374 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



led me to adopt when fishing for Pike in our wide rivers, or 

 bays on the great lakes. 



The Pike is a sharp-eyed, shy fish; you must reach him 

 "a ways off"; you cannot expect to stand on a big rock, drop 

 down in the water beneath you, and get hooked to a great 

 northern Pike. "He aint nobody's fool, and don't you be- 

 lieve it !" 



Take a trolling or spinning hook, baited with a piece of fat 

 pork, cut in shape like a fish, have a boat pulled alongside 

 the rushes I have spoken of; let out twenty yards of line, 

 and then have your oarsman pull a long slow stroke, and if 

 the Pike family are receiving visitors, you will soon know it. 

 Trolling with a long line and three sets of hooks is a most 

 barbarous way of fishing for the Pike. I care not if this 

 family are the Sharks of fresh water, they are entitled to fair 

 play. His Satanic Majesty is never as black as he is painted, 

 so the Esox lucius is cousin german to the Nobilor vulgate 

 Mascalonge, and partakes of his noble nature. He is a foe- 

 man worthy the steel of the most ardent angler. Some an- 

 glers call the family "snakes." I pity them! Go where Pike 

 can be found, fish for them with legitimate tackle, and give 

 them a fair chance, and they will give just as much pleasure 

 as any royal Small-mouth Bass that ever swam 



FISHING TACKLE. 



A lance-wood or bethabara-wood rod, of about nine feet 

 long, a "Milam," "Chubb's," "Henshall," "Van Antwerp," 

 "Abbey & Imbrie, Steel-pivot Multiplier," or an "Automatic 

 reel"- -a strong but not heavy line, silver gimp snoods of 

 about two feet long, then with a heavy sneck-bend hook 

 with a small lip-hook whipped into the gimp snood to fasten 

 the bait to, and a good gaff-hook, and the angler is equipped. 

 With a silver chub or shiner for bait, run out about five feet 

 of line from the tip of your rod, casting sideways out fmm 



