QUIET SCENEEY AND ACTIVE SPOKT. 271 



feathers or hair for the under side of the spoon. Stand near 

 the bow of your punt, and skitter the lure along the surface 

 of the water, near the margins of the lily-pads, and if you are 

 on Sodus Bay, or tempting the fish from almost any of the 

 bayous of Lake Ontario, you will find cause for surprise that 

 will force you to ejaculate; for it will be questionable which 

 will be the most astonished, the novice in the boat or that in 

 the water. A most important essential is to have a man at 

 the stern who can use the setting-pole and sculls so as to en- 

 able you to fish the border of the lily-pads without scaring 

 the prey into their hiding-places. 



Cuffy says, "Uf we had de gun, we might git a mess of 

 wood-duck." I reply, " Confound wood-duck ! Don't you see 

 that the large pickerel is going into the weeds, and that I 

 can not prevent him ? Turn the punt from shore." 



In skittering for pickerel with live minnow, the shiner is 

 the best. Use two or three hooks in a gang, as represented 

 for " spinning-tackle." Keep your bait in motion, upon the 

 same principle that you would fish for salmon or brook trout. 

 It is the favorite plan of angling for pickerel in New England, 

 and is, moreover, essentially modern, and affords active recre- 

 ation. 



STILL-BAITING FOR PICKEREL. 



"The angler is free 



From the cares which degree 

 Finds itself with so often tormented ; 



And although we should slay 



Each a hundred a day, 

 "Tis a slaughter needs ne'er be repented." COTTON. 



The primitive and philosophical method of angling for pick- 

 erel is with an ash or hickory pole. The bait is a live frog. 

 Of course, while angling in this way, you may study nature ; 

 but, lest you should fathom all things too soon, take books 

 with you, for they are frequently unfathomable. Seek a place 

 on the margin of a solitary pond, shut out from the habita- 

 tions of men by a dense grove. Seat yourself on some fallen 



