PIKE, MUSKELLUNGE AND PICKEREL. 285 



About Locust Point a few arc taken in the fall. Twenty years ago, in 

 this region, including the fisheries of Ottawa, Port Clinton, Toussaint, and 

 Locust Point, Muskellunge were taken weighing sixty or seventy pounds. 

 In Sandusky Bay, specimens are caught of forty-five pounds weight, and 

 at Kelley's Island one was caught weighing fifty-seven pounds, and another 

 sixty-two pounds. 



In connection with the Huron (Ohio) fisheries, it is reported that about 

 one hundred and fifty fish of this species were taken in seventy-five nets 

 during the year 1879. They are here generally large, and are always 

 taken in pairs. Three or four represent a year's catch of this fish at Ver- 

 million, Ohio. About Black River, Lorain County, Ohio, Amherst, and 

 Brownhelm Bay, it is very scarce, few l)eing caught in nets ; all that are 

 taken are large. Of this fish, in connection with the Cleveland and Dover 

 Bay fisheries, it may be said that it is very rare, and is becoming more so 

 each year. Mr. Sadler says he took one weighing eighty pounds. The 

 fishermen say they are always found in pairs. 



The Muskellunge is taken at Conneaut, at the rate of half a dozen in 

 ten years. Only one specimen was taken in the Painesville pounds in 

 1879. At Fairport and Willoughby, Ohio, no mention is made of its 

 occurrence. Erie Bay, especially at Dunkirk and Barcelona, New York, 

 Erie, Pennsylvania, and Mill's Grove, Ohio, is famous for its Muskellunge 

 fishing; this past season, over sixty were caught, weighing from twenty to 

 forty-five pounds. They are caught by trawling. Fancy prices are paid 

 for them ; about twenty-five cents per pound retail in the city, and twelve 

 and a half cents when shipped. More were caught during the season of 

 [879 than ever before. 



The following notes relate to the fishery in Lake Ontario : At Oswego, 

 the fish is very rare on the American side ; at Port Ontario, one is occa- 

 sionally caught ; at Cape Vincent, they are common, especially in the St. 

 Lawrence. Nine have been brought in in one day, the smallest of whicli 

 weighed thirty-two pounds. They are not now, however, so plentiful 

 here as formerly. At Chaumont very few are caught. Seven years ago 

 one was captured here weighing sixty-five pounds. At Sacket's Harbor, 

 very few Muskellunge are caught. 



The Pike is in Europe considered one of the most important of game 

 fishes. Isaac Walton devotes to it an entire chapter, and Mr. Cholmon- 

 deley-Pennell, a well-known English writer on angling, has published a 

 considerable work, entitled " The Book of the Pike." 



