PICKEREL FISHING 335 



rounds of his holes, inspecting his hooks to see 

 if the bait has escaped or been stolen, handling 

 new ones in the icy water and skimming the 

 young ice from the holes across his fishing. 

 Miles a day he runs in the keen air with his bait 

 pail and skimmer and however many fish he 

 catches I am quite sure he eats them all at the 

 next meal. 



And not all his catch are sure to be pickerel. 

 Down below there in the twilight of the warmest 

 water next the bottom are perch and dace, bass 

 and eel, and all these are likely to hunger for 

 shiner. The largest eel I ever saw caught came 

 up through the ice in this way and I have even 

 known the clumsy and stupid sucker to come out 

 of the hole on the hook, making the fisherman 

 think for a moment that he had hold of the one 

 big pickerel of that particular pond. I cannot 

 conceive of a sucker actually attempting to eat 

 a shiner, even when impaled, impeded and wrig- 

 gling, so such must have come by the hook in 

 some other way, probably accidentally caught as 

 they came by. 



As for that monster fish, there are times, even 

 when the fishermen are not telling me about him, 

 that I believe he exists. Besides the two vari- 



