LAKEAN2STREAM 
 GAME FISHING 
 
 DIXIE CARROLL 
 
er 
 
The author and a 12K>-pound wall-eyed pike caught in Black Lake, 
 McNaughton, Wisconsin. This pike- was caught on a hot July day about 
 1130 a. in. and the lure used was ,. Heddon's underwater Dowagiac 
 crackled green hack with a white belly. The cast was made across the 
 mouth of a small hay and the lure reeled slowly in order to allow it to 
 sink. The water was of an average depth of twenty feet. 
 
 (From painting- by Arthur Hutchins) 
 
LAKE AND STREAM 
 GAME FISHING 
 
 A Practical Book on the Popular Fresh- Water 
 
 Game Fish, the Tackle Necessary and 
 
 How to Use It 
 
 BY 
 DIXIE CARROLL ) ^c/, 
 
 Editor of the National Sportsman and, 
 Fishing Editor of the Chicago Herald 
 President, American Anglers League 
 
 I 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 JAMES KEELEY 
 Editor of the Chicago Herald 
 
 AND A FOREWORD BY 
 
 JACK LAIT 
 
 VERSE BY 
 
 ALBERT JAY COOK 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 STEWART & KIDD COMPANY 
 
 1919 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY 
 STEWART & KIDD COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND 
 
 1st Printing, June 1917 
 2d Printing, August 1919 
 
(Li* 
 
 TO 
 MY WIFE, ROSE, 
 
 WHO IS EQUALLY AS GOOD A "PAL 1 
 ON WILDERNESS LAKE, STREAM OR 
 TRAIL, AS ALONG THE WELL- 
 BEATEN PATHS OF 
 CIVILIZATION 
 
 M852827 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In writing this book of fish, fishing, tackle and how 
 to use it, as well as incidental remarks on equipment 
 it is not the intention of the writer to set it up on a 
 pinnacle as a " hollier than thou " book. Opinions 
 on tackle and the method of using it are varied and 
 at times wonderful. There are purists in every 
 angle of the sport and by each method of angling the 
 purist in that particular line will swear by the nine 
 gods and at times swear at all other methods. 
 
 I have never allied myself to any one particular 
 part of angling. I can have equally as much enjoy- 
 ment from tossing the plug, live bait or feathery fly. 
 As long as it is fishing in a sportsman-like manner 
 with line, rod and reel and playing the fish until it 
 comes up to the net or gaff, white-side up, I con- 
 sider the game true sport and worthy of just con- 
 sideration. 
 
 As to the methods of angling and the handling of 
 tackle advocated herein, they are the methods that 
 I have found to be successful from actual experiences 
 of my own or from the experiences of other fisher- 
 men with whom I have cast and whipped lake and 
 stream. 
 
 As to the information on the habits and peculiari- 
 ties of the different game fish, this I have accumulated 
 since my early fishing days passed on the Potomac 
 
PREFACE 
 
 and its tributaries, and from close association with 
 keen guides and woodsmen of the North Woods 
 country. 
 
 I feel that the fishing game is on the verge of be- 
 coming the most popular of out-door's sports and it 
 can be made so, not only for the present day, but for 
 the years to come, if the fishermen will follow the 
 creed of the American Anglers League of which I 
 have the honor of being president. This creed fol- 
 lows and I earnestly hope all fishermen will burn this 
 thought into their memory and in time of need, ob- 
 serve it. 
 
 OUR CREED: to encourage the re-stock- 
 ing of lakes and streams; to advocate the 
 observing of all fishing laws; to throw back 
 uninjured the under-sized fish; to catch 
 game fish in a sportsmanlike manner with 
 rod, line and reel, in order to make the 
 sport of fishing better in the years that fol- 
 low. 
 
 To the keen followers of the call of lake and 
 stream with whom I have passed many pleasant 
 hours and learned much, I wish to express my thanks. 
 Particularly to Earny Wendt, Guide Extraordinary 
 of the North Woods ; to Albert Jay Cook, sportsman, 
 poet and apostle of the great out-doors whose verses 
 are used in this book; to Robert Hurt Moulton, 
 fisherman, journalist and photographer for a selec- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 tion of photographs used in this book; to James 
 Keeley, fisherman, sportsman and editor for his loy- 
 alty to the sport of fishing and his mental storehouse 
 of fishing lore from which I have drawn many facts 
 as fishing editor of the Chicago Herald and for 
 writing the Introduction of this book; to Jack Lait 
 not a fisherman but a writer of human interest stories 
 with a kick in every line and thoughts between the 
 lines, for writing the Foreword of this book; to 
 W. W. Stehle, " Buck " to his many out-door pals, 
 fisherman, hunter and soldier, to whom these chap- 
 ters were originally written as a series of letters on 
 fishing and who preserved and returned them to the 
 writer for revision and use in this book. 
 
 If this book makes the sport of fishing more en- 
 joyable and quest of the game fins more successful 
 for the reader, then it will have accomplished the 
 end for which it was written. 
 
 If it makes of the uninitiated, a lover of the great 
 out-doors and a follower of natures water trails 
 and takes him out where he can get a close-up of 
 old Mother Nature, then its writing will be doubly 
 blessed. 
 
 "Timberedge Lodge," (Carroll Elaine Cook) 
 
 McNaughton, Wis. 
 October, 1916. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The would-be teacher of the art of angling must 
 ever be a pupil. Every day on stream or lake, in 
 waters or in boat, is a lesson, and though one ac- 
 cumulates the experience of a quarter of a century 
 his education is not complete and never would be 
 complete if he lived to be as old as the prehistoric 
 fish we find in neolithic rock. Each cast may present 
 a new problem. Each strike a situation for which 
 there is no " rule " or precedent. 
 
 Experience is the real teacher and to the novice 
 generally a costly one. 
 
 Nevertheless there is a field for instruction and 
 the experience of an " old timer " will be of value 
 to those who are new to the sport and even to veter- 
 ans of the rod whose range of effort has been cir- 
 cumscribed. 
 
 If a man has, year after year, tramped little-fre- 
 quented trails, and blazed new ones for himself; if 
 he has sought out and found the streams where the 
 brook trout rises most readily to the fly, the pools 
 where lurk the largest salmon, the favorite haunts 
 of the bass, the wall-eyed pike and the muskellunge, 
 and if he has matched his wits against all of these 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 under every condition of weather and with every 
 kind of lure and tackle, then he is qualified to impart 
 useful information on the subject. 
 
 In the whole field of sport there is, perhaps, no 
 thrill comparable with that which comes of doing 
 fair battle with a gamey fish; he is a worthy oppo- 
 nent for any man, and through all the stages of the 
 contest, from the first fierce strike to the final sweep 
 of the landing net, the red blood surges and the 
 nerves tingle in wholesome exhilaration. 
 
 But, while victory is sweet to the angler, and 
 naturally is his first aim, the mere catching of fish is 
 not all of fishing by any means. The true fisherman 
 does not measure his success either by the size or 
 number of the fish he gets, and even if he gets none 
 at all, his days still are full of profitable pleasure. 
 To him every minute in the woods or on the waters 
 offers something of interest, whether it be merely 
 watching the wild people of the forest, the sunsets 
 and sunrises, the starry map overhead at night, or 
 listening to the call of birds, the wind in the trees, 
 or the musical lap of waters. 
 
 Chicago, February 24, 1917. 
 
 J. KEELEY. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Dear Dixie: 
 
 They tell me you're doing a book on " Lake and 
 Stream Game Fishing." Since I never fished for 
 game in either lake or stream, and since one of the 
 best things I do is to write learnedly on that which I 
 know nothing about, let me give you a little advice : 
 
 In writing fishing stories one should follow the 
 mechanics of story-telling, just the same as in writing 
 love stories. Fish are more human than the people 
 about whom romances are written, though, of course, 
 they fall down when it comes to " problems " or 
 " triangles," for I never heard of a scandal under 
 water except the famous submarine controversy. 
 
 Look at the latitude you have, though, on other 
 standard topics for stirring tales motherhood, for 
 instance. Motherhood is the most sure-fire of all 
 the subdivisions in the selective acreage of story-stuff. 
 And a mother-fish, I am told, has a yield at each con- 
 ception that would stagger Roosevelt. Can't you 
 see the possibilities here for racking tales of Mrs. 
 Fish and her brood or are children of a fish called 
 a " flock"? In either event, the maternal muskel- 
 longe or the parent bass or the like holds forth, in my 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 vision, fiction possibilities on a large and shiny scale. 
 
 I see that the prospectus announces " Not a dry 
 line in the whole book." Of course not; you can't 
 hook fish-story-readers with dry lines. Therefore, 
 I pray you, get off the conventional themes such as 
 how to take the spear out of the ribs of a gar when 
 what you wanted was a pike, or how to properly bait 
 with live frogs when the guide forgot the pail of 
 frogs on the pier. What you want to do, I fancy, 
 is to go into the psychology, the sociology, the tem- 
 perament, the emotions, the heart-throbs, the ambi- 
 tions, the disappointments, the better nature of the 
 fish. 
 
 What do we know to-day of the mental progress of 
 the fish? Little if anything. Are we then to pre- 
 sume that the wily bass and the ferocious musky of 
 1917 are as benighted as the sucker of the year of 
 the big wind? Is there, then, no Bryan of the finny 
 realm, no Mrs. Pankhurst of the angled deeps, no 
 wall-eyed Lloyd-George and no big-mouthed Ford 
 amongst them? 
 
 The unwritten material is enormous, magnificent. 
 What is the politics of a pickerel? What is the re- 
 ligion of a trout? What are the morals of carp? 
 Is the conscience of an eel anything like that of a 
 munitions maker? 
 
 Speak, you who know the sweet language of fish, 
 and do for us a " Hiawatha " of the underlakes, a 
 " Gunga Din " of the river bed! 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Teach us not only how to catch the elusive citizens 
 of the blue, but lead us into communion with them so 
 that we can do more than merely dangle them on a 
 hunk of string and fry them in a pan. We want to 
 civilize them and assimilate them so that we can sell 
 them stock in new moving-picture companies and lead 
 them by the flipper to walks of our own making 
 where we would unfold to them the mysteries of 
 how to blow a safe or carry an election. 
 
 Before you lies the chance of being the uplifter of 
 the fish. You alone may play the famous white 
 man's part in unfolding before the gullible children 
 of the wet recesses the manna of the earth suf- 
 frage, booze, evangelism, advanced thinking, Robert 
 W. Chambers, five-card stud, the bunny hug, nude 
 films, Democratic victories, tax-dodging, taxi-dodg- 
 ing there's no end to what a fish doesn't know and 
 what we members in good standing of the order of 
 brotherly love are hep to. 
 
 Therefore, I beseech you, Dixie, do not again 
 bend your superior talents to the paltry and sordid 
 pursuit of telling how to nab a fish for breakfast; 
 take your stylus well in hand and write us a guide- 
 book on how to teach a fish to take a joke so that 
 we may live long and increase our percentage. 
 
 With every good wish, always, 
 
 Your friend the piscatorial ignoramus, 
 
 JACK LAIT. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BAIT-CASTING OUTFIT FOR THE BEGINNER . . . i 
 
 BAIT-CASTING FOR THE BEGINNER 7 
 
 SPLIT-BAMBOO BAIT-CASTING RODS 12 
 
 STEEL BAIT-CASTING RODS AND OTHERS . . . . 17 
 
 THE BAIT-CASTING REEL 21 
 
 SELF-TH UMBERS vs. BACKLASHES 26 
 
 THE LEVEL- WINDING REEL 31 
 
 BAIT-CASTING LINES 36 
 
 SPOONS AND SPINNERS 40 
 
 WOBBLERS, WIGGLERS AND PLUGS 44 
 
 NIGHT BAIT-CASTING 49 
 
 ON THE HOME-LIFE OF THE BASS 54 
 
 FLY-CASTING TACKLE FOR THE BEGINNER . . .58 
 
 ON LEARNING FLY-CASTING 62 
 
 His MAJESTY THE BROOK TROUT . . . . .67 
 
 RAINBOWS AND BROWNS 71 
 
 FLY-CASTING FOR BASS 76 
 
 ON FISHING THE DRY-FLY 81 
 
 BASS IN THE RIVERS AND STREAMS 86 
 
 COIN' AFTER MUSKY 90 
 
 His HONOR, THE WALL-EYED PIKE 95 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JUST ORDINARY OL' PICKEREL 100 
 
 A LITTLE PAN-FISH FUN 105 
 
 LIVE BAIT THE MINNOW no 
 
 WORMS AS BAIT 115 
 
 PORK RIND FOR BAIT 120 
 
 TROLLING 124 
 
 FALL FISHING 129 
 
 MUSKY, PIKE OR PICKEREL? 133 
 
 TlPS FROM THE GUIDES 138 
 
 HOT WEATHER FISHING 143 
 
 LITTLE POINTS THAT COUNT . . . . . . .148 
 
 WHAT MAKES 'M Do IT 153 
 
 COMPLETE RECORD OF THE LANDING OF FIFTY LARGE- 
 MOUTH BASS. THE TIME, THE WEATHER AND 
 
 THE BAIT 157 
 
 COMPLETE RECORD OF THE LANDING OF FIFTY LARGE 
 MUSKALONGE. THE TlME, THE WEATHER AND 
 
 THE BAIT 165 
 
 FROM STRIKE TO GAFF. STORIES OF BIG FISH AS 
 
 TOLD BY THEIR CAPTORS 176 
 
 ONE HUNDRED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON 
 TACKLE, FISH AND FISHING ....... 204 
 
 POEMS OF THE WATER TRAILS 236 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Author and a Fine Wall-eyed Pike . . Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Time o' Day for Fishing 31 
 
 Large and Small-Mouth Bass 54 
 
 Good Stream Bass Waters 86 
 
 The Lady and the Musky 90 
 
 Fine Lake Bass Waters no 
 
 Earny Wendt, Guide Extraordinary 138 
 
 Game Beauties from Northern Wisconsin . . . .153 
 
 Cozy Corners for Bass 176 
 
 Joys of the Water Trails 236 
 
LAKE AND STREAM 
 GAME FISHING 
 
 BAIT-CASTING OUTFIT FOR THE 
 BEGINNER 
 
 So you are sure stumped, Old Man, when it comes 
 to getting together a bait-casting outfit. Been hit- 
 ting her up with the old cane pole and any old hook 
 or line, and getting the fish, but every time you pass 
 a tackle layout in a sporting goods store, your hands 
 fairly itch to swing one of those short bait-casting 
 rods, and then you sorta hold back, 'cause you don't 
 just know what's really needed and you sure don't 
 want to tip off your hand to the fellow on the " in- 
 side " that you are shy on tackle dope. 
 
 Slip this into your card index: you can get a fine 
 outfit together for $12 to $15 that will give you rat- 
 tling good service and, at that, be a line of tackle 
 that you need never be ashamed of. It'll stand up 
 under the hard knocks that you probably will hand it 
 and, with a little practice, will get you fish for your 
 stringer. At the same time it will make a good 
 showing with any other fellow's tackle, unless, of 
 course, he happens to be a " he-whop " for coin and 
 overdoes the tackle stunt. 
 
2 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 ROD EITHER SPLIT BAMBOO OR STEEL 
 
 For a rod it can be either split bamboo or steel 
 and between 5 and 5^2 feet in length. In split bam- 
 boo you can get a good one for $4 to $7, and for a 
 choice, medium-priced rod there is none better than 
 a Jim Heddon's No. 4, which comes with an extra 
 tip and sets you back $5. This rod should give you 
 at least five years' good service and as it is a two- 
 piece rod, long tip and short butt, it works almost 
 as good as a single-piece one, which is considered 
 the ideal rod, but a darned unhandy one to tote 
 around. The two-piece rod is a fine bender, with- 
 out straining at the ferrule, which is below the cen- 
 ter, well to the butt, and is full of snap and whip. 
 The price is low, but the rod is good. 
 
 For the rod, if you select a steel one, you will 
 make no mistake in getting a Bristol No. 25, which 
 is sure some bait-caster. The steel rod is strong 
 and durable and this Bristol is just stiff enough to 
 make long casts with precision and whippy enough 
 to make a short cast with ease. The reel seat is 
 close to the grip, which makes thumbing the reel less 
 tiring. The extra large guides and tip are an aid 
 to casting, as the line shoots out freely without much 
 friction on the guides. This rod costs you $7, but 
 you will always keep it in your kit, even after you 
 go in for the more expensive stuff. 
 
BAIT-CASTING OUTFIT FOR BEGINNER 3 
 REEL IS THE HEAVY WORKER 
 
 For a reel you will want a quadruple multiplying, 
 or, in other words, " old boss," one that makes four 
 revolutions of the core of the reel to one turn of the 
 handle that's for speed in giving you casting dis- 
 tance and also to retrieve the line quickly with the 
 smallest amount of hand work. 
 
 By far the biggest end of the bait-casting work 
 depends upon the reel, which is the most important 
 item in the outfit. The average day's fishing runs 
 about six hours of continuous casting, at all of which 
 time the reel is hard at work playing out line and 
 recovering it. This is a steady grind and the reel 
 must be a good one to stand up under the strain. 
 This only goes to show that a poorly constructed 
 reel will shortly throw up the sponge with a few 
 wheezy shrieks, and about that time, far away from 
 a tackle outfitter, you will let out a few choice cuss 
 words and give it the Christy Mathewson into the 
 weed beds. 
 
 There are many good reels that you can get, rang- 
 ing from $4 to $7.50, and they will all do the work 
 and do it well. The Meisselbach " take-a-part " is 
 a humdinger and creases your bank roll to the ex- 
 tent of $5.50. I have a " take-a-part " in my kit, 
 been there doing service for eight years and is still 
 on the job; as a matter of fact I think it has done 
 
4 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 more casting than any of my reels. It is built right 
 and if you just must find out what makes it go, you 
 can take it apart without a screw driver and put 'er 
 together again and know that you cannot mix its " in- 
 nards." For this reason alone the inquisitive fisher- 
 man should have it, because a reel can be put out of 
 whack easier by tinkering than most anything. 
 
 The Shakespeare Standard Professional is a clean 
 running reel and nicks you to the tune of $6, but it's 
 worth it and a good caster. The Milan, Meek and 
 Talbot reels around the same figure are very good 
 ones, and are worthy of a place in any tackle box. 
 
 GOOD-BY TO BACK-LASHES 
 
 If you are shy on time to practice thumbing the 
 ordinary reel, and you don't want to bother with 
 " back-lashes," which happen more or less to even 
 the sure-enough fishermen, you can get an antiback- 
 lash reel and start casting with practically no prac- 
 tice. The South Bend Antiback-lash at $9.00 and 
 the Pflueger-Redifor Antiback-lash at $7.50 are both 
 good ones, and take a lot of trouble off your hands. 
 For moonlight and night casting you will find the 
 antiback-lash a winner, and that is the time to hook 
 the big ones. It's mighty unhandy to try to untangle 
 a back-lash by the light of a pocket flash lamp, espe- 
 cially when the bass are hopping up out of the water 
 all around you; sort of makes you nervous, and the 
 more you untangle the worse it tangles. 
 
BAIT-CASTING OUTFIT FOR BEGINNER 5 
 
 For a line, get a fifty-yard spool of waterproof 
 soft square braided silk No. 6, which runs freely 
 from the reel and with the least amount of friction 
 on the guides and is easily thumbed without burning. 
 A Kingfisher line of this kind will cost you 8oc and 
 it will not get fuzzy nor swell up when wet. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL PLUGS AND WOBBLERS 
 
 Of lures or artificial baits there are legions and 
 they range in price from IDC up. Some are worth 
 it and some are not. You'll probably want to buy 
 every one you see, and try 'em out. That's part of 
 the game, but for a starter the following will make 
 a selection in color and style that ought to interest 
 any old bass or other game fish : A Jamison Coaxer 
 at 5oc; Heddon's Crab Wiggler, 85c; Tango Min- 
 now, white with red top, 75c; South Bend Bass- 
 Oreno, rainbow color, 5<Dc; Wilson Fluted Wob- 
 bler, green crackled back, 75c; Pflueger-Surprise 
 minnow, white with green back, j^c. This gives 
 you a collection of lures at $4.10 that contains every 
 kind of a wiggle, wobble, dive or other movement 
 in the deck and if you keep them moving when in 
 the water, there is no reason why any high-brow bass 
 won't strike them out of pure inquisitiveness just 
 to see what makes 'em do it. 
 
 For your pork rind, frogs and live minnows you 
 will need a few spinners and spoons. Get a Hilde- 
 brandt, single and tandem, Slim Eli No. 3, and a 
 
6 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 couple of Skinners new casting spoons 4-x, bright 
 nickel and white enamel and a Foss Pork Rind Min- 
 now. These will cost you around 75c and give you 
 enough variety for a start at natural bait-casting. 
 
 With a couple of little odds and ends such as 
 sinkers, extra hooks and an oil can, you have a bait 
 casting outfit that should help you " bring home the 
 bacon.'' 
 
BAIT-CASTING FOR THE BEGINNER 
 
 For your practice work, or rather the back-yard 
 casting, before you try out the real stuff, all you need 
 of your bait-casting tackle is your rod, which can be 
 of steel or split bamboo, and either a 5 or $y 2 footer 
 as you prefer; 5O-yard spool of waterproof soft 
 square braided silk No. 6 line; a quadruple multi- 
 plying reel, and a casting plug. For the latter you 
 can detach the hooks from an artificial bait, and thus 
 avoid hooking a pal who may be there to give you 
 a send off, or you can get a practice casting weight, 
 which is a hookless minnow the same weight as the 
 average plug. 
 
 Joint your rod and place the reel in the reel seat 
 right above the grip, with the reel on top of the rod, 
 reel handle to the right. Run the line through the 
 tip and guides, wind it evenly on the reel and loop 
 on the plug at the end. 
 
 At a distance of say 30 feet from the spot where 
 you intend to stand while making the cast, peg down 
 a small piece of paper, say about eight inches square, 
 for a target. Imagine this is the home of a fine 
 frisky bass, it adds to the interest of the game. 
 
 CASTING LIKE SWITCHING APPLES 
 
 You recall how you doted on switching apples in 
 
 7 
 
8 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 the old orchard, when a kid. You'd push your 
 switch through a nice, juicy apple, swing it back 
 over your shoulder, sweep it forward, and away flew 
 the apple which you hoped would land on Fatty 
 Jones' skypiece. Well, Old Man, outside of the 
 thumbing of the reel, that's the motion of bait-cast- 
 ing just downright ordinary switching apples. 
 
 You are all ready now, so get in the box, 30 feet 
 from the target, and face it. Take the rod in your 
 right hand, let the plug hang down about six inches 
 from the tip, the reel on top with the thumb pressing 
 on the line wound on the spool of the reel, and the 
 fingers of course around the grip of the rod. Before 
 bringing the rod back over the shoulder to start the 
 cast, twist the wrist to the left enough to bring the 
 top of the reel towards your body, and the spool of 
 the reel nearly vertical. In this position swing the 
 rod back over the right shoulder until the plug hangs 
 on a line with your belt. The rod will then be at 
 about a 45 degree angle with the ground, and your 
 hand near your right ear. This much is for posi- 
 tion, and the cast starts from this point, differing 
 therein from fly-casting which starts from the first 
 upward sweep. 
 
 KEEP THUMB PRESSURE ON REEL 
 
 From this position swing the rod forward with a 
 swift firm sweep, increasing the speed as the rod 
 swings forward all this time the thumb pressure 
 
BAIT-CASTING FOR THE BEGINNER 9 
 
 stays on the line wound on the reel. As the rod 
 sweeps to a perpendicular position, release the thumb 
 pressure but not entirely and out shoots the 
 plug carrying the line from the reel. 
 
 Keep your eye on the plug, although it's a hundred 
 to one shot that you will watch the reel instead. 
 While the plug is still in the air and just before it 
 hits the ground, press the thumb down firmly on the 
 reel, which stops it from revolving. If you fail to 
 do this, Old Man, the reel will keep on turning from 
 its momentum, and having no heavy plug in the air 
 to pull it along, the line will snarl up on the reel and 
 you will be introduced to your first " back-lash," with 
 which you will become well acquainted, anyway, as 
 you get along in the game. 
 
 If your plug did a pretty flight straight up in the 
 air, you released your thumb pressure before the rod 
 was perpendicular, and if it did a Brodie right down 
 into the ground in front of you, then you failed to 
 release the thumb pressure soon enough. Remem- 
 ber this point: the thumb pressure is never entirely 
 removed from the line on the reel and the lighter 
 pressure on the line keeps a " pull " on the bait and 
 prevents back-lashes " Bad cess to 'em." Always 
 jam the thumb down hard just before the bait lands, 
 stop the rod in its sweep when it is much higher than 
 the target, and keep your eyes on the plug. Then 
 as it flies cut and settles, slowly lower the tip of the 
 rod, keeping the plug, line and rod on a line as 
 
io LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 much as possible, as it saves friction on the guides 
 and makes your line last longer, as well as increases 
 the distance of your cast. 
 
 REEL LINE IN SMOOTHLY 
 
 You have now made your first cast, and upon how 
 carefully you reel in your line depends the success 
 or failure of your next cast. Shift the rod to the 
 left hand, grasping it above the reel and circling it 
 from the underside, with the line between the fore- 
 finger and the thumb which guide the line across the 
 spool of the reel and back again until it is all reeled 
 in. Don't let it pile up on the ends of the spool, 
 which it has an ornery habit of doing, or build up 
 into a hump in the middle. If you do, you can 
 check off the next cast as a dead one. 
 
 Try to reel it in as level as possible. Of course 
 when actually fishing you will always watch your 
 bait while reeling in the line, especially when you 
 are casting among lily pads and windfalls, but in the 
 practice work watch the reel. This will save you 
 lots of time and fish later. After a little practice 
 you can watch the plug, remembering not to slow up 
 the thumb and finger in guiding the line smoothly 
 onto the reel, or it will pile up before you know it 
 and bring back your old friend, Mr. G. W. Back- 
 Lash, Esq. 
 
 After you have made a few casts, Old Man, you 
 will begin to notice the target, and how near you 
 
BAIT-CASTING FOR THE BEGINNER u 
 
 are coming to it. As you develop accuracy at 30 
 feet, increase your distance a few feet at a time, 
 until you can cast say 60 feet, which is far enough 
 to cast for most any fish. Trying for too much dis- 
 tance at the start has spoiled many a bait caster. 
 
SPLIT-BAMBOO BAIT-CASTING RODS 
 
 Without a doubt, Old Timer, the one-piece rod is 
 the ideal bait caster, but when it comes to toting it 
 around, it is the unhandiest article one could find in 
 a year's travel. You simply cannot tote it along on 
 a trip without the haunting fear that someone will 
 assist you to break it, but once on the water with a 
 little old one-piece split-bamboo rod, it shows up 
 like four-of-a-kind after a lean run. For the perma- 
 nent fishing camp or the chap that is lucky enough 
 to live right close to good fishing waters, there is no 
 better rod than the one-piece. It is full of action 
 from the butt to the tip, and is not weakened at any 
 point by a ferrule. You can sure play a scrappy fish 
 to a fare-you-well with a one-piece rod, and were it 
 not for the fact that it is so unhandy, and for that 
 reason not desirable for ordinary use, more of them 
 would be used by the fishing gentry. 
 
 TWO-PIECE ROD A DINGER 
 
 For the two-piece rod there is but one style of 
 construction that should be considered, and that is 
 the short butt and long tip. A rod of this kind 
 comes the nearest to having the same amount of ac- 
 tion and strength as the one-piece rod, as the ferrule 
 is set well down below the center, allowing the strain 
 
 12 
 
SPLIT-BAMBOO BAIT-CASTING RODS 13 
 
 to be distributed equally and giving the bamboo a 
 chance to spring without being stiffened by a ferrule, 
 and the action killed. This short-butt, long-tip con- 
 struction gives you a snappy rod that shoots out the 
 cast without unnecessary strain on the wrists and 
 arm. In selecting a rod of two-piece construction, 
 side-step the rod with the ferrule directly in the 
 middle, the point of greatest strain in landing a fish. 
 
 THREE-PIECE HANDY TO CARRY 
 
 The main thing in favor of the three-piece rod is 
 the fact that you can stick it in a suitcase and carry 
 it without any bother. Every place you put a fer- 
 rule on a rod kills that much more resiliency in the 
 bamboo. The ferrule is unbendable and at that 
 point comes the break when the load on the bamboo 
 is too severe. This is a hundred to one shot and 
 you can play it clean across the board and never take 
 a chance on your money. Although serrated fer- 
 rules are used in the more expensive rods, they can- 
 not eliminate the severe strain which generally 
 causes the rod to break either right above or below 
 the ferrule. Even at that, the three-piece rod is 
 stronger than the two-piece rod when the ferrule on 
 the latter is in the middle. 
 
 LENGTH AND WEIGHT OF RODS 
 
 Early in the bait-casting game the rods were gen- 
 erally made either four or four and a half feet in 
 
14 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 length, but as the sport grew in popularity, they 
 stretched them up to six and a half feet, making all 
 stops between. It is a matter of personal choice as 
 to length, probably the most popular size being the 
 five footer. This makes a rod that has a good 
 swing to it and still carries enough backbone to hold 
 the big ones, and at the same time is long enough to 
 give fine play in landing the fish. For overhead 
 casting, while sitting in a boat, the five-footer makes 
 an ideal size, and is about right for distance casts. 
 Split-bamboo rods average about an ounce to the 
 foot, and at that rate a five-footer would only tax 
 your wrists to the tune of five ounces, which isn't 
 such a great old load to toss around during the day's 
 fishing. 
 
 FITTINGS FOR THE ROD 
 
 The fittings of the rod are an important feature - 
 they not only add to the life of the rod but also, if 
 of the right kind, add to casting qualities, and every 
 little help to lessen the effort and work of casting 
 makes quite a difference in a few hours' fishing. 
 The ferrules should be of German silver they are 
 stronger and better made than the brass ferrules 
 which are generally nickel-plated, and many a defect 
 can be hidden under a coating of nickel. 
 
 The selection of the hand grip, as to style, lies 
 between the single and the double grip. After a 
 day's casting with the double grip you will wonder 
 
SPLIT-BAMBOO BAIT-CASTING RODS 15 
 
 how you ever got along without it. It is far more 
 comfortable to fish with, the upper grip giving you 
 a firmer and easier hold on the rod in reeling in the 
 line, and at the same time eliminating the cramped 
 position of the left hand. If you have never used 
 the double grip, Old Man, treat yourself to a good 
 thing and select that style in your next rod. In the 
 way of material, the solid cork grip, which is really 
 made of a series of cork washers, makes the finest 
 grip in the game and it sure has a soft feel to the 
 hand. As a second choice the canewound grip is 
 alright, but why take a second choice when you can 
 get the real stuff? 
 
 Of course you will want a locking reel seat; the 
 majority of rods have them anyway and who wants 
 to throw his reel into the drink right at the time 
 when he has a chance to hook the big one? Finger- 
 pulls are going a little into the discard, but it is no 
 disgrace to have one on your rod, and at that it 
 assists the short-fingered caster to maintain better 
 control over his casts. If you feel that you will 
 have better control over your rod with the finger 
 pull, get it you're the fellow to suit, not the in- 
 nocent bystander. 
 
 In the matter of guides, the agates have it on the 
 rest of the family. Of course, the ideal rod has a 
 complete set of narrow agate guides with an offset 
 agate tip, but with the first guide gate and the tip 
 of the same material, with the in-between guides of 
 
16 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 a medium-sized hard German silver ring, you have 
 a combination that will stand up well, cause little or 
 no friction on your line and give increased ease in 
 casting, which are the main duties of a well-regulated 
 bunch of guides. Way back in the early days of the 
 short-bait casting rod the guides were all of the old 
 Kalamazoo style, a great big guide about the size of 
 a two-bit piece. Some of them are still floating 
 around. If you ever see one making for you in a 
 sporting goods store, give him both barrels and duck 
 for the timber line, 'cause they sure are no account, 
 and who wants to tote something that nobody else 
 cares a rap about? 
 
STEEL BAIT-CASTING RODS AND 
 OTHERS 
 
 Well, Old Scout, we now come to that part of the 
 tackle outfit that has caused more argument than the 
 European war, by which we refer to the steel rod 
 vs. the split-bamboo. There are a lot of anglers 
 that swear by the split-bamboo rod and look with 
 horror on the steel rod. These split-bamboo purists 
 are considerably in the minority, however, as can be 
 easily proven by a straw vote of the rods in use at 
 any camp or resort in the game-fishing country. 
 Personally, Old Man, I believe that when it comes to 
 downright class to a rod, you must place the blue 
 ribbon on the split-bamboo. It is first choice of 
 materials, being light, springy and considerably ac- 
 tive, although in the hands of a beginner it sure 
 stands a mighty fine chance of breaking if he hooks 
 onto a real live wire of the weedy waters. For 
 downright every-day sort of fishing, in among the 
 weeds and windfalls and for general plug casting the 
 steel rod takes no back seat with the split-bamboo 
 or solid woods. With the steel rod the beginner 
 need have no fear that it will break if he gives it a 
 little care and attention in the handling. 
 
 17 
 
1 8 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 STEEL A STURDY WORKER 
 
 The steel rod naturally is a little heavier than the 
 split-bamboo, although the slight difference in weight 
 is not enough to put your arm in a sling after a 
 day's casting. It has plenty of backbone and at the 
 same time enough action to make it a fine caster 
 without the whippiness of the split-bamboo. For 
 tossing out the heavier artificial lures it is in a class 
 by itself. It is a sturdy strong rod that can be de- 
 pended on to " pump " a fighting bass out of the 
 weeds without giving you heart failure over wonder- 
 ing whether it will hold or not. By this, Old Man, 
 don't take it that it is only a good rod for rough 
 work; handled with the skill of an expert it makes 
 as fine a fishing tool as any rod. It may not be as 
 speedy in action as the split-bamboo, but as a buying 
 proposition for the beginner, dollar for dollar, you 
 will get a better rod in steel in the lower-priced rods 
 than you will in either the split-bamboo or solid 
 woods. 
 
 ALWAYS READY FOR USE 
 
 The steel rod does not require much care, being 
 a husky tool, and about all that is necessary to keep 
 it in first-class shape is to wipe it dry after using, 
 and oil it occasionally with " three-in-one " in order 
 to avoid rust. It is always ready for use and you 
 never have to bother with frayed windings, cracked 
 
STEEL BAIT-CASTING RODS , 19 
 
 varnish or warped joints. You will never make a 
 mistake if you include a steel rod in your kit; in fact, 
 if you are going into the woods far from your tackle 
 supply, as a " safety first " tote a steel bait-caster. 
 The general construction of the steel rod is three- 
 piece with short handle, and the fact that the fer- 
 rules, which are merely a band of bronze, are built 
 right into the rod, overcomes the weakness of the 
 three-piece split-bamboo. It is the most satisfactory 
 rod of the three-piece construction. There is one 
 little old veteran steel rod up in the North woods 
 that started its bait-casting life as a five-footer some 
 six years ago. A number of breaks and accidents 
 have reduced it to a trifle below four feet. The 
 guides have been resoldered a number of times, the 
 enamel has passed away, yet this old pal of a rod 
 made a 31 y 2 -pound musky come up to the gaff, with- 
 out a quiver in its short length, and at that it's still 
 good for many a cast. Wonderful strides have been 
 made in the steel-rod end of the game, and it's here 
 to stay, as is shown by its popularity on the fishing 
 waters anywhere, and if you get a good one you can 
 feel sure that it will be there with the goods when 
 you hook your big one, excellent for learning the 
 game, and, in fact, a fine rod for any time. They 
 can be had in any style and length, the better rods 
 being made with solid cork grips, three piece and 
 separate butt. Agate first guide and tip, with Ger- 
 man silver or hardened steel intermediate guides 
 
20 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 make a rod that works well with the soft braided 
 silk casting lines. 
 
 SOLID WOOD RODS 
 
 Of the solid woods for bait-casting rods noibwood 
 takes first place. It is a wonderful resilient wood, 
 and at the same time tough and strong. It makes 
 a mighty fine rod, but for the average fisherman the 
 price is so high that it's on the top shelf just out of 
 reach. But if you ever get to the point where you 
 want to squander a nice price on a solid wood rod 
 that is par excellence, get one of noibwood. 
 
 Bethabara is a more commonly known material of 
 the solid-wood family, and for $10 you can get a 
 fine rod of this wood that will make a handsome ap- 
 pearance and give you a caster that will more than 
 satisfy you. The bethabara rod is a livelier caster; 
 it is tough enough to stand hard handling, although 
 careless use may warp it. 
 
 A close second in casting power, strength and re- 
 siliency comes greenheart, and as this wood is far 
 lighter than bethabara, the rods made of it are con- 
 siderably thicker than those of bethabara and yet 
 not any heavier. Good greenheart rods can be 
 bought for $6 and up. 
 
 Of the solid woods, lance-wood is by far the 
 cheapest and some years ago had quite a following, 
 but you will see few in use to-day. It has a tendency 
 to warp under a strain, and even atmospheric changes 
 will have a noticeable effect upon it. 
 
THE BAIT-CASTING REEL 
 
 There is one part of your bait-casting outfit that 
 sure must be right in material and workmanship, Old 
 Scout, or you might as well make up your mind that 
 your bait-casting days will be a grand old series of 
 backlashes and cuss words, and that little old im- 
 portant feature is your reel. You can slip a set of 
 guides on a cane or any old stick and with a good 
 free-running reel make a cast, but without a reel that 
 runs smooth and even, your bait casting will be one 
 darrted bit of trouble after another, and to save your 
 standing in the home burg you'll go back to still fish- 
 ing and lead a peaceful, quiet life. When you figure 
 the amount of work the reel performs in a single 
 day's casting, taking an average of six hours for 
 actual casting, you get some idea of the heavy tax 
 placed on the bearings and gears as it sticks to the 
 job of shooting out the line at a high speed and re- 
 trieving it. A slipshod, poorly constructed reel, 
 carelessly thrown together, will cough up its gears 
 after an hour or so, and it's good night to your 
 fishing trip. 
 
 THE QUADRUPLE MULTIPLIER 
 
 The quadruple multiplying reel and the short rod 
 have put bait casting in the past few years in first 
 
 21 
 
22 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 place as the most popular method of fishing, because 
 it is easy to learn and generally gets the fish. There 
 is nothing mysterious about the q-m; it simply means 
 that the gears are toothed to make four revolutions 
 of the spool of the reel to one revolution of the 
 handle. This increases the speed of recovering the 
 line with the least amount of hand work. In shape 
 the reel should be of the long, low spool design, the 
 ordinary 6o-yard reel having end plates of 2 inches 
 in diameter and the 8o-yard reel 2*4 inches. A reel 
 of this size is plenty large enough for any bait cast- 
 ing and the long, low spool design aids in the thumb- 
 ing of the line. 
 
 When selecting a reel you will make no mistake 
 in choosing one made of German silver, which is by 
 all odds the best material used in the construction 
 of bait-casting reels. A reel made of German silver, 
 with all pinions, bearings and working parts of fine 
 tempered steel is a piece of machinery that will stand 
 up under any conditions. No matter if the reel be 
 one of the low-priced ones, if there is a square 
 manufacturer's name behind it, and it is made on 
 the above specifications and given the care and at- 
 tention it should have, it will last indefinitely. After 
 one has learned bait casting and knows how to treat 
 the reel and desires something with a classy look, 
 include in your kit one of the combination rubber 
 head and tail plates and German silver reels. This 
 reel, however, requires careful handling as the rubber 
 
THE BAIT-CASTING REEL 23 
 
 is fragile, but it sure looks the part of the aristo- 
 crat. 
 
 JEWELED BEARINGS ARE FINE 
 
 Without a doubt jeweled bearings on the reel 
 make it run more smoothly and add to its life. 
 The lengthened life of a reel due to the fact that it 
 is jeweled more than overbalances the added cost 
 over the ordinary kind. As a general thing the 
 jewels are set in removable caps at the end of the 
 bearings which makes it easy to keep them clean and 
 oiled. Of course the jeweled reel nicks you deeper 
 in the bank roll, but after a fellow has put in practice 
 work on the lower-priced reels and feels like invest- 
 ing in one that will last forever, if handled right, 
 then the jeweled reel is the only one to buy. Right 
 down to cases, as it were, the jeweled reel is one that 
 acts best in the hands of the angler who knows how 
 to handle it. It spins with such freedom and speed 
 that it is conducive to backlashes with the beginner, 
 who has not the thumb work to control it. 
 
 CARE OF THE REEL 
 
 The life of any reel will be mighty short if it is 
 not given care and attention. The finest machine in 
 the world will not run without oil, yet many fellows 
 will use a reel week after week, and not think of 
 feeding it a little soothing sirup until it begins to 
 scrape and rattle like the 5:15. When this stage is 
 
24 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 reached they will drop a little oil in the cups, but 
 the damage is done through overheated bearings and 
 pinions, and the reel will never again run with the 
 freedom from friction and as smoothly as before the 
 rough grind was handed it. 
 
 A reel should be cleaned and oiled after each day's 
 fishing. The ordinary thin oil is not sufficient, as no 
 thin oil will last through the different temperatures 
 to which a reel is subjected during a day's casting. 
 Heated by the hot sun or chilled by the night air, as 
 well as drenched with water during the day makes a 
 combination that would eliminate any thin oil. On 
 the other hand the thick oils soon churn into a 
 creamy paste and hamper and clog the reel so that 
 you think you are losing your speed at the game when 
 your casts slow up. You make no mistake when 
 you invest in a bottle of " real " reel oil and the best 
 comes from the jawbones and lubber of the por- 
 poise. This oil is refined up in the Arctic circle and 
 will stand the gaff of any temperature. After you 
 buy the oil, use it; don't stand it away in the tackle 
 cabinet and forget it. 
 
 Oiling the reel is not all that is necessary to keep 
 the little old pleasure producer in good shape. Like 
 the line, the reel should be entirely dried after each 
 day's fishing. Athough German silver does not rust, 
 it will corrode and the main cause for corroding is 
 dampness. Be fair to the reel and dry it thoroughly 
 in the open air or sunlight, and drop a little oil in 
 
THE BAIT-CASTING REEL 25 
 
 each oil cup before you tuck it away for the night. 
 As a final tip on the reel, Old Man, here's hopin' 
 you don't take it apart every once in a while to see 
 what makes it go. The smooth-running qualities of 
 many a fine reel have been ruined by the inquisitive 
 cuss with the itching palm and a screw driver. Of 
 course you would never think of taking your watch 
 apart and assembling it again, and a finely adjusted 
 reel is just as accurately set as a fine watch. If any- 
 thing goes bad with the reel, take it down to a reel 
 doctor and let him feel its pulse. This will save you 
 time and money and for practice at mechanics you 
 can have as much fun tinkering with an old alarm 
 clock as a victim. 
 
SELF-THUMBERS VS. BACKLASHES 
 
 There has been quite a bit of hectic comedy pulled 
 off regarding the self-thumbing, or more commonly 
 called antibacklash reels, some of the writers of fish- 
 ing dope going right up into the clouds at the mere 
 mention of a self-thumber, all for the simple reason 
 that they think it is unsportsmanlike to take ad- 
 vantage of the little fishes by using a mechanical 
 device which makes casting easier. A big part of 
 this highbrow stuff is bunk. We admit that there is 
 a lot of pleasure to be derived from artistically 
 thumbing the line, and for the fellow who has the 
 time to devote to learning thumbing (and it cannot 
 be picked up in a day) we say go to it, Old Man, 
 and you'll enjoy it. But to the great big army of 
 every-once-in-a-while fishermen, who plug away on 
 the real job most of the time to keep the wolf from 
 getting too well acquainted, there is nothing bet- 
 ter than the self-thumber. You can learn to cast 
 with a half hour's practice. Of course you won't 
 be an expert at placing your bait, but you have the 
 great advantage of the thumbing attended to, and 
 that's nine-tenths of the operation of making the 
 cast. 
 
 26 
 
SELF-THUMBERS VS. BACKLASHES 27 
 MORE POPULAR EVERY DAY 
 
 The fact that you see more of these reels each 
 year shows that they are popular with the week-end 
 fisherman. No matter how proficient a fellow may 
 be in the casting game, every now and then he piles 
 up a backlash that makes the air assume a beautiful 
 purple from the deep muttered words that escape 
 through his exhaust. After a couple of hours' prac- 
 tice the beginner can cast his 30 or 40 feet with 
 less backlashes than can the old-timer at the game, 
 using the ordinary reel. If the beginner be a par- 
 ticularly careful man, backlashes will be almost en- 
 tirely eliminated. 
 
 For moonlight fishing or any night fishing, the 
 antiback-lash reel holds the center of the stage. At 
 this game you cannot beat it, and as many of the 
 largest old bass are caught late in the evening or at 
 night, even the Old Timer should carry one tucked 
 away in his tackle box for this kind of work. I 
 know of nothing more conducive to the flow of cuss 
 words than to get a backlash on a dark night and 
 then try to disentangle it with the aid of a pocket 
 flashlight unless it be that you have a fine old bass 
 flopping aground in the water at the other end of 
 your line while you are working out the puzzle. 
 
 There are two mighty good self-thumbers on the 
 market, the South Bend Antiback-lash and the Pflue- 
 ger-Redifor Antiback-lash. Both of these reels 
 
28 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 are well made on the lines of the other famous 
 quadruples, with, of course, the added value of being 
 a great little help to the beginner because they put 
 the death sign on the backlashes. 
 
 The South Bend nicks your bank roll to the tune 
 of $9. This is a well-made reel of high polished 
 German silver. The spool and gear journals are of 
 tool steel and built on the long low design considered 
 the best for bait casting. The bushings are of 
 phosphor bronze and the end-thrust is supported by 
 adjustable jeweled spool journal caps that are handy 
 for oiling. The gears are made of solid Tobin 
 bronze, are cut a special hunting tooth, and they 
 should wear until the cows come home. 
 
 SELF-THUMBER OR STRAIGHT CASTER 
 
 On the South Bend Antiback-lash reel there is a 
 small wire across the front of the reel under which 
 the line is threaded. When the cast is made this 
 wire is lifted by the position of the rod and as the 
 line works out, and the lure slows up, the weight of 
 the wire causes the necessary pressure on the spool 
 to slow it up the same as natural thumbing of the 
 line. On the crank side of the reel is a tension screw 
 that can be adjusted with a slight turn to 'accom- 
 modate any weight of lures. By turning the tension 
 screw a little farther you can use the reel as an 
 ordinary caster and at that it will show up with any 
 in its class. 
 
SELF-THUMBERS VS. BACKLASHES 29 
 
 The Pflueger-Redifor Antiback-lash reel is sure a 
 beautiful tool, and besides having the looks of a 
 thoroughbred it is serviceable and durable, having 
 a bunch of ancestors behind it in the reel family that 
 it can be proud of. The great old feature that 
 makes this reel so successful as a self-thumber are 
 the Flegel centrifugal thumbers. To look at this 
 reel you will see nothing to indicate that it is a self- 
 thumber, but hidden away under the end plates are 
 a pair of little flanges attached to the rear end of 
 the spool. The force of the spinning spool throws 
 these flanges against the rim of the end plates and 
 governs the action of the spool automatically. This 
 sounds mighty simple, but you haVe to see the reel 
 working to appreciate its wonderful value. 
 
 SPIRAL TOOTH GEARS GREAT CASTERS 
 
 In finish the Pflueger-Redifor is made of German 
 silver with adjustable jeweled oil cup. Bearings are 
 of phosphor bronze, which are practically indestruc- 
 tible, and with generated spiral tooth gears that give 
 the easy-running action to a reel and fit snug at all 
 times without slowing up the works. 
 
 Aside from the fact that the Pflueger-Redifor is 
 a sure-fire self-thumber, it is made along the lines of 
 the regular quadruple multiplier and its satin finish 
 gives it a classy appearance. At the same time the 
 dull finish does not flash over the water when making 
 a cast. The spool is long and carries from 60 to 
 
30 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 100 yards of line, according to size. This reel 
 stands you back $7.50. 
 
 The self-thumber is a mighty fine reel for the be- 
 ginner, especially for the fellow who has limited 
 time to devote to the finest of sports, and as a side 
 tip, let me tell you that it often makes a good fisher- 
 man out of the lady-who-sometimes-goes-along, be- 
 cause she can cast with ease after a few throwouts. 
 
The time o' day when fishing is usually at its best. As the sun is 
 about to kiss the day good-night, and slip into its bed below the horizon, 
 just paddle around to the shadow side of the lake and cast into the dark- 
 ened shore waters among the windfalls and weed-beds. A little ruffle 
 to the water makes your chances of interesting the game fins better than 
 a still quiet surface. 
 
THE LEVEL-WINDING REEL 
 
 Getting down to the secret of the cause of back- 
 lashes, Old Scout, you will find that thumbing the reel 
 improperly is a secondary fault and that the real rea- 
 son for those little mixed-up jumbles of line is that 
 the line has been spooled in poor shape after making 
 the preceding cast. Even spooling of the line is the 
 best insurance against backlashes. At the same time 
 it is to some fishermen a mighty tiring game, and 
 many a fervent prayer has been uttered by the finger- 
 weary bait-tosser for a level-winding reel. 
 
 To the fellow who has never enjoyed the pleasure 
 of a backlash, and to the expert who never gets 'em, 
 the following system will be found a sure producer of 
 a backlash that will make a Chinese puzzle look like 
 a straight line. Just in an offhand sort of way reel 
 in your line without noticing it, let it pile up on the 
 spool until it humps in the center and clings lovingly 
 to one of the end plates, then make your cast, and we 
 guarantee a beautiful, classy backlash that will pro- 
 duce more cuss words to the square inch than any 
 other part of the fishing game. Now that you have 
 at last experienced a backlash, common to us ordi- 
 nary bait-tossers, it is easy to realize just what the 
 level-winding reel eliminates in the sport of casting. 
 
 31 
 
32 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 WATCH THE LURE 
 
 Another advantage of the level-winder is that, 
 with its use you can give undivided attention to your 
 lure and the playing of a fish. During the excite- 
 ment of the strike and play a fellow likes to keep 
 his eye on the old " he-wop " tugging for liberty 
 and it's a good bet that in the majority of cases little 
 attention is paid to the level spooling of the line. 
 
 Unless the line is spooled evenly no amount of 
 skill in thumbing the outgoing line will entirely avoid 
 backlashes, and even the fisherman who enjoys the 
 pleasure of thumbing the line and does not care to 
 use a mechanical assistant as a helper will find the 
 level-winding reel a mighty handy tool to make his 
 casting days more delightful. One will often hear 
 a class of fishermen explode with an awful roar when 
 any fishing tool having an improvement to eliminate 
 some of the so-called " art " of angling is mentioned. 
 This bunk, however, must be taken with a few of 
 the proverbial grains of salt and the fisherman who 
 wishes to pass up the most tiring part of fishing, 
 spooling the line, need look no farther than the level- 
 winding reel. And when you take a flier at the fall 
 fishing, with the water fairly cold, it sure makes a 
 hit with even the ultrapurist. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL LEVEL-WINDER 
 
 The original level-winder is the Shakespeare. 
 This reel is the product of the gray matter of 
 
THE LEVEL-WINDING REEL 33 
 
 William Shakespeare, Jr., an angler and sportsman 
 who worked a number of years in perfecting this 
 little old drudgery-killer in the greatest of sports. 
 The earlier Shakespeare level-winders were fitted 
 with a line guide which traveled back and forth 
 across the front of the reel on a double propelling 
 screw, while later ones have but a single endless 
 screw bar along which the line guide travels. The 
 line guide is driven by a gear which meshes with the 
 endless screw pinion and every time the reel handle 
 makes a turn the guide continues on its way and lays 
 the line as accurately and evenly as thread on a new- 
 wound spool. This line guide is not an attachment, 
 but is built solidly into the reel; in fact, is part of the 
 frame itself. There are no little " thingamajigs " 
 to get out of order and the movement of the line 
 guide in no way interferes with the casting distance; 
 in fact, it increases accuracy in the cast, as one can 
 give close attention to the lure, as the smoothly 
 spooled line travels evenly off the reel. 
 
 The Shakespeare level-winding reel sets you back 
 from $7.50 to $35, according to the weight of your 
 bank roll, and any one of the outfit will make an 
 addition to the tackle-box that will banish tired 
 fingers from the off front paw. As the main point 
 of golf seems to be " keep your eye on the ball," 
 with a level-winder you can make your slogan " keep 
 your eye on the fish " on the far end of the line, 
 and so increase your chances of landing him. 
 
34 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 FLEGEL FATHERS A DINGER 
 
 Of course, Old Man, you have heard of the 
 " Beetzel," that little old self-thumber, level-winder, 
 free spool wonder that does everything but spit on 
 the bait. This reel is the combined effort of George 
 Upton, of Warren, Ohio, and Ben Flegel, the father 
 of those little Flegel thumber flanges which make 
 the Redifor-Pflueger an antibacklasher. In the 
 Beetzel, Flegel, known from coast to coast as a won- 
 derful and skillful caster, has added a little twist to 
 the centrifugal thumbers that stop the spool of the 
 reel as soon as the bait stops. The line carrier on 
 this reel travels back and forth on a worm gear, the 
 top of the carrier being notched. The line is not 
 held in restraint when casting, as the carrier drops 
 out of position when the cast is made and is picked 
 up by the carrier when reeled in. 
 
 In the free spool end of the reel there are no 
 levers or plugs to manipulate; you simply give the 
 reel handle about one-eighth of a turn backward and 
 there is no drag on the line except the spool itself. 
 The main gear and pinion are in mesh at all times, 
 whether the spool is in gear or not. This is due to 
 the make of the pinion gear which slides up and 
 down on the spool journal shaft and you avoid all 
 chances of stripping the gears, as will happen on 
 some free-spoolers when the gears are suddenly 
 thrown in and out of mesh. The reel is exception- 
 
THE LEVEL-WINDING REEL 35 
 
 ally strong and durable and built on the old-line 
 pattern of famous quadruple-multipliers, low-spool 
 design. 
 
 The Beetzel shrinks your bank roll to the tune of 
 $20, but it does so many things a fellow never 
 thought could be crowded into one little old reel, that 
 it doesn't seem so awful much after you have worked 
 It out on a day's fishing. 
 
BAIT-CASTING LINES 
 
 Many a fish, Old Scout, has been lost on the first 
 three feet of the line, not on account of the weakness 
 of the entire line, or poor quality, but solely from 
 the wear and fraying on the end of the bait casting 
 line due to the friction on the guides and the pull 
 of the bait in its start to the fish. The wear is far 
 greater on the first few feet of the line than any 
 other part, and to be sure of your fish, you must be 
 sure of the strength of that basic part of your tackle, 
 the line that lands 'em. One of the big points to 
 remember in the care of the line is to test it every 
 now and then and break off a foot or two when it 
 shows weakness. The snapping of a good line can 
 be avoided by this little precaution. 
 
 Many a good lure is lost, many a spoon or buck- 
 tail donated to the deep water, and many a fish fades 
 away from the gaff because this little essential in the 
 care of the line is overlooked. The line may well 
 be called the " safety first " of the bait-casting outfit. 
 
 SOFT BRAID VERSUS HARD BRAID 
 
 The only line to be considered for bait casting is 
 the braided silk, and of this kind we have the choice 
 between the hard and the soft braided. Of the 
 
 36 
 
BAIT-CASTING LINES 37 
 
 former it can be said it wears well and absorbs prac- 
 tically no water, but as a casting line it takes a back 
 seat to the soft braided affair. Owing to the ease 
 with which the soft braided line slides from the reel, 
 it makes the best possible line for casting, and you 
 can thumb it all day without burning your thumb to 
 the quick, which is more than you can say for the 
 hard braided. 
 
 The soft braided line spools closely and smoothly 
 on the reel and does not run down so quickly in 
 making a cast, thus giving better thumb control than 
 with the hard braided line. 
 
 For general bait casting with plugs and artificials 
 of the wobbler variety you should have a No. 5 line. 
 Some manufacturers lettering their product make a 
 G size which corresponds to the No. 5. For the 
 lighter lures of the spoon, pork rind and minnow 
 class let your selection be a No. 6 or H size. 
 
 DON'T USE A ROPE 
 
 The big mistake of the beginner, as well as lots 
 of sure-fire fishermen, Old Man, is in selecting a line 
 that is too large and heavy. It is absolutely im- 
 possible to do accurate casting with a big, heavy, 
 clumsy line, and anyway this is entirely unnecessary. 
 With the ordinary tackle few fishermen can put more 
 than four or five pounds pull on the line if the rod 
 is used properly, and if it is not the rod will " go " 
 before the line. 
 
38 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 I do not think it is necessary to use a line of 
 greater test strength than 12 or 15 pounds for 
 ordinary casting, unless, of course, you are casting 
 for musky, northern pike or pickerel. For general 
 bass casting a 1 5-pound test line will more than fill 
 the bill and at the same time keep your line down 
 to a size that will make your casting far easier than 
 with the heavier and more bulky line which piles up 
 on your reel so quick that it fouls on the reel pillars 
 and makes casting about as enjoyable as handling 
 a towline on a tug. 
 
 DRY YOUR LINE AFTER FISHING 
 
 One of the simplest ways to put a good line out 
 of the game is to let it dry on the reel; do this a 
 few times, Buck, and your line is n. g., no matter 
 what high quality goods you started with. When 
 dried on a reel, only the top layers of the line really 
 dry; the balance molds and rots so that it is in fine 
 shape to break when you hook that big one. All 
 of which points to the fact that you should reel out 
 your line after each day's fishing, hang it between 
 two convenient trees and let it dry out thoroughly 
 before putting it to bed. Don't let it lie along the 
 ground or dry out in the sun, and with the above 
 care you will add 100 per cent to the life of any line. 
 
 Another way to put a good casting line on the 
 hummer is to use it for trolling. No matter how 
 many swivels you may have on your line while troll- 
 
BAIT-CASTING LINES 39 
 
 ing, it will become so twisted that casting with it will 
 become a " world's series " of backlashes. When 
 you think it's time to use a new line for casting, shoot 
 the old one into the trolling department, and die 
 happy casting the new one. 
 
 EASY TO WATERPROOF A LINE 
 
 To avoid soaking up too much water in your 
 casting line, which makes it heavy, you can water- 
 proof it by saturating it in a solution of vaseline and 
 light oil, or three-in-one oil. You can apply the oil 
 either by rubbing it into the line with a well-soaked 
 cloth or apply it in bulk by heating the oil (not boil- 
 ing) and soaking the entire line at once. If you oil 
 the line while still on the original spool let it soak 
 about 20 or 30 minutes; if you have the line 
 wrapped loosely on a stick much shorter time, about 
 ten minutes, will do the trick. In either case wipe 
 off all the surplus oil. This will not only waterproof 
 your line, but will make it pliant and flexible and the 
 lubricant will reduce the friction on the guides, sav- 
 ing wear on the line and aid it in running smoothly 
 and easily under the thumb. 
 
 Any way you take it, Old Chap, you gotta give the 
 line some care if you expect it to do its part in the 
 game of " holdin' and landin' " the finny tribe. 
 
SPOONS AND SPINNERS 
 
 You wonder where the spoon gets its big drag 
 with the fishermen; well, Old Top, for trolling and 
 casting, the old reliable spoon probably is more gen- 
 erally used than any other kind of lure and you can 
 check it up in your memory book that it often gets 
 the fish when other lures fail to coax the big fins out 
 of the wet. 
 
 Of course the spoon doesn't look like any natural 
 bait, nor does it appear to the beginner as a par- 
 ticularly attractive feed for a hungry fish, but it does 
 the one thing necessary in the fishing game, and that 
 is, it attracts the fish. After you have had a spoon 
 bent double by an over-zealous fish trying to inhale 
 it, you will realize that it is sure some attracter. 
 
 ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF SPOON 
 
 Way back in your A, B, C days, so piscatorial 
 historians claim, an old sour-dough was washing his 
 one spoon and plate after a repast of johnny-cake 
 and bacon, when by accident the spoon flopped into 
 the water and did a salome down to the bottom. As 
 the spoon zig-zagged down through the water he 
 noticed the quick, sharp flashes of light reflected 
 from the bowl of the spoon, and at the same time a 
 
 40 
 
SPOONS AND SPINNERS 41 
 
 lake trout getting the light flashes, made a lunge for 
 the spoon, dulled his teeth on it, and then beat it. 
 Thanks to the old " hard-panner " and his ability 
 to assimilate an idea, we have the legion of spoon 
 baits to-day. He rescued the spoon, cut off the bowl, 
 bored a hole in each end, linked a hook in one end 
 and a line in the other, and ate fish for supper that 
 very night. 
 
 The changes that have been made in the old 
 original spoon in shape, size and decorations, runs 
 up into the hundreds. They are plain, fluted, 
 grooved, hammered, corrugated, ribbed, and what- 
 not, and as long as they spin around in the water 
 they get the fish. You can get them in gold, silver, 
 nickel, copper, brass or enamel and if you tried out 
 the whole kit, you'd be busy the rest of the season 
 without a layoff for grub. 
 
 GREAT STUFF FOR TROLLING 
 
 For trolling the spoon hook will hold its own any 
 time. Bass, pickerel, pike and musky like to give 
 it the once-over as it glides through the water, shoot- 
 ing its light shafts in all directions. It can be seen 
 for quite a distance under water and can be used 
 either with plain hooks or with a feathered or buck- 
 tailed treble hook. A single hook with a minnow, 
 shiner, frog or pork rind works well with a spoon. 
 
 For bass, a No. 3 tandem Hildebrandt Slim Eli, 
 or Standard shape, or a Skinner No. 3 Fluted Spoon 
 
42 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 makes a selection that will help fill the stringer, while 
 pickerel and musky require a larger sized spoon, 
 say a No. 6 to 10, for a single spoon, and No, 6 
 for the tandem spinner. 
 
 For casting you will need a No. 3 single spoon 
 which you can use without any other bait or with an 
 eyed fly or natural baits. A strip of pork rind cut 
 to the shape of a minnow and used with the No. 3 
 spoon makes a bait that is a sure enough " killer." 
 
 As long as you keep it moving in the water, a 
 spoon will turn around and you have a chance to 
 attract the fish, but letting it die a slow death, and 
 merely come through the water without any action 
 is a loss of time to you. It's the movement and 
 the light shafts from the spoon that attract the fish, 
 and it's up to you to keep the bait moving. 
 
 On a bright, sunny day in clear water, a copper 
 spoon can be used with good results, while on a 
 cloudy day, or when the water is rough, a brass or 
 nickeled spoon makes the best lure. For fishing in 
 dark waters, the Skinner white enameled spoon 
 makes 'em sit up and take notice. 
 
 GOOD FOR TROUT FISHING, ALSO 
 
 On its way to glory the little old spoon has even 
 been copped by the trout fisherman and on a dull 
 day a small Colorado spinner can be seen better than 
 the fly alone. Often when the trout fails to take 
 the fly on the surface, they will give it the " close- 
 
SPOONS AND SPINNERS 43 
 
 up " if sunk to the depth where they lie, with a spoon 
 for a helper. Early in the season when the waters 
 are high and roily as well as clouded with mud, the 
 spinner is an asset to the trout fisherman. 
 
 For after-dark fishing, which is the time the big 
 ones are generally on the still hunt for feed, the 
 Pflueger-Tandem luminous spinner makes a good 
 bait. This is also fine for moonlight trolling. The 
 luminous spinner must be exposed to the sunlight 
 before using at night, the same as the artificial plugs 
 used for night fishing. 
 
 When all other lures fail you can generally count 
 on getting the fish if you fall back on the spoon, 
 either in trolling or casting, and your tackle box is 
 not complete, Old Man, unless you are prepared for 
 emergencies with a selection of single and tandem 
 spoons and spinners in nickel, brass and copper. 
 Just remember, however, to keep them well polished, 
 and when you use them, keep 'em moving. 
 
WOBBLERS, WIGGLERS AND PLUGS 
 
 They are with us by the hundreds and even thou- 
 sands, the various-shaped wooden plugs, painted in 
 every color in the deck and then a few extra cubist 
 daubs thrown in for luck. And here's the funny 
 part, old chap : they all seem to get the fish, more 
 or less, according to the expertness of the manipu- 
 lator of the rod. 
 
 Although the majority of the artificial baits do not 
 resemble any natural bait that is, not so you 
 would notice it without first having read their pedi- 
 grees yet for some inexplicable reason the fish 
 strike them, and as they generally have hooks galore, 
 even the beginner has no trouble in hooking his fish; 
 in fact, many times the fish hooks himself. Of 
 course you'll have to jot this down in your dream- 
 book: " Hookin' 'em doesn't always mean landin' 
 
 'em." 
 
 WHAT MAKES ; EM DO IT? 
 
 Probably when a highly cultured bass sees one of 
 these gloriously decorated affairs splash in his home 
 grounds he up and makes a dash at it in anger at 
 the rough-neck intrusion of the queer-looking object, 
 or perhaps strikes it in pure cussedness, egged on 
 
 44 
 
WOBBLERS, WIGGLERS AND PLUGS 45 
 
 by the wonderful movements of the little demon in 
 its wobble back to the caster. 
 
 How they ever dug the big bunch out of the wood- 
 pile and got away with it is the eighth wonder of the 
 world. More power to 'em. What would a fellow 
 do if he couldn't browse around among a bunch of 
 new ones and select a few to take along on each trip 
 and try them out on the unsuspecting fish? Every 
 time you get a new selection you have a sneaking 
 idea that you have perhaps at last found the 
 " killer " you are always on the lookout for. 
 
 You can get them shaped like a minnow or 
 fashioned after a chunk of pork and they are some- 
 times armed with a spinner fore and aft, while in 
 the last few years plugs resembling nothing in par- 
 ticular have been put temptingly before the eyes of 
 the fishermen and touted as the one best bet of the 
 season. Some of them don't look like fish feed, but 
 they have a little groove, flute or curve that makes 
 them do a Turkish dance through the water that 
 even an old-time " he bass " falls for. 
 
 YOU NEVER CAN TELL 
 
 You never know what you can do with one of 
 these dippy, diving, wobbling wonders 'till you try 
 it and then all the advance dope and traditions of 
 that particular bait may go to smash in one after- 
 noon's fishing and new victories in an entirely dif- 
 ferent line of fishing be pegged up to its credit. 
 
46 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 To illustrate this point, Old Man, at the opening 
 of the season I took a flyer at bass. It had been 
 cold and rainy, with high waters, and the bass were 
 quiet and far-offish. My tackle box was decked out 
 with a collection of lures guaranteed to make any 
 bass nervous, jealous or fighting mad. The bass 
 sure were off their feed, both in color and shape. 
 Nothing seemed to coax them out of the wet. I 
 snapped on a South Bend Bass-ereno bait, all white 
 with a red head, and tried that as an enticer. Noth- 
 ing doing with the bass, but I had as nice a piece of 
 wall-eyed pike fishing as a fellow could find any- 
 where. Almost every cast brought a strike, and in 
 the afternoon's casting this little old bass lure hooked 
 32 wall-eyed pike, all of which were thrown back in 
 the drink except the larger ones and that left a 
 stringer with the limit and none below two pounds, 
 topped with a six and a half pounder. My fishing 
 pal and guide had the same luck with a white Wilson 
 Wobbler with red flutes, by which he swears like a 
 pagan. They were sure off the bass, but on the 
 pike. 
 
 THE COLORS THEY LIKE 
 
 As to color, the preference seems to be with white 
 body and red head, followed by all red, all yellow, 
 green back with white belly and rainbow, but what 
 they take one day may be passed without a squint 
 the next. However, with the above colors in your 
 
WOBBLERS, WIGGLERS AND PLUGS 47 
 
 tackle outfit you probably can please them any 
 day. 
 
 The luminous-painted plug, which, if exposed to 
 daylight or artificial light, glows like the dampened 
 head of a match, makes an excellent bait for after 
 sundown or moonlight casting. The fact that these 
 baits float when in the water and not in motion 
 makes them an ideal lure for the beginner, especially 
 when he puts in a session with a little old backlash. 
 He knows his bait is floating instead of snagging, 
 which was the habit of the " daddy " of this kind 
 of plug, the old underwater sinker that found more 
 snags and hook holds than a fellow thought could 
 exist in well regulated fishing waters. 
 
 LURES THAT MAKE 'EM STRIKE 
 
 For a selection of lively artificials, the Jamison 
 Coaxer, which is a cross between a chunk of pork 
 and a humming bird, makes a good one to start with ; 
 the Heddon's Baby Crab Wiggler gives all the 
 moves of a crawfish going home to its mother and 
 that sure is pie for the bass. The Wilson Fluted 
 Wobbler South Bend Bass-ereno and Rush Tango 
 Minnow, all with white body and red heads, give 
 you a bunch of dives, dips and crawls that are hard 
 to beat. The Pflueger-Surprise minnow, Apex Bull- 
 nose and the Jim Dandy plug have the motion of 
 a crippled minnow, easy feed for a hungry fish. 
 
 With these baits in your tackle box, and any others 
 
48 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 that tickle your fancy, you ought to be able to slip 
 one over on the unsuspecting fish and at the same 
 time have a lot of fun watching them do their dance 
 in the water. 
 
NIGHT BAIT-CASTING 
 
 \ 
 
 Nearly every fisherman develops a case of buck 
 fever, or " nerves," when he lands his first musky, 
 especially if the musky be a large-sized one. While 
 fishing last summer with a pal who had never landed 
 a musky, but who had brought many bass to net, he 
 hooked his first musky, played him coolly and with 
 skill until the musky broke water close up to the 
 boat, and then when he lamped the size of the fish 
 and the sardonic smile wrinkling the old villain's 
 mouth, which had an enormous spread, this old-time 
 basser went to pieces with as nice a case of " nerves " 
 as you'll find in a day's paddle. 
 
 The old scout's sole desire was to derrick that 
 musky right into the boat. He had an awful night- 
 mare that this great, big whopper would get away, 
 and I had to beg and entreat him to give and take 
 line with the whims of the musky and use his won- 
 derful skill in playing the fish. After the " shot of 
 grace " ended the fight, my pal said he had an un- 
 conquerable desire to yank that musky in by main 
 force and an overwhelming fear that he would get 
 away. At the same time he was shaking like a 
 horse with the heaves, and the beads of cold perspi- 
 ration were oozing out on his fevered brow. 
 
 49 
 
50 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 FULL OF THRILLS 
 
 And this only leads up to what you may expect 
 to experience, Old Man, 'when you hook your first 
 bass in the dead of night. Not a moonlight night, 
 mind you, but a simon pure pitch-dark affair, when 
 the big u he-whops " are flopping around making a 
 night of it and feeding to their hearts' content. If 
 you don't discover on your first night-fishing expedi- 
 tion that you have an entirely unknown set of nerves 
 with a bunch of jumps and thrills that you have never 
 experienced before, you are of a different make-up 
 from the ordinary old scout who follows the glad- 
 some call of the lakes and streams. 
 
 There is a fascination about night fishing that can 
 be found in no other angle of the game, and once 
 you have " set in " you will make it part of each 
 fishing trip to have a few sessions with the big fins 
 that stay up all night. 
 
 STURDY TACKLE NECESSARY 
 
 For night fishing you will of course use your steel 
 rod, for the reason that it is built for sturdier work 
 than the split-bamboo, and you never can tell what 
 you are going to run up against in a night foray. 
 For instance a musky. What luck to hook one 
 of these boys and have him dish up his tailful of 
 tricks while you have your hands wrapped around a 
 
NIGHT BAIT-CASTING 51 
 
 rod that has the weight and stiffness to help bring 
 him to gaff ! 
 
 For even the most experienced caster to go on a 
 night casting jaunt with the ordinary reel is sure a 
 gambling chance. Backlashes fall to the lot of the 
 cleverest thumber and one of them at night comes 
 under the head of what old General Sherman called 
 war. To avoid this, tote along a little old antiback- 
 lash reel, for if there ever was a place for the self- 
 thumber, it is in night-fishing. A level winding at- 
 tachment also comes in handy, as spooling the line 
 evenly in the dark is some trick without one. A 
 level winding reel runs a close second to the self- 
 thumber for night work, and the advantage of the 
 self-thumber is so slight that a choice of the two 
 merely depends on which you happen to have in 
 your kit. A reel with the combination of the two 
 is a sure-fire winner in the dark. 
 
 BE SURE OF YOUR LINE 
 
 For the line, the number five or six, soft braided 
 silk, same as used for ordinary casting, is right. 
 The heavier line is better as the added strength may 
 come in handy and the casts are all short ones at 
 night, which will keep the little extra weight from 
 being noticed. Be sure your line tests out strong 
 before the trip, as the work of landing your fish will 
 be rougher than in the daylight, owing to the handi- 
 
52 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 cap in the sight line, and you have to take some 
 chances in giving the butt and holding back that you 
 wouldn't find necessary if you could follow the fish 
 with your eyes. 
 
 As to lures, make a selection of all white and 
 luminous, selecting only floaters and semi-surface 
 plugs. The under-water plug is taboo and. has no 
 place in the night-kit. Weedless hooks on your 
 plugs will save you an endless amount of trouble, 
 and although you may not hook every strike, you 
 eliminate the hooking of villainous weeds, snags and 
 windfalls, and of these you will find millions you 
 never met before, in a night's fishing. The luminous 
 plug, which glows at night after being exposed to 
 the sun during the day, has the added advantage of 
 being easily located on the water by the caster be- 
 sides making a more inviting bait- for the bass. 
 
 DON'T RUSH THE CAST 
 
 In night fishing, about the most important thing 
 is to be acquainted with the bay, cove or stretch of 
 water you intend to fish. Look it over well before 
 the actual fishing and locate the weeds, windfalls and 
 snags. Pick out the spot where you intend to fish 
 and anchor in a position that will give you casting 
 water on three sides. Slip the old boat into this 
 berth a little before sunset, as quietly as possible, 
 and drop the anchor. After the sun's glow has left 
 the sky and the dark gathers around, you will be 
 
NIGHT BAIT-CASTING 53 
 
 shocked into alertness by the first splash off to the 
 right as one of the big fellows does an " Annette 
 Kellerman " after a fleeing minnow. Don't rush 
 the cast, but take a little time and swing it out in 
 the direction of the splash, and don't be afraid to 
 let the plug make a splash as it strikes the water. 
 Before you land the first one, they'll be flopping all 
 around, and your night's work is cut out for you. 
 
ON THE HOME LIFE OF THE BASS 
 
 Every one needs a little info on the habits and 
 home life of the black bass and when and where to 
 find him. The bass, both large and small-mouthed, 
 is a roamer, a lively, active hunter for the best place 
 to gorge himself on the choice minnows, crawfish 
 and helgramite with a dessert from the surface of the 
 water of moths, flies and frogs. He is a great little 
 traveler, and soon becomes big chief of the waters 
 in which he lives. With such a varied menu, you 
 will find him ever ready for a fight, equally eager 
 for fly-hook, trolling-spoon, live bait or plug and 
 right on the job to put up a struggle that will test 
 your skill. You can fish for him night or day, as 
 he is a 24-hour feeder, but early morning and late 
 afternoon is the surest time to get him right. He is 
 an active rogue and continually rising from the bot- 
 tom to the surface, at times jumping above the water 
 in pursuit of his feed. He changes his home and 
 feeding ground as the season passes. In the spring 
 he is found in the shallow water in the streams and 
 rivers, below rapids and riffles, and as the water 
 warms up he moves to the deep pools lying along- 
 side of windfalls and logs, rocky ledges and weedy 
 spots. During the hot summer he migrates to 
 greater depths where the water is cool. Likewise 
 
 54 
 
At left, small-mouth black bass, weight 5 Ibs. 15 oz., length 22 inches, 
 girth 17 inches, landed by Albert Jay Cook of Pittsburg, Penna. This 
 bass was taken from the cold waters of Black Lake. McNaughton, Wis- 
 consin, during a snowstorm and it put up a snappy fight for freedom. 
 The lure used was a Pflueger- Surprise Minnow, perch colored body. 
 
 At right, large-month black bass, weight 7 pounds, length 23 : _ inches, 
 girth 16 inches, landed by \\mrield S. Matteson, Slielbyville. ^li^higan. 
 This bass was taken from the waters of Miller Lake, Michigan, on a very 
 hot Julv dav and the lure used wa> a live shiner. 
 
ON THE HOME LIFE OF THE BASS 55 
 
 in the lakes, the bass are " at home," in the spring, 
 in the shallowest places, lying off of the sand bars 
 and gravel formation and you can count on a good 
 catch close inshore in the very low water. A little 
 later, when the weeds, lilies and reeds are well 
 grown, you will find him in the vicinity of those 
 plants. Both the large and small-mouthed bass are 
 often found in the same lakes, but in different locali- 
 ties. The small-mouth favors the stony bars or 
 shoals varying in depth from two to forty or fifty 
 feet, while the large-mouth prefers the weeds and 
 muddy bottoms. 
 
 EAST WIND NOT SO BAD 
 
 Weather conditions have been blamed since the 
 time of Noah for an empty stringer or creel. Rainy 
 days, pleasant days, all kinds of winds, and especially 
 an east wind, have been cussed as the cause of 
 " fisherman's luck. n Remember this : the bass keeps 
 on filling the feed-bag just the same, and an east 
 wind is better than no wind at all. You will get 
 more bass when the surface of the water is slightly 
 ruffled by a breeze than when fishing on a clear still 
 day. Last year, at the middle of the season in 
 Wisconsin, a pal and I landed 19 fine large-mouth 
 bass from a little bay in something less than an hour, 
 one of us casting while the other held the boat off 
 shore. There was quite a stiff east wind blowing 
 and the surface of the water was broken by a con- 
 
56 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 tinuous roll of small waves. The bass ranged from 
 two and one-half to five pounds and were caught be- 
 tween six and seven o'clock, after we had fished all 
 day with very poor luck. These fish were caught 
 with a white Wilson wobbler, with a red head, and 
 a Jamison Coaxer plug. This only goes to show 
 that the east wind has been given the ten-count with- 
 out a chance at defense. 
 
 BASS HAVE KEEN SIGHT 
 
 While playing the game, don't for a minute forget 
 that a bass has eyes and he sure knows how to 
 use them. Once he lamps you, your bait or lures 
 are not for him, and he has moved to other quarters. 
 Don't stand in the boat and open up with a per- 
 sonally conducted sight-seeing tour before you cast. 
 The bass also hears, and often you will think that 
 he is exceptionally keen in both of these senses. 
 While in a boat, bear in mind that sound vibrations 
 carry farther in the water than you cast, and under- 
 water sounds mean a frightened fish. Save useless 
 casts in a pool from which the fish have vamoosed, 
 and don't telegraph the bass before inviting him to 
 come in out of the wet. 
 
 A bass will always gorge his food, although there 
 is quite a difference in his mouthing of baits. If 
 you are fishing with live bait, a minnow, crawfish or 
 frog, he will strike without much force and will mull 
 the bait around in his mouth a bit before swallowing 
 
ON THE HOME LIFE OF THE BASS 57 
 
 it; in fact, with a live minnow he will turn it around 
 in his mouth and swallow it headfirst. In this case 
 don't strike him too quickly, but give him a little time 
 to play the bait before striking.. A bass handles a 
 live bait somewhat like the play of a cat with a 
 mouse it has caught. Many a time I have torn a 
 minnow in half through striking too soon, having 
 the pleasure of baiting again instead of landing the 
 bass that had a half hold on my bait. If you are 
 using a wooden minnow or plug, however, strike 
 quickly right after the bass strikes, as he immediately 
 discovers that it is not a choice morsel of food and 
 disconnects. 
 
 STUDY THE PLACE YOU FISH 
 
 Any nice pleasant day that you would enjoy on 
 the water makes a good day for bass fishing. The 
 big thing is to locate the spots where the fish are 
 likely to be, at the particular time you are fishing, 
 and to try out the bait or lure that pleases his fancy 
 at that time. What he rises to one day may be dis- 
 dainfully ignored the next. You simply must study 
 each location and condition. If you have only a 
 week-end trip, you naturally desire to get as much 
 actual fishing as possible, and you will find that you 
 will save time and get more fish by " talking it over " 
 with someone who is acquainted with the waters you 
 intend to fish, or better still, secure a guide if pos- 
 sible. 
 
FLY-CASTING TACKLE FOR THE 
 BEGINNER 
 
 You want to get into the fly-casting game, but feel 
 that the price of an outfit is high. That all de- 
 pends, Old Man, on how you go about it. You have 
 heard so much about rods at $25 to $50 and so on, 
 that it makes you feel sick when you think of prac- 
 ticing on such high priced tackle. You expect to 
 give the tackle some hard knocks before you get the 
 hang of the sport and you see your bankroll with a 
 healthy case of shrinkage during the operation. 
 
 For a starter there is no need of going deeper 
 into the mint for an outfit than say $15 to $18, and 
 if you do feel like playing her a little higher, $25 
 makes a limit, and at that you can get a good service- 
 able outfit that will take you through the season and 
 give you a working practice that will make you a 
 " stay-for-sure " fly-caster. 
 
 SELECT ROD WITH CARE 
 
 Of course every fellow wants as fine an outfit as 
 he can select after he's in the game and has the rough 
 edges worn off. A rod should have the same con- 
 sideration that one gives to the selection of a shot- 
 gun or rifle. It takes the same place in the fishing 
 kit that the gun does in the hunting layout. A fel- 
 low pays a good price for a gun, selecting the best 
 
 58 
 
FLY-CASTING TACKLE FOR BEGINNER 59 
 
 he can get and being mighty particular about the 
 drop, the bore and all details, because he depends 
 on his gun to stand him well at the right moment. 
 Therefore as the rod holds the same value to the 
 fisherman, the care in selection and the money put 
 into it covers a big vital point in the outfit. 
 
 However, for a starter we can select a well made 
 and serviceable line of tackle at a very moderate 
 cost. Here is an outfit, from which a selection 'can 
 be made at either end, as to price, and it will cover 
 tackle good enough for any beginner. You can buy 
 the $5 rod or the $10 one or go anywhere between, 
 and you will get good value as far as service goes. 
 
 OUTFIT FOR THE BEGINNER 
 
 Fly rod of split bamboo or steel, $5 to $10. 
 
 Reel, single action, click, $i to $5. 
 
 Enameled waterproof silk line, $1.50. 
 
 Half dozen 6-foot gut leaders, $1.25. 
 
 Two dozen artificial flies, about eight patterns, $3. 
 
 Fly book, $1.50. 
 
 Wicker creel or basket, $2. 
 
 Landing net (folding), $1.25. 
 
 Leader box, 25c. 
 
 From this list, Buck, you will see that you can go 
 as low as $16.75 or as high as $25.75. Anyway 
 you figure it, you will get an outfit that will be service- 
 able and good enough for you to get the swing of 
 fly-casting. And at that, Old Man, you will be using 
 
60 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 some of this stuff more than one season. Outside 
 of adding perhaps a rod and a few flies the next sea- 
 son, the other tackle will carry through with ease. 
 
 In selecting your rod, make it 9 to 9 J^ foot in 
 length, 6 ounce weight, three-piece with extra tip, 
 snake guides, German silver ferrules and solid metal 
 reel seat. The rod when put together should turn 
 around in the hand with exactly the same droop all 
 aro'und. It should show an even curve without lop- 
 ping over to one side and have plenty of action when 
 you whip or bend it. 
 
 The line should be enameled waterproof silk, 
 level braided size E. Here you can go a little 
 deeper if you wish and get a double tapered line, 
 which being lighter at the ends makes less friction 
 in going through the guides and enables you to shoot 
 out the line for greater distance in your casts; how- 
 ever, a level braided line will answer the purpose. 
 
 The reel is not as important in fly-casting as in 
 bait-casting, as it is merely used to store surplus line. 
 The featherweight, 6o-yard size, weighing 3 ounces, 
 makes a good all round reel, while the automatics 
 are coming into use to a greater extent each season. 
 
 FLIES YOU SWEAR BY 
 
 As to the selection of flies, each fisherman has 
 his own particular pets and no doubt you will load 
 up on all kinds of feathery fancies, until in time you 
 pick out about half a dozen that you swear by. 
 
FLY-CASTING TACKLE FOR BEGINNER 61 
 
 Every other fellow in the game does that very thing 
 and if you develop into a real bug, you'll have your 
 u killers " as sure as shootin'. Whip a stream for 
 a few hours, trying every fly in your kit without a 
 rise, when the fish are " off,'' and then pick a fly at 
 the windup when they happen to be " on," and get 
 a well filled creel, and you will play that fly clean 
 across the board, until the same thing happens over 
 again with another fly. One well known fisherman 
 who carries in his kit an assortment of about a 
 dozen flies, admits that in the past five years he has 
 seldom used more than three flies and he is some 
 fisherman at that, not the porch variety. 
 
 FLIES FOR THE BEGINNER 
 
 For the eight patterns to go with the above outfit 
 let it be Coachman, Professor, Queen of Waters, 
 Cow Dung, Brown Hackle, Silver Doctor, McGinty 
 and Emerson Hough Buck-tail. This last named fly 
 is a new one to most trout fisherman, but it sure is 
 a killer. It isn't a very fancy looking cuss, just an 
 ordinary sort of a fly that doesn't shine up along- 
 side of the dainty looking feathery affairs, but to 
 those who have used it, it holds the first place in 
 their fly book, because it is certainly some creel filler. 
 
 With the above tackle, Old Scout, you can have 
 many pleasant days on the trout streams and feel 
 that you are learning a game that has greater at- 
 tractions every time you play it. 
 
ON LEARNING FLY-CASTING 
 
 It's some jump from bait-casting with artificial 
 plugs to fly-casting with the light, feathery imitations 
 that coax the gamy fighters out of the waters, but 
 you can make it easy enough, Old Man, by doing a 
 stretch of " dry water " practice work on the back 
 lawn. To the ordinary bait-caster who has accus- 
 tomed himself to the stiffer, short rod, fly-casting 
 with the nine or ten foot rod, weighing from five to 
 six and a quarter ounces, seems like the impossible. 
 Many are the yarns he has heard about the " fine art 
 of fishing" fly-casting; much has been written 
 about the " science " of this end of the game, in 
 fact, the average every-now-and-then, week-end 
 fisherman who has become proficient in bait-casting 
 has been scared to a fare-you-well at the thought of 
 learning to toss the light flies and he has stuck to 
 bait-casting as the " safety-first " of fishing, thereby 
 missing many pleasant hours whipping streams. 
 
 PRACTICE MAKES A FLY-CASTER 
 
 Coming right down to rocks, you can learn fly- 
 casting by a little practice with the right tackle. Of 
 course, you must not get the bug in your tackle-box 
 that this practice makes you an expert fly-fisherman, 
 
 62 
 
ON LEARNING FLY-CASTING 63 
 
 but it gives you a start at an angle of the game to 
 which you will become a regular member as soon as 
 you have whipped a stream or two. You can learn 
 the action of fly-casting quite easily, and practice will 
 make you in a short time a good fly-caster, but there 
 is nothing whatever that will enable you to bring 
 home a well filled creel, except a study of fish and 
 the streams you fish, and the exercise of care and 
 alertness of mind while after the game fish that rise 
 to the fly. 
 
 You can whip a stream all day with any variety 
 or selection of flies without creeling a fish, if you 
 don't know the habits and loafing places of the fish 
 and how to cast without scaring them to death. 
 
 TACKLE NECESSARY TO START 
 
 Probably the best all round fly rod for all except 
 the smallest of mountain brooks, is a split-bamboo 
 from nine to ten feet, weighing from five to six 
 ounces. My preference is the nine and a half footer 
 for general casting, with 25 yards of waterproof 
 enameled silk line, size E or F, according to the 
 weight of the rod; E for the heavier and F for the 
 lighter one. An ordinary single action click reel of 
 100 yards capacity is necessary. Don't bother with 
 a leader for the lawn practice but save it for the 
 real fishing, although you can tie a very small piece 
 of white string on the end of the line to locate the 
 end easily and so note the distance from your target. 
 
6 4 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 TRYING OUT THE CAST 
 
 Peg down a newspaper or small cloth on the lawn, 
 take a position facing it, say 25 feet away, place the 
 reel on the underside of the rod with the handle to 
 the right and keep it there at all times. Grasp the 
 rod in the right hand, reel under, with the thumb 
 straight along the top of the grip never curved 
 around the grip. Cast out about ten feet of line let- 
 ting it fall in front of you on a line with the target 
 and with the left hand unreel about fifteen feet of 
 line do not pass this line through the guides and 
 out the tip, but let it drop to the ground at your feet, 
 retaining a hold on the line about a foot this side of 
 the first guide. Now point your rod at the target, 
 keeping your arm as far as the elbow close to the 
 body (this is essential, because the forearm and wrist 
 must do the work) swing the rod up to a vertical 
 position, slowly at first, taking up loose line, and end 
 with a strong, quick wrist and forearm motion. 
 This throws the line in the air and the swing of the 
 rod carries it back over the shoulder, but be sure 
 to stop the cast when the thumb along the grip shows 
 that the rod is vertical; more casts are killed by too 
 much of a swing over the shoulder than any other 
 way. This is the first half of the cast and is called 
 the back cast. This cast causes the line to fly out 
 behind you and the instant you feel the slightest tug 
 on the rod you know that the line has straightened 
 
ON LEARNING FLY-CASTING 65 
 
 out behind and at this point you should start the for- 
 ward cast. Make the forward cast by beginning it 
 with an easy swing, putting the steam on at the wind- 
 up, and stopping the cast with a snap when parallel 
 with the ground. 
 
 BIG POINTS TO REMEMBER 
 
 The main points to watch are : Make the back 
 cast forcibly. Not to swing the rod back too far on 
 the back cast (keeping it at vertical rather than back 
 farther) to start the forward cast at the slightest 
 pull of the line, to start forward cast mildly, finish 
 it strong, and not to lower the rod too near the 
 water at the wind up. 
 
 To prevent the fly from landing with a splash, 
 cast at a point in the air about a yard above the 
 target, and to make it fall lightly on the water, raise 
 the tip of the rod gently just before the fly lights. 
 If you wait too long before making the forward cast 
 the line will drop behind you and go dead, and to 
 make a successful cast the line must be alive and in 
 motion from the first rise of the rod to the drop of 
 the fly. If you start the forward cast before the 
 line straightens out behind, indicated by the tug on 
 the rod, you will likely snap off the flies. If you 
 have failed to reach the target, go through the same 
 operation of casts again, drawing a few yards more 
 of line off the reel. In fly fishing it is well to fish 
 the near waters first, increasing the distance with 
 
66 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 each cast. Outside of having some fly-caster coach 
 you there is no way to learn the game, except to 
 keep at it until you have trained the wrist to do the 
 work through the eye and the rod. 
 
HIS MAJESTY THE BROOK TROUT 
 
 Without a doubt, I feel like tacking the blue rib- 
 bon on the brook trout for being the wisest, liveliest 
 and gamest of the fresh-water fish. For downright 
 nerve and fight he is in a class by himself and he 
 carries more tricks in his tail than any other fish. 
 He is truly an American and of a sturdy type that 
 can forage a living in any stream or spring-fed lake 
 that is cool. Although he does not grow as large 
 as his cousin, the rainbow trout from the West, or 
 his foreign relative, the brown, or German trout, for 
 his small size and weight he puts up the keenest fight 
 of the trout family. 
 
 The trout is trim-built, with graceful lines, and 
 his constant battle with swift currents makes him a 
 strong, husky youngster. As a general thing he is 
 found in the small flowing streams where the water 
 is cold and fresh, while the rainbow and brown trout 
 can thrive in warmer and deeper streams as well as 
 lakes. As a rule I have found the rainbow and 
 brown trout in the roily waters below falls, in the 
 swift rapids, and the brook trout in the quieter pools, 
 especially those with grassy beds. The trout is a 
 rapacious feeder, and takes his food from the sur- 
 
 67 
 
68 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 face, in midwater and at the bottom; he is, however, 
 mostly a surface feeder and dotes on flies, grass- 
 hoppers, insects, worms, small minnows, and even 
 small frogs. 
 
 TROUT HAS KEEN SIGHT 
 
 Undoubtedly, he has the keenest sight of any fish, 
 and evidently he watches his prey before it strikes 
 the water, as he will close his jaws on a fly the in- 
 stant it hits the water, often leaping up and catching 
 it on the wing. It's a pretty good guess that he 
 watches the flies or insects as they fly over the water, 
 and this same sight makes it necessary for the rod 
 wielder to match his wits against those of Mr. B. 
 Trout. 
 
 Trout are caught with artificial flies, grasshoppers, 
 worms, minnows, crickets, grubs and almost any 
 small insects that are found along streams, and also 
 with very small spoons. When fishing with a fly it 
 should be kept in motion, imitating as nearly as 
 possible the movements of a fly that has dropped on 
 the surface and is struggling to rise again. This 
 can be accomplished by a slight broken twitching of 
 the wrist. When a trout takes the fly, strike quickly, 
 but not with a heavy jerk, as only a slight move of 
 the wrist is necessary. In taking a fly he snaps his 
 jaws together over the fly, but is quick to throw 
 out the artificial feathery substitute for a square 
 meal. 
 
HIS MAJESTY THE BROOK TROUT 69 
 LOT DEPENDS ON ROD WORK 
 
 The sport begins with a rush right after you hook 
 your fish, and you sure have to work your gray mat- 
 ter before you can creel a trout. He seems to know 
 every rift, rooted hold, snag or windfall in the 
 stream, and you've got to keep your mind on the 
 game to keep him from reaching cover, which means 
 a lost fish and a snagged line. Let your rod do most 
 of the work that's what a good fly rod is for 
 keep your line tight, and at no time give any slack, 
 as the trout may not be securely hooked and a slack 
 line gives him a chance to cough out the fly. You 
 will find the trout is more quickly landed if worked 
 downstream, especially with a large fish, as the cur- 
 rent is in your favor. Keep the rod well up and the 
 line shortened, as a short line gives better control 
 over the fish, and you need every extra bit of ad- 
 vantage, because the sole object of the trout is to 
 'get away, and at that game he is some little getter. 
 
 FISH UP AND DOWN STREAM 
 
 If you are fishing a slow-running stream it is best 
 to fish upstream, and on swift-running streams fish 
 down, making it a point to walk around pools and 
 fish them from the lower end up to the head. In 
 fishing upstream the fly comes quickly down with the 
 current; this can be slowed up by casting diagonally 
 up and across. In fishing a riffles or broken water 
 
70 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 cast from below, as the trout heads upstream in 
 swift waters and is not as likely to lamp you. In 
 fishing a very small stream, where casting is prac- 
 tically impossible owing to the brush, the flies can be 
 guided twenty to thirty feet ahead by the rod and 
 run into every likely spot and nook, as the current 
 and rod do the work, taking the fly around rocks and 
 eddies, where the fkli lie awaiting the natural flies 
 and insects as they float downstream. 
 
 TROUT GORGE ANGLEWORMS 
 
 Early in the season the common angleworm is 
 considered a delicacy by the trout and if this bait is 
 floated downstream under a shelving bank or around 
 a log, which makes an ideal hiding place for trout, 
 it's a twenty-to-one shot that another fish will be 
 added to the creel. Hook the worm so that the 
 entire hook is covered, using a No. 6 or 8 snelled 
 hook. Always fish downstream with worms, as the 
 natural action of the current carries the worms down 
 stream. Let the bait float from about thirty feet 
 above the spot where you anticipate the trout are 
 lying and throw in the shut-off on all noise. 
 
 Do not try to exceed the speed limit, but fish every 
 pool as you go along. Many fish are missed through 
 hurrying along and fishing only the most likely holes. 
 The careful fisherman brings home the best creel, and 
 care with a cap " C " is the big thing in fishing for 
 the crafty, gamy trout. 
 
RAINBOWS AND BROWNS 
 
 When it comes to trouting, Old Timer, the little 
 old native brook trout holds a warmer place in the 
 heart of the average fly tosser than either the rain- 
 bow or the brown, but as a general thing these last 
 named fins grow to a huskier size than the brook 
 trout and with the added weight and the regular 
 trout instinct they put up as fancy a fight as any angler 
 could wish for. And they have one little trick that 
 the brook trout seldom, if ever, pulls and that is the 
 leaping out of the water on a slack line, just about 
 the same kind of a leap as the bass and particularly 
 the brown trout pulls, the same all-body shake of the 
 bronze backer. For that one little old trick we gotta 
 give 'em credit, it's the snappy unexpected leap out 
 of the water that puts the pep into the sport and 
 makes the fisherman keep his mind, eye and hands 
 in the game. 
 
 BROWNIE A HARDY FISH 
 
 The brown trout is a hardier fish than the 'brook 
 trout and for that reason has been stocked in streams 
 that have become too sluggish and warm for the 
 brook. This change in temperature of the waters 
 is due to the cutting out of timber and in many 
 streams the waters have warmed up to such an ex- 
 tent that the native trout have passed to the happy 
 
72 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 fishing waters. Many streams of this character if 
 stocked with the brown brothers would in a short 
 time make fishing in them sport of the highest class. 
 The brown trout is a killer and the fact that he has 
 been planted in streams in which the native brook 
 trout held domain, and then routed this little sport 
 out of his home waters has in a way given him a bad 
 name with some of the frat, but plant him in waters 
 that have been deserted by the brook and you will 
 be surprised at his rapid growth and the amount of 
 kick he develops in his tail in a few years. He tacks 
 on weight like an off-season ball player, running up a 
 score of about a pound a year, which sizes him up 
 well in a short time. 
 
 While the larger brown boys are generally found 
 in the deeper water and the pools, which is often the 
 hiding place of the larger brook trout, the smaller 
 fins of the tribe weighing around the one- to three- 
 pound limit are found in the swifter and more broken 
 waters, especially in the waters cut up by rocks and 
 bowlders. In this white water he is nearly always 
 found on the upper side of the bowlders, keenly on 
 the lookout for the food as it comes down stream. 
 
 STRIKES WITH GREAT FORCE 
 
 Although the brown trout is not as speedy in his 
 fight as the native brook trout, he takes to the arti- 
 ficial fly with a drive that sure has some punch and 
 it is often unnecessary to strike him, for the simple 
 
RAINBOWS AND BROWNS 73 
 
 reason that he has hooked himself in his energetic 
 wallop at the feathery fancy tossed to him. And 
 when he is hooked, Old Scout, he puts up a fight 
 right up to the net and then some. He makes a long 
 steady fight and often when brought to net will start 
 out on another round just when you think you have 
 him " heading " in. 
 
 On water that is not too broken or swift give him 
 a try-out with the dry-fly, especially in fishing the 
 pools and deeper water. In the fast white water 
 the wet-fly fishing will be found more effective; in 
 fact, it is almost an impossibility to really fish an 
 entirely dry-fly on such waters, and you'll save time 
 and cussin' by starting in with the wet riggin'. 
 
 The rainbow trout, like the brown, feels entirely 
 at home in the warmer waters of the streams that 
 have been passed up by the brook trout, and he dotes 
 on minnows and the insects he can forage from the 
 surface. To him, a grasshopper is a dainty morsel 
 and many of the big ones have been tricked into the 
 creel by the wise angler who hooks on a lively hopper 
 and casts it the same as a feathery fly, letting it float 
 with the current in a natural manner and not trying 
 to liven it up with a bunch of jerks in an effort to 
 fool the wise old fellows. 
 
 RAINBOW A SPEEDY FIGHTER 
 
 The rainbow carries more speed in his make-up 
 than the brown trout, making a faster fight in every 
 
74 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 way; fact is, his battle with the fly resembles the fight 
 of the native brook trout far more than that of the 
 brown boys. About the first thing he does when 
 hooked is to go up into the air, both figuratively and 
 leapingly speaking, and his leap is a thing of beauty, 
 way up out of the water, generally, and at this point 
 of the game many of them depart to other waters, 
 having passed up the fly on the way. 
 
 The rainbow is a voracious cuss and speedier to 
 accept an invitation to strike than either the brown 
 or native trout, whether you offer him the fly, min- 
 now, spinner or the small rubber artificial minnows. 
 Early in the season the worm, scorned by many 
 fishermen as the " garden hackle," makes 'em sit up 
 on their tail and take notice, although later the flies 
 and minnows are the most attractive lures. The 
 fellow who usually howls with horror when you men- 
 tion worms in the same breath with trout, is gener- 
 ally the cherub who sneaks out alone with a nice 
 bait-can full of the wigglers and proceeds to play a 
 little solitaire on the stream. In the early season the 
 worm with the usual light trouting tackle is no kid's 
 bait for trout; many a sure-enough fisherman finds it 
 necessary to play the game with his utmost skill and 
 knowledge of the trout to coax 'em into the creel 
 even on worms. 
 
 In a selection of flies for the rainbow and brown 
 trout, the usual flies used for the native brook are 
 effective, playing up strong on the hackles, making 
 
RAINBOWS AND BROWNS 75 
 
 it a point to include a March Brown and a McGinty. 
 The tackle for the big fellows can be a bit stronger 
 than that for the brook trout and still be in the light 
 tackle class, say a ten-foot, six-ounce fly-rod and a 
 strong leader for the fight with the husky boys in the 
 swift waters, or the old grand-daddy of the deep 
 pool. 
 
FLY-CASTING FOR BASS 
 
 Going after the husky bass with the light fly rod 
 is sure the right system of fishing, if you have a desire 
 to cultivate the tingling nerves and the thumping 
 pulse. Nothing in the game will give you more 
 thrills than to have a two- or three-pound bass take 
 the feathers and then try to shake 'em loose that 
 is, of course, if you are handling the working end 
 of the rod. And if this old bass is a stream-raised 
 fellow, he will give you more fight than any other 
 fish, weight for weight. 
 
 A knowledge of the waters to be fished and an 
 understanding of the haunts and habits of the bass 
 are more essential when fishing for him with the fly 
 than in any other angle of the sport. Casting for 
 the bass in the deep waters when he is in the shallows 
 will simply give you practice ; you must know the time 
 of year when he haunts the deep pools, and when he 
 is found in the shallows, and this working knowledge 
 only comes from study and observation. 
 
 STREAM FISHING SOME SPORT 
 
 Wading a stream and whipping the water in a 
 semicircle as you go along is far more enjoyable than 
 lake fly-casting, and at the same time a stream that 
 
 76 
 
FLY-CASTING FOR BASS 77 
 
 can be waded makes about the best kind of bass 
 water for the use of the fly. The shallow pools 
 above and below riffles or rapids is a likely spot for 
 the hungry bass as well as the eddies along the sides 
 of rapids. Cast into the swirl of water as it passes 
 around a bowlder, and off the edge of the windfalls, 
 logs and brush heaps, all of which locations are 
 generally the loafing place of a fine old bass. 
 
 In lake fishing with the fly the bright, sunny day is 
 not for you. The bass rise to the fly particularly on 
 a day when the surface is broken by a slight breeze, 
 and the best time for casting is in the early morning 
 and late in the evening. From sunset to dark is the 
 best time when the day has been bright in fact, 
 most any day. On the lake cast your fly inshore on 
 the bars and shallows or ledges and off the edges of 
 lily pads, rushes and weed beds, as well as alongside 
 the half-submerged logs and windfalls along shore. 
 The fly should be allowed to sink considerably and a 
 slightly jerky crawl given to it when working in the 
 line. This is done to fool the bass into believing 
 the object of the fly-maker's art is a struggling insect 
 trying to get out of the wet. Whether it fools 'em 
 or not is something I don't know, but I think they 
 strike it out of curiosity more than anything else. I 
 have seen the greenest beginner take a whirl at toss- 
 ing the feathery morsels and by using care and judg- 
 ment in the approach, land some fine bass, although 
 at the time he did not know what motions the fly 
 
78 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 was taking at any one time. But he did know and 
 realize that the bass is a wise old bird and that you 
 have to go at him on the gumshoe order if you expect 
 to land him on a fly. 
 
 BETTER TO FISH DOWNSTREAM 
 
 On a stream it is preferable to fish downstream, 
 as the bass lie with the head upstream, and with the 
 current carrying your fly on its natural course the 
 bass have more chance to see it and thus become a 
 possible candidate for the creel. Then again, it is 
 far easier to wade downstream than it is to go up. 
 
 For dark days and early evening use light-colored 
 flies, and for the bright days the darker flies. 
 Smaller flies of a subdued color tied on a No. 6 or 7 
 hook is right for low, clear water on a bright day, 
 while for after sunset and moonlight casting the gray, 
 white and brown flies tied on a larger hook, a No. 
 2 or 4 size, are more likely to attract the fish than 
 the smaller ones. For rough and turbid water the 
 brightly colored feathers are best. In selecting your 
 flies don't overlook the black, brown and gray 
 hackles; you will often find that the old reliable 
 hackles will bring a rise after you have tried every 
 other combination in your fly book. 
 
 THE FLIES YOU USE 
 
 Nearly every fellow that whips the light fly rod 
 has his own particular selection of flies, and by these 
 
FLY-CASTING FOR BASS 79 
 
 he swears like a pagan; however, for the beginner 
 the following selection, besides the hackles, will give 
 a fairly varied assortment that will pass muster until 
 he creels the first fish, and the fly used at that time 
 will no doubt be given the place of honor in his pet 
 list. I have found these flies creel fillers: Queen 
 of the Waters, Lord Baltimore, Montreal, Grizzly 
 King, Coachman, Professor, Red Ibis, Seth Green, 
 White Miller, King of the Water, Ferguson, Mc- 
 Ginty, Emerson Hough, Silver Doctor and Parman- 
 chee Belle. Here are flies of enough variety in color 
 for all kinds of water and as you make up your own 
 list you will find that many of the above will be re- 
 tained, as they have made good from the start with 
 many fishermen. 
 
 KEEP OUT OF SIGHT 
 
 One of the essentials in bassing with the fly is to 
 keep out of sight of the fish as much as possible. 
 The bass is every bit as scary as the trout, although 
 once he sees you he will not dart away and disappear 
 like the trout, but will dash off a little distance and 
 stop, facing you. However, don't waste time trying 
 to make him take your fly, because he has a case of 
 " nerves " and you can cast it right over his nose and 
 he merely gives it a disinterested glance. On the 
 small bass streams keep entirely out of sight and on 
 the wider waters make a long cast; the finer the 
 water, the more caution and the longer the cast. On 
 
8o LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 casting from the shore it is well to be screened by 
 bushes or any natural formation. Wading is the 
 best method, however, as the nearer you are to the 
 water the less chance the fish have of seeing you, 
 and even at that you should be as quiet as possible 
 and make it a point to avoid quick or sudden moves. 
 Cast your flies as lightly as possible, avoid letting 
 them land with a splash by slightly raising the tip 
 of the rod just before they touch the water, and let 
 the current help you by allowing the flies to run with 
 it. 
 
ON FISHING THE DRY-FLY 
 
 Without a doubt, Old Scout, learning to cast the 
 dry or floating fly is the post-graduate study in the 
 fine art of fishing and there is more real enjoyment 
 in coaxing the wise old trout into the creel by this 
 method than any other angle of the sport. All the 
 knowledge you have gained through study of the 
 habits of the trout in your wet-fly casting will stand 
 you well as a beginner at this end of the game. 
 
 Dry-fly casting comes to us from England, where 
 it is practiced to a finish, and as the sport has been 
 adopted here, changes have been made in the manner 
 of using the dry-fly, occasioned by the difference in 
 the streams of this country and England. In that 
 country it is the custom to cast to a rising trout, or 
 at a point where a trout is expected to rise, and on 
 the placid, slow, smooth-running waters of England 
 this can be done with success, while over here the 
 swifter running waters in which we find the wiley 
 trout are not so adaptable for casting to the rise. 
 The dry-fly caster generally fishes all the water, as in 
 wet-fly casting. In fact, in fishing a stream the 
 quieter pools and stretches can be worked with the 
 dry-fly, and the more broken and white water given 
 over to the wet-fly. In this way a stream can be 
 
 81 
 
Sz LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 whipped with more success and pleasure than by 
 either one of the methods alone. 
 
 ALL KINDS OF WATER 
 
 Most of our trout fishing is on streams in the 
 woods or wilderness where the waters alternate be- 
 tween rapids and smooth spots, waterfall and deep 
 pool, shallows or riffles, and one could follow a 
 stream all day without lamping a trout on the rise 
 for food, so that if he were fishing in the orthodox 
 English way, bacon fried to a crisp would about make 
 up his evening meal. This accounts for the fact that 
 we have changed the dope a bit and fish the dry-fly 
 more as a floating fly without the added effort of 
 tossing the feathers into the mouth of the waiting 
 trout and tickling him to death. 
 
 On a very civilized stream that has been fished 
 to a fare-you-well by all manner of fishermen, where 
 the trout have wised up to tricks of the game, the 
 dry-fly will get a rise when the wet-fly would merely 
 cause a wink of the weather eye. 
 
 In casting the dry-fly the fisherman works up- 
 stream, casting slightly across the current, so that the 
 floating fly will ride down with the current, and a 
 very essential detail is to cast lightly and accurately, 
 while it is not necessary to cast as long a line as in 
 wet-fly casting. The whole game is to have the fly 
 float down as naturally as possible, and it requires 
 considerable skill in the handling of the rod and the 
 
ON FISHING THE DRY-FLY 83 
 
 reeling in of slack to keep the fly from being pulled 
 under the water by the weight of a slack line or 
 through some other rough work of the caster. 
 
 HORIZONTAL CAST THE BEST 
 
 Wherever possible, the horizontal cast should be 
 used in preference to the overhead cast, as the fly is 
 more likely to land right side up with the wings 
 cocked. While more accuracy and distance are ob- 
 tained by the overhead cast, these things are not as 
 essential in dry-fly casting as having the fly ride the 
 water in a natural manner. As a general thing the 
 fly lights on the water on its side when the overhead 
 cast is used, and although a trout will rise to a float- 
 ing fly in this position, the chances are greater for 
 a rise when the fly lies on the water in the position 
 naturally taken by a live insect with its wings flutter- 
 ing above the water in its effort to rise from the 
 surface. 
 
 In casting a smooth stretch of water there is little 
 if any drag of the line, and the fly will float in an 
 upright position if cast skillfully in the first place. 
 
 In the early season, when the water is high and 
 discolored by flooded conditions, the trout are bottom 
 or midwater feeding, and at this time the dry-fly is 
 of little use on the streams. As soon as the air 
 warms up a bit and the insect life has developed on 
 the streams and the water clears, with the tempera- 
 ture rising steadily, the floating fly is a sure winner. 
 
84 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 From the middle of May to the end of the season 
 the conditions grow more favorable to the dry-fly, 
 and on low, clear water at the tail end of the season 
 it is by far the most effective lure. 
 
 On any water that is not broken by rapids or riffles, 
 the dry-fly can be used to advantage, and even on 
 waters that are swift and rapid it will be found 
 effective. 
 
 STUDY AND SKILL NECESSARY 
 
 One of the main points in casting the dry-fly is to 
 study the currents, as one of the greatest little old 
 jinks to the successful use of the dry-fly is the drag 
 caused by the fly falling on water moving at a speed 
 different from that of the water on which the line 
 falls. Select your casting position where the fly and 
 line will light on water of the same speed, so that 
 the fly will not be drowned by the drag of the line. 
 Another point that will make your dry-fly work bet- 
 ter at the start is to avoid raising the tip of the rod 
 as the fly falls on the water, and this is a small point 
 that the wet-fly fisherman has a tendency to overlook 
 through habit acquired in casting the wet feathers. 
 To raise the rod at this time will pull the dry-fly 
 under water. At the same time the beginner should 
 never strip in the line until the fly has started down- 
 stream with the current. If you find it necessary to 
 cast on waters of different speed to the current, cast 
 a slack line, and if the fly lights on water moving 
 
ON FISHING THE DRY-FLY 85 
 
 slower than that on which the line rests there will 
 be no drag on the fly until the slack line has floated 
 downstream. Make a study of the stream and the 
 trout and use all your skill and you will find much 
 pleasure in floating the dry-fly. 
 
BASS IN THE RIVERS AND STREAMS 
 
 There are many reasons for giving the black bass 
 the title of " gamest fish of fresh water/' For his 
 size and weight he puts up as snappy a fight as any 
 fisherman could wish for. Take a small-mouth bass 
 in a swift-running stream and it will be a case of 
 matching your knowledge of the fishing game against 
 his keenly developed instinct, and at that, you have 
 to keep your eyes open or he will slip one over on 
 you and break for other waters. 
 
 When it comes to main strength the bass, for its 
 size, carries a larger package of that stuff than any 
 other fish. Often, when hooked, it will plunge to 
 the bottom and stick there to a fare-you-well. 
 Nothing can budge him except your strength against 
 his husky muscular development, and this puts a 
 heavy strain on your tackle that often shows up a 
 weak point in your equipment and then it's " good- 
 by " bass. At times you will think that the bass has 
 edged into a rocky crevice and propped his strong 
 fins against the sides to give him leverage, and be- 
 lieve me, he has sense enough to do it. He is wise 
 enough to dart around submerged rocks and saw a 
 line or gut leader on the ragged edges and make his 
 getaway. He will often go down to the bottom and 
 
 86 
 
Where the stream makes a bend and the water speeds up a bit, form- 
 ing eddies and back currents, you can count on good, bass fishing. Cast- 
 ing among the submerged rocks at this bend in the Wisconsin River, 
 into the quieter water, added five nice small-mouth bass to the pack- 
 sack. 
 
 Good streaii: .ter. In the eddies and back-water :il<mcr;ide 
 
 of the rapids and riffle?. Here's where the bass kick around waiting ftrr 
 the tail weary minnows that try to fight the swifter waters and in their 
 weakened condition they make easy feed for the wise bass. From this 
 eddy, seven ba=s were taken by casting down and slowly reeling in a 
 semi-surface plug. 
 
BASS IN THE RIVERS AND STREAMS 87 
 
 imitate a bull pup, giving a series of short, snappy 
 jerks until something gives in the tackle line. 
 
 ONE OF HIS MANY TRICKS 
 
 One of his stock tricks is to watch your line, and 
 the moment he gets a little slack, up out of the water 
 he jumps, giving a shake that would make a fair- 
 sized " musky " turn green with envy. This is not 
 merely a shake of the head such as is stated by some 
 fishermen, but a strong jerky shake that brings 
 into play all the muscles of his body. He does not 
 stop at one jump, but will leap repeatedly into the 
 air, each time giving a master shake of his husky 
 body. After the first leap you may think you have 
 lost him and start reeling in, when, 20 feet away 
 from his first flop, up he comes again. This is his 
 method of showing an amateur how a well developed 
 bass loosens a hook from his mouth, and unless you 
 reel in that slack mighty quick, he will sure show 
 you. 
 
 ON HIS WAY UP-STREAM 
 
 The bass is always on the move upstream, which 
 is likely caused by the scarcity of natural food in the 
 lower waters. He has no love for rapids or riffles 
 and is seldom if ever found in them, but in the quieter 
 waters at the lower end of a rapids or in the eddies 
 on either side he is right at home. Although he does 
 not like the rougher, swifter waters of the rapids and 
 
88 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 riffles, he will often dash into their frothy edge in 
 pursuit of minnows, returning at once to the quieter 
 water. He will also dash into very shallow water 
 after some of the small fry, often in water so low 
 that his dorsal fin is entirely out of the water, return- 
 ing instantly, however, to the deeper water with his 
 catch. In his up-stream migration he will often loaf 
 in pools below the rougher, shallower waters of the 
 riffles until rainy weather raises the water and makes 
 swimming better for him. Right after high water 
 makes poor fishing in most cases, as the bass have 
 gone up stream to new localities, and as the new 
 feeding grounds are generally alive with eats carried 
 down by the current, this gives him a period of easy 
 feeding. As a rule the bass does most of his feed- 
 ing in the shallows or below riffles, going to the deep 
 pools for rest and digestion of his overfilled feedbag, 
 at which time it is very difficult to coax him with any 
 lure or bait. 
 
 SPORTS IN THE MOONLIGHT 
 
 On a moonlight night the bass can be seen jump- 
 ing up out of the water, having a general good time, 
 just like a bunch of kids in the old " swimmin' hole." 
 They are good night feeders and are generally close 
 to the surface at that time. That they come to the 
 surface at night was shown to me in a striking man- 
 ner a few years ago. While frogging one night 
 above a riffles in the Mahoning River in eastern 
 
BASS IN THE RIVERS AND STREAMS 89 
 
 Ohio, I was slowly rowing across the river when 
 something flopped into the boat behind me. After a 
 few exciting moments of considerable activity the 
 flopper proved to be a 324-P un d large-mouth bass, 
 and the following night in practically the same spot, 
 another bass, larger by half a pound, flopped into 
 the boat while the wife was piloting a bunch of 
 suffragettes on a hunt for a mess of frogs. Later I 
 fished this stretch of water with a moonlight Mascot 
 wobbler and caught quite a few strings of fine bass, 
 particularly fine, I thought, for such " civilized " 
 waters. 
 
 Bass fishing in the streams, rivers and lakes will 
 be better each year, as the steady stocking of all 
 civilized waters and the rapid increase of the fish, 
 as well as the adaptability of the large-mouth to all 
 waters, means good bass fishing, which is a keen 
 sport for anyone. 
 
COIN' AFTER MUSKY 
 
 So you're out for the big ones, the " tiger" of the 
 waters, the great old rascal that makes 'em all sit up 
 and doff the lid. You've bassed, trouted, and piked 
 and panned a bit, now you feel like taking a whirl at 
 the boss of the tribe, caused no doubt by the many 
 tales that have been spun about this Villa of the 
 weedbeds. No matter how harrowing the tale may 
 be, Old Man, the muskellunge is guilty of everything 
 that has been said about him. And at that he still 
 has a deck full of tricks he has never sprung on the 
 countless Waltons who try to give him the once-over. 
 He has caused more nervous prostration than the 
 bright lights, and take it from me, hooking a 20- or 
 3O-pound musky unawares is no game for a nervous 
 player. From the moment of the strike, it's a case 
 of your wits against those of the musky, and you've 
 got to think fast or you'll find yourself reeling in a 
 slack line, with the musky doing the famous fade- 
 away. 
 
 The musky is a vicious cuss and he sure looks the 
 part. He has a pair of jaws set with a bunch of 
 sharp saw-like teeth that would make a shark jealous, 
 the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper, giving 
 
 90 
 
Mrs. J. G. McCarthy, of Chicago, Illinios, with a 38-pound muskel- 
 
 lunge she landed, unassisted, on Sept. 25, \ ( >\b, in Big Lake St. Germain, 
 
 :isin. This is one of the largest musky on record having been 
 
 landed by a woman, with light bass tackle. The lure used was a X". (; 
 
 Skinner Spoon, the rod a six-ounce affair, and the big fin fought twenty- 
 
 inutes before he was willing to give in to the tackle skill of Mrs. 
 
 McCarthy. 
 

COIN' AFTER MUSKY 91 
 
 him a wolf-like appearance, and he certainly is a wolf 
 by nature. He feeds on all fish smaller than him- 
 self, even his own kind, and is not adverse to gobbling 
 up a young duck or other aquatic bird that happens 
 to pass his way. He will strike at most anything 
 moving in the water, and once hooked he will put up 
 a thrilling and savage fight equaled by no other 
 fresh-water fish. 
 
 WHERE TO FIND HIM 
 
 His favorite haunt is in about 5 to 15 feet of 
 water near the weeds, water lilies or grass that grow 
 in the water, or alongside of submerged rocks. He 
 is a solitary fellow, doesn't make any friends, but 
 just lies around waiting for a piece of food to go 
 swimming by, then makes a lightninglike dart, snaps 
 his powerful jaws shut on his victim and swims back 
 to his station and gorges the eats, ready in a minute 
 to make another foray. He always strikes a fish or 
 lure sideways, and there is no special time when he 
 is feeding; fact is, he seems to be hungry all the time, 
 although he is more active from eight to eleven in 
 the morning and from four until dark. When the 
 water is slightly roughened* by the wind and break- 
 ing in small waves or when the day is overcast, makes 
 good musky weather, although he may surprise you 
 and strike your lure while you are trolling into shore 
 to make a landing for the noonday lunch, and a sud- 
 den strike of a musky is sure a shocker. 
 
92 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 THE BEST TIME 
 
 Musky fishing is very good in June, unless the 
 season is extremely cold and backward. Towards 
 the tail end of July it slows up considerably, while 
 August is the poorest month for the big chief. Dur- 
 ing " dog days " his teeth are in poor shape and 
 you can hardly coax a strike out of him unless he 
 feels so down in the mouth and mean that he strikes 
 from pure cussedness. Like a snake shedding its 
 skin and the deer its horns, the musky loses its teeth 
 in August, but nature packs in a new set by the first 
 of September and the old boy is in a fine fighting 
 humor for that month. By far the best musky fish- 
 ing is to be had in September and October, when 
 the chill night air seems to fill them with an extra 
 supply of pep for the food hunt the next day. Even 
 up into November is not too late for the big ones, 
 but for downright good musky fishing it is hard to 
 beat September and October. 
 
 STRIKES IN SNOWSTORM 
 
 A few seasons ago a well-known fisherman who 
 has wet his line from Alaska to the Florida Keys 
 caught a 38-pound musky late in October in northern 
 Wisconsin in a blinding snowstorm. The wind was 
 blowing a half gale and the strike was made on the 
 final cast before running in to camp before the 
 storm. It was some game to land this husky 
 
COIN' AFTER MUSKY 93 
 
 " granddaddy " of the bunch; the cold waters keyed 
 him up to the highest pitch and he made a series of 
 rushes and dives that took keen work to hold him, 
 while his breaks from the water included a bunch 
 of musky tricks unheard of in the fish caught during 
 the warmer days of summer and early fall. The 
 air was so cold that after bringing the musky to 
 gafi the fisherman's hands were actually stiffened on 
 to the rod. 
 
 TROLL AND CAST 
 
 In the past most of the boys have contented 
 themselves with trolling for the musky, but the real 
 sport of the game is to cast for them, using the same 
 method as that of casting for bass. In trolling for 
 musky a silk braided line of 20 to 30 pounds test 
 is about right, while a six-thread Cuttyhunk linen 
 line is preferred by some. For a trolling lure the 
 spoon hook holds first place and is no doubt the 
 best little all-around bait. Use a chub, shiner, black 
 sucker or pork rind with a spoon as an added at- 
 traction, and if this don't seem to make 'em curious, 
 put a strip of red flannel about six inches long on the 
 hooks and let that wiggle through the water a bit 
 as an enticer. Some mighty fine ones have been 
 caught with this rig. Most beginners load the line 
 with a whopping big spoon, even up to No. 12 size. 
 Keep her down, Old Man, to a No. 4 or No. 6 for 
 the single spoon, and No. 3 or No. 4 for the tandem 
 
94 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 style. For a good stiff rod for the beginner make 
 it a steel one, and the No. 33 Bristol will fill the bill 
 for either casting or trolling for the musky. Of 
 course if you are a double-dyed expert you can use 
 your lighter rod and tackle, but unless one is an ex- 
 pert at handling the lighter tackle he had better stick 
 to the slightly heavier stuff and feel more sure of 
 the fish. A musky can sure make a fine outfit look 
 like a junk shop if it's handled by an inexperienced 
 fisherman. Troll in water about 8 to 12 feet deep, 
 off the edges of the weedbeds and over the under- 
 water weeds; also off the rock beds and points of 
 land as well as quiet coves and bays. Keep your 
 rod straight out behind the boat; if you hold it out 
 over the side you put a strain on it that is unneces- 
 sary and bad medicine for any rod. 
 
 In casting for the musky keep the boat about 50 
 feet off the casting waters, moving the boat as noise- 
 lessly as possible and casting in towards the shore or 
 feeding grounds. An all white or white and red 
 head artificial minnow, or spoon and pork rind, frog 
 or minnow makes a good casting lure. From the 
 strike the fight is fast and gamy and you sure must 
 keep the slack out of the line or he'll do a flop out 
 of the water and corkscrew back on your line, which 
 means farewell to the musky. 
 
HIS HONOR, THE WALL-EYED PIKE 
 
 Right at the start, Old Man, I must tell you that 
 the wall-eyed pike is living under an assumed name. 
 His real monicker is pike-perch, but the boys have 
 sort of acquired the habit of calling him wall-eyed 
 pike, and so we let it go at that. Fact is, however, 
 he is also known as the jack-salmon, glass-eye pike, 
 yellow pike, and blue pike. He probably fell heir 
 to these names on account of his habit of bumming 
 around, making no particular spot his home. After 
 he fathers his spring family of from one to two hun- 
 dred thousand husky youngsters, and the little pikers 
 have learned to wag their tails, he leaves home and 
 hikes out on a still hunt for food, as he is always 
 hungry, having the reputation of being the heaviest 
 eater of the fresh-water fish. He lives almost en- 
 tirely on other live fish, and often eats his own 
 progeny to satisfy his lust for food. 
 
 Where you find the wall-eyed in good numbers 
 one day, does not guarantee that they will congre- 
 gate there the next. There is no dope on his route 
 and he has no schedule. At times he frequents the 
 very deep pools and the next day he may be lying 
 
 95 
 
96 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 off a shoal or sandbar. No matter in what depth 
 of water you locate him, however, you will find that 
 he is close to the bottom, as he is not a surface 
 feeder. 
 
 WALL-EYE TRAVELS IN SCHOOLS 
 
 He can be coaxed out of the water with live bait 
 such as mud minnows, chubs, shiners or small white- 
 bellied frogs, or you can use an underwater plug 
 weighted with a sinker, or troll with a spoon. The 
 wall-eyed seldom travels single, but invariably runs 
 in schools, a habit acquired no doubt from fear that 
 he may miss a feed. Where you catch one you can 
 figure on more fish from the same spot, until they 
 hustle off to locate better feeding grounds. This 
 hungry feeling makes him a great little biter, and 
 said feeling has also made him a boon to the fisher- 
 man, who can always count on " bringing home the 
 bacon " if he locates a pike feeding ground. 
 
 In the rivers he hangs out below rapids, dams 
 and log jams, where the current is swift, gorging on 
 the minnows, which are easy prey, as they are tired 
 out. with their battle against the swift currents. 
 This is a fine place to cast for him, using live or 
 artificial bait, with a fair-sized dipsey sinker to take 
 the bait down deep in the water. He also has a 
 fancy for sandbars in the rivers, and wading along 
 a bar, casting on both sides, brings good results. 
 
HIS HONOR, THE WALL-EYED PIKE 97 
 TROLL FOR HIM IN LAKES 
 
 In the lakes you will be more successful in trolling 
 for the wall-eye. Live bait, plug or a spoon with a 
 buck-tail gang hook makes an atractive lure for him. 
 Use your bait-casting rod, with a trolling tip to add 
 strength, and reel out about a hundred feet of line. 
 Don't make the common mistake of moving the boat 
 too speedily; just go along fast enough to keep the 
 bait moving about one and a half miles an hour is 
 right. When you get a strike you will notice the 
 difference between the action of a bass and a wall- 
 eyed pike. The pike will give a firm and decided 
 tug at the line, but will not dash away with the bait, 
 and right then is the time to strike, with a strong, 
 quick jerk, as the large amount of line out makes 
 this necessary. And if that wall-eye is a ten or fif- 
 teen pounder, you are due to have as game a piece 
 of " fish work " on your hands as you could wish for. 
 
 CAUGHT A BIG ONE ACCIDENTALLY 
 
 Last summer I was actually forced by accident to 
 land a twelve and a half-pound wall-eyed pike, and 
 the way this happened illustrates the fact that one 
 must study the action of the different fish, and es- 
 pecially the manner in which they take bait. It was 
 a hot old day in July when a pal and I were cross- 
 ing Black Lake in northern Wisconsin, so hot, in 
 
98 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 fact, that I only put a line out after Earney, the 
 local fishing expert, insisted that he hated to waste 
 a minute on the water. We were in about thirty 
 feet of water when my reel began to sing, but there 
 was no other action, and, after striking, we paddled 
 back, thinking I was snagged. Earney ran his 
 hand along the line and gave it a jerk to loosen it, 
 and right then things sure opened up. Splash out 
 of the water, at the side of the canoe, flashed the 
 pike, and down again to the bottom. It was some 
 sport with a light rod, a ten-pound test bass line, and 
 a husky wall-eye. Three times I brought him up 
 to the canoe, fighting back and forth without any 
 long runs, but a continuous bunch of snappy jerks 
 followed by dives to the bottom, before we could 
 gaff him. 
 
 NOT A SPECTACULAR FIGHTER 
 
 A wall-eyed pike doesn't make the showy fight of 
 the bass. He doesn't show tHat race-horse speed 
 stuff of cutting through the water, and he doesn't 
 fight as long, but every one of his jerks and twists 
 sends up your spine a thrill that makes you feel like 
 a game cock after you land him. 
 
 All through the season you can catch him, par- 
 ticularly in June, July and October. Try him out 
 on dull, cloudy days and in the evening, casting with 
 a red Ibis bass fly, weighted, of course, so that it 
 
HIS HONOR, THE WALL-EYED PIKE 9 9 
 
 will sink. He is a great night prowler and seems 
 mighty hungry late in the day. On a moonlight 
 night he answers to the call of an underwater 
 luminous plug. 
 
THE FIRST PICKEREL 
 
 I have brought to gaff a tuna, cast for grayling with 
 
 a Cree, 
 Caught some small mouths that were whoppers, 
 
 hauled a sword-fish from the sea; 
 Roughly speaking I have angled ev'ry fish that has 
 
 a mouth, 
 From the Arctics to the Tropics and a thousand 
 
 miles due South; 
 Yet I can't remember thrilling just the way that 
 
 once I did 
 When I yanked that three-pound pick'rel from the 
 
 creek, when but a kid! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 JUST ORDINARY OL' PICKEREL 
 
 If there is any one of the fish family that we re- 
 member from the knee-pants and bent-pin stage of 
 the fishing game, it sure must be OF Judge Pickerel 
 and the young " picks." It certainly made your 
 heart do a double-quick and started the cold creeps 
 up your spine the first time you hooked a pickerel, 
 after a kindergarten course on chubs and sunnies. 
 
 100 
 
JUST ORDINARY OL' PICKEREL 101 
 
 You probably had a long cane pole or a young sap- 
 ling cut from the nearby wooded shore; anyway, 
 from that time on you realized that there was " some 
 sport " to the game. Since then, of course, the ol' 
 pickerel has sorta been dropped into the discard, and 
 it takes trout, bass or musky, perhaps, to start the 
 joy trips up along your vertebrae. But let me tip 
 you off straight: there's many a good fighter left in 
 the pickerel outfit, regardless of the many slurs cast 
 upon his fighting qualities by some of the ultra- 
 exclusive highbrows in the angling derby. 
 
 FIND PICKEREL MOST ANYWHERE 
 
 The pickerel is one of the fish that you can fish 
 for nearly anywhere, and you don't have to make 
 a five hundred to one thousand mile trip to his 
 home grounds. He is a common, ordinary cuss that 
 can pick up a living on next to nothing, and at the 
 same time raise a mighty big family. In nearby 
 " civilized " waters he will even make a sure-enough 
 professional fisherman sit up and take notice be- 
 cause of his ability to evade the bait and make said 
 fisherman use all his skill and wits to induce him to 
 take the lure. The more he is fished for the wiser 
 he gets, and to land a few fair-sized pickerel in much- 
 fished waters takes keen work, more so, in fact, 
 than for the gamer fish in the usual fish haunts of 
 the North Woods. As a rule the pickerel found 
 in local waters does not grow to excess size, say 
 
102 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 an average of two or three pounds. Some are 
 larger, of course, but not the general run. 
 
 WHERE THE PICKEREL HANGS OUT 
 
 The pickerel from the running streams, like all 
 other fish, puts up the best fight, while those from 
 the warmer waters of the lakes and sluggish streams 
 are dull and slow fighters. The pickerel is found 
 in nearly all rivers and lakes or ponds, his preference 
 being for shallow, grassy lakes. His main hunting 
 grounds are along the edge of lily and weed beds 
 and on the outskirts of the grassy growth that is 
 often called " pickerel grass." Here he lurks, wait- 
 ing for the smaller fish to swim past, often striking 
 his prey with a snap of the jaws that cuts the victim 
 in two. He is a sure-enough barbarian, and is a 
 destroyer of the weaker fishes, all of which points 
 to the fact that he will be with us for many a day. 
 He is vicious to the core, and at times will strike a 
 trolling spoon with force enough to bend it double. 
 In spring-fed lakes he is often found around the 
 spring-holes, and deep fishing here will bring him 
 out. You can feel reasonably sure of landing him 
 any time from the first of the season to the wind- 
 up, and then take a rap at him through the ice in 
 winter. 
 
 NEEDS DENTIST IN AUGUST 
 
 August is about the poorest month for pickerel 
 fishing, caused, no doubt, by the soreness of the 
 
JUST ORDINARY OL' PICKEREL 103 
 
 gums, as claimed by many of the old-timers. The 
 " musky," a cousin of the pickerel, loses his teeth 
 in August, while the pickerel itself has a swelling 
 of the gums during dogdays that does not put him 
 in a humor to bite on anything. Late September 
 and early October is about the best all-round pick- 
 erel season, at which time he is found in the shal- 
 lows and at the mouth of outlets or inlets, where the 
 feed is good. 
 
 TROLL AND CAST FOR HIM 
 
 Although trolling is the surest method of landing 
 the pickerel, much sport can be had by casting for 
 him, using light bass tackle. A weedless hook with 
 a small frog, shiner or minnow for bait, and a 
 single spinner is all you need. Row along the weed- 
 beds, about seventy-five feet out, and cast in toward 
 the edge, landing your bait about five feet from the 
 edge. Give the pickerel a little time before strik- 
 ing, as he grabs the live bait and darts back to his 
 lair, there to turn it around in his mouth and swallow 
 it head first. Strike sharply and row away from 
 the weeds. Bear this in mind: he may come up to 
 the boat with ease, but he makes his big effort for 
 liberty after you bring him up to the boat. 
 
 The usual way to get him is by trolling with a 
 spoon or spinner. Take a No. ^/ 2 tandem 
 Slim Eli Hildebrandt Spinner with a treble hook 
 bucktailed or feathered, or a No. 4 Skinner spoon 
 
104 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 and you have an excellent trolling rig. A chunk of 
 pork rind adds to the attractiveness of the lure. 
 
 Whatever the standing of the pickerel in the sport 
 of fishing, it can be said to his credit that he has 
 gladdened the heart of many fishermen who could 
 not take the time or lay out the wad of coin neces- 
 sary to go after the gamer fish in their native haunts, 
 and for this I say, give the devil his due, although a 
 good-sized pickerel on very light tackle is not to be 
 sneezed at, nor is getting him in much-fished waters 
 a child's trick. 
 
A LITTLE PAN-FISH FUN 
 
 There's a great big army of little fish that don't 
 seem to get the proper credit for all the fun and 
 pleasure they have given fishermen. Of course, Old 
 Man, a great big chunk of this fun happened way 
 back in the knee-pants' stage of most fellows' fishing 
 days, but at that, when the real game fellows are 
 off the feed and prospects appear good for an empty 
 stringer, and it looks like bacon and flapjacks for 
 the evening meal, just toss out a line and give the 
 little fellows a nibble at your bait. These little old 
 nibblers include in their ranks the crappie, rock bass, 
 blue gill, sunfish and yellow or striped perch. 
 
 As a pan fish you can't beat 'em. Browned to 
 a turn in plenty of bacon grease or broiled over the 
 open campfire they make a dish that would cause 
 even J. D. to forget his stomach, and after an hour 
 on the trail or a particularly hard portage, you thank 
 your lucky stars when the feed bag has a generous 
 portion of " little fellers " done to a turn. 
 
 GET 'EM ANY OLD TIME 
 
 Of course, they don't put up a scream of a fight 
 like their cousins the basses, but they are accom- 
 
 105 
 
io6 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 modating little cusses and bite any time in the day 
 and most any time in the season, and especially when 
 the real game fellows have a tendency to overlook 
 a good thing in the shape of bait or lure. Although 
 they only make a short little fight, there's a way of 
 fishing for them that will give you quite a bit of 
 fun and please even the sure-enough fisherman who 
 is seemingly shocked when you even mention pan fish 
 to him. Of course, most of that disdain stuff is 
 merely bull on the part of the fellow that hops up 
 m the clouds when you mention little pannies. I've 
 known lots of 'em to sneak out alone and have a 
 piece of sport with the " little fellers " when they 
 thought no one was watching and there was no 
 chance of injuring their rep as highbrow anglers. 
 
 LIGHT FLY ROD BEST 
 
 Here is the tackle that puts pep in the pan-fish 
 game : Get the lightest, whippiest steel fly rod you 
 can find, about ten feet in length, use an ordinary 
 soft-braided silk casting line and a number eight or 
 ten hook, and do a little still fishing. With this 
 rigging you will be pleasantly surprised at the sport 
 in landing a fair-sized panner. They start out with 
 quite a showy fight, but it doesn't last long. How- 
 ever, with this tackle, Old Scout, they'll play better 
 and show more spunk than with the ordinary cast- 
 ing rod, and take it as a side tip you won't land 
 every one you hook. 
 
A LITTLE PAN-FISH FUN 107 
 
 The crappie is found in most ponds, lagoons, and 
 lakes, as well as the more sluggish streams, and they 
 like the quiet waters. They bite best in the early 
 spring, in June and the fall, although you get them 
 most any time. For a still-fishing bait they like 
 grasshoppers, worms or live minnows, and you can 
 catch them trolling with minnow or very small spoon- 
 hook, while at times they will rise to the trout fly. 
 
 The rock bass prefers the clear, cool water, and 
 is not only found in nearly every lake, pond and 
 river, but also in the little creeks and streams. In 
 the lakes you will find him where the reeds and 
 underwater grasses grow and in the streams he 
 dotes on the deep holes among the rocks and bowl- 
 ders or around stumps, brush or windfalls. Most 
 any kind of bait suits him, but small minnows, angle- 
 worms and white wood-grubs make him swim 
 around and take notice. They put up quite a stagger 
 at fighting when first hooked, and make a final effort 
 when brought up to the boat. A small red ibis or 
 white miller fly often tempt them, and very small 
 frogs or crawfish interest the larger ones. 
 
 BLUEGILL IS SCRAPPY 
 
 The bluegill is probably the most numerous of 
 the panners and can be found in nearly all the lakes 
 and quieter streams, particularly in the smaller 
 lakes. He grows to a fair size and undoubtedly 
 he is the gamest of the pan fish. He fights from the 
 
io8 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 time he is hooked until landed and is sure a persistent 
 little cuss. He does not rush the hook like the rock 
 bass, but quietly sucks the hook in, and when he finds 
 he has hooked himself the fun begins. You usually 
 will find him in schools off the edges of bars among 
 the patches of weeds and grasses, and he sticks in a 
 bunch until you land the whole outfit. Try for him 
 in water from five to ten feet in depth and keep 
 your line as far away from the boat as possible. 
 Any time of the year he will go for the bait, but 
 from July to September he seems exceptionally in 
 need of open-air treatment. Any of the baits used 
 for other panners satisfies the bluegill, while he won't 
 turn up his nose at pieces of fish or mussel. Troll- 
 ing and the fly interest him. 
 
 STRIPED PERCH GOOD BITER 
 
 The yellow or striped perch is probably the best 
 little biter in the whole outfit, and although he does 
 not as a rule fight like a heavyweight, if you get a 
 two-pounder on light fly tackle you know there is a 
 fish on the far end of the line. Go after him in 
 about thirty to forty feet of water and you get the 
 big ones. With any sort of bait you can land him 
 in good numbers most any time, and even through 
 the ice in winter he is an accommodating fellow. 
 The perch is a great little favorite with the women 
 and children who don't go after the gamer fellows, 
 and many pleasant days can be spent for this popular 
 
A LITTLE PAN-FISH FUN 109 
 
 little panner. A bait that looks good to a bluegill 
 tickles the fancy of the perch, and any old kind of 
 a hook and line is tackle enough to get him, although 
 the real sport is to be had with the long, light steel 
 fly rod. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the pan fish are a gentlemanly 
 little bunch of good fellows, always eager to take a 
 nibble and save a fisherman from ringing up a 
 " goose egg " for the day's fishing, and to his good, 
 clean method of living we can thank him for his fine 
 flavor, and crown him king of fresh water fish food. 
 
LIVE BAIT THE MINNOW 
 
 For an all-round live bait that has the reputation 
 of bringing home the bacon most any time during 
 the open season, give us the minnow family, which, 
 by the way, is a large tribe. Some fishermen call 
 any small fish a minnow, which is wrong, as the 
 minnow family is a distinct line made up of over one 
 hundred different species and most small streams and 
 lakes have from ten to thirty species in their waters. 
 You will find the minnow in all sorts of places, the 
 spot-tailed shiner mainly in the lakes, fallfish in the 
 large streams, and chub in the smaller streams. The 
 minnows taken from the rapid flowing waters and 
 riffles make the sturdiest bait, and at the same time 
 the liveliest, as their constant fight with the swift 
 current gives them more " pep " than the minnow 
 from the gravel-bars or the deeper, quieter pools. 
 
 As a general thing the species of minnows are 
 more numerous in the warmer streams and lakes. 
 The minnow from the river or creek makes the best 
 bait, especially for bass or wall-eyed pike, and those 
 taken from the swifter, cooler water, besides being 
 more vigorous than their brothers from the lakes 
 and ponds, have a more silvery shine, which makes 
 
 no 
 
Four a. m. and the sun peeping up over the horizon with a slight I 
 to the water, a nice growth of n< :he point of land which runs 
 
 for sixty feet as a sand har out into deep water and the bass raising the 
 deuce among the shiners, perch and minnows. You cannot beat it for 
 bass. Excry morning for a week five to eight bass were coaxed into the 
 " spider " off this point. 
 
 In lake fishing for bass the small bays and coves can be counted on 
 for good fishing. As a general thing the underwater weeds and lily pads 
 thrive in the bays, the natural retreat of the large-mouth. From this 
 little bay nineteen bass, ranging from two and a half to five pounds, were 
 caught in a little over an hour's casting. 
 
LIVE BAIT THE MINNOW in 
 
 a decidedly more attractive lure to the game fish on 
 the lookout for a fancy piece of food. 
 
 TRY OUT DIFFERENT MINNOWS 
 
 In most all fishing waters some particular minnow 
 has the reputation of being the one best bet and it; 
 is well to follow the dope of the local fishermen or 
 guides, although at the same time the trying out of 
 another species may mean better fishing all the way 
 round. You never can tell until you have tried out 
 the different minnows which kind makes the most 
 attractive bait for any locality. 
 
 For muskellunge, pike or pickerel the larger sized 
 minnows, say about eight to ten inches, are the best 
 bait and it's a toss-up between the fallfish, creek or 
 river chub, silver shiner, or black sucker. All of 
 these baits are fine lures for casting or trolling. 
 
 For black bass the silver shiner or dace seems to 
 be the minnow that tickles his fancy and its silvery 
 sides make a great shining invitation under water. 
 It is a good bait for any time, or any condition of 
 water, and is particularly fine on dark and cloudy 
 days or in rough water. River or creek chubs are 
 hardy minnows with a tough mouth that holds well 
 on the hook, and the fact that they are more lively 
 than the shiner makes them attractive bait to most 
 fishermen. On bright days, with clear and still 
 water, the chub is second to none as a fish getter. 
 The mud minnow, with its yellowish gold tint and 
 
ii2 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 husky constitution, is a prime favorite. Besides be- 
 ing an attractive lure for bass, he seems to have as 
 many lives as the proverbial cat, and he is sure on 
 the job every minute he is in the water. The small 
 sucker, redfin or silver-side, darter, slender silver- 
 side, and the blunt-nose minnow will be found good 
 for bait. 
 
 CATFISH AND PERCH AS BAIT 
 
 The small catfish, called by some the stonecat, 
 mad-torn, bullhead or pout, is a bait that will sur- 
 prise the bass fisherman who has never used it. 
 Early and late in the season young yellow perch can 
 be used to advantage in lake fishing, but to get the 
 best results from the perch bait the dorsal fin should 
 be clipped off. This operation does not impair the 
 vitality of the young perch, if done quickly with a 
 pair of scissors or a sharp knife. 
 
 For bass or wall-eyed pike a minnow four to five 
 inches long is about the right size. This size min- 
 now is livelier and will last much longer on the hook 
 than the smaller ones. Even a small bass, a half 
 pounder for instance, will make a drive for this size 
 bait, while it is sure the happy medium for the old 
 granddaddy who has a man's-sized feed bag to fill. 
 As a general thing the big bass like a good mouthful 
 and there is not much chance of using a minnow 
 they cannot handle. Bass seem to have a fancy for 
 minnows from other waters than their own. 
 
LIVE BAIT THE MINNOW 113 
 
 HOW TO HOOK THE MINNOW 
 
 In baiting the hook with the minnow, pass the 
 hook through the lower lip and out the nostril, or 
 if the minnow is of a large size, run the hook 
 through both lips. For still fishing, where the 
 water is quiet, hook the minnow, if small, through 
 the back, above the backbone and just behind the 
 dorsal fin. Chubs and suckers can be hooked 
 through both lips which are very strong on these 
 species. 
 
 With proper care minnows can be kept in good 
 shape for an indefinite period. In camp a perma- 
 nent minnow box should be sunk in the water along 
 the shore of the stream or lake, and the bottom of 
 the box filled with gravel and stones. Wire screen 
 over both ends gives a steady change of water. Al- 
 ways dip the minnows into the minnow bucket with 
 a small dip net and don't handle them; leave that 
 until you place them on the hook. It is best to use 
 a large size minnow bucket and if there is to be 
 much of a carry, put a bunch of water weeds in the 
 pail. This saves them from injury caused by rough 
 travel. In carrying minnows any distance don't 
 crowd 'em; fifty to a five-gallon pail is plenty. A 
 pinch of salt added to the water once or twice dur- 
 ing the day's fishing gives 'em life. Change the 
 water often and don't wait until the minnows come 
 to the top, as that's about the time they are ready 
 
ii 4 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 to turn belly up. A mighty good plan is to tote 
 along a small bicycle pump and aerate the water 
 every now and then by pumping air into it. A good 
 plan to follow in changing the water in the minnow 
 pail is to pour it in from a height of say two or three 
 feet, as this carries air into the water, and the min- 
 now sure needs air as much as a human being. 
 
ODE TO A WORM 
 
 The sombre years roll on to ultimate negations 
 And swirl back to the fates from whence they 
 
 came ; 
 But thou through all the changing generations 
 
 Thou wriggling angleworm, remain the same. 
 Delicious grub, upon which hungry fish have bat- 
 tened 
 
 Since cave-men first the bone-barbed spear for- 
 sook, 
 I sing this song for one whose yawning creel has 
 
 fattened, 
 
 Because thou hung suspended from his hook. 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 WORMS AS BAIT 
 
 The original bait that has tickled the palate of 
 all kinds of fish since the first open season in the 
 Garden of Eden and caused more of them to grace 
 the frying pan than any other lure, of the thousands 
 in use, is the common old worm. Called by some 
 the angleworm, by others the fishworm, and knighted 
 as the greatest bait ever by the happy, bare-legged, 
 knee-pants angler of the Order of the Long Cane 
 Pole. 
 
 us 
 
ii6 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 This little old worm bait has never received as 
 much credit as it should, probably because its value 
 as a bait has been in a way overlooked in the mad 
 rush for the multicolored and wonderfully shaped 
 artificials that have made bait-casting the most 
 popular end of the sport. Then, again, the fact 
 that the fly-fisherman generally tilts his nose sky- 
 ward when the worm is as much as mentioned, has 
 sort of given it a black eye with the beginner, who, 
 above all things, hates to have the experienced 
 angler think for a minute that he is a tyro at the 
 game. And at that, Old Scout, it is no kid's trick 
 to land the wily trout when the waters are low and 
 clear during July, even with the assistance of the 
 lowly worm. 
 
 A STILL-FISHING WINNER 
 
 As a still-fishing bait for all kinds of fish the worm 
 stands at the head of the class, and he can wiggle 
 into the affections of the finny tribe when many other 
 baits don't even get a glance. Whether it is the 
 fascinating wiggle of the head and tail of the worm, 
 which should be hooked through the body a couple 
 of times with the ends free, or the delicious flavor 
 of this choice bit of fish food that makes it so popu- 
 lar, is a question that can only be settled by the fish, 
 but it is a sure enough fact that they take to worms 
 like a duck to water. The worm makes 'em cross- 
 eyed to get at it before another fish sees it. 
 
WORMS AS BAIT 117 
 
 FOUR OF A KIND 
 
 One big point in favor of the worm is that it can 
 be found in good numbers almost anywhere. A few 
 turns of earth with a spade will give you enough bait 
 for an afternoon's fishing. There are four species 
 of worms which are probably the most useful in fish- 
 ing. The black-headed worm without the band or 
 knotlike ring which is rather dark in color and the 
 toughest and best hooker of the lot, and is found in 
 garden soil. The ringed worm with a ring around 
 the body a little above the middle is a flatter looking 
 worm, which is found under old manure heaps and 
 such places. This worm is softer and does not make 
 as good bait as the black-headed worm. The 
 marsh worm, which has a whitish ring, and is a pale 
 blue in color and is found under stones and among 
 decayed leaves and under rotted logs. The red- 
 headed worm which is found in rich earth near ma- 
 nure heaps and is quite thick in proportion to its 
 length. It is dark red, and owing to the fact that 
 it loses its color after being in the water a short time, 
 is not as good for bait as the others. 
 
 CLEAN AND FEED 'EM 
 
 When worms are first taken from the ground they 
 ttre full of earth, and until they are cleaned do not 
 make the best bait. A fish likes the pink color of 
 the cleaned worm, and it is a simple matter to doctor 
 them into first-class fish food. As soon as they are 
 
ii8 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 dug up out of their home grounds they should be 
 washed well with water. Put them in a panful of 
 water and stir them around with the finger, but don't 
 crush them or shake roughly, then place them in an 
 earthen crock or jar and put in plenty of moss. 
 And here is the big point to remember in the " care 
 of the worm : " wring the moss thoroughly so that 
 all water is eliminated. The moss must be kept 
 dry in order to extract the moisture from the body 
 of the worms and thus toughen them for the hook. 
 The ringed worm can be cleaned in two or three 
 days while the other three take at least a week to 
 put them in clean pink shape. Every other day the 
 worms should be examined and the sick looking 
 brothers taken out, and the moss changed. Slip 
 them a little food at the same time ; a slice of bread 
 broken into small pieces and a spoonful of milk or 
 cream poured on the moss is plenty, and will keep 
 'em while getting ready for the hook. Sounds like 
 a joke to wash and feed your pet worms, but if you 
 never offered a clean worm to the fish, just give it 
 a try-out, and take it from me, Old Timer, you are 
 certainly due for a surprise at the results. While 
 the conditioning game is going on, keep the worm 
 crock in a cool place. 
 
 SMALL ONES GREAT BAIT 
 
 When digging worms don't overlook the small 
 ones. It is a mistaken idea that only the big worms 
 
WORMS AS BAIT 119 
 
 get the big fish, for often the largest worm will fall 
 a victim to the smallest fish. A small, clean, pink 
 worm with a lively kick is more enticing to the big 
 fellows than the big night crawler that you hunt 
 with a lantern. When hooking the worm do not 
 run the hook clear through the body, but simply 
 hook it through the skin. About one-third way 
 down the body run the hook through the skin, then 
 skip about a third of the body and run the hook 
 through again, leaving about a quarter of the entire 
 length of the worm wriggling loose at the barb of 
 the hook. This keeps them lively and kicking and 
 attracts the big fellows, and while a dead worm may 
 get the smaller fish it doesn't appeal much to the 
 kind you are generally after. When hooking a new 
 worm always take off the small pieces of his pre- 
 decessor. 
 
 When you have tried out everything else and the 
 fish seem to be off the feed, slip a nice worm on the 
 hook, and if that don't make them hungry you can 
 feel certain that you have done your part in your 
 effort to coax the big fins out of the water. 
 
PORK RIND FOR BAIT 
 
 After you have packed your varied bunch of plugs, 
 wobblers, spoons and lures in your tackle box, with 
 the surplus jammed into your grip, don't forget the 
 humble pork rind, because it's sure got some " rep " 
 behind it to back it up 'as a fish getter. When you 
 have tried to tease the fish on to your hook with 
 every bait you can think of and failed to arouse their 
 curiosity, just put a nice juicy strip or chunk of fat 
 pork on the hook, and if that don't make their 
 mouths water then they surely must be either sea- 
 sick or on a diet. 
 
 Many big fish have been caught with the fat side 
 of the pig, and your kit is not complete without a 
 fair-sized piece of pork. Buy it in a chunk with 
 the rind on and cut it up each day as you a la carte 
 it to the fish. Keeping it in a chunk saves it from 
 drying out. The best kind of pork to buy is that 
 commonly called salt pork, or, as the sailors name 
 it, " salt hoss," but get the fresh pork whenever pos- 
 sible as it is stronger and makes a livelier bait. This 
 pork is white, and makes an attractive lure for bass, 
 pickerel and wall-eyed pike, and even the musky 
 will give it the once over if it's a fair-sized chunk. 
 
 120 
 
PORK RIND FOR BAIT 121 
 
 HOW TO CUT PORK RIND BAIT 
 
 There are many different ways to prepare the 
 pork rind as to size and style of cutting. Take a 
 strip three to three and one-half inches long, three- 
 fourths of an inch wide and an eighth of an inch 
 thick. Taper it from the full width down to a 
 point in a V-shape. This makes a very good pork 
 rind bait to use either in casting or trolling. Leave 
 the rind on the top of the pork strip for a distance 
 of about two inches from the thick end of the taper, 
 cutting it off of the balance of the strip, as this gives 
 it strength and does not interfere with its wiggling 
 in the water. To add to its attractiveness as a bass 
 lure, tie a piece of red yarn through the head and 
 knot it into a couple of small bows at each side. A 
 bright piece of red cloth tied around the head is also 
 good. 
 
 IMITATE FROGS AND MINNOWS 
 
 Take two of these strips and tie them together 
 at the head and let the ends loose and you have a 
 good imitation of a frog; it has a mighty fine motion 
 in the water, at that. A pork rind strip with a No. 
 3 spoon makes a fine casting bait and is most effective 
 when used on a tandem hook which is made es- 
 pecially for pork rind baits, or on a Foss pork rind 
 minnow. 
 
 You can vary your pork rind baits to imitate a 
 
122 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 minnow or frog. To make the latter bait, it is only 
 necessary to cut a wider piece of pork and split the 
 tail into two legs. The fact that the pork is fresh 
 and limber makes it take a very lifelike motion 
 through the water, and at the same time when a fish 
 strikes a pork rind bait it does not immediately 
 throw it out of its mouth, as is the case with wooden 
 baits. The pork has more of the soft feel of the 
 live bait to the fish, and it's a twenty-to-one shot that 
 he'll try to swallow it. 
 
 PORK CHUNK GOOD BAIT 
 
 Chunks of pork cut wedge shape are very success- 
 ful bait, especially for casting. Take a piece about 
 one and a half inches across the top, two inches long 
 and one inch thick. Taper this down to half an inch 
 at the end and cut off the rind except at the thickest 
 end. Decorate this chunk with red yarn around the 
 head and you have an A-i casting bait. 
 
 If you don't want to bother with making your own 
 pork rind baits, you can get the strips in bottles or 
 the chunks in boxes at your tackle store, but a lot 
 of the fun of fishing comes from doping up for your- 
 self the bait that later lands the big ones. 
 
 In hooking the pork rind, hook it close up to the 
 end so that the balance of the bait is loose and free 
 to move with the water as it is reeled in. Hook it 
 through the pork with the rind on top, so that the 
 bait stands up in the water. 
 
PORK RIND FOR BAIT 123 
 
 HUNT WHERE THEY FEED 
 
 Of course with pork rind bait, as with any other 
 lure, you must know something about the feeding 
 places of the fish and where to find them. In the 
 early morning or late evening, when the bass are 
 close in shore or looking for a meal in a patch of 
 weeds or around an under-water brush heap or wind- 
 fall, you can drop a pork rind bait in the right spot 
 and be almost certain of a strike. With a weedless 
 hook you can shoot the bait into an open pocket in 
 the weeds where other lures cannot well be used. 
 
 For pickerel or pike use a small dipsey sinker to 
 take the bait down deeper to where these fish hang 
 out. Pork rind can be used by itself as a bait but 
 a spoon or spinner adds to the attraction and you 
 might as well get the benefit of this old reliable end 
 of the tackle outfit. 
 
 A well-known " been there " fisherman of Pardee- 
 ville, Wisconsin, H. P. Thompson by name, who is a 
 great little advocate of the fat and juicy pork as a 
 winner among the baits, puts it this way; u If you 
 want to catch fish, and make the other fellow wonder 
 how you do it, use pork, just plain pork, without the 
 beans." Not half bad, old man, only I say, use the 
 pork for bait, and use the beans to stuff the feed bag. 
 
TROLLING 
 
 After a few hours casting, when your rod begins 
 to feel like a piece of lead, just slip into an easy 
 position and take a little whirl at trolling. Besides 
 resting up your casting arm and putting it in shape 
 for a double-header in the afternoon, you stand a 
 mighty good chance of landing some fine fish with 
 the least amount of exertion up to the actual period 
 of fighting the fish. Trolling is sure the lazy fisher- 
 man's delight and often the fat man's preference. 
 
 Nearly all game fish can be caught by trolling, 
 and after the strike it takes just a little bit finer work 
 on the part of the fisherman to land his catch, due 
 to the larger amount of line out at the time. There 
 are quite a number of rigs that are good for troll- 
 ing, and you can use most any kind of bait or lure. 
 The best day for this kind of fishing is when the 
 water is slightly ruffled by a breeze and the surface 
 broken by small waves. This keeps the intended 
 victim from seeing too much for his own good. An 
 overcast or cloudy day also adds to the attractiveness 
 of trolling weather, although many great catches 
 have been made when the sun was doing his hot- 
 test. 
 
 124 
 
TROLLING 125 
 
 BRAIDED LINES BEST 
 
 The best line for trolling is the braided silk or 
 linen, as the twisted lines cannot be used successfully 
 on account of the kinking caused by the twisting and 
 turning of the line, which cannot altogether be 
 avoided. In assembling your rig for trolling don't 
 be afraid to use swivels; they help keep the line from 
 twisting. In rigging up the spoon hook for trolling, 
 which is the one most commonly used, loop the line 
 on a swiveled wire leader a six or eight inch one 
 is plenty long enough and at the end of the leader 
 snap on the spoon, which for ordinary fishing for 
 wall-eyed pike or bass should not be larger than a 
 No. 3, while for pike, pickerel or musky a No. 4 to 
 No. 6 is plenty large enough. One of the big mis- 
 takes in using the trolling spoon is to select a No. 12 
 in the single spoon or a No. 10 in the tandem style, 
 with a bunch of feathered hooks on the end large 
 enough to scare any fish on first sight. Some of 
 the finest musky and pike have been caught on a 
 little old No. 3 spoon with a shiner or pork rind 
 fluttering on the hook. Take a No. 6 single spoon 
 or a No. 4 tandem with a nice-sized black sucker, 
 chub or shiner hooked behind, and you have an ideal 
 pike or musky trolling rig. Top this off with a 
 small piece of red flannel right in front of the bait, 
 and they sure can't resist it. The small spoon is the 
 winner with the big fish. 
 
126 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 TROLL DEEP FOR BASS 
 
 When the bass have left the shore waters for the 
 cooler deep water and you have failed to coax them 
 up with the cast, just locate a bar, twenty or thirty 
 feet under water, and take a shot at trolling for 
 them with a Keeling Expert under-water minnow. 
 Take the small size, about a two-inch minnow, let 
 out about 75 feet of line, and troll deep. For clear 
 water use the bronze or copper color, and for dull 
 days try the aluminum. For an artificial, this little 
 old bait is sure a winner. A mud minnow, frog or 
 pork rind strip, with a little red yarn and a No. 3 
 spoon, makes a trolling outfit that looks good to 
 the bass. 
 
 There is one little angle to the trolling game that 
 some of the sure-enough fishermen have overlooked, 
 and that is to troll with flies for bass. Take a nine- 
 foot gut leader, loop on three flies, slip three split- 
 shot sinkers, about No. i, on the leader three feel- 
 apart to keep the flies one or two feet below the 
 surface, and troll along very slowly and quietly. 
 Let out 25 yards of line and strike right after the 
 bass strikes. A good combination of flies for troll- 
 ing is the Coachman, Silver Doctor and the red or 
 brown Hackle. Trolling with flies for bass might 
 be called the highest art of that end of the fishing 
 game, as it requires more skill and attention than the 
 ordinary run of trolling. 
 
TROLLING 127 
 
 CUT OUT THE SPEED 
 
 In trolling for musky, pike or pickerel 75 to 100 
 feet of line is plenty to run out behind the boat. At 
 this distance the lure is far enough away from the 
 boat and the line is easier handled in landing the 
 fish. The boat should make about two to three 
 miles an hour, which is speed enough to keep the 
 spoon turning and at the same time give the fish a 
 chance to see your bait. Always troll with your rod 
 straight out behind the boat, never out the side at a 
 right angle; this is treatment any fishing rod would 
 resent. A mighty good thing for the rod is to use 
 a steel rod shortener, which gives you a dandy troll- 
 ing rod at a cost of about 20 cents. Just slip out 
 the first joint, put the shortener in the grip, the sec- 
 ond joint in the shortener, and you run no chances 
 with your bait-casting rod. One big point to re- 
 member in trolling with a spoon is the fact that a 
 spoon must be spinning around in order to flash 
 under water and attract the fish. If you will keep 
 your eye on the rod tip occasionally you can easily 
 tell whether the spoon is turning around by the 
 steady bobbing of the tip. When it quits bobbing 
 you'd better reel in and clean off the weeds. A 
 hookful of weeds is not much inducement for a fish 
 to strike. 
 
 For wall-eyed pike put a dipsey sinker on your rig 
 and troll deep, and if you get a strike, troll back 
 
128 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 and forth over the same water, as they feed in 
 schools. A fine artificial bait for the wall-eye is the 
 Heddon's underwater Dowagiac with the green 
 mottled back and white belly. This is a killer, while 
 the South Bend Bass-oreno, white with red head, 
 should be called the Pike-oreno because it sure makes 
 them dull their teeth. 
 
FALL FISHING 
 
 If there is any time in the whole fishing season 
 that is more delightful than the fall or autumn, lead 
 me to it. After the first frost has nipped the leaves 
 and they have changed to countless tints and shades 
 of gold, yellow and red, with the deep green of the 
 pines making them stand out in flashing splendor, 
 then, and not until then, will you realize that it is not 
 all of fishing merely to fish. 
 
 The hot old days of July and August have been 
 passed into the discard and with them all the thou- 
 sands of insect pests that feed on the unsuspecting 
 angler as he works overtime trying to coax the un- 
 interested fish with all manner of baits and lures. 
 No more do you have to wake up two hours before 
 the roosters and just ahead of the sun in order to 
 get to the fishing waters when the fish are in the 
 shallows for a feed, nor do you have to wait until 
 dusk, or darker, to go after them with some chance 
 of finding them in the humor to bite. 
 
 COOL WATERS GIVE 'EM PEP 
 
 During the hot summer days the fish are dull and 
 sluggish, devoting most of the daylight hours to a 
 
 129 
 
i 3 o LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 siesta in the cool depths, and although you lower 
 your bait to them, they give it the once over with 
 little or no interest. Even the eager little pannies 
 seem to be off the feed at this time. 
 
 Among the big fellows the pike, pickerel and 
 musky Dame Nature has been playing hob with 
 the teeth and gums and by the opening of the fall 
 fishing these old warriors' molars have been shaped 
 up so that they are in fine fettle to try them out on 
 most any bait that flashes past. 
 
 Right here I want to justify a statement I made 
 some time ago regarding musky losing their teeth 
 during August, and being supplied with an entirely 
 new set for the winter feeding. This statement has 
 caused considerable comment among writers of fish- 
 ing lore. I made it a particular point to examine 
 quite a number of musky this season and found that 
 as late as September loth some of them still had 
 the old teeth hanging loose in the mouth, while in 
 front of the old teeth were the new dagger teeth 
 firmly set in the jaws and ready for business. This 
 was a little later than usual for the old teeth to re- 
 main and was no doubt caused by late seasonal con- 
 ditions. At this same time the gums of the pickerel 
 were still swollen and in poor shape to encourage an 
 attack on a lure. 
 
 As an explanation why these fish that are affected 
 with teeth troubles do not take the bait at this 
 teething period, although they must surely eat, many 
 
FALL FISHING 131 
 
 hold that they feed on the almost invisible animal 
 life in the water and the vegetation which is in bloom 
 at this time. The old-timers on the lakes will tell 
 you that the lake is working, the waters containing 
 millions of small specks, whitish in color, and these 
 no doubt make up part of the menu of the old heavy- 
 weights. 
 
 TIME TO LAND BIG ONES 
 
 In September the fish come back strong and with 
 the cooler days of October, and even up into the 
 snows of November, you don't have to be so finicky 
 about selecting your artificial plugs. The bass are 
 again in the shallows ready to wallop your lure with 
 the same driving sweep they give it in the beginning 
 of the season. And your chances of landing a big 
 one are greater than at any other time. Why this 
 is so, is hard to dope out, but the big fellows are 
 sure kittenish and probably take a wallop at the 
 gloriously enameled wooden plug out of pure devil- 
 ishness, or to relieve themselves of an overabundance 
 of " pep." 
 
 The fish at this time of the year are right on edge, 
 alert and keenly alive to everything, and nature helps 
 them to the extent of keeping their home waters 
 clearer than at any other period. They can see for 
 longer distances and the still clear atmosphere of 
 October is in their favor. Caution and skill in fish- 
 ing quietly are far more necessary in autumn than 
 earlier in the season. 
 
132 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 THE BAITS TO USE 
 
 For an artificial for fall bass fishing let it be a 
 white body with a dash of red, and of the wobbler 
 type. At the same time a green backed white bel- 
 lied underwater minnow also makes an attractive 
 lure and is particularly good for wall-eyed pike. 
 The wall-eye is mighty hungry in the fall, and right 
 up into November, and he makes a conscientious 
 biter as the cooler weather sets in. He is still a bot- 
 tom feeder and you must send the bait down to him. 
 Don't be afraid to shoot your cast in among the 
 weeds and lily pads for the bass. That's where you 
 will find them in the fall, way in close to shore, feed- 
 ing, especially in the evening, and flirting with the 
 edges of the weed patches will not bring half as 
 good results as casting right into the weeds. 
 
 The live frogs and minnow are fine fall baits and 
 if you hook your frog on 'a weedless hook, toss it 
 as lightly as possible into the weeds and let it settle 
 a bit, then reel in slowly, stopping for a second now 
 and then, you are offering a mighty inviting lunch 
 to a hungry bass. 
 
 For the musky, pike and pickerel the old reliable 
 spoonhook, about a No. 4 to 6, is an ideal trolling 
 bait and the way they hit the spoon with a savage 
 lunge is enough to shatter the nerves of a fair- 
 weather fisherman. And pickerel well, the fall 
 caught " pick " will be a surprise to the fellow who 
 hates 'em in the summer. 
 
MUSKY, PIKE OR PICKEREL? 
 
 If there is any one point in the fishing game that 
 causes more discussion than the true identification of 
 the muskellunge, pike and pickerel, I have failed to 
 notice it. All three of these savages of the waters 
 belong to the pike family, from the big, husky musky 
 down to the more slender and smaller pickerel, and 
 they have a reputation for greediness and voracity 
 that entitles them to be called the " wolf " of the 
 waters. They devour every living creature that 
 comes in sight and prey upon the other fishes, as well 
 as taking an occasional feed from their own kind. 
 
 A FAMILY OF ROUGHNECKS 
 
 The family resemblance between the musky, pike 
 and pickerel is close in contour and general appear- 
 ance, but in markings and color, as well as weight 
 and size, there is quite a difference. The body is 
 similar in shape, with the exception that the musky 
 is built more bulky and chunky than either the pike 
 or pickerel, the latter being the slimmest and more 
 slender of the three. They have the same number 
 and kind of fins and they are placed in the same 
 position on each. The same large head, with its 
 flattened appearance and the protruding underjaw 
 armed with an array of sharp daggerlike teeth, 
 
 133 
 
134 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 makes either one of these three ruffians look like a 
 bad actor when you bring him up to the boat. On 
 both the pike and pickerel the head is slightly more 
 flattened and the lower jaw seems to project farther 
 forward than on the musky. The body or basic 
 color of the back and sides is a green and greenish- 
 yellow, which varies considerably in the different fish. 
 Local conditions and waters are the cause of this 
 variation in color. In some waters the fish will be 
 found with both back and sides of a dark green, in 
 others a medium tint, while again they will be caught 
 with a very light green on the back, shading into 
 greenish yellow on the sides. The belly varies from 
 white to a cream color. In some lakes the basic 
 color has a brown-green tint. From this point the 
 similarity in color of the three fish ceases. On the 
 musky are found markings of black or brown, either 
 in the shape of round spots or irregular vertical 
 daubs. In some waters the musky is colored a dark 
 gray, blending into a grayish silver. In the Eagle 
 River waters and several of the smaller lakes in 
 northern Wisconsin and Minnesota an unspotted 
 musky is found. This musky is often called the 
 Great Northern pike. Its tail is more slender and 
 the fins are slightly higher than on the other. 
 
 PICKEREL REALLY SMALL FELLOW 
 
 The true pickerel seldom exceeds five or six 
 pounds in weight, although pike weighing 10 to 30 
 
MUSKY, PIKE OR PICKEREL? 135 
 
 or 40 pounds are called pickerel by many fishermen. 
 The body color of the pike varies greatly, but as a 
 general thing it has a greenish-yellow back and sides, 
 with yellow spots dotted over the entire body. The 
 spots are round and look as if they might have been 
 daubbed on with a round brush full of yellow paint. 
 The dots and body color vary from light to dark 
 tints in different fish. 
 
 The true pickerel also has dots of yellow and 
 sometimes of a silver gray, and they are oblong or 
 oval in shape and run lengthwise with the body, 
 nf-er vertically. These, markings are so numerous 
 that they seem to be the body color separated by a 
 dark tracing around the irregular placed spots. 
 They run in no special design or regularity and do 
 not look as much like spots as those markings of 
 the pike and musky, nor do they stand out as dis- 
 tinctly. 
 
 The musky is a scrapper from the strike to the 
 gaff, and he uses a tail full of tricks to break away. 
 He will flop up out of the water, giving his head a 
 shake like an angry bull pup ; he will make a dash 
 straight at the boat to go under it, and a favorite 
 trick is to flop up out of the water and corkscrew 
 back on the line, winding it around his snoot in an 
 effort to break it. None of these wise old actions 
 can be blamed on the pike or pickerel. They 
 haven't got it in 'em. They don't seem to have the 
 pep or wits of the musky, and they never break 
 
1 3 6 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 water. A pike of 15 to 20 pounds will take con- 
 siderable strength of arm and tackle to hold him, 
 and the fight will consist of long straight lunges, at 
 times near the surface or down towards the bottom. 
 
 In feeding habits the musky, pike and pickerel are 
 alike. They are solitary in habit and lie concealed 
 among the weeds, rushes and lily-pads, at the edge 
 of a channel where other fish are liable to swim 
 past or alongside of submerged rocks from which 
 they dash out for their prey, returning to the lair 
 to gorge the food and watch for another passer 
 by. 
 
 SURE WAY TO JUDGE 
 
 There is one way you can always identify these 
 three fish and be absolutely sure you are right. On 
 the musky the cheek and gill covers have scales 
 only on a very narrow strip on the top, while the 
 pike has scales on the entire cheek and the upper 
 half of the gill covers, and on the true pickerel both 
 the cheek and gill covers are entirely covered with 
 scales. This method of distinguishing between the 
 three fish is absolutely reliable and accurate, and as 
 both the cheek and gill covers are large even on the 
 smaller fish you will have no difficulty in noting these 
 characteristics. 
 
 In many localities the pike is called pickerel, while 
 the true pickerel is called grass pike, so if you ever 
 
MUSKY, PIKE OR PICKEREL? 137 
 
 land a 2O-pounder that the natives call snake 
 pickerel, and won't even take in the boat, you are 
 perfectly right if you write home to your friends 
 and tell them you landed a 20-pound pike. 
 
WHO CAUGHT THOSE FISH? 
 
 As an angler I'll admit you can't be beat, 
 
 You have panned old Izaak Walton from his seat; 
 
 I'll not deny it. 
 
 There is naught you haven't done with fish it seems, 
 You have bunkoed mighty things in lake and streams ; 
 
 I'll not decry it. 
 You have told me tales of monsters that you've 
 
 caught, 
 Of the bass and pike and musky that youVe fought; 
 
 And how you fought them! 
 
 But I'll wager, when the pearly gates youVe tried, 
 You will tremble if St. Peter asks the guide: 
 
 " Who really caught them? " 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 TIPS FROM THE GUIDES 
 
 Well, Old Man, you're ready to pack the duffle bag 
 and hit the steel for the Great North Woods and 
 you want a little straight-from-the-shoulder stuff on 
 the question of guides. Taken as a whole, the men 
 of the North Woods are a fine bunch of good fel- 
 lows and they sure put up with a lot of hardships in 
 
 138 
 
Earny Wcndt, guide extraordinary, of the North Woods country, and 
 a .M' j -pound muskellunge landed by Earny, on September 29, from the 
 cool waters of Little Muskellunge Lake, head waters of the Black Lake 
 String, McNaughton, Wisconsin. The line with which this musky was 
 brought to gaff te-ted out at 7 ! : t pounds on the break. To land a game 
 fish of this sixe on a line of that test shows remarkable angling skill, 
 equal, if not finer, than the skill of the cotton-thread fisherman of salt 
 fame. 
 
TIPS FROM THE GUIDES 139 
 
 the first line of trenches dodging anglers' gas shells 
 on the subject of fishing. Most guides who handle 
 the city chap on his first big time in the woods have 
 more real fishing lore and knowledge tied up in their 
 hat racks than they are given credit for. And a 
 heap of this downright good fishing dope never 
 reaches the surface because sometimes, Mr. C. C. 
 don't mix in right; he sort of rubs the fur the wrong 
 way. Get on a man to man basis right at the start 
 and have your listening ear in good shape. Your 
 fishing will be more successful and you'll have an all- 
 round better time. Your guide probably has spent 
 the greater part of his life on the waters you will 
 fish and he sure ought to be given credit for know- 
 ing something about fishing conditions on those 
 waters. If you give him the glad hand, Old Timer, 
 and treat him white, toting your share and " mixing 
 in " right he'll open up and give you a line of fishing 
 that will be remembered for many a day. And just 
 let a few of his tackle tips and fish facts soak in; 
 they are nearly always good and you can use 'em any 
 time. 
 
 TIPS FROM A REAL GUIDE 
 
 While on a recent trip with Earny Wendt, the 
 greatest little guide that ever brought a musky to 
 gaff, I passed the buck to him in this fashion: 
 " Earny," I said, " what is the worst boner pulled 
 by the city fisherman in the high art of tossing the 
 bait to the eager fishes? " 
 
140 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 Between turning the fish that was browning in the 
 pan and moving the coffee pot to a place of safety 
 when it threatened to boil over, Earny slipped this 
 over the home plate. 
 
 ' Well Hombre, there are a number of things 
 that a fellow will do that makes it hard to fill the 
 stringer. First, nearly everyone tries to cast too 
 far; they have an idea that unless they make about 
 75 feet of line fly off the reel on a cast that said cast 
 was a failure, while as a matter of fact, as you well 
 know, a cast of from 25 to 30 feet will get more fish 
 than the longer casts, unless the water is very clear, 
 and then throw it out not above 50 feet." And this 
 has been checked up many times in watching Earny 
 fish. He never throws his arm out of joint, but lets 
 the wrist and rod do most of the work, and I have 
 seen him get strikes within ten feet of the boat, and 
 even right up alongside as the lure left the water. 
 
 USE SMALL SPOONS 
 
 " And another thing," said Earny, as he wiped 
 the smoke out of his eyes. " Some of the spoons 
 and spinners they bring up into this country are some 
 size. They sure use 'em too large. I have always 
 found a small spoon, say a No. 2 or 3, about right 
 for most fishing. Of course you can use them up 
 to No. 6 or 8 on a rough day, when the water is 
 moving a bit, but the great big chunks of tin they 
 try out on the musky sure must look funny to the old 
 boys when they go by. It seems they think the 
 
TIPS FROM THE GUIDES 141 
 
 larger the spoon the larger the fish, but I've caught 
 'em up to 40 pounds with a little fellow, and I stick 
 to that kind because it gets the fish. 
 
 " Striking at the right time is another point," he 
 said as we started work on the piping hot grub, fit 
 for a king at least it tasted so after a day's steady 
 work at casting. " With the plugs they don't strike 
 soon enough and with the natural bait they strike too 
 soon. Unless a fish hooks itself by accident when 
 he hits the artificial plug, the majority of fishermen 
 are not ready to strike at the right time. You've 
 got to strike 'em the minute they hit the plug or they 
 throw it out. I think where the fall-down comes is 
 in not practicing the transfer of the rod from the 
 right to the left hand. Just before the plug hits the 
 water, the reel should be stopped, and, while the rod 
 is being swung from the right to the left, the retrieve 
 of the plug should be started by a backward move 
 of the rod. This takes up the slack at the start, 
 gives your lure the right position, and still you have 
 enough space to swing the rod farther back to strike 
 your fish quickly if you get a strike. With the live 
 minnows, however, these same fellows never give the 
 fish a chance to swallow the bait. The bass, pike, 
 pickerel or wall-eye generally takes but a small hold 
 on the live bait and striking at that time, before he 
 gets a chance to take it away for a short run, just 
 pulls the bait out of his mouth. I say let 'em swal- 
 low it they ought to at least have that pleasure 
 
i 4 2 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 anyway then give a quick, sharp strike with a 
 wrist movement. Instead of this, quite a few of the 
 boys seem to think they've got to pump the fish clean 
 out of the water. At least that's the way it looks 
 to me when I see them give a long, swinging sweep 
 of the arm to the strike. 
 
 GIVE YOUR BAIT A CHANCE 
 
 " Of course you can't expect a strike on every 
 cast," Earny said, as he pulled the boat to a favorite 
 underwater weed bed where we intended to take a 
 whirl at dusk casting, " but some of the boys put on 
 a ' dowie,' give it a few tosses and then spend ten 
 minutes good casting time changing to another bait. 
 And they keep this up all day, never giving any one 
 particular bait a chance to make good. To get fish 
 you've got to keep the bait in the water, and while 
 it's in the water keep it moving. I believe in reeling 
 in fast, as a game fish strikes on the impulse. He 
 don't take much time to think about it and you should 
 help out the game by keeping the bait moving, as 
 this helps to deceive him into thinking it's escaping 
 feed." 
 
 So you see, Old Timer, if you want an earful of 
 real fishing facts, lay your cards on the table with 
 your pal, the guide, and play the game of the out- 
 doors clean. It'll pay mighty well and start a 
 friendship that will last for years. 
 
HOT WEATHER FISHING 
 
 When the days are hot and the old sun is doing 
 his best for the corn and his worst for the fisherman, 
 it takes our entire deck of tricks to lure the game 
 fish out of the deep, cool holes. Mid-summer heat 
 drives the fish down to great depth in search of cold 
 water and during only a few hours in the very early 
 morning and at night do they come into the shallows 
 to feed. At that time casting will land 'em; the rest 
 of the day youVe simply to go down for them or 
 sit on the cabin porch and hold a talkfest on how 
 you landed that " big 'un " a couple of years ago. 
 
 SEND THE BAIT DOWN 
 
 For the hot weather, the greatest little old coaxer 
 is live bait. Among the most used live kinds are 
 the minnow, worms, helgramite, crawfish and frogs, 
 while the grasshopper if used as a surface bait on 
 streams will get a rise out of a big trout or bass 
 when he wouldn't even take a look at a fly. 
 
 If you are after bass, Old Man, when the mercury 
 is popping high, locate a sand-bar or spring hole 
 anywhere from thirty to a hundred feet down, if 
 your fishing waters go that deep, and let your little 
 old live bait slowly settle to them and you will get 
 
 143 
 
144 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 bass when the other fellow finds it necessary to be 
 satisfied with pan fish. Right in mid-season, when 
 the mercury was flirting with the QO-degree mark 
 on an afternoon, I have had plenty of sport still- 
 fishing for small-mouth bass. On Black Lake in 
 northern Wisconsin, with Earny Wendt, the livest 
 little old guide that ever handled a paddle, we have 
 often located a school of small-mouth and by send- 
 ing our mud minnows down to them, depleted the 
 school to such an extent that the old " he-wop " 
 teacher closed up for want of scholars. The water 
 is exceptionally clear in Black Lake and at from 
 thirty to forty feet, Earny, with his eagle eyes, could 
 locate a school of bass and we would quietly fish it 
 to a fare-you-well. From one school of eleven fine 
 fellows we took eight before they wised up to the 
 fact that there was a string to the bait offer. Often 
 three or four bass would make a dart for the minnow 
 only to be disappointed by the winner swimming off 
 with his prey to stop and swallow it at his leisure. 
 The run of the bass in this school, before stopping 
 to swallow the bait, varied from 40 to 90 feet. 
 
 SPORT FIT FOR A KING 
 
 A few seasons ago at a lake that is considered 
 very civilized waters and which has been fished to 
 a finish for the past twenty years, three fishermen 
 landed as nice a bunch of small-mouth bass on a hot 
 August day as ever falls to the lot of an angler, and 
 
HOT WEATHER FISHING 145 
 
 at that generally in his dreams. With a sun that 
 burned through their shirts, these knights of the rod 
 stuck to a spring hole they had located and from 90 
 feet of water caught 48 small-mouth bass, ten of 
 which ranged from 3^ to 5 pounds. And the bait 
 they used was the common, wiggling angleworm. 
 That same day many fishermen were casting in the 
 shallows and failed to bring in enough bass to make 
 a fair-sized breakfast. 
 
 BIG ONES WERE THERE 
 
 The wall-eyed pike is by nature a bottom fish and 
 at any time of the season you have to go down for 
 him, although at night he often comes into the shal- 
 lows to feed. The usual thing is to troll for them 
 in from 15 to 30 feet of water. I have always had 
 an idea, Old Timer, that in deep lakes you. could find 
 him in warm weather in deeper water. I tried it 
 out and sure enough I found him there. I trolled 
 over a piece of near shore water, with a depth of 
 about 15 feet, and the average wall-eye caught 
 ranged from one and a half to two pounds. I then 
 rigged up a regular deep-water trolling rig, gener- 
 ally used for lake trout, and the first strike was a 
 six-pounder. I trolled back and forth over this 
 stretch of water and landed seven wall-eyed ranging 
 from three and a quarter to seven and a half pounds. 
 The average depth of the water was about 45 feet, 
 it varying between 30 and 60 feet. 
 
146 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 HOW TO MAKE THE RIG 
 
 The rig for this deep trolling is easily assembled 
 and it sure takes your bait down to them. Take an 
 eight-ounce cone-shaped sinker and attach it to the 
 end of your line with a swivel ; then take three pieces 
 of line about three feet long and attach the first piece 
 with a swivel to the line about three feet above the 
 sinker. Three feet above the first line attach the 
 second with a swivel, and three feet above that at- 
 tach the other with a swivel. On the three ends of 
 these lines swivel on an eight-inch piano wire leader, 
 because the big wall-eyed pike have teeth that will 
 cut through a line or gut leader. To your leaders 
 attach either a single hook or a treble as you prefer, 
 and bait each of these hooks with a six to eight-inch 
 shiner or golden chub. Let your line down and find 
 bottom, then troll along very slowly. The wall- 
 eyed will strike very mildly for his size and swim 
 away slowly with the bait. Let him take it some 
 distance, then strike him and if he is any size you 
 will have a fine time bringing him up to the boat. 
 Fact is, he will probably make a couple of runs back 
 to the bottom just when you think you have him to 
 net. With this rig I had the fun of landing two 
 wall-eyed pike at once, a three and three-quarter 
 pounder and a five and a quarter and you can take it 
 from me, Old Timer, I knew there was something on 
 the line when they both began to " act up " for com- 
 
HOT WEATHER FISHING 147 
 
 pany. In making this rig I think you will save 
 tackle by using a weaker piece of line for your sinker 
 connection than your reel line, as the sinker is liable 
 to catch in the rocks on the bottom, and if the con- 
 necting line is weaker, it will break and you only lose 
 the sinker. A small spoon, say about a No. 3, placed 
 in front of the bait will make it more attractive, or 
 an Archer spinner ought to look good to most wall- 
 eye. 
 
LITTLE POINTS THAT COUNT 
 
 There are lots of little points to the fishing game 
 that a fellow overlooks in his effort to acquire a 
 working knowledge of the main show under the big 
 top, and any one of these " little fellers " may mean 
 the loss of a fine old specimen of the finny tribe. 
 And hear me, you fishermen, is there anything more 
 cussed uncomfortable than to lose a fish, after you 
 once hook him, through some little old piece of tackle 
 giving up the ghost right when it should not or 
 through the fact that some info tip has been for- 
 gotten in the excitement of hooking the big one? 
 And should this happen in the presence of a fellow 
 artist, good-night! 'Twill be many a day before 
 you hear the last of it, and much advice will be 
 handed you on the subject of how the other fellow 
 would have handled the strike. 
 
 ACCURACY VS. DISTANCE 
 
 In bait-casting, accuracy in placing the bait in the 
 right spot is really the greatest essential; far greater, 
 in fact, than distance, which most fellows seem to 
 develop more than anything else. Slamming the 
 bait way over into the next county may get you a 
 strike now and then, but deftly placing it in the open 
 
 148 
 
LITTLE POINTS THAT COUNT 149 
 
 pockets of the weed beds and lily pads is a hundred 
 to one better shot on landing a strike, and at the 
 same time you don't have to use up a barrel of arnica 
 to reduce the stiffness in your casung arm. 
 
 When you start casting keep at it; don't make a 
 few casts and then loaf on the job or look around 
 for a new location. Cast into every likely looking 
 spot along the weeds, into the pockets, by the wind- 
 falls and logs, every old place that you think a bass 
 may be hanging around hoping for a feed. Keep 
 your bait in the water and moving. Of course, a 
 fellow cannot expect a strike on every cast, but plac- 
 ing them right and keeping at it increases your 
 chances and lowers the lost time on the fishing 
 waters. One carelessly thrown cast not only kills 
 that cast, but usually takes up enough time to kill two 
 or three, and when you figure that you generally get 
 a strike on an average of every 50 to 60 casts, it pays 
 to make 'em all count. And also from another 
 angle the careless cast gets a black eye. Many fish 
 have been frightened out of good casting spots by a 
 shot in the wrong place. Rather toss the bait, say 
 30 or 40 feet and land it right, than shoot it 70 feet 
 and land it any old place. 
 
 KEEP THE LINE TAUT 
 
 Up out of the water and back again is a favorite 
 trick of the bass, and if he lands on a taut line when 
 he flops back, he nearly always makes a getaway. 
 
150 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 As he comes up out of the water let your rod 
 straighten out and give him slack, but take it away 
 from him as he strikes the water. Except when a 
 bass breaks water, the line should be taut at all times, 
 and a bend kept in the rod. This spring of the rod 
 is the pressure that eventually tires him while you are 
 playing him. Trying to hurry the fish to the net is 
 often the cause of a lost big one. Give him line 
 when he wants it, but make him fight for it, reeling 
 in at every chance. If you have him out in clean 
 water, away from the weeds and snags of the shal- 
 lows, give him a bit of line and enjoy a real piece of 
 sport by playing him until he shows his wide side up. 
 When you bring a fish to net, lead him up to the 
 net head first. Have the net about a foot under 
 water and lead your fish right into it. Don't move 
 the net towards him. That scares a fish into a fight 
 of renewed vigor that will likely end with a lost fish. 
 Keep the net perfectly still and when he is inside raise 
 it with a quick motion into the boat. 
 
 WATCH YOUR BAIT 
 
 The majority of bass strike an artificial bait the 
 moment it hits the water or as it starts on the way 
 back to the caster, although at times they will strike 
 close up to the boat. This makes it necessary to 
 make a quick transfer of the rod from the right hand 
 to the left and to start reeling in the line as the bait 
 hits the water. This prompt starting of the reel 
 
LITTLE POINTS THAT COUNT 151 
 
 gives you a taut line, and many bass hit the lure with 
 enough force to hook themselves if the line is taut. 
 It also makes your strike more effective. You have 
 a better chance to set the hook firmly with a taut line 
 than to try it with slack. Developing the strike at 
 the right moment is important and skill in starting 
 the reel quickly can be acquired by keeping the eyes 
 on the lure and not on the reel. 
 
 LINE WEAKENS AT END 
 
 Give the line a thought now and then, Old Man. 
 The wear on the first few feet of a line in a day's 
 casting is considerable and it is a mighty good plan 
 to test it out before starting on the morning's exer- 
 cise. The heavy artificials give the line a sharp pull 
 at the start, and the friction on the guides and tip 
 soon wear it to a weak spot. Especially for the tail- 
 end fall fishing it is well to be sure of the line. At 
 this time, particularly, the bass seem to be endowed 
 with a line of " pep " and fighting spirit that makes 
 a rotten line easy picking for his lordship. Then 
 again, a worn line is an expensive end of the outfit, 
 as many lures are lost through the line snapping 
 while they are en route to the waiting fish. Test 
 your line before fishing by pulling it between the 
 hands and break off the weak end. As a fish saver 
 this is sure some real dope. 
 
 For general all round casting the overhead cast 
 is the best, and it is far more accurate than the side 
 
152 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 swipe and not by far as dangerous to your fishing 
 companion. At times when it is advisable to throw 
 a long one, or the natural conditions make it neces- 
 sary, the side cast can be used to advantage. But 
 for steady casting and placing your bait right, the 
 overhead has 'em all panting for breath. 
 
A few game beauties from Northern Wisconsin, all played and landed 
 on light tackle handled with skill. On the left, Fred 11. Farnsworth, of 
 Chicago, with a 37-pound muskellunge, which he landed in the wat- 
 Arbor Vit;e Lake. The rod used was a 5j4-6unce split bamboo and the 
 lure a fairly large sucker. 
 
 Upper center, Robert H. Moulton, of Chicago, netting a 7;_j-pound 
 large-mouth bass in the Eagle River waters. Mr. Moulton fought this 
 old grand-daddy with a 5-ounce rod and brought him to net unassisted. 
 
 On the right, Theodore Nordholm, of Chicago, and a 23-pound pike 
 he landed from Gillette Lake. Xordholm's line was considerably weakened 
 by continued casting and it was necessary for him to play this game fin 
 thirty minutes before he could Hop him into the boat. The line later 
 tested out at 8^2 pounds on the break. Some skill at the game, old-timer. 
 
 Lower center, small-mouth bass, weight 6^2 pounds, caught by Walter 
 Marggraf, of Chicago, in the Wisconsin River, at Eagle River. The 
 northern reaches of the Wisconsin River are ideal small-mouth waters. 
 
WHAT MAKES 'EM DO IT 
 
 Fishing, like most everything else, has its share of 
 contradictions. Outside of the general run of the 
 game such as bait, plug or fly casting and the method 
 of tossing the lure to the eager fish, you are likely, 
 Old Man, to find the entire deck of rules and regu- 
 lations passed into the discard by the fish themselves. 
 
 Of course, a knowledge of the habits and home 
 life of the different fish, gained through study and 
 observation, gives us a basis upon which we can 
 safely rely in our efforts to entice the big fins to a 
 closer acquaintanceship. At the same time the ex- 
 periences of fellow anglers add much valuable data 
 upon which to base out campaigns " somewhere on 
 the waters." 
 
 With all this dope on the " how " of the game 
 packed away in our gray matter and the tackle box 
 jammed to the lid, with the few extras stuck in the 
 grip, we feel that we have 'em yelping for help be- 
 fore we even hit the steel for the home grounds of 
 the game boys. 
 
 MUSKY WITH AN APPETITE 
 
 Following rule 'steen hundred or so, we select a 
 nice little shiner about eight inches long for a try at 
 
 i53 
 
154 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 the musky. Down in our heart we have a sort of 
 feeling that the bait is too large ; it looks mighty big 
 in the water. Then the strike, the rapid fight of the 
 wolf of the waters, the landing and finally the hero 
 stuff as you reach camp with a 3<>poimder. This 
 is the usual musky story, but along comes Ed. 
 Dressel, a light tackle enthusiast, who hooks a 30- 
 pounder on a small red Jamison bass fly and on land- 
 ing the musky Ed. is surprised to find the feet and 
 legs of a full-grown mud hen sticking out of the 
 fish's throat. He had not been able to entirely 
 swallow this water-fowl before he took a wallop at 
 a little old bass fly. And what shows him up as a 
 real hog of the first water is the fact that another 
 mud-hen was found in his stomach by the taxidermist 
 who stuffed him. 
 
 What makes 'em do it? Here is a musky gorged 
 to the mouth on about 5^ pounds of eats and he 
 meets his Waterloo because he took a crack at a little 
 feathered hook about three inches long. Hunger 
 certainly did not drive him to it, that's a dead sure 
 bet, and a possible explanation is that he hit the fly 
 because his instinct is to attack. Then again, Ed. 
 might have tossed that fly all around him without 
 the musky giving it even so much as a glance. 
 
 FULL OF FOOD AND FIGHT 
 
 This fighting instinct is not to be credited to the 
 musky alone because it crops out strong in both the 
 
WHAT MAKES 'EM DO IT 155 
 
 large and small-mouth bass, as well as the pike and 
 pickerel. Recently in a small lake in Michigan a 
 four-pound large-mouth bass was caught on a white 
 Wilson wobbler and this old-timer had a i4-ounce 
 croppie stuck in his mouth. A photograph of this 
 bass shows that his mouth is stretched to the limit 
 and that the job of inhaling the croppie was just 
 about the largest meal he ever attempted. Yet with 
 as much speed and dash as he could manage, with 
 such a mouthful, this bass made a savage attack and 
 succeeded in hooking himself in the side of the 
 mouth. Which seems to point to the fact that the 
 bass strikes not always for hunger, but with the idea 
 of showing that they are the boss of the home waters 
 and resent the approach of the wiggling, wobbling 
 lures as they splash in their locality. 
 
 Most musky, pike and pickerel are caught on very 
 small lures. Artificial minnows and plugs ranging 
 from two inches to four inches seem to make the 
 deepest impression on these old barbarians, while 
 more strikes are lost with the larger lures, notwith- 
 standing that they are touted by some tackle dealers 
 as big fish killers. The larger artificials will attract 
 the big ones, but it seems that the fish can get a 
 leverage on the larger lures, while they cannot on 
 the smaller ones. On the larger baits the tail hooks 
 are often torn out by the fish and it appears they are 
 able to shake them loose far more easily than the 
 ordinary bass plug. For general all-round bait cast- 
 
156 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 ing, whether you are after these old roughnecks of 
 the weed beds or the gamer scrapper, the bass, you 
 can figure it both ways from the jack that the smaller 
 lure has it all over the larger one. 
 
 And spoons, Old Man can you dope it out why 
 a gray-whiskered musky, victor of many a hard- 
 fought battle, with a mouth like a coal scuttle, will 
 delight in snapping his jaws over a little No. 3 sized 
 spoon hook? Records of the big fellows caught on 
 the spoon during the past season show that the 
 average sized spoon used was around a No. 7, while 
 the largest musky ever known to be caught with a 
 rod, line and reel answered to the flash of a No. 8 
 spoon. Of course, according to the size of a fish, a 
 fellow dopes out that he needs a big old spoon, 
 around a No. 12 or No. 14, and at that it looks 
 mighty small for the big ones, but the fact remains 
 that the big fellows really go crazy over the medium 
 sized spoons which, twirling around, flash an irre- 
 sistible invitation to the big fins to come and strike 
 one. 
 
FIFTY LARGE-MOUTH BASS AND HOW 
 THEY CAME TO GAFF 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE BAITS, THE TIME AND THE 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WEATHER WHEN 
 
 THESE BASS WERE LANDED 
 
 What is really the best bass bait is a question that 
 would stagger any fisherman; that is, to give any- 
 thing more than a general idea of what has been 
 considered the regular old line dope. But giving a 
 line of information based on the experiences of fifty 
 fishermen during a single season, stacks us up against 
 a real bunch of facts and figures that makes good 
 data for our memory book. What color makes the 
 old " he-wop " fighting mad, and at what part of 
 the season is he particularly fond of the chunk of 
 red cedar, the fat juicy pork rind, or the wiggling 
 minnow and frog? 
 
 Here's the dope on fifty large-mouth bass weigh- 
 ing from five pounds up to eight and one-half, and 
 it makes the past performance sheet of an u also 
 ran " look like an A-B-C chart. Twenty-two of 
 these bass answered to the call of the artificial 
 wooden plug or bait; nine of them fell for the 
 wiggling pork rind; eight came to gaff through their 
 
158 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 desire to gorge on minnows; seven were tempted by 
 the little old green-backed frog; and four cashed in 
 at the flash of the spoon hook. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL PLUGS WERE ATTRACTIVE 
 
 Of the twenty-two artificial lures, the majority 
 were shaped like a minnow and of an average length 
 of three and three-quarter inches, which is about the 
 standard length of most plugs for bass. As a color 
 that made 'em " see red," the white stands out as 
 an easy winner with eleven to its credit. But the 
 white alone did not do the trick, as eight of these 
 baits had a dash of red; either the head was red or 
 the top or flutes were so painted. A combination of 
 green and white is next, with four to its credit, a 
 mottled green back and white belly forming the gen- 
 eral make-up. The rainbow color slips in with two, 
 as does the red, while the yellow plug closes the 
 game with one. From this it looks like good dope 
 to count on the white and red, the green and white, 
 and the rainbow. It is also of interest to know that 
 the green and white combination and the rainbow 
 colors were used in the bright sunlight in exception- 
 ally clear water, while the pure whites and white 
 and reds were more successful in the early and later 
 hours and on the murky days and in rough water. 
 The green and white and rainbow plugs were used 
 in July and August, the whites through the entire 
 season. 
 
FIFTY LARGE-MOUTH BASS 159 
 
 PORK RIND ALL-SEASON BAIT 
 
 Lots of fishermen have overlooked the plebeian 
 pork rind in the chase after the wily big fins, but 
 now since the high cost of living has shot this old 
 juicy morsel up into the turkey class, it probably will 
 be more popular. It sure has a wiggle that makes 
 the bass cross-eyed to get at it. Of the nine bass 
 that were satisfied with a piece of pork, seven had 
 the assistance of a small piece of red flannel or yarn 
 to excite the curiosity of the fish, and six were rigged 
 up with a small spinner or spoon in front of the pork 
 rind. The pork rind bait w,as used right through 
 the season, being particularly effective during July 
 and August when the bass are generally in the deep 
 holes except in the early morning or late night feed- 
 ing. The wise ones will be sure to carry a bottle 
 of pork rind in the tackle-box, for the days when the 
 bass turn up their nose at most any kind of a bait 
 you offer them. Toss a little pork to 'em when you 
 are trying to dope out the right menu for the bronze- 
 backer. 
 
 NATURAL BAITS FOR HOT WEATHER 
 
 The minnow, one of the natural foods of the bass, 
 brought eight of these old-timers to the net, and the 
 months of July and August, which are conceded to 
 be the months that test the skill of the bass fisher- 
 man, were the ones in which the minnow was most 
 
160 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 effective. This, however, does not prove that the 
 minnow is not a tempting bait during the rest of the 
 season, as it is the general thing to use the artificials 
 early and late in the season, at which time they are 
 mighty attractive lure, although early in the morn- 
 ing and late at night and for night fishing the ar- 
 tificials are great little casting lures during July and 
 August. Of the minnows, the silver shiner or dace 
 seemed to be the one that tickled the palate of the 
 bass, probably the flash of its silvery sides making 
 an invitation too strong for the big fins to resist. 
 The mud minnow, with its yellowish golden tint and 
 husky constitution, was second choice, with the river 
 or creek chub closing the balloting. The silver 
 shiner is a fine bait for any time or condition of 
 water and is particularly good on dark and cloudy 
 days and when the water is rough or murky. The 
 chub is a winner on bright days and in clear and 
 still water, while the mud minnow is a lively cuss 
 and is on the job every minute he is in the water. 
 For a lively wiggler, the mud minnow has the rest 
 of the minnow family standing still. Three of 
 these minnows had casting spoons rigged on the 
 hook to help the game along. Three of the bass 
 were caught in the shallows and five coaxed out of 
 the deep water by letting the minnow sink after the 
 cast and then reeling in the bait slowly a foot or so 
 from the bottom. Taking the minnow from any 
 angle, it is a good bass bait, but no doubt was not 
 
FIFTY LARGE-MOUTH BASS 161 
 
 used as much as the other lures, owing to the fact 
 that it is hard to procure at times and is not as handy 
 as the plug or pork rind. For deep-water fishing 
 when the bass seem off the feed it has no equal. 
 
 FROGS GOOD FOR WEED-BEDS 
 
 To the hopping little green-backed, white-bellied 
 frog, eight bass passed the time of day and were 
 hooked for their curiosity, and again July and 
 August stand out as the months in which this natural 
 food made the strongest appeal to the bass. Three 
 of the frogs were dressed up with a little piece of red 
 flannel and five of the fish were taken from weed 
 beds and three from alongside of logs and wind- 
 falls. In the late season fishing in August the cast 
 was made right into the weeds and the frog given a 
 chance to sink a bit, then slowly reeled in, then an- 
 other slow-up, and so on until the waiting bass struck 
 him in his slow move among the weeds. Of course 
 a weedless hook was used in most cases and on three 
 of the frogs a small spoon was carried as a special 
 inducement to the bass. 
 
 The flash of the spoon was the swan song of four 
 of the bass and one of these was an eight-and-one- 
 half-pounder. This old granddaddy bass had 
 passed his palmy days in a quarry hole, as clear and 
 cool as any North Woods spring-fed lake, and the 
 fisherman who was skillful enough to land this 
 whopper had tried out everything in the bait line, 
 
1 62 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 from grasshoppers and minnows down to a dozen 
 plugs without even getting a swirl. He took a final 
 chance on a No. 6 spoon with a trebled bucktail 
 hook, and the first cast brought a short strike, while 
 the second cast with the spoon was struck like a 42- 
 centimeter shell. August and September were the 
 months in which these four bass were landed. Some 
 credit is also due the spoon from the fact that it was 
 used with other baits. There is nothing that makes 
 a piece of pork rind more attractive than a very 
 small spoon, about a No. 3J and it is also very effec- 
 tive when used in conjunction with the frog or min- 
 now. 
 
 FALL FISHING WELL IN LEAD 
 
 As to the time of the season when these fifty big 
 fellows were caught, September stands out as a 
 leader with thirteen. The run of the catch in the 
 other months stacks up May three, June six, July 
 ten, August eleven, and October seven. However, 
 the majority of the followers of the call of the lake 
 and stream take their main fishing trip during July, 
 August, or September, and this in a way accounts 
 for the big lead of the months of July and August, 
 which are noted as hot-weather fishing-days that 
 often give the bass the " off-the-feed " feeling. 
 Early season bass-fishing is by far the best, although 
 the fall fishing runs it a close second as the days of 
 real bass sport with rod and reel. And at that, 
 
FIFTY LARGE-MOUTH BASS 163 
 
 after the water has cooled a bit, the added ginger 
 in the fighting qualities of the bass makes the late 
 season fishing stand out as the one best bet in the 
 game of enticing the old seasoned veteran out of his 
 home waters. 
 
 Dividing the twenty-four fishing-hours of the day 
 into four sections, the morning hours from 4 A. M. 
 to 9 A. M. carry off the largest number of fish, seven- 
 teen being pegged up for that period, with the time 
 from 4 P. M. to 9 p. M. nosing in a close second with 
 sixteen on the Scoreboard. Night casting comes in 
 for a nice little honor, the period from 9 P. M. to 4 
 A. M. showing ten bass, while the mid-day fishing 
 from 9 A. M. to 4 P. M. lands seven. It was an easy 
 bet that the early morning and late afternoon fishing 
 would cop the main event, as that is the time most 
 of the fellows make their greatest drive, but it is 
 pleasing to note that the night fishing ran strong. 
 No doubt the night game would have made a better 
 showing had that period included some of the later 
 hours of the four to nine period which practically 
 come under the night casting. An interesting fact is 
 that eight of these bass caught during the night were 
 landed in August, and this seems to prove that the 
 bass feed more at night during the hot " dog days " 
 than at any other time of the day. Another little 
 tip that is worth remembering is that the bass caught 
 during the mid-day period were, with the exception 
 of one lone bass, taken on live bait, either the min- 
 
1 64 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 now or frog. The artificial lure which coaxed the 
 sleepy, lazy bass into striking during his mid-day 
 siesta was a little two-inch copper enameled under- 
 water minnow that was cast out over a sand bar. It 
 was allowed to sink and then reeled slowly across 
 the bar. 
 
 Shooting a glance across the dope sheet we find 
 that the artificial lures have a big lead, with the most 
 popular color a white with a dash of red. The live 
 natural food of the bass, the minnows and frogs, 
 make a fine showing in the hot weather months, 
 when it takes some work to land 'em while the small 
 spoon makes a hit as a helper by adding to the at- 
 tractiveness of some of the other baits. The early 
 and late day fishing have a nice lead while September 
 puts the fall fishing at the head of the class. 
 
 The bass, Old Timer, is a queer cuss and at the 
 same time he is about as wise as any fish that wags 
 a tail. To get him in any waters you have to study 
 those waters and locate his home grounds. Keep 
 your bait in the water and keep it moving, and what- 
 ever bait you are using, give it a fair try-out before 
 you change to another. A fellow can kill more good 
 fishing time changing baits than most any other way, 
 and the casts you lose probably are the ones the big 
 fins miss. 
 
THE MUSKY 
 
 Have you back-heeled your rod on a musky 
 And fought him an hour without pause, 
 
 On a silk-line that wasn't too husky 
 That wirelessed the smash of his jaws? 
 
 Have you felt of him down in there crashing, 
 And gave him the slack when he came 
 
 To the top like a meteor flashing, 
 Dead-weary, but sullen and game! 
 
 Have you sensed his wild scurries diminish 
 
 Except for a half-hearted flare, 
 As you nursed him along to the finish 
 
 You've done it! Well, partner, you're there! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 FIFTY MUSKY AND HOW THEY CAME 
 TO GAFF 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE BAITS, THE TIME OF THE YEAR 
 
 AND DAY AND THE WEATHER CONDITIONS 
 
 WHEN THESE BIG FINS WERE LANDED 
 
 Cut the cards, Old Scout, because we're going to 
 sit-in for a few hands with the musky, the livest big 
 fin of the inland waters. And beginning with the 
 
 165 
 
1 66 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 " openers," we sure have to keep our eyes on the 
 game or the wiley old rascal will make a get-away 
 with the kitty. Many sure-enough fishermen, who 
 have never had the undiluted pleasure of bringing a 
 man's-sized musky to gaff, tilt the nose skyward at 
 some of the tales brought from the musky country 
 and for that reason half has never been told about 
 this game old boy. 
 
 From experience we find that the musky has a 
 varied menu and one of all sizes. Also that he is 
 willing to go more than half way in the matter of 
 accommodating the angler by striking most anything 
 tossed to him. He never travels in a crowd but is 
 a lone hunter, and his favorite spots are over sub- 
 merged weed beds, off the edge of weed beds, water 
 lilies or the grasses that grow in the water. Along- 
 side of a submerged rock he will wait on the look- 
 out for passing fish, then with a lightning dart he 
 swirls out, closes his jaws on the feed and swims back 
 to his hangout, there to gorge it, ready in a minute 
 to make another dash to fill the feed-bag. The 
 musky always strikes a lure or fish sideways and he 
 strikes with plenty of force, often nosing a plug way 
 up in the air when he strikes short. 
 
 WHAT THE BIG FINS FALL FOR 
 
 To the fellow who has never muskied much, but 
 who has a deep buried ambition to take a wallop 
 at this end of the game, and also the every-day 
 
FIFTY MUSKY 167 
 
 musky enthusiast, the following line of info gathered 
 from the experiences of fifty of the boys who landed 
 musky weighing from twenty to sixty-one pounds, 
 will make mighty good dope to paste on the inside 
 of your tackle box, and, incidentally save you from 
 packing a line of whopping big spoons and lures in 
 the outfit when you make your initial attempt at a 
 close-up view of this old barbarian in his home 
 waters. 
 
 For many years the general method of coaxing 
 the musky to gaff has been trolling, with fairly stiff 
 and strong tackle, but the swan song of these fifty 
 big fins indicates that the light tackle and casting 
 are coming to the front as the real sporting game 
 for musky. Against twenty-two caught by trolling, 
 there looms up twenty-eight caught by casting, and 
 a majority of six is not at all bad for an end of the 
 game that is practically new. And of those landed 
 through casting, seventeen checked in on steel rods, 
 nine on bait casting split bamboo, while two had the 
 extreme honor of being fought to a finish with light 
 bamboo fly rods. 
 
 Do you get the drift, Old Timer, of the fight these 
 musky made on the off end of a six-ounce fly rod? 
 It's a man's-sized job to land a musky on fairly 
 strong tackle, but to trim one in on a little old whippy 
 fly rod surely calls for clever work and skill against 
 the brute strength and cunning of the musky. Fifty 
 minutes of wonderful fight was the record of one of 
 
1 68 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 these fly rod battles of tackle skill against musky wile 
 before the old dog would say " uncle." To that 
 kind of sport I doff the lid, it's sure some fighting, 
 boy, some fighting. 
 
 Of the baits and lures dished up to these favored 
 fifty, we find that twenty-one took a chance on the 
 spoon, thirteen preferred artificial plugs, eight ended 
 it all on suckers or shiners, four were introduced to 
 Mr. Frog, two took the pork chunk (without the 
 beans) and two fell for the bass fly and spinner. 
 
 CASTING FOR MUSKY POPULAR 
 
 As trolling in the past has been the accepted man- 
 ner of going after musky, so has the spoon been con- 
 sidered the lure de luxe. But in digging into the 
 matter we find that only fifteen of the twenty-one 
 fish caught on the spoon were landed through troll- 
 ing, the other six being caught by casting. In size 
 the spoon sure takes a drop from what most innocent 
 bystanders consider the right tool for the work. 
 The largest spoon used was a No. 12 and the 
 smallest a No. 3, the general average being a No. 7. 
 And the largest musky of the lot, the 6i-pounder, 
 was caught on a No. 8 spoon with a large sized frog 
 hooked on to the trebled hooks. In stocking up the 
 tackle box for the season keep the spoons down to 
 the smaller sizes and you'll sure find more use for 
 the stringer. The great big affairs are not of any 
 use and besides that they take up room in the tackle 
 
FIFTY MUSKY 169 
 
 box and go at excess baggage rates, to say nothing 
 of the fact that guides often get a quiet laugh out 
 of an inspection of a musky kit. As to the finish of 
 the spoons, thirteen were nickel, five brass and three 
 copper. 
 
 Of the artificial or wooden plugs, three were of 
 large size while ten were the ordinary bass casting 
 baits. In the matter of colors, the white with red 
 trimmings comes in with five, the rainbow has three 
 to its credit, perch color two, with a scattering of one 
 each to the other colors. As with the bass, it seems 
 that the white with the touch of red makes the lure 
 that caused 'em to hop right up and say " howdy 
 boys." 
 
 BLACK SUCKER A FAVORITE 
 
 The black sucker was the favorite natural bait, 
 with a record of five, while the shiner pegs along 
 with two and the perch also two, the size of these 
 baits ranging from six to nine inches. And by the 
 way, when suckers and shiners are hard to get, just 
 take a sharp knife and cut off the dorsal fin from a 
 fair-sized perch and try that out as a musky bait. 
 Cutting off the fin doesn't hurt the perch, nor does 
 it take any of the wiggle out of him. 
 
 The frog doesn't line up very strong in the lay- 
 out, mainly because he is not used so much for the 
 big fellows (incidentally, each of the four frogs that 
 trapped these musky had a spoon geared on in front 
 
i;o LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 of it to help matters along) and the pork chunk 
 probably hits it up on low, to the tune of two fish 
 for the same reason, very few of the boys feeding 
 it to the hungry musky they prefer it themselves 
 a la Heinz. For the fellow who has the pep to take 
 a whirl with the fly rod, the dope shows that the 
 weighted red Ibis bass fly with a No. 3 spoon was 
 the rig that made the two big fins take a chance on 
 the fly. And who in the outfit would ever think a 
 great big overgrown musky, with a mouth like a coal 
 scuttle, would even take a passing glance at a little 
 red bass fly, let alone strike it? 
 
 As to the time of the season when the musky is 
 most eager to give battle, September leads with 
 fifteen, July twelve, August ten, June eight, and 
 October five. Of course as early as June there are 
 not, as a rule, as many fishermen out after the musky 
 as in July or August, and the same thing stands for 
 September. Without a doubt, June is a better 
 month for musky than either July or August and they 
 show almost as snappy a fight in that month as 
 they do in September or October, when the colder 
 waters have shot into them a streak of pep that gives 
 a kick to their tails like the off hind leg of an army 
 mule. 
 
 MOUTH IN POOR SHAPE 
 
 About the middle of August the musky loses his 
 teeth, and his mouth is in such shape that it takes 
 something mighty aggravating to arouse enough 
 
FIFTY MUSKY 171 
 
 anger to make him forget his sore molars and strike. 
 There have been some beautiful arguments started 
 among the fishermen who are still in the pan fish 
 stage of the game through the statement that the 
 musky loses his teeth each year; however, as late as 
 September tenth of last season I examined three 
 musky caught on that day and in the mouth of each 
 was a new set of sharp-edged teeth, firmly set, while 
 hanging loosely in the back were still the remains of 
 the old teeth which had not entirely parted company 
 with their owners. This was later than usual for 
 the old teeth to remain, as they are generally gone 
 by the first week in September and at times slightly 
 earlier than that. No doubt this law of nature is 
 the same one that governs the shedding of the skin 
 of the snake and the renewing of the horns of the 
 deer. At the same time of the year when the musky 
 is changing his teeth the pickerel or pike have a 
 swelling of the gums that puts them out of the fight- 
 ing game until the gums go back to normal. The 
 gums of the pike will often swell clear over the teeth 
 and they are very much inflamed and sore, making 
 eating some painful work. 
 
 These conditions during the latter part of August 
 take the muskies off their feed, but when the mouth 
 is in good shape again they are more than anxious 
 to make up for the last time in filling the feed-bag 
 to excess. This hungry condition and the fine feel- 
 ing mouth, together with the pep gained from the 
 
172 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 colder bracing water, surely endows them with more 
 energy than during the warmer months and assures 
 the " Muskyteer " of a game antagonist during 
 September and October. The fact that only five of 
 the fifty were caught in October does not stand 
 against this month, as few of the boys enjoy the un- 
 alloyed pleasure of fishing for musky in this month, 
 at which time he is there with a keen, clear brain 
 and a well developed tailful of tricks that would 
 make a poker shark look like an amateur. 
 
 OVERCAST DAY IS THE BEST 
 
 Weather conditions varied greatly when these fifty 
 muskies lined up for the roll of honor. The day 
 was cloudy or overcast when nineteen connected up 
 with the hook, clear day, sixteen; bright sunny day, 
 eight; raining, five; and two were caught while it 
 was snowing. As to the water on these days, 
 eighteen were caught on comparatively still water or 
 slightly ruffled, twenty-two when the water was 
 ruffled or broken, and ten were landed in rough 
 water with considerable wind blowing. When the 
 water is slightly roughened by the wind and break- 
 ing in small waves, or on an overcast or cloudy day, 
 makes good musky weather, although he may sur- 
 prise you in any kind or style of weather and strike 
 your lure while you are loafing along into shore to 
 make landing for the noonday grub, trolling a line 
 along, of course, for just such an emergency strike. 
 
FIFTY MUSKY 173 
 
 The time of the day did not seem to cut much 
 figure in the layout as three periods, morning, mid- 
 day and afternoon fishing, run about even. Morn- 
 ing fishing, from 7 until n, heads the days 
 sports with eighteen, while both mid-day fishing, 
 from 1 1 A. M. until 3 P. M., and afternoon fishing, 
 from 3 P. M. until 9, get credit for sixteen each. 
 The majority of the fish caught in the morning and 
 afternoon were landed by casting while trolling was 
 the method most used during the mid-day fishing. 
 It is interesting to note that in August, the month in 
 which the musky is least active, all the fish caught 
 came to grief in the early morning or late afternoon. 
 However, as the great number of these fish were 
 caught on the overcast days or days without much 
 sun, the mid-day period shows up very well for the 
 musky fishing. Although as a general thing fishing 
 is better during the early and late hours of the day, 
 on an overcast or cloudy day there is no reason why 
 it should not be good during the whole day, es- 
 pecially if the surface of the water is a bit on edge. 
 
 RIVER MUSKY A FIGHTER 
 
 The home waters of thirty-eight of these fifty 
 roughnecks were located in lakes and twelve were 
 raised in the rivers or streams. And right here I 
 want to chalk up a little dope ; the river-raised musky 
 is a mighty husky proposition to handle for he's on 
 the move more than his lake brother, in his daily 
 
174 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 skirmish for feed, and his continual kick against the 
 current makes him a mighty active cuss when you 
 connect up with him. In fact it takes just a little 
 keener work with the tackle to land him, and nine 
 times out of ten he is a tiger musky, which is sure 
 some fighter to handle on light tackle. I think the 
 river chap is just a bit more foxy and quick to avail 
 himself of the natural advantages of the getaway, 
 such as underwater logs, snags, etc., than the laker, 
 as he usually travels a certain stretch of river year 
 in and year out and gets fairly well acquainted with 
 every avenue of escape. I know one old villain who 
 has been kicking around at a certain bend in the 
 Wisconsin River three years, and next season, or 
 some following season, I hope to land him. Twice 
 he gave me the once over and departed at his leisure, 
 and I sure hand him the credit of knowing his home 
 trails and being able to take care of himself after 
 dark. 
 
 EAGLE RIVER WATERS HOME OF MUSKY 
 
 Thirty-six of these musky were caught in Wis- 
 consin waters, eight were taken from the St. 
 Lawrence waters, four from lower Canadian waters, 
 and two from Minnesota. Wisconsin stands out as 
 the real home of the musky and the Eagle River 
 waters, from which the majority of these game boys 
 were taken, is certainly a wonderful breeding ground 
 for his lordship. The lakes in the Eagle River 
 waters seem to have just the right formation under- 
 
FIFTY MUSKY 175 
 
 water to make a happy hunting ground for the 
 musky, and they are as plentiful there now as in the 
 early days, in fact they appear to be on the increase. 
 Taking a slant over the deck, we find that the 
 spoon is in the lead as a musky lure, with the artificial 
 plug coming strong. And as more use is made of 
 the regular-sized bass plugs for musky casting, its 
 a good bet that they will keep on coming stronger 
 each year, until the smaller plug is recognized as 
 being as much o'f a lure for musky as it is for bass. 
 The white, with a dash of red, and the rainbow 
 colors seem to be the favorites among the artificials 
 while the sucker, shiner and perch show up well as 
 natural baits. Going light for musky in the way of 
 tackle has the chair and the usual bass casting outfit, 
 with a little heavier test line, makes the game one 
 of real sport. The ideal day for the big fellows is 
 one in which the sun has been backed off the boards 
 with the surface of the water doing a " Salome." 
 Any of the open months look pretty good, and with 
 the right kind of weather, Old Man, you ought to be 
 able to connect up with the livest bunch of wiggle 
 that has ever been concentrated into a single fresh- 
 water fish. Here's to the musky, the Villa of the 
 weed-beds! May he live long and die fighting 
 and when he does, you'll recall many a time the chills 
 that raced up your spine when he first broke water 
 and you lamped his size and caught the gleam of his 
 cruel eye. 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 
 
 BEING THE SWAN SONG OF SOME BIG FISH TOLD BY 
 THEIR CAPTORS 
 
 There is probably no angle of the game that will 
 give one a better insight into the habits of the dif- 
 ferent fish in their effort to evade the landing net 
 or gaff, than the stories of how these fish were ac- 
 tually landed. As fishing editor of the Chicago 
 Herald, and especially while handling the game fish- 
 ing contests held by that newspaper, I have had the 
 pleasure of reading the obituaries of some of the 
 largest fish caught with rod and reel. Without a 
 doubt, much can be learned from the experience of 
 others and for that reason I have selected a few of 
 these stories of the landing of large and small-mouth 
 bass, muskellunge, pike and wall-eyed pike, which I 
 feel sure will give one an idea of what to expect 
 from the game fins. 
 
 One point that makes these stories particularly 
 interesting is the fact that they are not written by 
 what might be termed professional fishermen, but 
 are the stories of the ordinary every-day sportsman, 
 who fishes when he gets the chance, while a few of 
 
 176 
 
Fine bass waters among the lily pads and bog brush A three pounder 
 was hooked alongside of the log in the lower pocket, and two were taken 
 on three casts from 'the pocket between the two clumps of bog brush. 
 The bass sure like to feed among the underwater branches and roots of 
 the bog brush, and to get 'em you have to place the plug accurately and 
 .nto the edge of the growth. 
 
 Among the windfalls and logs the bass are right at home and they 
 have a habit of lying alongside and under these natural retreats. The 
 leaning pine throws a fine shadow over the water and there is just enough 
 break to the surface to make ideal casting. The bas^ must be quickly 
 worked out to deeper water or he is sure to wrap the line around a 
 windfall and make a getaway. Two bass were taken out of this cosy 
 corner and one lost on a snag. 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 177 
 
 them are by keen fellows who are just breaking into 
 the game. 
 
 FINDS BIG ONE IN QUARRY HOLE 
 
 Very few fishermen have the honor of landing a 
 large-mouth bass that has accumulated the weight of 
 %y 2 pounds. When bass arrive at that weight they 
 generally are so wise and sagacious that they die of 
 old age. To match wits with a bass of this size was 
 the good fortune of I. C. Fitts of Evanston, Illinois, 
 and the battle took place in the cool, clear waters 
 of an abandoned quarry hole, the last place some 
 of the boys would expect to find a real man's-sized 
 bass. I. C. passes out the thrills as follows: 
 
 ' There are acres of old abandoned quarries about 
 a mile southeast of Joliet that have filled with cold, 
 clear water from neighboring brooks and springs. 
 These holes are of all shapes and sizes and deep or 
 shallow as the huge machinery has dug them. The 
 sides are piled high with rubble or stone unfit for 
 use, but these banks are covered with a generous 
 growth of willows, keeping the pools from getting 
 too hot, even in the hottest sun. 
 
 " The one our old ' Warrior ' picked for his 
 stamping ground is locally known as Clear Lake 
 quarry, and lives up to its name in every respect, 
 being a clear, blue pond with high banks and perhaps 
 ten or fifteen feet of water in the deepest hole. 
 That nice bass were in this hole could be told any 
 
178 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 evening by seeing them jump for flies or coming up 
 into sight during the day to bask in the sun. The 
 next problem was a bait they would take. Grass- 
 hoppers swarmed about the adjoining banks and 
 minnows were so thick that the bass would turn tail 
 and leave their customary food as though insulted 
 if offered one. 
 
 STRIKES ON NO. 8 SPOON 
 
 " September i, if you remember, was a rainy, 
 nasty, no-account day, that brought on the tired feel- 
 ing people so often complain of in the spring, and, 
 being no exception to the rule, I strung up the old 
 casting outfit of musky fame in Wisconsin waters 
 in preparation of a little try for some fish. 
 
 " Having arrived at the quarries with grass- 
 hoppers and plenty of artificial bait I started out 
 with a fine hopper and fished as though my life de- 
 pended on it with no sign of any results. They were 
 full of them. A change of bait is the only remedy 
 a fisherman has to rely on if they won't bite and I 
 had just finished putting on a No. 8 South Bend 
 Bucktail Spoon when the ' Old Boy ' expressed his 
 high state of feeling by breaking water two or three 
 times in rapid succession. Needless to say I was 
 with him right off and skittered the spoon from a 
 slanting rock on the opposite side of the pool. 
 
 " You could accuse anybody of meddling with the 
 truth if he tried to tell you how fast that fish got 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 179 
 
 over there but he almost broke himself in two, con- 
 necting up with the bait and right there my heart 
 sank; he missed it. I" did not say much, mainly, be- 
 cause there was no one around to say it to but they 
 would hang me for writing what I thought. All this 
 cloud passed over directly the next cast had nicely 
 settled and he hit again in dead earnest. 
 
 " Things began to happen fast, and for the next 
 few minutes he was the most disagreeable bass I 
 ever had anything to do with. He cut fancy circles 
 around the pond for fully ten minutes without re- 
 sults and then headed for a bunch of old timbers 
 over in the far corner. The tackle twisted around 
 as though it had hooked into an express train and I 
 sure would have been minus a fish if he had not sud- 
 denly changed his mind and come straight in toward 
 me. For the first time, I gained line on him a little 
 and he sulked the rest of the way in to within six 
 or eight feet of shore. About that time I got over 
 the excitement well enough to wade out and bring 
 home the bacon. Sweet odors from the spider that 
 evening told plainly what had happened down at 
 the quarries the day about 10 o'clock and in mem- 
 ory of the event there is a nice head mounted in my 
 
 room." 
 
 FOUR A. M. AND A SIX-POUNDER 
 
 At the tail end of July, while the mercury was 
 hitting the high spots, George Berghammer of Mil- 
 
i8o LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 waukee, Wisconsin, landed a six-pound, large-mouth 
 bass while fishing at four o'clock in the morning, at 
 which time the fish are usually on the feed, the heat 
 later in the day driving them to the deep holes from 
 which they are particularly hard to coax with any 
 kind of bait or lure. Here are a few words from 
 George on his bass: 
 
 " I landed this bass in the Wolf River at Fre- 
 mont, Wisconsin. It is the largest bass I ever have 
 caught and it sure made some fight before I netted 
 it. The bass from the Wolf River are scrappers 
 and this one was no exception. He took the frog, 
 hook and all, and after playing with it for a while 
 headed for the weeds. Then he found out he was 
 hooked and turned on the line, got a little slack and 
 hopped out of the water clear into the air for a shake 
 that certainly showed his strength. I made the reel 
 sing and jerked him ' off his feet ' before he loosened 
 the hook. I played him for about thirty-five minutes 
 and it was some sport. He made other breaks out 
 of the water, but none like the first." 
 
 Many fellows might overlook one lone rush stick- 
 ing up out of the water as the lounging place of a 
 six-and-a-half-pound, large-mouth bass, but not so 
 C. E. Peterson of Chicago, who cast his lure along- 
 side of a solitary old rush and was rewarded with 
 an exciting few minutes before he landed his prize, 
 and the following story shows that it pays to keep 
 the eyes open : 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 181 
 
 JIM DANDY FOR HOT WEATHER 
 
 ;< Who said that the bass would not bite in July? 
 It was the morning of July 7 when I looked from my 
 window on to Long Lake, a small quiet lake in Wis- 
 consin. Quiet because it was low and surrounded 
 by wooded banks which keep the wind from disturb- 
 ing its mirror-like surface. The water was reflect- 
 ing the hot sun heat waves, but it was not too hot 
 for me, as I knew it was the day I would make good. 
 It was a shame to push the boat into the water to 
 disturb its quietude, but it was fish I was after, not 
 scenery. The once-over of the tackle and I was on 
 my way casting here and there looking for likely 
 spots where I thought Mr. Bass would be lurking. 
 Giving my boat a push I saw a lonely rush protrud- 
 ing a few inches above the surface. I had a hunch 
 that Mr. Bass was fanning himself with his nose up 
 against this rush. Dropping my Jim Dandy bait 
 alongside, the rush moved, the water opened,' and 
 Mr. Bass was hooked. Up in the air he went shak- 
 ing himself to break loose and I shaking myself to- 
 gether for the one play of my life. Down he goes 
 to the bottom, then for a long run; then up in the 
 air again. The combination of tackle and muscle 
 was too much for him, and alongside he came. A 
 quick movement of the hand and he was mine. 
 There he lay quivering from exhaustion and I shak- 
 ing from excitement. A whopping big bass was all 
 my own." 
 
182 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 From a fine weed-bed, the natural feeding grounds 
 of the large-mouth bass, Joseph T. Galliker of 
 Chicago coaxed a six-pound six-ounce big fellow 
 during the tail end of September. This bass was 
 caught in a lake that has been fished for years and 
 is considered very " civilized " waters: 
 
 CAST INTO WEED POCKETS 
 
 " I was right in the center of a fine weed-bed, 
 shooting the Bass-areno plug into the pockets and 
 openings. I had just made a fairly long cast into 
 a pocket and was beginning to reel in when this old 
 " he-wop " hit the bait like a dick walloping a second- 
 story artist As soon as I struck him he beat it for 
 his home weed-bed, and it took some thumb pressure 
 to hold him as he started away as though he had a 
 date at the far end of the lake. He then settled on 
 the bottom and sulked, tugging away like a bull pup. 
 I gave him the butt, a bit, and he made a run for the 
 surface, breaking water in a wonderful jump. Fail- 
 ing to shake the plug lose, he made a swing around 
 a bunch of weeds and then headed for the boat. I 
 had to speed up some to get in the slack before he 
 broke water again. It was sure a beautiful fight in 
 among the weeds, but eighteen minutes of it was 
 enough for the Old Timer, and, as I brought him up 
 to the boat, his final flops were the last efforts of a 
 worn out warrior." 
 
 During a snow storm late in September, Albert 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 183 
 
 Jay Cook of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, tried his luck 
 at McNaughton, Wisconsin, and from the cold 
 waters of Black Lake landed a five-pound fifteen- 
 ounce, small-mouth bass. To land a small-mouth of 
 this size is a mighty pleasant task and little does the 
 true fisherman care whether it is snowing, raining, 
 blowing or what not, if he can match his angling skill 
 with the keen trickery of a grown-up small-mouth. 
 Here is the yarn A. J. spins about his polar-bear 
 bass: 
 
 COLD WEATHER BASS SHOWS SPEED 
 
 "Swish! Out of the weed-bed he whip-lashed 
 like a cupro-nosed perforator from an automatic 25. 
 Then Zing! I thought for a moment that I had 
 been transferred in some unbelievable manner to the 
 Baltic Sea and had struck a submarine torpedo en- 
 dowed with life. 
 
 " To begin at the beginning. It had been a bad 
 two weeks. The underwater plants, late for the 
 season, were in full bloom. Rain all the time and 
 the last three days freezing, with three snowstorms 
 on the side. A few casts from the boat, with the 
 icy, spray-coated wind swirling over the choppy lake, 
 and then a return cabinward, with frosted toes, 
 fingers and language and the casting thumb almost 
 rubbed to the bone. 
 
 " The evening before the last day of our stay I 
 had picked up a curious, sharklike artificial minnow. 
 
1 84 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 It interested me, this Pflueger-surprise minnow, as I 
 twirled it back and forth in the shadows of the 
 flickering cabin light, I must have a try with it, I 
 decided. 
 
 " So on this, the afternoon of the last day, I and 
 my brother, Byron V., who had captured several nice 
 specimens of the genus bass and had been express- 
 ing extreme pity on me in a sarcastic way, pushed 
 off from the wharf. We tore across the lake to a 
 juicy bay, from which we had harvested several beau- 
 ties a few days before. I sat in the stern idly 
 casting my minnow toward the weed-beds, until my 
 hands and disposition felt like plank slabs. 
 
 " As brothers in a boat sometimes do, we were 
 placing cutting remarks where they would fit; my re- 
 marks anent his rowing were extremely polite, but 
 if I do say it myself, they cut deeper than the snowy 
 gale that was blowing. He complimented me beau- 
 tifully on my angling ability, with a hoarse sardonic 
 laugh which tingled into me like a harpoon. I was 
 slowly reeling in my line, indulging in repartee, when 
 it happened. It struck ! 
 
 TWENTY MINUTES OF RUSHING BATTLE 
 
 " It is strange how soon temperatures change in 
 northern Wisconsin. One minute it is below freez- 
 ing and then it jumps to summer heat; and believe 
 me, when that old fish began to patter through his 
 bagful of tricks the mercury spurted from the top of 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 185 
 
 the thermometer like Old Faithful geyser. He took 
 the line as though he had an afternoon tea date at 
 the North Pole; then he came back strong, broke 
 water and decided to dine with the penguins around 
 Punta Arenas before 6 P. M. However, with the 
 aid of my own will power and some pressure brought 
 to bear in high political places, the old u he-wop " 
 decided to travel toward the center of the lake, away 
 from the windfalls and weeds. 
 
 " For twenty minutes the bass rehearsed every- 
 thing he had learned in his own lifetime and the 
 things he had learned from his father and mother 
 before him. He cut under the boat and broke water 
 twenty feet on the other side. He slipped to the 
 bottom to rub the curious little minnow with the sting 
 from his mouth. He backed away, doubled on his 
 tracks like a red fox, flopped a foot out of water into 
 the snow-swirl; and finally, after one of the gamest 
 fights I have ever had or seen, gave up the battle 
 and died like a true hero fighting to the death. 
 Softly I reeled him in, and, as we had no landing 
 net, my brother reached into the water and lifted him 
 out. For a moment we looked at him quivering 
 at the bottom of the boat, and instinctively we raised 
 our hats to one of the gamest fish in the world." 
 
 ARTIFICIAL WINS OVER LIVE BAIT 
 
 Gerald C. Burd of Brooklyn while fishing in Lake 
 Court O'rielles, Wisconsin, on a hot July day landed 
 
i86 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 a fine 5-pound 2-ounce, small-mouth bass that gave 
 an interesting account of itself. Following the usual 
 dope Gerald first tried the game with live bait, but 
 not being successful he switched to a Heddon's 
 Dowagiac and on the third cast the big one struck 
 but here is the way Gerald tells it: 
 
 '* We had pulled across from our shack on the 
 east shore of the lake and anchored in a small 
 sheltered inlet. For a time I tried still fishing with 
 live minnows, but with indifferent success, then 
 changed tackle and began to cast. Twice I reeled 
 in without result, and then a third time the bait 
 arched through the air and struck the water with a 
 splash. It was instantly followed by another splash 
 which told me that there was a fine scrap ahead, for 
 the instant I set the hook the big fellow broke water, 
 standing on his tail and shaking his massive body 
 until the hooks fairly rang against each other. 
 
 " There was a long rush, followed by a still longer 
 sulking spell from which I almost despaired of bring- 
 ing him, but finally the strain ceased and he carne 
 very nicely to the boat. Then I made the mistake 
 of attempting to net him too soon and the fight was 
 renewed with vigor. 
 
 " After seven or eight minutes which were full of 
 thrills, he again came to the boat only to make a dive 
 under it. I lowered the tip of my rod and let him 
 go though, as I was afraid he was fast loosening the 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 187 
 
 hook. But after a final leap and a rush he came in, 
 golden side up in token of submission, and was easily 
 netted." 
 
 SPOON INTERESTS THIS MUSKY 
 
 The muskellunge is as tricky a fish as you will find 
 among the entire finny tribe and he isn't a bit bashful 
 when it comes to taking advantage of the slightest 
 opportunity to display his skill at parting company 
 with the hook. For main strength he has no equal 
 among the fresh-water fish, and with light tackle it 
 takes keen work to land him. Judge H. T. Ames 
 of Minocqua, Wisconsin, writes the following facts 
 about the landing of a thirty-two pounder at which 
 he officiated: 
 
 " We had tried them out on the live minnows and 
 frogs without even a swirl. It was some hot the 
 afternoon of July 25 on Lake Mandaline, Minocqua, 
 Wisconsin, where I landed this old fellow, and we 
 did not blame the fish for lying low. We were 
 making about two knots an hour, our spoons out 
 about fifty feet, spinning in a nervous, flopping way 
 caused by the irregular movement of the boat with 
 its makeshift oarlocks. 
 
 " The musky struck with a vicious dart, his dorsal 
 fin cutting the water like that of a man-eater. I 
 brought him to a right-about with a jerk of the rod 
 and the main show opened up with a fine break from 
 
i88 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 the water. Just then I changed seats with my part- 
 ner and the old rascal took advantage of me and 
 made a run with about fifty feet more of line, and 
 then straight down to the bottom, which is a mass of 
 weeds in Lake Mandaline. He rooted down under 
 what seemed to be a ton of weeds as I cleared them 
 off the line and worked him into the open water. I 
 had him within fifteen yards of the boat when he 
 made a leap of at least six feet up into the air and 
 shook himself like an angry bull-pup, making the 
 No. 7 Skinner spoon rattle like a telephone bell as it 
 pounded a tattoo on his teeth. 
 
 " As I took in the slack he made jump after jump 
 out of the water and he darted and plunged in all 
 kinds of figures trying to snag the line. It was a 
 furious fight for nearly an hour before I could bring 
 him to gaff. My pard made an honest effort to gaff 
 the big fellow, but only succeeded in scraping his 
 side, which livened him up for a spurt that tore fifty 
 feet of line off my reel. I worked him alongside 
 again and with the rod in the left hand gave him the 
 gaff myself. 
 
 " With one last effort for freedom he shook with 
 force enough to break the gaff hook, but he dropped 
 into the boat and I closed in on him for a little per- 
 sonal embrace. I caught this musky with a No. 7 
 Skinner spoon hook, a silk musky line and an old 
 Bristol rod, that is really a veteran, and a much older 
 and very dilapidated tournament casting reel." 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 189 
 
 HATS OFF, MUSKY ON FLY ROD 
 
 To land a musky on fly tackle, the most delicate 
 of fishing equipment, is a job that probably only the 
 most seasoned veteran would attempt. One slip in 
 judging the moves of the musky or shooting on the 
 thumb pressure at the wrong moment would mean 
 a smashed rod. For an all-round thriller, V. 
 Deane Reese of Columbus, Ohio, certainly staged a 
 five-reeler when he hooked a fourteen-pound musky 
 and played him for fifty minutes before he could 
 bring him to gaff. Here is the story of this battle 
 of light tackle vs. musky wile as told by the winner : 
 
 " I always had a hankering to land a big fish, par- 
 ticularly a musky, on a fly rod, but never anticipated 
 one quite so large as the chap I'm writing you about. 
 I was camping on No Man's Lake with my fishing 
 partner, Dr. Okey, who handled the paddle during 
 the fight. I had raised one musky, which probably 
 weighed eight pounds, but evidently had not set the 
 hook deep enough in his mouth, as he threw it the 
 first jump out of the water. This gave me the tip 
 to set it deeper next time, as the hook was very small 
 and the musky has a tough mouth. 
 
 ' We paddled over to a shallow bar in the middle 
 of the lake, and I started casting with a No. 2-O 
 Buck-tail fly, fastened on a No. i Hildebrandt spin- 
 ner, which was as large a lure as I was able to cast 
 with the light fly rod. This big fish came out of the 
 
LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 weeds and took the fly just like a trout. I set the 
 hook as firmly as I could and told the doctor to row 
 out into the deep. 
 
 MAKES A THREE FOOT BREAK 
 
 1 The musky leaped out of the water at least three 
 feet and the fight was on. He continued to break 
 water from time to time as I worked him in. To- 
 ward the end, however, his efforts to rise from the 
 water were mighty weak and he hardly raised his 
 nose above the surface. He made two runs for the 
 boat, and orice I felt sure he would right angle my 
 rod, which was a nine and a half footer, and snap it 
 before we could get the boat around. 
 
 " At times I held considerable arch to the rod, 
 but gave him the tip quite a lot and worked the rod 
 with the musky through most of the fight. At no 
 time did I feel that I would lose him, but before the 
 fifty minutes were over I was about as tired as the 
 musky. 
 
 " Early in the fight I felt a little shaky on the line 
 question as I only had on about seventy-five feet, and 
 when he started on his runs I had to put strong pres- 
 sure on the line to get him out of the notion of going 
 too far. My right thumb soon rubbed to the quick 
 and I finished the fight with my left hand, in fact, it 
 was necessary from time to time to change the rod, 
 as my arm became tired. 
 
 " Musky fishing with a six-ounce fly rod may not 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 191 
 
 be a sport indulged in by many of the boys, but for 
 a pack of tingling thrills and moments requiring 
 quick thought give me a musky on the lightest of 
 tackle." 
 
 RIVER MUSKY FULL OF PEP 
 
 The river musky seems to put up a gamer fight 
 than one of equal size caught in lake waters. Es- 
 pecially is this so when the river waters have a swift 
 current. Every minute of his life the river musky 
 has to fight the current in his hunt for food, and this 
 daily battle against the swift waters gives him a won- 
 derfully developed set of fins and a kick in his tail 
 that compares favorably with the driving power of 
 the off hind leg of an army mule. J. C. Knudtson 
 of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, landed a 35-pound 
 musky from the swirling white waters below the 
 falls, and here are the facts about the thirty-minute 
 nerve-tingling scrap : 
 
 " All good things come my way on or about the 
 2Oth of the month, and when this date stole around 
 in August I slipped down to the Chippewa River one 
 morning before daylight, armed to the teeth with 
 tackle, for a shot at the famous green muskies that 
 feed below the falls. I fished from shore, casting 
 my Heddon's Dowagiac Wiggler out into the rapids 
 and reeling it in across a mighty promising looking 
 eddy. After a few unsuccessful efforts, which I 
 chalked up to practice, I felt a mighty lunge that 
 
192 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 stiffened up my line and almost doubled my Bristol 
 No. 25 which, by the way, is some light rod for a 
 musky battle. Then a drive straight across the river 
 that cut the line through the water with a zip. I 
 let him take about seventy feet, then put on the 
 brakes, when up out of the water he came with a 
 sudden sharp jump that nearly caught me with a 
 slack, and he did a shake I never thought a musky 
 had in his body. He had probably been hooked be- 
 fore, because he tried every trick I had ever heard 
 a musky had in his system, from the corkscrew twist 
 to the double jump, but he was hooked right, and I 
 held him down under a stiff line. 
 
 " Four times I almost had him to gaff against his 
 wishes, but each time he gingered up and made an- 
 other effort to break away. At last I played him 
 out and brought him in white side up and I was sure 
 proud as I slipped my fingers under his gills and 
 lifted him ashore, a fine specimen of the gamest of 
 muskies, the famous dark green musky of the ' old 
 Chippewa.' ' 
 
 LANDS BIG PIKE ON WEAK LINE 
 
 The pike, so commonly called pickerel by many 
 fishermen, is a close relation to the musky and al- 
 though he doesn't make the spectacular fight that 
 his husky cousin does, he can give a good account of 
 himself. When hooked in the cooler waters in the 
 fall, he has an added bunch of pep that places him 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 193 
 
 right up in the game class. Theodore Nordholm of 
 Chicago landed a 23-pound pike early in October on 
 a line that tested out at eight and a half pounds at 
 the break, which is sure some fishing and stacks up 
 well with the clever work of the cotton thread 
 anglers of Long Island. The " how " of landing 
 this large pike is modestly told by Theodore : 
 
 " We sure struck it cold for our fishing trip to 
 Gillette Lake, at Mountain, Wisconsin. It was a 
 blustery and rainy day with snow flurries and my pal 
 and I were loafing around the cabin trying to keep 
 warm. But the fishing fever had us and we decided 
 to take a flyer around the lake. 
 
 " Striking a nice bunch of lily pads, I warmed up 
 with a few casts in among 'em. The fourth throw 
 of my Jamison Mascot brought a strike that sure 
 had weight behind it, but I only held him a few sec- 
 onds before he broke away. I must have scared him 
 a bit, because repeated casts failed to interest him, 
 so we went around the lake. 
 
 " I could not get that old man out of my mind, 
 however, and I knew he was a big one from the pull 
 he handed me the few moments I had him hooked. 
 I insisted on giving him another chance, so we let 
 the boat drift in to the spot where I had lost him. 
 
 STRIKES \VITH A PUNCH 
 
 " I made a cast in where I thought he ought 
 to be and sure enough he landed with both feet. 
 
194 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 I struck him hard and set the hooks to stay. This 
 annoyed him some, because he made a bee line 
 for the deep water on a straight run of about sixty 
 feet before I put on the thumb. He passed so close 
 to the boat that I saw his size and knew my work 
 was cut out for me because I had a No. 5 Jamison 
 line with which I had been casting several days and 
 no gaff or gun to land him with. 
 
 " You cannot take chances with a line that has 
 become worn with steady casting, so we followed 
 him around for about thirty minutes, giving him line 
 when he wanted it and taking her in when possible. 
 I was unable to get the pike close enough to land 
 him, so one of the boys at the camp paddled out and 
 as I brought the fish to the surface he slipped his 
 hands under his gills and lifted him into the canoe. 
 The fight had been enough for him at that and he 
 laid there without much pep. 
 
 " Here's a little dope for the wise ones who take 
 a slap at the pike. If you get them from a cold 
 spring-fed lake, they put up a game fight and if you 
 want some good sport land a large one on a line that 
 tests out at eight and one-half pounds. That is what 
 my line tested after the fight, and you can take it 
 straight, this old bird put up a fight." 
 
 THIS PIKE GETS AWAY, BUT 
 
 The fish that gets away is always the largest, but 
 here is a 1 2-pound pike that got away and, after an 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 195 
 
 hour's liberty, the line was located and the old pike 
 successfully landed. Bill Kuss of Chicago who lost 
 and found this rascal tells the story in this way : 
 
 " Early in July, while making the rounds of some 
 of our smaller lakes just northwest of Chicago, I 
 stopped at Wooster Lake, one mile directly west of 
 Long Lake station. 
 
 ' There was a thick layer of * shredded wheat ' 
 moss running about 300 yards from the shore into 
 the lake, and just outside of this moss the water was 
 quite deep, about thirty feet. As there was no wind 
 I had no trouble in finding out at once that there 
 was a slight current, and, in fact, this entire end of 
 the lake was moving. 
 
 " I had confidence in this moving water, although 
 it was terribly muddy, and within half an hour I 
 landed three fair sized bass and had a number of 
 ' strikes.' Then I got a ' strike ' that for a moment 
 took my breath away. I set my hook deep into that 
 fellow and he started off like a shot straight for the 
 moss bank. My thirty-three yards of No. 6 was 
 nearly all out when he struck and there was only a 
 little left to hold him with, but it didn't seem to make 
 any difference, for there was no holding him in, as 
 he kept on going. 
 
 LINE SNAPS PIKE HEADS TO WEEDS 
 
 * Yes, the line snapped at the reel. There being 
 no wind and the water as smooth as glass I could 
 
196 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 plainly see the * V ' shaped wake heading for the 
 rnoss near shore. Strangely, for some reason I 
 followed this wake to the moss and here found a 
 spot where I could see the water * bubbling ' and, at 
 once came to the conclusion, that Mr. Pike must be 
 close at hand. I also knew Mr. Pike had all of my 
 line dangling behind him, and as I was determined 
 to recover that line a few moments of careful drag- 
 ging located it and soon I had it on my reel again. 
 It seemed to me about an hour's careful work trying 
 to locate my fish when all of a sudden he started out 
 again and I am still figuring how he ever got out 
 of that bed of moss without breaking my line. As 
 soon as he found he was free he made a sudden dart 
 for open water and here is where I decided to end 
 all this in short order, for out in deep water with 
 plenty of line to play him and an abundance of re- 
 newed confidence it was merely a case of ' come to 
 daddy.' 
 
 * The strangest part of it was that at no time 
 during our game of ' hide and seek ' did I get a 
 glimpse of him, not until I was ready to tickle him 
 behind his gills with my hand and lift him into the 
 boat. I was almost certain I had a musky all the 
 time, but I really felt satisfied when I found he was 
 only a pike, considering how I hooked him, then lost 
 him, again recovered him, and finally ' brought home 
 the bacon.' " Not so bad for Bill to land him after 
 his getaway. 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 197 
 
 FISHES DEEP ON HOT DAY 
 
 The pike, like the bass, hunts the cool waters dur- 
 ing the hot weather, and you have to send your bait 
 to him to create enough interest to excite a strike. 
 Clarence J. Vogt of Chicago, used this method to 
 tease a fifteen and three-quarter pound pike to hit 
 the bait on a hot July day, and here is the story : 
 
 " I caught this husky beggar casting off Indian 
 Point in Fox Lake, Illinois. You may recall that it 
 was a trifle hot last Saturday, being 92 in the shade, 
 so I let my Stanley fly with spinner, baited with a 
 nice enticing pork strip, go down fairly deep in order 
 to get to the fish, which were hunting the cool places 
 in the deeper water. This pike sure must have been 
 hungry or sore, because he struck the bait like a ten- 
 strike. Not having a gaff or landing net, I played 
 him for fifteen minutes, till he showed white, then I 
 brought him close up to the boat and slipped my 
 fingers under his gills. Did I land him then? 
 Well, I guess not; he livened up in a second and 
 started another five-minute tussle for a getaway, 
 which failed to make good, for I used a little more 
 speed on the grab when I had him to the boat the 
 second time." 
 
 Letting the bait go down to him is what ended the 
 career of a 1 2-pound pike. Sidney A. Hand of 
 Chicago just sort of carelessly let his bait settle a 
 bit and the answer was that the pike had a chance 
 
i 9 8 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 to see it and struck. The fish are generally willing 
 to do their part, if the fisherman goes half way and 
 lets 'em see the lure. Here's how Sidney explains 
 it: 
 
 " I was throwing a small perch out towards the 
 edge of a fine weedy spot in Long Lake, trying to 
 entice the lazy pike up out of the deep. I got sort 
 of careless about reeling in, after failing for some 
 time to get a strike, and had let my bait settle through 
 stopping the reel, when this old man hit that perch 
 bait like an elephant. 
 
 " I fought him to the limit, but he made the weeds 
 before I could recover my wits and had a nice run 
 of seventy-five feet of line down among them. I 
 followed him up as fast as I could and it was some 
 job getting to him through the mass of weeds, but 
 I got him, which was my object in going fishing." 
 
 THE WALL-EYE FOOLS 'EM 
 
 The wall-eyed pike is by nature a bottom fish and 
 it seems they take keen pleasure in staying there. 
 Even when about to be landed the wall-eye always 
 makes a few runs down to the bottom after being 
 brought up alongside of the boat. Another queer 
 thing about this old boy is the fact that a strike of 
 a large-sized one is generally taken for a snag. Of 
 sixteen wall-eye weighing from nine pounds up to 
 fourteen that came under my notice one season, ten 
 were hooked and the ten fishermen all thought they 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 199 
 
 had snagged their lines, but, of course, found out 
 very promptly that they had another guess. Here 
 is the record of a 1 2 J^ -pound wall-eyed pike caught 
 in Black Lake, McNaughton, Wisconsin, by Robert 
 H. Moulton, of Chicago: 
 
 " I was rowing along in a lazy sort of way, just 
 about moving, my thoughts on a nice fried bass with 
 a well-turned flapjack when I made camp. I had a 
 line out trolling along, which is a habit I have of 
 always keeping a line in the water for luck, when 
 the reel began its love song. I had visions of losing 
 my favorite dowagiac, a Heddons underwater min- 
 now, green back with white belly, thinking that I had 
 snagged, so I gave the line a good jerk to loosen 
 her up. 
 
 RECOGNIZES THE WALL-EYE'S FIGHT 
 
 ' That old jerk sure wised me up to the fact that 
 I had a whopper on the off end of the line. It 
 didn't take long to figure out that he was a wall-eye 
 because he started off with a series of jerks and tugs 
 that would have done credit to a bull pup. It took 
 me about eight minutes to work the seventy feet of 
 line away from him and bring him to the side, but 
 not for the gaff, as he made four runs to the bottom 
 after as many trips to the boat side, and each reeling 
 in was harder than the preceding one. 
 
 " It was one continuous bunch of short pulls inter- 
 spersed with straight long rushes to the bottom, and 
 
200 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 when at last I felt safe to give him the gaff and 
 raised him into the boat, I certainly knew I had as 
 fine a wall-eyed pike as a fellow ever hopes to coax 
 out of the home waters." 
 
 The wall-eyed pike is not a showy fighter and 
 doesn't have the rapid fire action of the basses or 
 the is no mean antagonist. A 
 fairly large-sized on?1l>^stlong^^action and he in- 
 jects enough tug and pull into his tight to satisfy any 
 but the most jaded of fishermen. Even so, to hook 
 a wall-eye and play him to the net is a nice, clean 
 piece of sport. You have to handle them carefully 
 and not try to bring them to the net too speedily or 
 you will lose your fish. The strike of the large 
 wall-eyed pike is the unexpected of the fishing game 
 and E. C. Myers of Chicago lines up the following 
 as the final efforts of a 1 1 %-pound beauty he landed : 
 
 MID-DAY BEAUTY FIGHTS DEEP 
 
 "On August 1 7th, when I landed a wall-eyed 
 pike that weighed 11% pounds, I was fishing for 
 bass on Black Lake, McNaughton, Wisconsin, and 
 was alone in my boat, with neither gaff nor landing 
 net. 
 
 " All morning I had been having little luck and 
 few bites. It was after lunch time when I decided 
 to quit and return to the camp. No sooner had I 
 put away my rod and grasped the oars than I no- 
 ticed a swirling of water and saw a sucker about 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 201 
 
 twelve to fourteen inches long flopping in a death 
 struggle, for he had been struck by a big fish. I 
 immediately unlimbered my rod, selecting as bait a 
 Hildebrandt Double Spinner and a large minnow. 
 Then I pushed back against the wind into the bay, 
 so as to float down the current, and started to cast 
 among the weeds along the shore. 
 
 A HARD DEEP WATER FIGHT 
 
 " Just as I got near the end of the bay and was 
 turning the boat, I got a heavy strike. I immedi- 
 ately set the hook and then the trouble commenced. 
 It was fully ten minutes before I was able to see what 
 I had on my hook. He fought hard, keeping deep 
 in the water all the time, and as the boat was drift- 
 ing out into deep water, and having no one to handle 
 the boat, I took my time about landing Mr. Wall- 
 Eye. 
 
 " Finally, he began to tire. His plunges became 
 less and less vigorous, and I was able each time to 
 bring him closer to the boat. Without gaff or land- 
 ing net, I was compelled to prolong the fight until 
 my opponent was completely exhausted. When at 
 last he was ' all in/ I brought him alongside the 
 boat, slipped my right hand under the center of his 
 body, and, with the leader and line loose in my left 
 hand, gently lifted the big beauty into the boat. 
 Then I sat and gazed in amazement, entirely for- 
 getting my hunger and wet feet in contemplation of 
 my eleven and one-quarter pound pike." 
 
202 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 HOT WEATHER BEST FOR WALL-EYE 
 
 July and August, the hot weather months, are the 
 best months of the fishing season for the wall-eye 
 and the big majority of the large ones have been 
 caught at this time. We can therefore thank his 
 honor for being on the feed during a period when 
 the other game fish are sluggish and mighty par- 
 ticular about their appetite. And it seems also that 
 he is at his best during the midday fishing, while the 
 basses and musky are in their best fettle in the early 
 morning and late evening hours of the hot weather. 
 Emil Faber of Chicago landed a nine-pound wall- 
 eyed pike on July 5th at Potato Lake, Wisconsin, 
 and of the actions of this hot-weather rascal he has 
 this to say: 
 
 " After a few hours' trolling for musky, without 
 much success, we secured a supply of chub and shiner 
 minnows from a nearby creek and started casting. 
 It was about mid-day and a real July day, with an 
 outlook for a slim stringer. On my first cast, a toss 
 of about 90 feet in towards shore, straight for the 
 mouth of the small creek, I had let my bait go down 
 and on reeling in my hook, thought I was snagged. 
 I was about ready to begin cussin' my luck when 
 the supposed log on which I thought I was snagged 
 became very much alive, and I set the hooks for 
 keeps. 
 
FROM STRIKE TO GAFF 203 
 
 FIGHTS LONG AND STEADY 
 
 " By the time my fishing partner could get his line 
 in and assist at the oars, my fish was making the 
 water fairly boil, the line cutting through the water 
 as he made a run with it. It was ten minutes before 
 we even got a glimpse of him. Three times I tried 
 to bring him up to the side and each time he plunged 
 down again into the deep and between times he kept 
 a continual series of jerks und pulls that made the 
 rod spring like a whip. On the fourth trip up, after 
 twenty minutes of careful work, I succeeded in get- 
 ting him close enough to put the landing net to its 
 proper use. 
 
 " For a piece of nice sport a large-sized wall-eyed 
 pike is good fishing, his steady pulling and tugging 
 keeping you aware of the fact that you have a lively 
 customer, and he is lively up to the last minute, 
 too." 
 
ONE HUNDRED QUESTIONS AND 
 ANSWERS 
 
 As fishing editor of the Chicago Herald and the 
 National Sportsman Magazine, I have had the 
 pleasure of answering many thousand questions on 
 fish, fishing, tackle and outing equipment. Also my 
 series of articles on fishing running under the head 
 of " Rod and Reel,'* in over forty of the lead- 
 ing metropolitan daily newspapers of the East and 
 West have brought many queries to my desk. I 
 have selected one hundred of these questions which 
 I think will prove interesting to the reader. All of 
 these questions have been answered either from my 
 own actual experiences or from the experiences of 
 other fishermen, and I feel sure that many little 
 points that have been a trifle cloudy can be cleared 
 up through these queries. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the best spoon to use for 
 trolling for grass pike? Doc. 
 
 ANSWER. Try a No. 3 Tandem Slim Eli or a 
 No. 6 Skinner Spoon with single hook and pork rind. 
 The Sutton Spoon hook made in Naples, N. Y., is 
 a fine pike lure. On bright day in clear water use a 
 
 204 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 205 
 
 copper spoon, cloudy day or rough water use a brass 
 or nickel spoon. Keep it moving and use a Dipsey 
 sinker to take it down deep. 
 
 QUESTION. How do you get helgramite for bait, 
 and are they good bait for bass? K. M. D. 
 
 ANSWER. The helgramite is a fine bait for bass. 
 You will find them under stones in streams. Hold 
 a minnow net below the stone, turn the stone over, 
 and the current will wash the helgramite into the 
 net. They double up into a ball, and the current 
 carries them downstream when dislodged from the 
 under side of stones. To hook them start the hook 
 under the hard shell near the head and out the other 
 end. 
 
 QUESTION. What kind of bait do you recom- 
 mend for pickerel in August? Is there a trap for 
 catching crawfish? How do you catch crawfish for 
 bait? H. H. 
 
 ANSWER. A No. 3 spoon with a minnow, shiner 
 or pork rind makes good pickerel bait. I know of 
 no trap for catching crawfish. You can find them 
 around rocky shores in the sand and under stones. 
 They crawl under the sand and raise a little sand 
 hump. Dig them out; you can get them in an old 
 landing net; place it behind them, and they'll back 
 in. Try the outlet of a lake and the mud bottoms 
 close to shore. 
 
2o6 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. What is a good lure for wall-eyed 
 pike, how is the best way to fish for them and the 
 best time of day? W. A. G. 
 
 ANSWER. Try any bass lure, plug or spoon, also 
 a fair sized minnow on an Archer spinner makes a 
 good bait. Troll for them, letting bait down close 
 to the bottom, troll slowly. Early morning, mid- 
 day, and late afternoon. 
 
 QUESTION. Which is the correct way to use 
 pork rind for bass, and is it a good lure ? J. J. T. 
 
 ANSWER. Pork rind can be cut in long slim 
 strips, V-shaped, about three and one-half inches 
 long, also in wedge shape about one and one-half 
 inches square, three-fourths inch thick at one side, 
 tapered to about one-half inch. Tie a piece of red 
 yarn around the large ends, use it on most any hook, 
 plain or spooned. It is a good lure, and used gen- 
 erally. Very good early in the season and at the 
 tail end. You can get it bottled all ready for use 
 if you do not care to cut it. 
 
 QUESTION. Will you please tell me a way to 
 keep fishworms or angleworms? C. S. P. 
 
 ANSWER. Fill a porous crock with grass, moss 
 or leaves. Sprinkle with water and put in the 
 worms. Let them alone for a day or so, then feed 
 them the white of a hard-boiled egg, or a spoonful 
 of cream. This will liven them up and they will 
 have a clean, pinkish color very attractive to fish. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 207 
 
 Don't put them in a can or smother them in dirt or 
 mud. 
 
 QUESTION. What are a few good bass flies? 
 
 C. L. L. 
 
 ANSWER. Try Royal Coachman, Silver Doctor, 
 Paramanchee Belle, Montreal, Gray Hackle, Brown 
 Hackle, Reuben Wood, Queen of the Waters, 
 Professor, Red Ibis and Grizzly King. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the best time for bass fish- 
 ing on streams and best time for fly casting for bass; 
 also does fly casting for bass take more care than 
 bait casting? G. L. K. 
 
 ANSWER. Early morning best on smaller 
 streams, later part of day till sundown very good. 
 Cloudy days, midday good, especially if cool. For 
 fly fishing for bass early morning hours and an hour 
 before dark best time; if full moon, even later gets 
 the big ones. More caution required in fly fishing 
 for bass than trout. 
 
 QUESTION. What kind of rod would you suggest 
 for bass fly casting, also line for river work? 
 
 D. M. 
 
 ANSWER. Split bamboo an ounce or so heavier 
 than rod for casting for trout and plenty of stiff 
 backbone; 25 yards of waterproofed enameled silk 
 line level or tapered size E. 
 
208 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. How far will a bass carry a live bait 
 before swallowing it? B. G. K. 
 
 ANSWER. There is no set rule to go by ; they may 
 take the bait and run off 10 to 15 yards and again 
 they may make it 75 or a hundred. Let them have 
 the line after they strike; then all you do is wait till 
 they stop to gorge the minnow before striking. 
 
 QUESTION. What is a good book on the habits 
 of the bass? A. 
 
 ANSWER. " Book of the Black Bass," by James 
 A. Henshall is an excellent authority on the bass. 
 
 QUESTION. What minnows make good bass 
 bait? P. D. Q. 
 
 ANSWER. There are many species and varieties 
 of minnows used as bass bait, many having local 
 names. Among the best are chub, shiner, dace, 
 silver minnow, gold shiner, darter and mud minnow. 
 Black bass seem to have a special fancy for live bait 
 brought from other than their home waters. 
 
 QUESTION. Kindly give me a table of the ap- 
 proximate length and weight of bass? H. J. B. 
 
 ANSWER. Following is table for weight of bass : 
 9 inches, i pound; 10 inches, i pound 2 ounces; n 
 inches, i pound 6 ounces; 12 inches, 2 pounds; 14 
 inches, 3 pounds; 15 inches, 4 pounds. 
 
 QUESTION. Last season I caught a 1 4-inch black 
 bass, had no scales. What was the weight ? A. V. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 209 
 
 ANSWER. According to schedule this bass should 
 have weighed three pounds. 
 
 QUESTION. In fly-casting for bass what shade of 
 fly is best on a cloudy day and also on bright days? 
 C. S. P. 
 
 ANSWER. ( i ) Use bright and light colored flies 
 on cloudy days; also in high or rough water. (2) 
 On bright days in clear or low water use a smaller 
 fly of subdued or dark color. By all means try out 
 fly-casting for bass. It's great early season best, 
 next comes tail end of season. Try river casting 
 any time during season, fine sport. 
 
 QUESTION. Where can I get the Keeling Expert 
 underwater minnow and has the spoon got it all over 
 the other baits for trolling for bass and pike? 
 C. O. J. 
 
 ANSWER. Fred C. Keeling, Rockford, Illinois, 
 makes the Keeling Expert and it is a fine underwater 
 lure for bass, especially in the hot weather when they 
 are down deep. The spoon hook used tandem in the 
 smaller sizes, say two or three; or four to six in the 
 larger size for pike, pickerel and musky makes a 
 killer and can be used with plain treble hooks, feath- 
 ered treble, flyed hook, pork rind, or minnow and 
 it is a bait many fellows swear by. It can be used 
 to advantage most any time for trolling and the small 
 single makes a good casting spoon with minnow, 
 frog or pork rind. 
 
2io LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. Is the fall fishing for bass good? 
 H. B. 
 
 ANSWER. Fall bass fishing is generally fine; in 
 fact, you will find no better time than during what is 
 termed Indian summer. The bass are full of ginger 
 and fight to a fare-you-well. They take the fly 
 readily at that time and the artificial plugs come into 
 their own after a midsummer layoff. Both stream 
 and lake fishing are good. 
 
 QUESTION. What are some of the names applied 
 to the large-mouth bass? 
 
 ANSWER. Oswego bass, jumper, mossback; in 
 the South he is called trout, in North Carolina, chub ; 
 in Alabama, mountain trout; and a pet name is 
 bronze-backer. 
 
 QUESTION. I have heard the stone cat is a good 
 bass bait; how about it? W. W. 
 
 ANSWER. Small stone cat and his cousin, known 
 as mad toms, make fine bait. Found in shallow 
 water in running streams of lakes, under rocks or 
 logs. Three to four inches makes fine bait. 
 
 QUESTION. In " Fly-Casting for Bass " you say 
 " the nearer the water you are the less chance the 
 fish have of seeing you "; how do you explain this? 
 J. M.B. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 211 
 
 ANSWER. The closer an object is to the water 
 the less chance a fish has to see it, particularly if the 
 fish be 30 or 40 feet away, as in wading. One can 
 be seen more easily by a fish if elevated above the 
 water, as on a bank or raised shore. Often you can 
 see the bass at some distance from the shore, but 
 seldom while wading. If you were 20 feet above 
 the water the fish for a radius of 60 or 70 feet could 
 see you. Of course fish close up could see you at 
 any time, but you seldom land those on the fly. 
 
 QUESTION. Do you find both the small-mouth 
 and large-mouth bass in the same lakes? F. S. 
 
 ANSWER. Not as a general thing; when you do, 
 the small-mouth will be found on the rocky bars, 
 near the spring holes at the outlet or inlet; if there 
 is a little current there, on the gravel bars; while the 
 large-mouth prefers the weedy bays, the lily pads 
 and rushes and where the bottom is soft. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the best method of retriev- 
 ing the fly in casting for bass? F. L. 
 
 ANSWER. Let the fly float a bit with the current, 
 then sink a little and retrieve with short, jerky mo- 
 tion. I like to give it a few little pulls, then let the 
 fly stop a couple of seconds, when it sinks a little 
 more then continue the jerking pull. It is well to 
 cast over the same waters if you don't get a strike 
 
212 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 the first time. Two or three casts over the same 
 waters should get a strike; if not, swing to other 
 waters. 
 
 QUESTION. Are frogs good still-fishing bait for 
 bass? G. H. 
 
 ANSWER. Use the smaller sized frogs for still 
 fishing, and keep them in motion; they have a habit 
 of burying themselves in the mud or under stones on 
 the bottom; also crawl out on a windfall and watch 
 you hold the rod. Hook them through the lips or 
 through the skin of the back. Minnows make a 
 better still-fishing bait. 
 
 QUESTION. Is the grasshopper a bass bait, and 
 how do you fish it ? Ken. 
 
 ANSWER. At times the grasshopper makes a 
 good bait, particularly on streams, or along the 
 shore of lakes. I use it entirely as a surface bait. 
 With a fair wind blowing the hoppers into the 
 water, get to the windward side of the water and 
 cast your bait lightly on the water and let the wind 
 carry it on the surface. The roughening of the 
 water by the wind adds to your chances of attracting 
 the fish without being seen. Use a small hook and 
 run it through the upper part of the body. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the difference between a 
 bait-casting reel and fly-casting reel ? McQ. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 213 
 
 ANSWER. The fly-casting reel is single action, 
 the spool turning each time with the handle, while 
 the bait-casting reel is quadruple-multiplying, the 
 spool making four turns to one of the handle. This 
 is for speed in casting and reeling in with limited 
 work of the hands, while the reel for the fly-caster 
 merely is a storage place for line. 
 
 QUESTION. What do you think of the Shake- 
 speare Standard Professional reel and do you think 
 the level winding affair on the level winders of any 
 value ? T. M. B. 
 
 ANSWER. The Standard Professional is a fine 
 reel and a low priced one; it will stand up under 
 hard usage and last a long time if given a little care. 
 The level-winding arrangement on the Shakespeare 
 reels is successful and quite an aid to the reel in its 
 work. 
 
 QUESTION. How often should a reel be oiled? 
 M. M.S. 
 
 ANSWER. Oil your reel every day if used for 
 bait casting. Don't drown it with oil, a drop at each 
 bearing is plenty and all surplus oil should be wiped 
 off as it collects dust and sand. 
 
 QUESTION. What do you think of the Beetzel 
 Reel; is it half as good as claimed? Hal. J. 
 ANSWER. The Beetzel Reel is a wonderful tool. 
 
214 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 Besides being a sure-enough anti-backlasher it also 
 is a level-winder and being hand-made is a reel that 
 will last a lifetime if given care. It sets you back 
 $20, but your reel troubles are a thing of the past 
 and it does everything but " clean the fish for the 
 spider." Seventy-three orders were ahead of me 
 when I got mine and I think that speaks some for it. 
 
 QUESTION. Will you tell me about Antiback- 
 lash reels? Are they reliable and what are some 
 good ones? 
 
 ANSWER. The Antiback-lash reels are O. K. and 
 for the fellow who cannot give much time to prac- 
 tice of thumbing the ordinary reel are a life-saver. 
 The South Bend Antiback-lash and the Pflueger- 
 Redifor Antiback-lash are both good, well made 
 reels. They are very good for night and moon- 
 light casting also. 
 
 QUESTION. What are good salmon flies? And 
 what is the usual length of a salmon rod? D. K. 
 
 ANSWER. Try these: Silver Doctor, Jock Scott, 
 Silver Gray, Durham Ranger, Dusty Miller and 
 Black Fairy. Salmon rods are generally 15 feet in 
 length, are built with double hand grips as both 
 hands are used in casting. 
 
 QUESTION. What are a couple good artificial 
 plugs for river bait casting? W. H. B. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 215 
 
 ANSWER. I find the Coaxer, Tango, Jr., all 
 white with red top, Heddon's Baby Crab Wiggler, 
 Wilson Wobbler, rainbow color, and the Bass- 
 areno, white with red head, very good river baits. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the simplest method of 
 tying a leader to the eyed fly. I am starting with 
 the eyed flies this season? B. M. 
 
 ANSWER. Try the " jam knot." To attach a fly 
 in this way, pass the end of the leader through the 
 eye of the hook toward the bend of the hook, bend 
 back this end along the main strand of the leader 
 and tie a half hitch around the main strand without 
 drawing tight, slip the half hitch loop along and 
 down the leader and just over the eye of the hook, 
 then pull tight. 
 
 QUESTION. How shall I go about fishing for 
 Lake Trout? I fish a lake which has been stocked 
 for seven years and they won't rise to anything. 
 P. G. 
 
 ANSWER. Go down after them, Old Man, go way 
 down. Here is a rig; take an eight-ounce sinker, 
 cone-shaped, and tie it to your reel line with a piece 
 of old line about three feet long. Use old line so 
 it will break if snagged on the bottom and you lose 
 only the sinker. Then take three pieces of good 
 line and swivel them to your reel line, the first right 
 above the sinker line connection and the next a foot 
 
216 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 above that and the last one a foot higher. Let this 
 down till you make bottom, and troll very slow, first, 
 of course, having baited with a nice shiner or large 
 minnow on each hook at the end of each of the three 
 pieces of line. This is about the best lake trout rig. 
 If you wish you can use plaited copper wire line 
 which sinks better than ordinary line but this will 
 probably not be necessary for the fish in your lake. 
 
 QUESTION. Are there any grayling left, and if 
 so, where are they, and when is the fishing season? 
 S. K. N. 
 
 ANSWER. About the only grayling fishing is in 
 Montana in the tributaries of the Missouri River 
 above the great falls; in the Sheep and Tenderfoot 
 tributaries of the Smith River and the upper end of 
 the Madison River tributaries at the head of Red 
 Rock Lake, where the water is rapid and compara- 
 tively smooth. Also in Beaver Creek. Best sea- 
 son, September, October and November. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the average-sized hook used 
 on a trout fly? G. H. 
 
 ANSWER. Flies tied to a No. 8 hook are average ; 
 have your main selection on this sized hook with a 
 few of the best patterns on larger and smaller ones 
 for unusual conditions. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the approximate weight of 
 brook trout as to length? G. G. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 217 
 
 ANSWER. Eight-inch trout weighs 4 ounces; 9- 
 inch, 6 ounces; lo-inch, 7 ounces; n-inch, 9 ounces; 
 12-inch, i pound; 1 5-inch, pound and a half; 1 8-inch, 
 pounds. 
 
 QUESTION. Can you tell me where I can get a 
 ' Whaling Good " rod, and can you recommend it 
 for bait casting? P. L. M. 
 
 ANSWER. The Whaling rods are made by G. E. 
 Whaling & Son Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, and are 
 hand made under the direct supervision of Dad 
 Whaling who has been making rods for ages and 
 making good rods at that. Each rod is raised a 
 pet and has more care than you could imagine would 
 be given to a piece of wood in its travels through 
 the rod-making game. You can get a Whaling rod 
 for either bait-casting or fly-casting and it will be a 
 piece of tackle you'll never part with. 
 
 QUESTION. Have you ever used the Foss pork 
 rind minnow and what is it good for? H. G. 
 
 ANSWER. The Foss pork rind minnow is a new 
 bait that has made good with a wallop. It has a 
 single hook, upright, and you clamp in a piece of 
 pork rind, the spinner on front and the peculiar mo- 
 tion of the bait makes a mighty luring appearance 
 to a hungry bass, or in fact any old bass. It is good 
 for bass, pike, musky, pickerel, and with a couple of 
 split-shot sinkers makes a good lure for wall-eyes. 
 
218 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. Is there much use in fishing for trout 
 when the stream is in a rising condition from spring 
 thaws and the water muddy? R. E. B. 
 
 ANSWER. No, trout are sluggish then, show little 
 spirit. As water clears in early season they will 
 take bait. This is the most successful way of fishing 
 for them at this time, they are ground feeding and 
 slow to rise to fly; however, try a Silver Doctor, or 
 other brilliantly colored fly. 
 
 QUESTION. Is there such a fish as the " tiger " 
 musky ? K. H. 
 
 ANSWER. The commonly called u tiger " musky 
 is the striped species of the unspotted musky. Al- 
 though some of our best piscatorial authorities who 
 are acquainted with most fish by their Latin names 
 have little to say about the tiger. Personally I 
 watched a 27J^-pound tiger do his death dance this 
 fall, and he was as pretty a marked fish as you will 
 find in a few days' paddle. He was a short, stocky 
 rascal of a silver greenish tint, running into a gray- 
 ish white underneath, and each brownish stripe was 
 a perfect mark. There sure is such a critter, and he 
 fights to a fare-you-well. 
 
 QUESTION. Have you ever used mice for bass 
 bait, and are they good for bass? A. J. S. 
 
 ANSWER. Never used one, Old Man; heard of 
 lots of people that have done so, but I never had the 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 219 
 
 nerve to hook a mouse on as a bait. They have been 
 very successful as a lure for large bass. 
 
 QUESTION. How does a musky strike a lure and 
 where is the best location in a lake or stream for 
 them? D. W. 
 
 ANSWER. Musky strikes from side and with an 
 upward swing, often breaking water at the strike. 
 In lakes you find him over submerged weed beds and 
 rocky gravel bottoms and off the edges of weed beds 
 in water generally from 5 up to 15 feet. In streams 
 near bunches of weed and rushes, windfalls, logs, 
 heaps of brush, sloughs alongside of rocks and off 
 the points. 
 
 QUESTION. Why do fish turn a live bait around 
 and swallow it head first? T. J. S. 
 
 ANSWER. Never really found out the real rea- 
 son, Old Man, but presume they do it from instinct 
 in order to save themselves from the sharp spines 
 on some of the other fish. By swallowing them 
 head first, the spines in the dorsal fin close down and 
 don't prick them on the way down. 
 
 QUESTION. Are the preserved minnows in jars 
 any good for bait? R. H. C. 
 
 ANSWER. The preserved minnows make a good 
 bait for casting; they hold their silvery shine very 
 well and for emergency you should have a bottle 
 
220 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 along. In casting very few minnows live over three 
 or four casts of the average bait-caster; the only 
 thing necessary with a dead minnow is to keep it in 
 motion. I have found preserved minnows good 
 bait for wall-eyed pike as well as bass and trout. 
 
 QUESTION. Off and on I take short canoe trips 
 during the summer and fall; do you think a Comfort 
 Sleeping Pocket has any advantages over the ordi- 
 nary sleeping bags for trips of this kind? S. O. S. 
 
 ANSWER. No doubt you refer to the Comfort 
 Sleeping Pocket made by the Athol Manufacturing 
 Company, Athol, Massachusetts. This sleeping 
 pocket is so far ahead of the old time sleeping bags 
 that there is absolutely no comparison. The air 
 mattress is sure a joy-bed and it makes a pile of rocks 
 feel like eider-down. It opens down the entire side 
 and is easily aired, at the same time it does not sweat- 
 up when in use which is often the case with old style 
 sleeping bags. With this sleeping pocket you will 
 need no tent as it is covered with balloon silk and has 
 a flap at the head that can be rigged up as a tent 
 cover. I carry a Feather-weight No. 2 which 
 weighs 14 pounds and sleep in any kind of weather 
 just as comfy as in my four-poster. For down- 
 right solid comfort and a handy piece of out-door 
 equipment, place your bet on the Comfort Sleeping 
 Pocket. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 221 
 
 QUESTION. How about the Sportsman's Compac 
 Tent; will it fill the bill for camp and trail use? 
 Vic. C. 
 
 ANSWER. The Sportsman's Compac Tent is sure 
 a little wonder, and if you are going light and right 
 it is certainly a fine and handy tent. You can erect 
 it in a minute with or without poles. I prefer it 
 without, simply throwing a light rope over a limb 
 and pulling it taut. It is water, bug and snakeproof 
 and has screened ventilators in both ends that pre- 
 vent mildew, one of the draw-backs to most water- 
 proof tents. It only weighs 3^4 pounds and rolls 
 up into a snug pacakge that can be packed with ease. 
 It sleeps two, and for the canoe trip or hike it is 
 surely a light, handy, well-made outer's tent. 
 
 QUESTION. Can I use a spoon hook for casting? 
 D. H. 
 
 ANSWER. Yes, if your bait is not heavy enough 
 to give you a fair cast put on a small dipsey sinker. 
 A good spoon with pork rind and a dipsey for weight 
 make a fine casting bait. 
 
 QUESTION. How is the Meisselbach Automatic 
 reel for casting and trolling? How is the Tango 
 minnow for bass and pickerel, and what other min- 
 nows have you had luck with? C. B. 
 
 ANSWER. The Meisselbach Automatic is very 
 
222 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 good for trolling and for fly-casting, but is not made 
 for bait-casting; you need a quadruple-multiplying 
 reel for this. Meisselbach Take-a-part at $5.50 is a 
 good one. The Tango Minnow is a fine lure; try 
 the white with red top, all red, and the yellow with 
 mottled green back. For small-mouth the Tango, 
 Jr., is good. Other baits I find successful are Jami- 
 son Coaxer, Wilson Wobbler, white with red flutes; 
 South Bend Bass-oreno, white with red head; Hed- 
 don's Crab Wiggler; Jim Dandy, spotted green; 
 Pflueger-Surprise, Perch color. But keep 'em mov- 
 ing in the water. 
 
 QUESTION, (i) Should I reel my bait in fast 
 after a cast? (2) What is the right distance for an 
 average cast? J. K. 
 
 ANSWER. ( i ) Reel in slow for about five feet, 
 then fast. The faster the better just that much 
 sooner do you get another cast out, and when fishing 
 you must cast as often as possible. (2) Fifty feet 
 is as good a cast as you will want to make. Trying 
 to throw the bait to center field merely causes back 
 lashes, which mean lost time. 
 
 QUESTION. What color of artificial baits is best 
 early in the bass season? A. J. B. 
 
 ANSWER. I have had the best luck with white 
 body and red heads, also all red and all white. Try 
 out these, then all green, green and white, and rain- 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 223 
 
 bow. Bass take most any color in the early fishing; 
 seem to strike from pure cussedness. 
 
 QUESTION. Does the splash of an artificial bait 
 scare the fish? W. E. 
 
 ANSWER. No, it will attract the fish rather than 
 scare it. 
 
 QUESTION. What do you think of the Senter- 
 Brade line for casting? T. F. G. 
 
 ANSWER. No doubt you refer to Senter-Brade 
 Silk casting line No. 018; if so, this is a fine line for 
 bass casting. It is braided around an independent 
 core and works very well on the reel. 
 
 QUESTION. Is a lo-pound test line strong enough 
 for muskies ? J. C. 
 
 ANSWER. With skill in handling your tackle a 
 lo-pound line is strong enough for muskies, but I 
 suggest that you use a 16- or 1 8-pound test bass line, 
 and at that don't try to force the fish to gaff too fast. 
 That's when the line goes. 
 
 QUESTION. My split-bamboo rod has come apart 
 from being wet; what is a good glue to use and how 
 shall I go about regluing it? C. W. B. 
 
 ANSWER. A good glue to use is ordinary Le- 
 Page's, or better still take the white flake glue used 
 by pattern-makers and heat it yourself. Clean the 
 bamboo strips of all old glue. Use a piece of broken 
 
224 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 glass, then reglue the rod tying it together until it 
 dries. Rewind with silk as you wish and varnish, 
 using good varnish and letting it dry between coats. 
 Before varnishing you will, of course, scrape the 
 outer side of the rod. 
 
 QUESTION. What is a good cement for ferrules? 
 D. L. 
 
 ANSWER. Dodge's cement is most generally used 
 and it is good stuff. 
 
 QUESTIO-N. What do you think of the Heddon's 
 rod for bait casting? W. M. 
 
 ANSWER. The Heddon's rod is made on the 
 long-tip, short-butt construction, and is a fine fishing 
 tool. The strain is not on the ferrule in landing a 
 fish, as the two-piece make with the short butt brings 
 the ferrule well below the center of the rod, where 
 the bend comes, and that is where the break would 
 come. It is far preferable to the three-piece split 
 bamboos. You can get them from $2 up to $15 
 and all good values. 
 
 QUESTION. How can I take a " set " out of my 
 fly rod? R. J. V. 
 
 ANSWER. If the warp or set is in the entire rod, 
 hang it up by the tip with a weight attached to the 
 butt. If the set is only in one joint hang it up with 
 weight on the end of the warped joint. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 225 
 
 QUESTION. Can I use an ordinary No. 25 Bristol 
 steel rod for trolling, and will it damage it for. cast- 
 ing? S. N. 
 
 ANSWER. You can use this rod for trolling, but 
 I suggest that you get a steel rod shortener for 20 
 cents and take no chances with a good rod. Slip 
 out the first joint, put the shortener in the grip, the 
 second joint in the shortener, and you have a fine 
 short trolling rod. 
 
 QUESTION. What size line should be used in fly- 
 casting with a lo-foot rod? L. M. V. 
 
 ANSWER. For a lo-foot rod with plenty of back- 
 bone use size E; for rods under 10 feet and light, 
 use size F. 
 
 QUESTION, (i) What is the correct length of 
 rod for use in bait casting; and (2) is there any rule 
 to follow as to length of rod in comparison with the 
 height of the user? 
 
 ANSWER, (i) Length of rod is a matter of 
 personal preference. I use a five-foot rod, and feel 
 like a lost brother with a six-footer better make 
 it between five and six feet. Whip a couple different 
 length rods over your shoulder a few times and you 
 will find the one best suited to yourself in that way. 
 (2) All bunk; get a rod that you " feel" is right, 
 be you a shorty or a six-footer. 
 
226 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. What is the correct way to assemble 
 a rod? F. B. L. 
 
 ANSWER. Work toward the butt in assembling 
 the rod; first assemble the tip and first joint, the butt 
 joint comes last; take the rod apart just the reverse. 
 If you value your rod don't twist the ferrules either 
 in assembling or disjointing it. 
 
 QUESTION. I have difficulty in jointing and un- 
 jointing my rod; should the ferrules be filed down? 
 D. K. 
 
 ANSWER. Try a little oil on the ferrules before 
 jointing; if they still stick take the finest emery dust 
 and reduce the male ferrule by rubbing very lightly. 
 Be very careful as emery dust cuts German silver 
 very rapidly. Be sure the ferrules need reducing 
 before you do it. 
 
 QUESTION. ( i ) Can I get a fairly good fly-rod 
 for $15 to $20; and (2) what is the average length 
 of the fly-rod best suited for general use ? R. M. S. 
 
 ANSWER. You can get a very good rod of split 
 bamboo for $15, and with a few special fixings $20 
 would give you an excellent one ; be careful in select- 
 ing the rod. When you get in the expert class you 
 can go higher. (2) Select a rod between nine and 
 ten feet, matter of personal choice. 
 
 QUESTION. Outside of split-bamboo what are 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 227 
 
 some good woods for one-piece casting rods? A. 
 G. F. 
 
 ANSWER. Three good woods are lancewood, 
 greenheart and bathabara. Lancewood is preferred 
 by the majority that wish solid wood rods, while 
 bathabara is the most costly. 
 
 QUESTION. What sized line should I use with a 
 steel fly rod. I am using a size E now? J. D. 
 
 ANSWER. For steel fly-casting rod I suggest that 
 you try a size C line as better results will be had with 
 the heavier line. A lot of difficulty found in casting 
 with a steel fly rod is caused by the use of too light a 
 line. 
 
 QUESTION. ( i ) What is the test strength of an 
 enameled line size E and size F also? (2) Tell 
 me the best method of drying these lines? F. M. 
 
 ANSWER, (i) E size tests 28 pounds. F tests 
 22 pounds. (2) Run the line through a cloth held 
 in the hand; this is sufficient to dry enameled lines; 
 also occasionally dress the line with deer fat, it will 
 work better and last longer. 
 
 QUESTION. How do numbers and letters com- 
 pare as regards the size of enameled lines? A. 
 C.J. 
 
 ANSWER. No. 6 H, No. 5 G, No. 4 F, 
 No. 3 E, No. 2 D, No. i C. 
 
228 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 QUESTION. What do you think of the Water- 
 man Porto outboard motor, and do you think that 
 they scare fish? Q. T. W. 
 
 ANSWER. The Waterman Porto is a good motor, 
 can be run at very low trolling speed, and slow 
 enough for casting. The reversing propeller comes 
 in mighty handy, and the entire motor is built right. 
 For river and lake it is sure a fine tool. Weighs 68 
 pounds, which makes it easy to portage. Govern- 
 ment tests of motors have shown that fish are not 
 frightened by motors. Of course in a lake turned 
 over to pleasure craft fishing falls off, but the out- 
 board motor used right will make your fishing more 
 pleasant and you cover far more fishing water. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the difference in the spinning 
 of the Standard, Slim Eli and Idaho Hildebrandt 
 spinners? C. G. S. 
 
 ANSWER. The Slim Eli is a narrow spinner that 
 spins close to the shank; Standard spins medium 
 close, and the Idaho spins wide. Standard best for 
 ordinary fishing, Idaho for roily waters, Slim Eli, 
 clear waters. 
 
 QUESTION. Do you think the Nighthawk lumi- 
 nous compass is a compass one can rely on in the 
 woods? I am going to northern Canada and want 
 to carry the right thing in this line. P. L. F. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 229 
 
 ANSWER. A Nighthawk luminous compass is a 
 good instrument and it has the added advantage of 
 being readable at night, which is some useful if you 
 are toting a pack and gun. By all means get the 
 wrist compass; it's always where you can see it. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the best way to tell good 
 from bad gut for leaders? Hal G. 
 
 ANSWER. Good quality gut is round, hard and 
 smooth; poorer gut is flat in places and frays easily. 
 Look out for flat places; often this can only be dis- 
 covered by rolling between the fingers. A flat spot 
 means a weak leader. For hardness of the leader, 
 test it by biting on it. 
 
 QUESTION. When is the best time for trolling 
 and where? 
 
 ANSWER. Best trolling time, morning, evening 
 and after dark. Troll close to edge of rushes, lily 
 pads and weeds, or over sunken weed formation, over 
 and along sand bars and off the shelving bottoms be- 
 tween shallow and deep water, or where light and 
 dark waters seem to meet. 
 
 QUESTION. What kind of a gun would you sug- 
 gest to take on a canoe trip? J. T. D. 
 
 ANSWER. Either a light-caliber repeater or a 
 Marbles Game-getter. I carry a Game-getter on 
 
230 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 river and general fishing trips; it is small and com- 
 pact and has a barrel for .22-caliber and .44-caliber 
 round ball or shot. This gives you a small gun good 
 for emergencies, shot good for birds and duck, and 
 .22 caliber for squirrels, etc. This gun is built for 
 men and is not a toy. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the best way to carry live 
 frogs for bait from the city to your fishing waters? 
 
 w. s. 
 
 ANSWER. Carry the frogs in a small bait basket 
 and don't put any wet grass or moss in the basket. 
 Although frogs come from wet, marshy places, they 
 live better in captivity in a dry place. Frogs live 
 very well piled five or six on top of each other. 
 After reaching fishing waters, wet them thoroughly 
 two or three times a day. 
 
 QUESTION. Can you give me a formula for 
 coloring leaders a mist color? J. L. P. 
 
 ANSWER. Take one dram of logwood and six 
 grains of copperas, boil in a pint of water. Soak 
 the leaders in this solution for five minutes or until 
 the tint your desire is secured. 
 
 QUESTION. Could I use the formula of one-half 
 fluid ounce of formaldehyde to a pint of water for 
 preserving pork rind the same as minnows? J. 
 E. H. 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 231 
 
 ANSWER. Yes; this is a good formula for pork 
 rind as well as minnows. 
 
 QUESTION. In your answer to G. B. K. last week 
 in reference to bait casting you say, " Let them have 
 the line after they strike, and wait until they stop 
 before striking." While such an authority as Jim 
 Heddon writes in his " Hints on Bait Casting " to 
 " strike and strike quick as soon as the fish strikes 
 the bait." How about it? T. L. K. 
 
 ANSWER. By reading the query of G. B. K. you 
 will find he refers to live bait. If you strike when 
 a bass or pike first hits your live bait, all you'll have 
 for your trouble will be a minnow torn in half or 
 gone entirely. You got to let 'em take it on the first 
 run and wait till they stop to gorge ; they then turn 
 the bait around and swallow it head first. That's 
 the time to strike. Jim Heddon writes entirely in 
 his " Hints on Bait Casting " on the casting of ar- 
 tificial baits, and with these you must strike at once 
 when the fish strikes. Under the circumstances we 
 are both right, Old Man. 
 
 QUESTION. W 7 ill you give me formula for water- 
 proofing a light canvas or drill tent? Camper. 
 
 ANSWER. Take equal parts of alum and sugar- 
 of-lead. A quart or more of each to several buckets 
 of tepid water. Soak well in above solution, turn- 
 
232 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 ing often and spread out to dry. This is water and 
 fire proof. 
 
 QUESTION. How do you use a light to get frogs 
 at night? F. D. 
 
 ANSWER. Locate a frog pond or a shore along 
 a stream and either wade or back a boat along the 
 shore. The frogs are generally on logs, windfalls 
 or in the shore weeds or grasses, flash your light 
 along these places and you can grab the frog before 
 he thinks of hopping, the light blinds them for 20 
 to 40 seconds. While getting the little ones for 
 bait, slip a few big ones in the bag for breakfast. 
 
 QUESTION. I have noticed many stoves ad- 
 vocated for camping trips, are they useful and what 
 do you know of the Moats Gasoline Stoves? C. K. 
 
 ANSWER. Stoves are O. K. for a camp and for 
 the fellow who is not much for cooking at a camp- 
 fire they are a life saver. The Moats Gasoline 
 Stove is without doubt the king of camp stoves, you 
 can light it in a thirty-mile gale and it burns steadily. 
 It is very compact, folding up into small space and 
 for an all-round camp stove with baker the Moats 
 No. i Oven Stove is a dinger. I carried a No. i 
 on a canoe trip last fall and it was the handiest part 
 of the entire kit. It can be set up in a minute and 
 the spider will be sizzling the next minute, without 
 any smoke in the eyes or wood to rustle. Carrying 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 233 
 
 a Moats may be " agin " some of the ethics of the 
 fellow who wants to rough it, but for mine I want 
 to " smooth it " when I go into the woods. 
 
 QUESTION. Have you ever used a Grace Con- 
 vertible Tent, if so what do you think of it for a 
 party of two on a hike and fishing trip? Camper. 
 
 ANSWER. The Grace Tent is a tent that will 
 stand the gaff, it weighs 8 pounds and is made of 
 o-d waterproof drill and is equipped with insect 
 proof ventilators. This tent was designed and in- 
 vented by Dr. Grace after twenty-five years outdoor 
 and military experience. Two can sleep well in it 
 and at a pinch four can sleep in it. It is a good 
 winter tent as well as summer, so arranged that the 
 end can be taken off and a campfire built close up as 
 it needs no guy ropes. It can be divided into a pack 
 sack or used as a sleeping bag. As an all-round 
 good tent that will stand up under hard usage and 
 make good the Grace tent is a sure enough snug 
 harbor. 
 
 QUESTION. How can I pickle and seal pork rind 
 in July so it will be good to use through August and 
 September? Do you consider it good bait for 
 pickerel? ?. H. I. 
 
 ANSWER. Take an old tin box and put a layer 
 of salt in the bottom, roll your pork rind in salt and 
 pack it in on top of the salt in the bottom of box. 
 Sprinkle a little salt over it, put in the rest of your 
 
234 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 rind, covering the entire amount with salt, and your 
 bait will keep indefinitely. (2) Pork rind on a 
 weedless hook with 'a No. 3 spoon or tandem spin- 
 ner makes a fine pickerel bait. Tie red yarn around 
 the head and let the string ends hang down about 
 as long as the rind. Some bait. 
 
 QUESTION. What is the Warmouth bass? 
 G. M. 
 
 ANSWER. The Warmouth bass, called by some 
 the google-eye redeye, and bream, is really a sunfish 
 shaped very much like the rock bass. Grows to ten 
 inches and prefers shallow ponds and lowland slug- 
 gish streams, not very game and generally carries 
 the flavor of the mud bottoms when used as food. 
 
 QUESTION. To settle a dispute can you tell me 
 the surest way to identify the pickerel, pike and 
 musky? G. S. 
 
 ANSWER. By comparison you will find the pick- 
 erel has both cheeks and gill covers entirely scaled; 
 the pike has scales on the cheeks and upper half only 
 of the gill covers, while the musky has only the 
 upper half of the cheeks and gill covers scaled. 
 Many true pike are called pickerel. 
 
 QUESTION. Will you kindly give a formula for 
 preserving minnows? F. J. D. 
 
 ANSWER. For preserving minnows make a solu- 
 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 235 
 
 tion of a half fluid ounce of formaldehyde to a pint 
 of water. Put them in an airtight jar. 
 
 QUESTION. What length and width canoe would 
 you advise for a three weeks 1 trip in Canadian 
 waters, with rapids in rivers and some lakes and 
 quite a few portages? C. M. S. 
 
 ANSWER. I suggest a straight-keeled canoe with 
 a good tumble-home in which the width and flat 
 floor are carried well into the bow and stern. This 
 increases carrying capacity and buoyancy, adding to 
 the seaworthiness for the crossing of lakes. Get a 
 i6-footer 13 to 14 inches deep and 30 to 36 inches 
 wide, weight about 70 pounds. The Thompson 
 canoe is a good rough-water worker on lakes and 
 white water in rivers. 
 
 QUESTION. For lake fishing do you prefer a 
 landing net or gaff? D. K. M. 
 
 ANSWER. I use a gaff at all times, except fly 
 casting, when a landing net is a necessity. I use a 
 Marbles clincher gaff on most fish. 
 
 L. M. To preserve a landing net, soak it in 
 linseed oil, shake out all excess oil, stretch the net 
 and dry it thoroughly. This will add to its life. 
 
THE CALL OF THE GRAN'DADDY BASS 
 
 When de leetle buds are swellin' from de saps dat 
 
 fill de tree, 
 An' de Canuck goose ees honkin' from de balmy 
 
 southern sea; 
 When de chinnooks heet de woodland from de 
 
 passes on de coast, 
 An' I sell de bonny fur-pelt to de Factor at de 
 
 Post; 
 Oh, I knaw de tam ees comin' when I get dat 
 
 funnee feel 
 To untangle lines an' feesh-hooks from de tackle an' 
 
 de reel. 
 
 When de winter she ees sentenc* to de Nort' where 
 
 she belong, 
 An' de woods are rainbow color an' de matin' call 
 
 ees strong; 
 Eet ees den I packs de snaw-shoe, rolls de log-chain 
 
 in a ball 
 To de chanson half-breeds w'isle as dey mush to 
 
 Montreal. 
 Give me den de rod an' feesh-line, let me patch de 
 
 birch canoe 
 
 Sacre Bleu! 
 236 
 
The call of the water trails brings us close to old Mother Nature and 
 the wonders over which she holds sway. The whispering winds through 
 the tall pines ; the call of the loon off the stilled waters ; the saucy defiant 
 chirp of the red squirrel, all awaken an answering chord within the keen 
 fellows who go forth to conquer. I can find just as much enjoyment in 
 manipulating the spider, coffee pot and stew-pan over the evening campfire 
 as I can in watching the game fins making their fight for freedom 'but 
 'I pleasure comes when one tries to convince his "pals" of the ex- 
 traordinary size of the fish that got away. 
 
THE CALL OF THE GRAN'DADDY 237 
 
 Dere's a small-mout' bass I've feeshed for, seence 
 de Spring of Ninety-two! 
 
 In de shallows I hav foun' heem, where de win'-falls 
 
 spot de lac, 
 In de rock-beds an' de peebles I have seen hes ebon 
 
 back; 
 I hav coax heem wid de pork-rind, wooden plug an' 
 
 buck-tail spoon 
 But he seem to keep as distant as de crazy diving 
 
 loon. 
 He's de Gran'pap of de Small-mout's from away 
 
 before de war 
 He's de same ol' bass dat's fool me many t'ousan' 
 
 tarns before! 
 
 Oh, de hair upon my forehead, she ees gettin' silver 
 
 grey, 
 While de han' she sometam tremble in a warnin' 
 
 kin' of way. 
 Den I knaw, by Gar, I'm trailin' to de limit of my 
 
 boun's 
 An' a step will tak me ovair to de Happy Huntin' 
 
 Groun's, 
 Where I'll trap de same ol' mush-rat; sell de fur 
 
 for what she's wort' 
 Cas' de same ol' line an' feesh-hooks dat I did down 
 
 here on Eart' 
 
238 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 An' I'll start de struggle ovair in de same lac an' 
 canoe; 
 
 Sacre Bleu! 
 
 Wid de same ol' Bass I've feeshed for seence de 
 Spring of Ninety-two ! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
THE RAGGED LAND 
 
 Were you ever marooned in the Ragged Land far 
 
 out from the frontier lines, 
 Where the wild wind sweeps from the Arctic Pole 
 
 and soughs through the Norway pines? 
 Have you watched the sky in a blue-bowled night 
 
 as you lay on the close-packed sod 
 And a star fell down from its place up there like a 
 
 match from the hand of God? 
 Have you heard the jeer of an idiot loon in a land 
 
 of unearthly quiet, 
 With the grub-pack down to a can of milk and the 
 
 prospect of cones for diet? 
 Has your soul been bared to the naked wind in the 
 
 midst of a trackless wild 
 To the naked wind of the Ragged Land like the 
 
 soul of an artless child? 
 Have you dreamed again in your office chair of a 
 
 trail that you left behind; 
 Of a song that the pine trees softly sing at the end 
 
 of a long day's grind; 
 Of the restful peace of primeval years in the hush 
 
 of the balsam air, 
 And a sun that crimsons the chopped-up edge of the 
 
 tumbled mountains there? 
 239 
 
2 4 o LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 In the canyoned murk of the city walls, with its 
 
 masonry heaven-piled, 
 Have you felt, with a bitter yearning, the breath of 
 
 the utter wild ? 
 Do you curse the laws of a man-made life and the 
 
 things that those laws demand, 
 As you dream of a life that once was yours on the 
 
 trails of the Ragged Land? 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
THE WILDERNESS LURE 
 
 O whence the voice that lures me on to little lakes 
 I know, 
 
 Where flapping teal fly up at dawn and fringing 
 balsams grow, 
 
 Where forests rule the lonely land, unmarked, un- 
 tamed, unmarred, 
 
 And sentry-like the Norways stand majestic, silent 
 guard? 
 
 A voice that brings the frighted hush of deer among 
 
 the pine, 
 Aad whispers of the whip-like rush of bass upon 
 
 * the line. 
 The Call is strong and once again I finger gun and 
 
 rod 
 And dream of covers where I've lain and trails that 
 
 once I trod. 
 
 You've heard the Call the Red Gods send on all the 
 
 winds that blow; 
 You've felt the lure, O Pal and Friend, that comes 
 
 to those who know. 
 
 241 
 
242 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 Come, answer it, as I have done among the lakes 
 
 and vales; 
 Come, answer it, with rod and gun, O Comrade 
 
 of the Trails! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
THE SAME OLD STORY 
 
 Ahga the caveman, a cripple, tinkered in flint and 
 
 stone ; 
 Painted the walls and the granite, gravened the 
 
 great moose-bone; 
 Made he the stone-age language, gave men the 
 
 tongue they spoke 
 Wisely ruled Ahga, the cripple, the man that the 
 
 Rock-Gods broke. 
 
 Once in a hungry moment gazed he far off to the 
 
 lake 
 And clutching a morsel of mammoth, Ahga, the 
 
 cripple, spake: 
 "Living things roam in the waters! Why?" and 
 
 he gazed again: 
 " Each of them eateth the other good they must 
 
 be for men." 
 
 Fashioned he bone in his cunning; best of his store 
 he took; 
 
 Plucked he from sharp rock and branches horse- 
 hairs to string his hook 
 
 Baited it wisely with liver spoke to hungry 
 throng : 
 
 243 
 
244 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 " Follow me not, Neolithics, I come with the kill 
 ere-long! " 
 
 Great was the day for Ahga, great the renown he 
 
 gained; 
 Fish by the bushel he brought them, still was his 
 
 strong heart pained. 
 " Ahga! " the Cavemen shouted, " why do you sulk 
 
 to-day ?" 
 And Ahga, the cripple, answered : ' The biggest 
 
 one got away! " 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
FISHING AT NIGHT 
 
 Like fairy cakes, the silver pine 
 
 Stand out against the moon 
 And eery-voiced, the dim shore line 
 
 Gives answer to the loon. 
 A flashing fish breaks through 
 
 The inky sheet we glide 
 A rod, a reel, a birch canoe 
 
 And I am satisfied. 
 
 Assassin night doth rule the sky 
 
 The Heavens gleam no more, 
 Yet still the gloom is penciled by 
 
 The golden fire on shore. 
 Deep hours must pass till birth anew 
 
 Gives dawn a fading bride 
 A rod, a reel, a birch canoe 
 
 And I am satisfied. 
 
 It seems as though, above, there might 
 Be gathered whisp'ring souls 
 
 To see, unseen, in pulsing night 
 Their one-time fishing holes 
 245 
 
246 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 
 
 Enough ! The Strike ! My waited cue ; 
 
 And quietly we ride 
 A rod, a reel, a birch canoe 
 
 And I am satisfied. 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
RUBAIYAT OF A FISHERMAN 
 
 Life's a pond with wriggling humans filled, 
 Each doomed to follow on the way that's willed. 
 The Fates cast out the lure and angle for 
 The young and old, the learned and unskilled. 
 
 II 
 
 I fling this little perch that mulled the needled hook 
 Back in the lake to seek some quiet windfall nook; 
 So do the Fates when Hope, perchance, has fled 
 Fling back to those who wait, a soul they took. 
 
 ill 
 
 As do the gobbling sunfish herd round the angle- 
 worm 
 
 So do we mortals, for wealth and high position, 
 squirm. 
 
 Turn on the light, let's see him at his worst, 
 
 What boots it fish or man each one's a germ. 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 247 
 
RAIN 
 
 Thunder rolling softly, 
 Thunder once again; 
 
 Then it comes a-dripping 
 Comes the gentle rain! 
 
 Rain! 
 
 Rain in the coffee! 
 Rain in the jeans! 
 Rain in the sugar! 
 Rain in the beans! 
 
 Rain! Rain! Rain! 
 
 Through the pines and birches 
 Faster than before 
 
 Still it comes a-ripping 
 'Till it makes you sore ! 
 
 Rain! 
 
 Rain in the elbows! 
 Rain in the knees ! 
 Morning and evening! 
 Rain when you please ! 
 
 Rain! Rain! Rain! 
 
 Sloppy, sodden, soaking, 
 Life is full of pain 
 248 
 
RAIN 249 
 
 What's the use of camping 
 In the soggy rain? 
 
 Rain! 
 
 Rain in the bedding! 
 Blankets and all! 
 Rain in the bacon! 
 Rain! Rain! That's all! 
 Rain! Rain! Rain! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
FALL FISHING 
 
 Before the bracing wind that chafes the lake 
 The deadened, swaying birches bend and break. 
 
 Alone I man my boat and briskly go 
 To quiet bays that now the guides forsake, 
 
 And marvel at the splendors as I row. 
 Above me, honking squadrons southward fly 
 And autumn flaunts her plumage to the sky; 
 
 The trees are like hussars upon parade 
 Ere yet the slothful summer passes by 
 
 And wafts a lazy kiss to him who stayed. 
 
 The forest creatures feel the coming test 
 And fill the hidden caches by their nest; 
 
 The silver fish that flashes from his lair 
 Has sensed the changing season like the rest 
 
 And fain would taste the pungent fighting air. 
 In such a way no gamy things endure 
 I make the cast and jerk the gaudy lure, 
 
 'Till comes the sudden swish the lashing sign 
 That tells me something's struck it, swift and sure - 
 
 A frenzied water wild-cat on the line ! 
 
 Ye men who crave the whip-like rush and feel 
 Of mighty fish that spin the humming reel, 
 
 250 
 
FALL FISHING 251 
 
 Go not when sun-hot idle lakes are fanned 
 By soothing winds that from the tropics steal 
 
 To drowse the sharpened senses of the land; 
 Go not, ye patient Waltons, 'til the day 
 That autumn mints the leaves her brilliant way; 
 
 'Til first ye see the grim white Artist, North, 
 Has flicked his fingers on the things that stay 
 
 And then, my fellow-angler, go ye forth ! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
THE CALL OF THE WILD 
 
 When, like grimy dragons crawling, comes the city's 
 darkness falling 
 
 Do you feel the trails a-calling, do you hearken to 
 a voice that brings a dream? 
 
 Do you hear the pine-trees sighing when the south- 
 east winds are dying 
 
 And the cratered lakes are lying in their turquoise- 
 painted bowls of silver cream? 
 
 As the last mill's flame is leaping o'er a million 
 toilers sleeping, 
 
 Have you felt the lure a-creeping like a long for- 
 gotten scrap of youthful sin? 
 
 Do you yearn for hikes and sallies into balsam 
 scented valleys, 
 
 Through the virgin wildwood alleys, where the rod 
 and reel and gun have never been? 
 
 Just to meet God's open spaces and the cozy hidden 
 
 places 
 Where the flashing trout-stream races and you never 
 
 need to make a second cast. 
 252 
 
THE CALL OF THE WILD 253 
 
 Just to roam the forest, dreaming, while the blue 
 
 sky up there's beaming 
 And the golden sun is gleaming as if every ray of 
 
 lightness were the last. 
 
 Do you feel your slow pulse dancing when the spring- 
 time comes, enhancing 
 
 The virile and free romancing of the voices that the 
 foursome earth-winds blow? 
 
 Oh, you never will outgrow it, for your dreaming 
 glances show it, 
 
 And they've got you, Pal, I know it, so you'd better 
 pack the duffle-bag and go ! 
 
 Albert Jay Cook. 
 
 THE END