Chapter XI 



Muskellunge and Live Bait 



"The best bait is a minnow, either alive or dead, though a 

 frog answers very well. . . . Rowing along in water from 

 five to ten feet deep, the bait should be cast as far as possible 

 to the edge of weed patches, reeling it again very slowly; or, if 

 the bait is alive, it may be allowed to swim outside of the water 

 plants for a short time." — Dr. James A. HenshaU. 



IT IS not my purpose here to argue for the legit- 

 imacy of live-bait fishing; the method needs no 

 defense. There are days and days when the best, 

 almost the only successful lure for muskellunge is a 

 small sucker, shiner minnow, or green frog. The 

 angler who refuses to employ live bait may be com- 

 pelled to depart from the fishing grounds without his 

 "wasser-wolf," and, while the modern angler does not 

 fish for fish, he is human, and likes to take home with 

 him ocular proof that he has been fishing. More rep- 

 rehensible than taking fish with live bait is the final 

 resort of some — fishing in the resort keeper's live-box 

 with a "silver hook." 



Probably no fresh-water fish are more addicted to 

 a piscivorous diet than are the members of the Esox 

 family. A large mouth, strong jaws, armed with a 

 terrible array of long, sharp, conical teeth of various 

 sizes, indicates that anything that walks, hops, flies, 

 or swims will be accepted as food. That the muskel- 

 lunge is one whit more predacious than pike of equal 

 size is untrue; or that a six-inch chub or sucker will be 



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