TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 



more likely it is to attract a fish; that is too obvious 

 to need remark. A troll ing-spoon traveling 150 feet 

 behind the boat will capture five fish to every one 

 taken on a lure whirling twenty-five feet beyond the 

 disturbing oars. I know whereof I speak. The limit 

 of distance obtainable with a cane pole unprovided 

 with a reel would be, I should judge, about twenty- 

 five feet. With an 80- or 100-yard reel, the fisherman 

 can handle 200 feet of line with ease, character of the 

 water permitting. With the ancient heavily weighted 

 hand-line, which was whirled about the fisherman's 

 head to gain sufficient momentum, a muscular man 

 could cast perhaps fifty feet. But think of the labor 

 involved, as well as incontinently dragging in a royal 

 fighter. Does it not appeal to the reader as somehow 

 unfair? Oh yes, the hand-liner may cut his fingers 

 on the line, may even fall out of the boat — that is 

 easy when learning how to swing the weighted line 

 about the head, a somewhat difficult task — but after 

 all, his method is not attractive to the lover of rod 

 and reel. 



I once had a friend, a gray-haired hand-liner, who 

 has long since gone to the reward of all good fishermen, 

 who had a rather amusing experience. We were on a 

 short driving trip, looking for blackberries in a trout 

 and muskellunge country. I leave my readers to guess 

 why my ancient friend led a blackberrying party into 

 a good fishing country. One night we went into camp 

 on the shores of a beautiful little lake which, my friend 

 confided to me on the side, was * jest full of muskie." 

 After camp was made and everybody settled for the 

 night, he and I set out on a hunt for some sort of craft. 

 At last we found an ancient, rotten, leaky Indian 



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