8 NORTHERN FISHES 



a hook is not as simple as the common practice of spearing the bait 

 with the hook — many minnows and frogs are lost because they are 

 improperly placed on the hook. Hooking a minnow through the tail, 

 jaws, gills, or belly usually results in a waste of bait. For casting the 

 minnow should be threaded on the hook by passing the hook in through 

 the mouth and out through the side as far back of the dorsal fin as 

 possible. Some safety-pin hooks are on the market which thread the 

 minnow on the pin alongside the hook. For still-fishing, when it is de- 

 sirable that the minnow display some motion, the hook should be 

 passed through the back muscles just under the dorsal fin. 



Most fishermen hook frogs through one or both jaws, leaving most 

 of the body and legs dangling below the hook. After a few casts the 

 frogs tend to loosen and soon fly off. Furthermore, the fish generally 

 has to grab and swallow the entire frog before getting to the hook. 

 There are available several varieties of special frog hooks, some with 

 a harness for the frog, which place the frog far enough up on the hook 

 so that any fish is likely to be hooked when it first grabs the frog. 



Worms can simply be threaded on the hook, leaving any surplus 

 to dangle from the end. A more attractive arrangement can be made 

 by looping the worm and passing the hook through each loop. Several 

 worms can thus be crowded onto a single hook, providing a tempting 

 bait that may attract a bass even when all else fails. One trouble with 

 such a bait in many northern lakes is that small perch and sunfishes 

 delight in nibbling off the loops without touching the hook. Grasshop- 

 pers and various other insects should be threaded on the hook. 



Fishing rods and a large variety of tackle are necessary for the more 

 refined methods of fishing with flies or by bait casting. The equipment 

 necessary for fly fishing and bait casting includes rods, reels, lines, 

 leaders, and lures. These items differ greatly for the several methods 

 of fishing, as well as for the types of fishes sought. 



Many fishes other than trout can be caught wath a fly rod. Great 

 sport can be had using a fly rod for both largemouth and smallmouth 

 bass, striped bass, rock bass, crappies, sunfishes, walleyes, northern 

 pike, and perch. 



The fly rod is light and slender and should have a whiplike action. 

 Some are made of steel and others of split bamboo. Steel rods are often 

 stiff and subject to vibration, but they are sturdier and better built 

 for rough use than the bamboo rods. Split-bamboo rods are the fa- 

 vorite with most experienced fishermen. Expensive rods usually last 

 longer, but a cheap rod may have as good action as a more expensive 

 one. Rods are often gauged by their weight, but the value of a fly rod 

 is its casting abihty rather than its weight. Rods of the same weight 

 and length may differ greatly in their casting ability. 



A number of reels for fly fishing are on the market, most of which 



