200 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



Sometimes it is best to take an extra supply of worms, and 

 cut some of them into small pieces and throw them into the 

 fishing-pool to attract the fishes to the place where you in- 

 tend angling. The liver of any animal is good bait for sun- 

 fish, shiners, chubs, dace, etc. If angling in salt-water for 

 white perch, smelt, spearing, porgees, and tomcods, use shrimp 

 for bait ; or, if they can not be procured, use either soft or 

 hard shell clam. Rig the line with only one hook, and let 

 papa regulate the whole tackle according to the size of the 

 fishes to be angled for. 



Oh ! well do I remember the time when I first essayed to 

 capture the finny beauties of the brook. I was about seven 

 years old, and as my father, who was devoted to educational 

 pursuits, had found both recreation and consolation in an- 

 gling, he used sometimes to permit me to accompany him 

 and carry his strings of trout, and finally rigged me out with 

 a wand, line, and hook. The first fish that I caught was a 

 shiner. The sensation caused by the bite of the fish, and the 

 sight of the trembling and shining beauty as I cast it over 

 my head, and when realizing, by running to my hook and 

 learning that I had actually caught it, were moments as in- 

 describable as they were ecstatic. I was anxious to return 

 home at once and show the trophy to the family, and was 

 not dissuaded until my larger comrades pointed out the pos- 

 sibility of my taking a long string of such jewels. 



After practicing a season with this light tackle, it will be 

 best to procure regular perch-tackle, and the next season a 

 reel and trout-rod may be added to the outfit. Then grass- 

 hoppers will be found the favorite bait for trout and young 

 black bass, and small shiners and white grub-worms will be 

 found most attractive after a shower for large trout, black 

 bass, perch, and now and then a sand pickerel, which some of 

 the fishermen call doree. The lad will soon learn that the 

 most rapturous sport is realized along a stream and among 

 the birds as they chirp and sing while flitting from spray to 

 spray, for they rightly regard the young angler as a friend, 



