374 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



led me to adopt when fishing for Pike in our wide rivers, or 

 bays on the great lakes. 



The Pike is a sharp-eyed, shy fish; you must reach him 

 ''a ways off"; you cannot expect to stand on a big rock, drop 

 down in the water beneath you, and get hooked to a great 

 northern Pike. "He aint nobody's fool, and don't you be- 

 lieve it !" 



Take a trolling or spinning hook, baited with a piece of fat 

 pork, cut in shape like a fish, have a boat pulled alongside 

 the rushes I have spoken of; let out twenty yards of line, 

 and then have your oarsman pull a long slow stroke, and if 

 the Pike family are receiving visitors, you will soon know it. 

 Trolling with a long line and three sets of hooks is a most 

 barbarous way of fishing for the Pike. I care not if this 

 family are the Sharks of fresh water, they are entitled to fair 

 play. His Satanic Majest}' is never as black as he is painted, 

 so the Esox lucius is cousin german to the Nobilor vulgate 

 Mascalonge, and partakes of his noble nature. He is a foe- 

 man worthy the steel of the most ardent angler. Some an- 

 glers call the family "snakes." I pity them! Go where Pike 

 can be found, fish for them with legitimate tackle, and give 

 them a fair chance, and they will give just as much pleasure 

 as any royal Small-mouth Bass that ever swam 



FISHING TACKLE. 



A lance-wood or bethabara-wood rod, of about nine feet 

 long, a "Milam," "Chubb's," "Henshall," "Van Antwerp," 

 ^' Abbey & Imbrie, Steel-pivot Multiplier," or an "Automatic 

 reel" — a strong but not heavy line, silver gimp snoods of 

 about two feet long, then with a heavy sneck-bend hook 

 with a small lip-hook whipped into the gimp snood to fasten 

 the bait to, and a good gaff-hook, and the angler is equipped. 

 With a silver chub or shiner for bait, run out about five feet 

 of line from the tip of your rod, casting sideways out from 



