108 CHANNEL LAKE. 



Knowing when and how to strike a fish is an im- 

 portant factor in angling. A pickerel seizes a bait 

 crosswise and hardly ever shifts it from that posi- 

 tion in his mouth until he has reached a spot in which 

 to devour it. The fisherman will feel the strike when 

 a pickerel seizes his bait. This will be followed by 

 a short or long run, according to the size of the fish 

 and the distance his inclination may lead him to travel 

 before stopping to swallow it. Never strike a fish on 

 its first run unless there is some special reason for do- 

 ing so, nor allow him to feel the slightest check when 

 running off with the bait; but when the fish, after 

 resting, again goes off, tighten the line, and imme- 

 diately the tension shows a direct communication with 

 the fish without any intervening slack the rod should 

 be thrown smartly back with sufficient force to drive 

 the hooks home. Always wait until a fish is going 

 away from you before striking; never attempt it when 

 he is coming toward you. You may hook him in this 

 position, but in nine cases out of ten it will be done so 

 insecurely that he will tear away. 



A bass seizes a minnow by the head and a frog by 

 the legs, and when in a feeding humor swallows the 

 bait as he moves away; he does not wait to find some 

 suitable place in which to swallow his prey like the 

 pickerel does, but feeds as he swims. But a bass, 

 when not over hungry, will often seize a bait and 

 hold it in his mouth for a considerable length of time 

 and then reject it. This can be obviated, to a certain 

 extent, by using two hooks, one in the head of the 

 bait and the other in the tail, and striking directly 

 the bass seizes the bait. With this exception, always 

 give a bass a little time and allow him to go off with 

 the bait some trifling distance before striking. 



An experienced fisherman can generally form a fairly 

 correct idea of the kind of fish which strikes at his 

 bait. If in shallow water it is necessarily drawn near 

 the surface, and the rise of the fish is sufficiently vis- 

 ible to enable a pretty correct guess to be made, and 



