KINKS OF ALL KINDS 



105 



way and that so well that I de- 

 cided to cast again, and in re- 

 trieving to show her a little tip 

 work. 



Well, I placed that stick in a 

 nice little hole just t the roots 

 of a tree on the opposite bank, 



spicuous in the water, so I figured 

 that must be the reason that he 

 struck, considering the indifferent 

 success we had on the way up. 

 Naturally we decided to make 

 that stick into a bait. 



The Littlest Lady was very in- 



where some brush overhung the 

 stream and made a shady little 

 nook (you know exactly that kind 

 of a hole), and just as I placed 

 the thumb down hard I gave a 

 steady upward tip motion while 

 bringing the rod back to my left 

 hand (I always hold the rod in 

 my left hand while retrieving), 

 which caused the stick to dive and 

 dart to the left. Bang! A pick- 

 erel struck ; and twice now I felt 



terested and brought all my gear 

 to me. I searched through the 

 mess and finally found a plug 

 with. a double hook put on with a 

 screw-eye, which I unscrewed and 

 put into the middle of the alder 

 stick and had a bait something 

 like illustration No. 2. 



I sure landed that "pick," and 

 it was what we call a "whalloper," 

 a little over nineteen inches long, 

 measured from the rod butt to 

 the third winding up. I didn't 

 have the scales along, but Til bet 

 that he weighed well, if I told 



him snub the stick before I could 

 get it in for another cast. 



"Well," says I, "that must look 

 pretty good to him." So we sat 

 down and talked it over. 



You know that the young 

 shoots of alder are a dark bronze 

 green and when the bark is cut 

 the white wood shows up very 

 distinctly. There must have been 

 just enough white showing on 

 that stick and it wasn't too con- 



you you might think I came from 

 Tennessee as Dock Gushwa says 

 in his article on "A Trip on the 

 Kankakee." 



We catch lots of small ones 

 here (Rhode Island), but never 

 keep one under ten inches, even 

 though we go home without any 

 fish. A pickerel over eighteen 



