Part IL] Pond Fish. 65 



any insect — pieces of meat or fish, crayfish tails, small frogs 

 and minnows, and even artificial lures are taken, one and all, 

 with a greediness scarcely excelled by any other member of 

 the finny tribe. 



FISHING FOR SUNFISH. 



I have not forgotten how, when a boy, we would work with 

 an old spade or hoe digging a can of worms for bait. Then 

 we would hunt the woods through and through for a long, 

 slender, light pole — hickory with bark and knots trimmed 

 off preferred. Sometimes fish-poles were cut in winter or 

 early spring, the bark removed and the large end and heavy 

 places shaved to make the pole of proper size and shape. Then 

 the pole would be passed rapidly through the flames and hot 

 smoke of a little camp fire until seasoned and put in condi- 

 tion for use in the early springtime when the fish would begin 

 to bite. With pole and line (the line made by twisting to- 

 gether a few strands of mother's thread) and bait-can well 

 supplied with worms, up or down the creek to well-known fish- 

 ing "holes" we would go. 



"Sunnies" could be found in small streams, in ravines or 

 ponds, where the water was two or three feet deep, and even 

 in some quite small prairie creeks where the deeper places 

 were partly protected and shaded by overhanging grass. With 

 cork about a foot above the hook and a small bullet fastened 

 a few inches above the hook for a sinker, we were ready for 

 fishing and not afraid to tackle the largest "sunnie" on earth. 

 The baited hook would be dropped into the first pool we came 

 to and almost instantly the cork would begin to bob up and 

 down. Sometimes the bobbing of the cork would continue for 

 a few seconds before it was pulled under. When it did go 

 under the rule "to jerk as soon as it was out of sight" was 

 always obeyed. The "jerk" was always made with about five 

 times too much force and energy, resulting in landing the fish 

 as far behind the enthusiastic urchin as the pole and line 

 would reach, or else in a bush or on the limb of a near-by tree. 

 Much impatience and excitement attended the freeing of the 

 line from its entanglements and the securing of a properly 

 forked stick on which to string the first prize of the day's catch. 

 As time went on this performance would be repeated again and 

 again with more or less variation, and sometimes as many 

 as a dozen fish would be taken from one little pool. Just 

 below a little riffle or waterfall where there was an eddy in 

 the current was always a good place to get bites. A little 

 brush or some driftwood lodged along the sides of some of the 

 larger water-holes was always "a sure good place" for large 

 "sunnies." 



The excitement of such an outing would be enthusiastically 



kept up until two or three dozen fish were on the stringer. 



By this time the fishing outfit, with line knotted up and hooks 



broken or lost, would be more or less of a wreck, and the 



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