AMERICAN FISHES. 



There is probably no better Pike-Perch fisliing in the world than that 

 which may be had in the vicinity of Lake City, Minn., in Lake Pepin and 

 the adjacent waters. The name of Dr. D. C. Estes is as closely identified 

 with the Pike-Perch as that of Norris with the grayling, of Henshall with 

 the black-bass, or of Cholmondeley-Pennell with the pike. His essay pub- 

 lished in the fourth volume of the American Angler*- from which extracts 

 have been made, is the only careful study of the American species and is 

 well worth the attention of naturalists as well as of anglers. 



The tackle which he recommends for boat or raft fishing consists of a 

 three-jointed bamboo rod, about twelve feet long,' a click reel placed in 

 front of the hand and on top of the rod, thirty or forty yards of braided 

 silk or linen line, and a Sproat-bend hook. No. 3-0, tied to a single length 

 of twisted double gut or to gimp. 



For wading the bars he uses a much longer rod, often a whole bamboo, 

 so pliable that long casts may be made into deep water. IMore than two- 

 thirds of the fish caught in the main body of Lake Pepin are taken within 

 four rods of the shore, off the ends of the sandy points, in water from five 

 to ten feet deep. 



The Pike-Perches are never taken in large numbers for use in commerce, 

 except during the spawning season, or immediately before it, and like the 

 perch, they are in the finest condition when full-roed. Li Balaton Lake 

 and elsewhere in Hungary, there are extensive fisheries with bag-nets under 

 the ice, and they are caught chiefly in winter in our own lake region. I 

 have never seen a description of the manner in which the Berschick, S. vol- 

 gensis, is captured in Astrakhan, but the statistics indicate that it is car- 

 ried on during the spawning season, since three or four per cent, of the 

 weight of the fish exported is in the form of salted ova. 



A good type of winter fishing through the ice is that practiced on Lake 

 Pepin. Holes are cut through the ice over the bars from three to ten rods 

 from the shore. The hook is baited with a live minnow. A very simple 

 device is used to signal a bite. A piece of lath about two feet long, with 

 a hole in it a little nearer one end than the other ; through this hole in the 

 lath is run loosely a cross-bar which is laid across this hole on the ice. To 

 the short end of the lath the line is attached. The moment the bait is 

 seized by a fish below, the end of the lath flies upright, and so remains as 

 long as the fish pulls. The fisherman seeing it, hastens to rescue his fish. 



* American Angler IV, 1883, pp. 145, 161, 177, 191. 



