CHAPTER XVI. 



FOX LAKE. PETITE LAKE. OBSERVATIONS ON SKIT- 

 * TERING AND BAIT-CASTING. 



Fox Lake is reached from the Lake Villa Depot on 

 the Wisconsin Central Line. It is fifty miles from 

 Chicago, and although plentifully stocked with pickerel 

 and bass is the most difficult lake of any in which to 

 make a good catch. There are a few old-time fishermen 

 who occasionally make good catches by skittering and 

 trolling, but for the average bait-caster who possesses 

 no special knowledge of the ground the outlook for a 

 good catch is not very encouraging. If a man is con- 

 tent to engage a boat and the services of one of the 

 several experienced guides who live in the neighbor- 

 hood, to row him cautiously within reach of the best 

 pieces of water, and will skitter a minnow or a spoon 

 with a long bamboo pole, yanking the fish into the boat 

 without play or sport, such an individual providing he 

 strikes a favorable time can often make a big catch. 



The lake teems with natural food of every descrip- 

 tion, and this is probably one of the chief reasons the 

 fish do not feed readily. Although the lake contains 

 some magnificent bass and pickerel ground, as far as 

 appearances go, little of it is worth fishing. The space 

 of really good fishing water, for such a large area as 

 that which Fox Lake contains, is extremely small. 



Starting from the Eastside Hotel, the best thing to 

 do is to row directly to the spot marked H on the chart. 

 The best bass ground in the whole lake is that em- 

 braced within the triangle formed by the letters P, 

 D and H, directly facing the Eastside Hotel. The 

 bottom of this portion of the lake is all that could be de- 

 sired, rush patches with bass weed and a heavy ground 

 growth of silk weed. This piece of water contains sev- 

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