PICKEREL. 1Y3 
But the most wonderful mode of all is that practised 
in the St. Lawrence, and generally among the larger 
waters of Canada and the northern States. The fisher- 
man places himself in the stern of a light canoe-shaped 
boat, with his face forward, the oarsman sits near the 
bows, of course facing aft ; on each side of the fisherman 
are pegs like row-locks, or grooves, in the gunwale, with 
corresponding round holes in the stretchers on the oppo- 
site sides ; two short, stifif rods are laid across the boat, 
projecting on each side like wings, kept in their places 
by the pegs, and their buts supported by the holes. A 
long line is let out from each rod, say forty yards, armed 
with a spoon bait ; while the fisherman holds an ordinary 
trolling-line in his hand, and is thus rowed about till 
either he, or more frequently his oarsman, perceives from 
the bending of the rod that he has a bite, or he feels a 
dead drag on his hand-line. If it falls to the share of 
the rod, he takes the latter up, ends it round till he can 
reach the line, when he pulls the fish in by hand. If he 
uses a reel, it is a good plan to take one or two turns of the 
line round it, so that it will just render. By so doing he 
might save the rod from breaking, which would be apt to 
happen with a heavy fish. Mascallonge invariably stop 
perfectly still when struck. 
In landing a fish by hand, which is always the prefer- 
able mode, the reel only being used for an emergency, 
hold the line very lightly between your fingers and give 
to every jerk or rush. Innumerable large fish are lost 
by an endeavor to pull them in by force, and I have seen 
men, with their hands cut by the line, complaining that 
they had lost a mascalonge of forty pounds. Pickerel 
