192 LAKE AND STREAM GAME FISHING 



stiffened up my line and almost doubled my Bristol 

 No. 25 which, by the way, is some light rod for a 

 musky battle. Then a drive straight across the river 

 that cut the line through the water with a zip. I 

 let him take about seventy feet, then put on the 

 brakes, when up out of the water he came with a 

 sudden sharp jump that nearly caught me with a 

 slack, and he did a shake I never thought a musky 

 had in his body. He had probably been hooked be- 

 fore, because he tried every trick I had ever heard 

 a musky had in his system, from the corkscrew twist 

 to the double jump, but he was hooked right, and I 

 held him down under a stiff line. 



" Four times I almost had him to gaff against his 

 wishes, but each time he gingered up and made an- 

 other effort to break away. At last I played him 

 out and brought him in white side up and I was sure 

 proud as I slipped my fingers under his gills and 

 lifted him ashore, a fine specimen of the gamest of 

 muskies, the famous dark green musky of the ' old 

 Chippewa.' ' 



LANDS BIG PIKE ON WEAK LINE 



The pike, so commonly called pickerel by many 

 fishermen, is a close relation to the musky and al- 

 though he doesn't make the spectacular fight that 

 his husky cousin does, he can give a good account of 

 himself. When hooked in the cooler waters in the 

 fall, he has an added bunch of pep that places him 



