MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 



and a slow-biting fish is sure to cut off the bait just 

 back of the head and therefore is not impaled. When 

 the head hook is used there should be an auxiliary 

 hook trailing beneath the body or wired to it, in order 

 that a slow-biting fish may be securely hooked. 



Personally, I prefer to hook my live bait through the 

 cartilage of the lips only, having a trailing treble 

 attached to the shank and wired to the body of the 

 minnow just in front of the anal fin. There are minnow 

 harnesses upon the market, but I prefer a simple 

 wrapping of fine copper wire. So attached and handled 

 carefully, a minnow, such as the creek chub or sucker, 

 v/ill live for some time. Swimming about in the water, 

 they appear perfectly natural, even to an unusually 

 well-educated muskel lunge, a post-graduate of the 

 school of the waters. 



The methods of the still fisher are like and unlike 

 those of the bait caster. While success will come to 

 the man who remains at one spot fishing carefully — 

 provided, of course, he knows a "muskellunge laif" — 

 he runs a better chance of securing a fish by cruising 

 slowly along, pausing for long minutes from time to 

 time to let his live fishlet "fish out" some likely ap- 

 pearing spot. Naturally, quietness and stealth are 

 important requisites. Therefore the angler should be 

 able to handle his boat with skill or be accompanied 

 by an expert boatman, one able to handle a paddle 

 and keep his mouth shut. I know that talking can- 

 not disturb a 'lunge, that the sound of conversation is 

 not communicable to water, but I do not want any 

 talking when I am still-fishing — for muskellunge, least 

 of all. 



The user of live bait must care for his minnows or 



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