THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



Life's profits are always in exact ratio to investments. 

 The thing which costs nothing is nothing worth, a 

 statement which applies not only to angling lore, but 

 to material things and mental wealth as well. 



The angler's success is always in proportion to his 

 knowledge and skill. While I realize the importance 

 of tackle, am the proud possessor of some valuable 

 rods and reels of various makes, I wish to reassert, 

 "The angler's success is always in proportion to his 

 knowledge and skill." Any man can catch fish when 

 the water teems with hungry game, but only a habit- 

 wise and skill-wise handler of rod and reel can secure 

 a good string of muskellunge when those fish are few 

 and far between, therefore shy and wary passing 

 belief. A man may be a "lucky fisherman" now and 

 again, but if his luck continues week in and week out, 

 season in and season out, you may rightly conclude 

 that fish-knowledge and skill with tackle, rather than 

 the fickle jade Luck, are the secret of the success. Luck 

 may be a good mare for a spurt, but she is a poor 

 beast for a steady up-hill climb. 



Perhaps I shall step on some brother's ichthyic 

 corns before I have finished with the pikes; it will be 

 strange if I do not, for every angler is possessed of 

 sensitive spots. When I come to write of the little 

 grass pickerel, that "snake" of sluggish water, as a 

 game fish, some will rise up in righteous wrath; and 

 when I laud fly-fishing for pickerel as a sport worthy 

 the consideration of any descendant of Izaak Walton, 

 some, I am sure, will lift hands of piscatorial horror. 

 Oh, I realize full well, none better, what I am letting 

 myself in for. Still I must, here in my introduction, 

 insist that the little pickerel has not received his 



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