THE FIRST PICKEREL 



I have brought to gaff a tuna, cast for grayling with 



a Cree, 

 Caught some small mouths that were whoppers, 



hauled a sword-fish from the sea; 

 Roughly speaking I have angled ev'ry fish that has 



a mouth, 

 From the Arctics to the Tropics and a thousand 



miles due South; 

 Yet I can't remember thrilling just the way that 



once I did 

 When I yanked that three-pound pick'rel from the 



creek, when but a kid! 



Albert Jay Cook. 



JUST ORDINARY OL' PICKEREL 



If there is any one of the fish family that we re- 

 member from the knee-pants and bent-pin stage of 

 the fishing game, it sure must be OF Judge Pickerel 

 and the young " picks." It certainly made your 

 heart do a double-quick and started the cold creeps 

 up your spine the first time you hooked a pickerel, 

 after a kindergarten course on chubs and sunnies. 



100 



