TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 



There are times when a baited spoon is the success- 

 ful lure. I presume a consistent purist would not use 

 the two in combination, one being live-bait fishing 

 and the other trolling. Perhaps the practice is violat- 

 ing the highest ethics of sport — as to that I will not 

 attempt to say. Only it is a good idea to resort to a 

 frog-baited spoon, when other methods of trolling fail. 

 I tried out the following on a certain lake quite re- 

 cently and several times. Made a circuit of the fish- 

 grounds with an unbaited spoon, then with one to 

 which a frog was attached, followed by a frog alone. 

 Very seldom was the unbaited spoon struck, never the 

 simple frog; often great pike took the two in combina- 

 tion. "Why?" The answer is not easy. Perhaps the 

 whirling spoon attracted the water-wolf's attention, 

 in the first place, and, finding the frog, he struck. I 

 only know that whenever I tried out the method on 

 my "laboratory lake," it won great pike. Of course it 

 is a "froggy lake" — much grass and many weed-beds, 

 where a cast live frog is a splendid lure late evening 

 and early morning. As I think I said in the chapter 

 on live-bait fishing, I doubt the value of frogs in water 

 uninhabited by them. 



As there are frog harnesses and minnow hooks for 

 casting, so these contrivances can be utilized for bait 

 trolling with little difficulty. It is a good plan to wire 

 the frog or minnow to the treble of the spoon, if one is 

 unprovided with some sort of harness or safety-pin 

 arrangement. I have had little success with minnow- 

 baited trolling hooks, however. A streamer of red- 

 and-white strips of cloth attached to the hooks some- 

 times serves to attract the fish's attention. There are 

 days, too, when the buck-tail, mentioned in the chap- 



III 



