New Orleans.—The sensation in the fishing world recently was the experience four sportsmen had with a devil fish off Horn island.
    During the week the big power yacht Jeanne, owned by Commodore Thomas Sully, with John P. Sullivan, Phil Werlein and Ned Rightor as guests, ran out to Horn island for a few days’ fishing. They had all the sport they wanted with mackerel and bull redfish, and early one Sunday morning started for the eastward pass of Deer island and Biloxi bay.
    They had traveled possibly three or four miles from the island when, just ahead of the yacht they saw something on the surface of the sound which looked like a giant turtle. The course of the yacht was changed so as to overhaul this strange creature, and when the boat neared the fish the engines were slowed down and stopped.
    The yacht came up close to the fish, which proved to be the largest devil fish ever seen in that section. During last summer a number of these monsters, sometimes called the blanket fish, have been seen, but they were not longer than five or six feet.
    This monster measured in the neighborhood of 15 feet in length, and was fully seven or eight feet broad.
    When the nose of the fish was alongside the step of the yacht, its tail was just opposite the foremast, a distance of over 15 feet, but, to make the measurement reasonable, the sportsmen came to the conclusion that they would give the fish 15 feet as a fair measurement.
    Commodore Sully secured an improved Winchester and went on top of the pilot house to get a good shot. The fish was lying very near the surface, and did not seem to pay the slightest attention to the boat and its occupants. Two shots were fired in rapid succession, but they did not seem to bother the fish in the least.
    When the shots were fired the giant sank slowly and came up again a few feet further ahead. A dozen more shots were fired from the rifle, but no impression was made. Fully half an hour the yacht lay to while its occupants tried all kinds of means to wake up the monster of the sea.
    Werlein finally grabbed a long boat-hook and wanted to tie a line to the handle and harpoon the fish, but the others were not exactly certain as to the results of such an experiment, and would not listen to Werlein. Finally the yacht got under way again, and the devil fish, with a few lazy waves of its giant tentacles, dropped in behind and followed the boat for fully half a mile. Then it disappeared.
    A few weeks ago W. C. C. Claiborne and several other fishermen returned with a story about three devil fish seen at the island, but their story was taken with a large grain of salt. Claiborne has a reputation for story telling, but his tale is followed up now by this experience, and the sportsmen are wondering if a big yacht, with plenty of harpoons on board might not furnish a lot of lively sport to the sportsmen.

From— Barbour County Index. (Medicine Lodge, Kan.), 21 Nov. 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.