5M 441 C57 UC-NRLF ^B 25 70 C\J o ADVICE TO YOING ANGLERS 4h By Henry Guy Garleton COPYRiaHT, 1»0«, BY *1LUA« imLL« A »0*1, NEW VOBtC 'i' s ft" \% ^ mwmmmmmmmm^mmmmmmmmBwmvimi m^i^ presented to me in 1874 and is still in good condition! Thijs is partly due to excellent care of tlie pole, and partly because I have never used it. The best rod is the split bamboo. A young angler may purchase an ordi- nary bamboo and get an industrious pickerel or cat-fish to split it for him, but the result is not generally satisfactory. If you are sole owner or lessee of a first-class split bamboo rod, do not abuse it. It was not intended by nature to welt a mule with, nor to push a flat-bottomed boat off the mud, and when stepped on or sat down upon, it has a way of looking up at you with $30 worth of mute reproach in its German-silver eyes which is very saddening to the true sportsman. A fine rod is not designed to be used as a derrick. Many a young angler has lost his salvation by attempting to hoist a four-pound mud-turtle from the watef with a seven-ounce expensive rod. It may as well be stated right here that the all-round rod, warranted to take anything from a six-foot tarpon to a four-inch bullhead, is a dismal failure. The best tarpon rods are one size too large for bullheads, and the best bullhead rods are seven sizes too small for tarpon; but when a cast-iron rake is fastened to the "general," all-round rod, it is useful in skittering for clams. The young angler who buys one first-class rod and handles it as tenderly as though it were a boil, is $64 richer than the man who fritters away his substance buying cheap but glittering poles. A man may split kindling-wood in a far less expensive manner than by fishing with the kind of rod that has nickel-plated ferrules and comes in a long, narrow paper bag. The Reel When the young angler has saved up money for several years and owns a good rod, he then should struggle to become possessor of a good reel. A good reel is more valuable to a true sportsman, as a friend, than a small, rough-haired yellow dog. Reels are of several kinds. There is the click reel, the multiplying reel, the Kentucky reel and the Virginia reel. Some reels are simple and some are com- plicated. The most complicated reel I ever saw was owned by a man who was coming home at 2 A. M., after a prolonged struggle with a demijohn of Monon- gahela at a wake. There are nickel-plated man-traps sold under the name of reels which have caught more good citizens, and ruined them for life, than have been caught by the gallows. There is nothing sadder in this vale of tears than to see a strong, once happy man sitting down in his boat at 4 p. m., when the bass are biting at their best, trying to wind a reel upon which he thought he had saved $4, but which has broken four brass teeth and a crank in the eflFort to say "Biz-z-z-zl" A click reel is only used upon a fly-rod. It makes a noise like winding up a kitchen clock, and from this simple but vicious habit it derives its name. A multiplying reel is one which winds up the line several times faster than the crank turns. The multiplying reel is to be used in casting a minnow or a deeply pained bullfrog out upoK the waters, and a reel which multiplies twic« is preferred by the angler and is just the same to the frog. LrUtiC^ ucsiQZi' ^J^ca rioo ...Kb are of several kinds. They are of various lengths also, but most of them arc about as long as a piece of string. A braided line is the best to upon a reel. A twisted line kinks, and one day's experi- ence with a kinky line will use up more of a man's chances for a happy hereafter than he can replace during an entire camp meeting season at Asbury Park. Silk lines are best to use in fresh water, but in salt water give me a linen line or give me death. For fly-fishing use the heavy, enameled water-proof line; but for minnow or frog casting or dredging with worms, buy the fine hard-braided silk. It runs better ^ from the reel. Leaders are long, thin pieces of gut, which look like fiddle strings, but have too many knots in them for that purpose. It is generally whispered about that they are the product of the domestic cat; but this is a mistake, and those who are thus seeking an excuse for Jusx the same to FRoaotK raising cats may as well be informed that I have exposed their hollow scheme. Always test your leaders before using them. You may save money by purchasing cheap leaders, but you will lose fish. Show me a man who has just bought fourth-class leaders, and I will show you a man who will eventually use both Profanity and Rum. Fish-hooks are of various shape, size and disposition. They were not intended to be carried loose in the coat-tail pocket. A courteous sportsman, when he discovers that he has inadvertently sat down upon a package of fish- hooks belonging to his friend, will immediately rise and try his best to return ' :e hooks. Tnt Atiiiicud Fly The artificial fly is a fish-hook to which variously colored feathers hare been tied, and is supposed to be easily mistaken by a fish for a real fly. If this be true, it is a strong proof that a fish hasn't sense enough to come in when it rains, and doesn't deserve to live. Real flies may be obtained at most watering places much cheaper than the artificial flies, but for some purposes they are not so useful. Artificial flies are all named. There are the "Professor," the "Hackle," the "Ibis," the "Yellow Sally" and several other breeds. Whenever a bilious angler has no luck, and nothing to do, he sits down and concocts a new swindle in feathers, christens it with a nine-jointed Indian name, and at once every angler in the country rushes in and pays $2 a dozen for samples. To cast the artificial fly well requires practice, and some persons are more skillful than others. The first thing I ever caught on an artificial fly was a large and muscular friend who was sitting in the stern of the boat, and who larrovv-mindcd enough to make coarse remarks while we were rowing to camp for surgical assistance. Oysters do not rise readily to the artificial fly, particularly during the spawning season. Tackle boxes are now thrown upon the market in great numbers, and aje of several sizes. The smallest is made to contain chewing tobacco and fish- hooks well mixed up together; but the larger kinds have more compartments .RSF RrMAKK- than a tenement-house, and will hold lines, hooks, reels, sinkers, gaiigs, pokrr chips and other necessaries with ease. I submitted to Mr. T. B. Mills a design for a Sportsman's Complete Portiablc Tackle Box holding seven rods, four blankets, a demijohn, canned oysters, bacon and a folding boat, with extra compartments for a camp kettle and a bowling alley to be used in case of rain, but as yet I have not heard that he has taken any steps toward getting a patent. Some persons complain that their reels will not fit into any tackle box made; that is because they buy the reel first. The proper way is to get your tackle box and then only purchase such articles as will go in snugly. Some fishes are very gamey while they arc alive, and these are more highly ;r,zed by the true sportsman than fishes which only become gamey after softening up for several hours in the hot sun, like a menhaden. The mud turtle is not a game fish. Most game fishes will rise to the fly, but the fishes which are fly enough not to do this pay lower rates on life insurance. The trout is a various fish. In the South he is a lazy black bass with No. 14 mouth and the flavor of sour mud. In the Catskills he is mostly a work of imagination, and lives only in the clear, cold, running prospectus of a hotel charging $4 a day. In Parmachene Lake and other fastnesses of Maine he is a medium sized whale with red speckles onto his sides, and it costs a sportsman $9 a pound to go and drag him out of his native lair. In other portions of the effete North he is generally a five-inch spotted minnow capable of stretching an extra inch in the frying pan, and is as full of spirit, beauty and natural cussed- ncss as a young and red-headed girl. The untutored trout prefers a gob of worms to a fly, and this distressing fact has got more of the authorities on game fish in trouble than has the malaria. The black bass is another game fish. He is of two species : the big mouth and the small mouth. To tell a big mouth from a small mouth has bothered the authorities for many years. Dr. Henshall says one is a grystes SdmoideSj whatever that is, and that the other is a something or other Djlmieu; but I think that the Doctor is prejudiced. There is a simpler way of distinguishing the two. Catch a six-inch bass, and if you can insert your fist in his countenance he is a small mouth, but if you can crawl down him yourself he is the other kind. The black bass is very capricious in his diet. Sometimes he will take the fly, sometimes the minnow, and sometimes he prefers a large and fierce bug Vfith thirty-four legs, and a name which I will not mention in an article which may be read by ladies. A black bass is as uncertain as a lottery ticket, but differs from this in that he is worth the monej'. He weighs from seven pounds down. Most bass weighing seven pounds are still swimming in their native waters, having been lost by fishermen who tell the truth. A bass weighing under three-quarters of a pound is called a throw-back, and should be returned to the water. Bass weighing from three-quarters to one and a half pounds are cookies, and may be fried and devoured with a little butter and a great deal of pleasure. Bass weighing two pounds are corkers; three pounds are thumpers; four pounds are busters; five pounds are snorters, and any bass weighing more than that is an old He. The salmon is a game fish which may easily be captured in nie Fuitoii Market and in Canada, but he is the exclusive property of the Restigouche Club, which has a patent onto him. A good salmon outfit will cost $135.64, and the railroad fares, board, guide and pool cost about ^737 more. Then, if you are in luck, you may catch a l6-pound salmon and ship it in ice to city persons who never eat fish, but who will say "Thank you" in a manner worth fully 40 cents on your return, and then immmmmm^mmm'i2 nMBaBOTreaiV-fflR pnva 'riends that they belies salmon with a $ triped bass is a game fish wlrch was principally designed to amus-; tne Luttyhunk Club and smash up high-priced tackle. Tlie pickerel is not a game fish. He is an insect. There is a fierce fish called the tomcod which infests the lower Hudson. When dredging from a North river wharf for tommies, sometimes you catch a tomm}- and sometimes you catch an old, water-logged boot, and you cannot tel' which until you get it to the surface, except that usually the boot offers most resistance. A tomcod sometimes attains the length of six inches and weighs a^ least three ounces. He is very game. When you hook him, he helps you pull up the sinker, and then fans himself until you take him in out of the wet. Some- times a tommy will be game enough to live until you can get him into • ■- ' )i lut he is usually dead and half sour by that time. How to Angle There are various methods of angling, and each is useful in its way. Casting the fly is the most scientific method. Let the young angler imagiat the rod and line to be a whip, and then let him try to lamn an imaginary mule ^^ 40 feet away, and he will slowly acquire the correct motion. If t ..:.• .^ 1 trte behind him, he will also get some subsequent exercise which will be healthful and invigorating, though he may lose his patience and some tackle. Casting the minnow or frog is great sport, when the bass are biting well, which occurs in the dark of the moon. ?hr^vt once in four years. Hook the tro