough to land the fish and re-bait the hook. It is seldom that the setting sun sees the dusky workmen return to their cabins empty-handed.

By far the oddest and most original mode of fishing practised by the colored people of the Southern States is called by them

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