THE MASCALONGE. 



197 



great vitality, weight and power give it an endurance that 

 is highly extolled by some, but it can hardly be compared to 

 the Salmon, Black Bass, or Brook Trout for pure gameness, 

 per sc\ that is, it does not exhibit the finesse and elan of 

 those superb game-fishes. 



A large fish may swim with a hook in its mouth for a week, 

 but that is merely an evidence of endurance, not of gameness. 

 And as a large Mascalonge is frequently hooked by an an- 

 gler on a light rod, and the angler, being awed by the weight of 

 the fish and its fierce rushes, is afraid to give it the full spring 

 and power of the rod but gives line instead, and consequently 

 plays it in a timid, half-hearted manner for an hour, or maybe 

 two or three hours, until finally after both fish and man are 

 exhausted, the one is gaffed and the other has just breath 

 enough to exclaim that the Mascalonge is the "kmg of game- 

 fishes." 



As a matter of fact, with suitable tackle, any fish should be 

 brought to gaff or net in a minute to the pound — that is, a 

 five-pound fish within five minutes, a ten-pound fish within 

 ten minutes, or a thirty-pound fish within a half-hour. 



I once killed a St. Lawrence Mascalonge of thirty-two 

 pounds in twenty minutes with an eight-ounce Henshall 

 Black-Bass rod, and gaffed it fairly. A very expert and ac- 

 complished lady angler, the charming wife of the late Surgeon 

 General Baxter, killed several fresh-run Salmon, on the 

 Restigouche during the summer of 1886 (I was there the same 

 season), that weighed from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds 

 each, and brought each fish to gaff in from twenty to thirty 

 minutes. And, really, ten minutes is a long time to play a 

 fish — to many it seems an hour. 



Most Mascalonge, however, are taken with hand-line and 

 trolling-spoon, and hauled in hand-over-hand. With a taut 

 line and moving boat the Mascalonge sometimes leaps above 

 the water, because it cannot get very far beneath the sur- 

 face; as a rule, however, and when on the rod, it does not 



