THE ANGLER AND HUNTSMAN 17 



all nature is dressed in gala array in response to the glad 

 sunshine and growing rains. 



I have in mind a little outing spent with a friend one 

 winter's day in which we fished for pike through the ice. 

 Through 15 inches of solid ice we hewed a hole. The 

 rougher part was accomplished with the axe, but as soon as 

 the axe got through to the water beneath, I took the chisel 

 and shaped up the opening as best I could. 



Putting on a minnow, while my partner cut himself 

 another hole not far distant, I lowered it about ten or fif- 

 teen feet beneath the surface and held it there. The end 

 of my line, of course, was tied securely to a stick, but in all 

 other ways it Avas nothing more than a hand-line, and real- 

 ly a hand-line it was indeed. 



I now busied myself in gathering some wood for a fire, 

 and soon had a cheerful blaze on the bank nearby, where it 

 would be convenient to go and warm when we got chilled. 

 A fire is an important item in ice-fishing, for usually along 

 lakes the wind comes in pretty brisk and cold. Of bourse, 

 if you are fishing far out from shore, the fire may be built 

 on the ice at a respectable distance from where you are 

 fishing. Some claim the warmth of the fire goes through 

 to the water below and draws fish to that neighborhood. 

 These preliminaries over, we cut other holes until we had 

 six or eight cut and lines set. 



In this manner we caught several good-sized pike. 

 While this sort of fishing does not give one the opportuni- 

 ty to display his skill to any great degree it is, at least, a 

 form of winter sport that helps to while away those long 

 winter days when the angler feels that spring w r ill never 

 arrive, so that he may again rig up his favorite rod and 

 reel and go forth to battle with a big muskie, a trout, a 

 black bass, a pike or whatever species opportunity and lo- 

 cation presents. 



We returned home that night feeling greatly invig- 

 orated by the day's outing in the brisk winter air, and 



