370 MODES OF TAKING PICKEREL. 



PICKEREL FISHING. 



From the gigantic Mascalouge and its nearly equal congener, 

 the Great Northern Pickerel, to the small barred variety, which 

 is found only in the waters of Long Island, the whole of this 

 fierce and ferocious family affords great sport to the fresh-water 

 angler ; and where the Trout and Salmon do not obtain, they 

 are considered as the kings of the waters. There are many 

 modes of fishing for them, and the baits which they will take 

 are almost innumerable, comprehending in their range almost 

 the whole animal creation, fish, flesh, fowl, and reptile. 



When of great size they are excessively destructive — not to 

 other fish only, of which they are the tyrants, but to frogs, 

 water-rats, and even the young of wild-fowl. 



They are taken either with trimmers, that is to say, small 

 floating buoys with a rude reel attached, and a dependent live 

 bait, with long set-lines ; or again, by roving with the live, or 

 trolling with the dead bait. In the former mode, it is the 

 better way to use two moderate-sized hooks, one passed 

 through the hp, and the other through the dorsal fin of the 

 bait, which should be sunk about two feet below the surface, 

 with a large float on the Hue, and sufi'ered to swim about at his 

 pleasure. 



