THE LITTLE PICKERELS 



more worthy fish than the despised pickerel. Too 

 many hooks spoil the sport, even as too many cooks 

 are said to spoil the broth. The best spoon bait is 

 simply a single blade attached to a weighted streaming 

 fly and cast with a regulation bass fly-rod. If you can 

 handle a lure without, omit the weight. If you do 

 not care to manufacture a lure for yourself, then invest 

 in one of the trout spoons so much used in certain 

 sections for that fish, substituting a larger and more 

 showy fly for the one attached. Believe me when I 

 say that there are possibilities in pickerel fly-fishing 

 for the discriminating and appreciative angler, for the 

 one who has learned that success is not a matter of 

 pounds and weighty possibilities. 



Granted, as has been intimated all along, pickerel 

 fishing, however practiced, is "boy's fishing," never- 

 theless it is truly enjoyable, an agreeable rest from the 

 more strenuous methods of angling. Perhaps, as a 

 friend of mine asserts, pickerel fishing is to 'lunge fish- 

 ing what marbles is to baseball, but even so, there is a 

 legitimate place for marbles. If the reader, like the 

 writer, has followed the trail of muskellunge and great 

 pike week in and week out, season in and season out, 

 he, like him, will be glad to turn to the little, unim- 

 portant pickerel for rest and recreation. 



So we have arrived at the place where we must * put 

 away childish things." Our next chapter will begin 

 the discussion of great pike fishing, which may be a 

 man's sport. 



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