[Dinsdale]

I've seen the fish trick with an old wall phone. Don't ask me where.

What you are looking for is ring voltage. The voltage the phone put out when you were actively cranking the handle.

This is still around on your landline. Where ring is still higher then 12-15 today. I would'nt swear to any voltage for ring, someone will be along with exact info. In any case field phones would put out a good strong voltage as the lines could be long and bad.

The story is plausable. Even cliche.

[Free Trapper]

"Calling fish" is called "monkeying" by people that equate cranking the old generators to an organ grinder and his monkey.

The more modern method uses a re-rigged heart pacemaker and 12 volt battery.

The very small pacemaker rigs are easy to hide and there are plenty of reasons to have batteries.Poachers don't even have to crank the new monkey rigs.