114 FOX LAKE-PETITE LAKE. 



fisherman can do is to try all the grounds in turn, or at 

 least as many as his time will permit. Sticking to a 

 piece of water in the face of non-success, just because 

 at some previous time a good catch of fish was taken 

 there, is only a waste of time. If you don't find the 

 fishes willing to take your bait in one supposed good 

 fishing spot, move around to the next and keep on 

 moving until you find a piece of water where they are 

 feeding. In any large body of water like that con- 

 tained in most of the lakes I have described, there is 

 generally some particular portion more favored than 

 the rest and in which a few fishes will be found to 

 respond to the angler's attentive persistence. 



One day this Summer, while casting on Fox Lake, I 

 came across a boat in which were two persons. One 

 was a gentleman whom I recognized as a well-known 

 Chicago business man; the other was an old boatman 

 who has fished the lakes for many years. The gentle- 

 man was skittering with a minnow, the boatman row- 

 ing, and although I have my own private opinion re- 

 garding skittering, yet, after watching the method pur- 

 sued, it was impossible to avoid admiring the artistic 

 manner and the amount of positive science displayed 

 by the boatman when placing his patron within reach 

 of the weed bed they were skirting. The sculls were 

 moved with scarcely a perceptible motion, most of the 

 rowing being done from that side farthest from the 

 weed bed. Each time the angler would cast his bait 

 among the weeds and rushes, the sculls were suffered 

 to remain perfectly stationary during the whole of the 

 time the bait was in the water; and what progress was 

 made in shifting the ground was done between fhe 

 casts, yet so delicately and skillfully that, with the 

 slightest ripple to assist the boatman, it was possible 

 to fish within ten yards of the boat without scaring 

 away the fish. 



I recognized at once how it was possible to make the 

 big catches of fish which are so often taken by skitter- 

 ing. The bait was working almost all the time. Each 



