268 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



Forthwith I mounted my toggery, took a cracker, and fol- 

 lowed Jack to the boat, where all things were in readiness, 

 and he sculled me out to a raft or float on the lake, which had 

 been anchored at one of the best feeding-places for the long- 

 noses. Leaving me with my half dozen poles, ten feet long 

 each, and a pail of live minnows, Jack returned to the shore. 



Among the numerous methods of still-baiting for pickerel, 

 that from an anchored float is the most quiet and easy. As 

 I was attaching a line to each pole, a deer, with elegant but 

 timid tread, came to the margin of the lake and took a drink. 

 It was September a month for excellent venison ; but then 

 he was too pretty and innocent-looking to kill, and, though 

 within short range, I had no rifle with me. The god of day 

 had not yet appeared, but the merry songsters made the 

 copse and fields joyous. To each stout pole I tied a line, 

 three feet longer than the pole, and at the end of each I at- 

 tached a gimp-snelled hook, and covered the connection of 

 line and snell with a small strip of sheet lead. The water 

 was from seven to nine feet deep, and for a float I tied a piece 

 of pine shingle, which produced no resistance to a bite, but 

 merely kept the bait a foot above the bottom. The shingle- 

 float was ten inches long, two inches wide at the thin, feath- 

 ered end, and tapered to a point, being half an inch square at 

 the end where I made the notch and tied the line. 



In still-baiting for pickerel, if the fish takes the bait, and 

 learns that it is anchored or not at liberty, the fish at once 

 rejects it ; but by means of the sharp-ended float no percep- 

 tible resistance is offered, and the pickerel swims off toward 

 a convenient place to gorge it. There were places arranged 

 on the float for properly setting the poles, and arm-chairs at 

 intervals invited to rest between bites. By the time I had 

 baited' my sixth hook and set my last pole, I saw the shingle- 

 float to one of my lines tip up a trifle, and glide along the 

 surface of the water, sinking gradually as it moved. I gave 

 a sudden jerk with the pole to an opposite direction from 

 that which the float was moving, and thus hooked and landed 



