252 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



absence of live minnows you may be compelled to resort to 

 the artificial. You make no change in your tackle except the 

 bait. (The gang is also a favorite bait in shore or surface 

 trolling for Bass and Pickerel. It is more deadly than the 

 spoon.) 



"A Bass-spoon may be much improved by tying a hook, 

 with a length of gut, so that the hook falls two inches below 

 the burr of the spoon. You will be surprised to find how many 

 Bass miss the treble hook and catch the single one. The 

 larger fish are caught in the deeper water, as a rule. Always 

 see that your hooks are sharp before you put out your bait, 

 and examine well your gang after catching a fish. 



"If any one imagines that deep trolling is very simple, 

 affording little sport, I only ask him to defer judgment until 

 he has tried it." 



Buoy fishing is now practiced very little, having made way 

 for what is far better — trolling. It is so unsportsman-like 

 a method, that I will do no more than mention it here, adopt- 

 ing Seth Green's description as sufficient comment: 



"Anchor a buoy out in deep water, and cut fish in pieces 

 varying in size from a hickory nut to a butternut, scattering 

 the pieces around the buoy for some days; then anchor your 

 boat to the buoy, using a piece of the same kind of bait on 

 vour hook that you had been in the habit of scattering 

 around your buoy; fish near the bottom, and give it a little 

 motion by giving your line short jerks. The buoy should 

 not be baited the day you go fishing." 



Still another method adopted is that of the ardent sports- 

 man, who cannot wait until the spring, but cuts a bell- 

 shaped hole in the ice of the lake in midwinter, puts his little 

 three-sided shanty to windward, and with a hand-line keeps 

 his baited gang in motion, until rewarded with a strike — or 

 a frost-bite! The process resultant to the strike is surpris- 

 ingly simple. The line is thrown over the shoulder, and the 

 stiff-limbed fisherman runs or hobbles off, till the poor defense- 



