i8: 



TJu- American Angler 



room, where in the spring and fall, and 

 ■often times in the summer (for one needs 

 blankets to sleep between the year ronnd 

 in this locality ) big- pine logs are piled 

 high and splutter and crack to the de- 

 light of the tired sportsman, who has 

 drawn himself up in one of those luxuri- 

 ous arm-chairs, which were made by 

 Old Comfort himself. I have heard 

 some tall yarns told around that spacious 

 fire-place ; but then we all know how 

 prone fishermen are to stretch their con- 

 sciences on occasions. Charley Sanders 

 and his wife run the place, and a genial 

 pair they are, their chief aim being to 

 make their guests happy and contented. 



After a hearty breakfast we were 

 ready to try our skill at catching the 

 wily bass and such bass as Tomahawk 

 Lake does contain ; big and slick enough 

 to gladden the heart of the most fastidi- 

 ous of Waltonian followers. There are 

 no pickerel to desecrate the waters of 

 the Tomahawk. Why, no one seems 

 able to explain. Small-mouthed, red- 

 eyed bass, pike, mascalonge and in some 

 parts large mouth bass are to be caught, 

 and the waters seem to be teeming with 

 them, so rapidh' do they bite, and such 

 fighters that it is really hard work to 

 fish continually all day. 



I had a novice at fishing with me on 

 the first day's crusade, and what sport 

 it was to see him trying to land a big 

 bass ! The first one he hooked was a 

 three pounder ; he felt the strike and 

 hooked him cleverly, but a severe tug 

 by his fishship loosened his hold on the 

 reel and away it went with aboiit ten 

 yards of line before he could get control 

 of his reel again ; the bass made a splen- 

 did leap into the air, some forty feet 

 from the boat, which seemed to take all 

 the sand out of the "would be," for with 

 a pained expression in his eyes looked 

 at me and handing me his rod he simply 

 said "take it," and sat back in his seat 



])uffing like a tin whistle on a peanut 

 stand. I laughed until I was sore, and 

 the best of it all was, he didn't know 

 that the fish that broke water was the 

 one he had hooked, but thought it to be 

 another fish. The less experienced of 

 oixr party found it great sport, still fish- 

 ing for the small mouth bass, and great 

 success they made of it, their catch 

 averaging fifty pounds a day, for they 

 kept at it continually from breakfast time 

 until the sun, sinking behind the hills of 

 Minocqua, some fifteen miles distant, 

 compelled them by darkness to desist. 



A most enjoyable auxiliary to the trip 

 to Tomahawk Lake is the visits one can 

 make to smaller lakes in the immediate 

 vicinity. Hosbrook is within two miles 

 by trail through dense woods, and many 

 know what atedious jaunt it is, bestrewn, 

 as the northern Wisconsin woods are, 

 with dead timber, compelling one very 

 often to cut a way through foliage and 

 brush seemingly impenetrable. 



The guides with their packs and 

 birch-bark canoes slung over their 

 shoulders, by means of yokes, seem 

 never to tire and do all in their power 

 to lessen the tediousness of the portages 

 and tramps over the trails of the party 

 they are guiding. On the tramp to 

 Hasbrook the tracks of the Chicago & 

 Northwestern R'y, which run direct 

 to Tomahawk Lake, are crossed, and the 

 sight of them, when one thinks he is 

 many miles from nowhere, seems to 

 bring his thoughts back to the fact 

 that there is a civilization though far 

 away. 



Hasbrook is a picturesque lake, with 

 one of the prettiest of green islands in 

 the center, which makes a most com- 

 fortable camping ground. Skunks are 

 not the most companionable of animals, 

 but are often met with during the so- 

 journ in the woods. One of our party 

 mistook one, I am sorry to say, for a 



