90 DAYS IN THE OPEN 



they were always out when we called. Thanks be ! 

 there is not a pickerel in the lake. The great 

 northern pike looks much like his kinsman, the 

 pickerel, but differs in body-markings, gill-covers, 

 general shape being more stocky and especially 

 in palatableness. He is a vigorous fighter. Mr. 

 Louis Rhead, in his book on " Fish and Fishing," 

 says that neither the great northern pike nor the 

 pickerel has ever been known to rise above the 

 surface of the water after being hooked. If that 

 is correct, then something new under the sun has 

 happened recently, for the writer, with eighty to 

 a hundred feet of line out, had a nine-pounder 

 throw himself entirely out of the water in his 

 efforts to escape. The largest ever caught in this 

 lake weighed thirty-six pounds, but numbers are 

 taken that go over ten pounds each. They are 

 nearly as gamey and quite as good eating as the 

 muskallonge. 



The crappies are more friendly. Early in our 

 stay we located a " bed " which never failed to 

 respond to a call. If there is any fish in these 

 northern lakes that makes a more delicious dish 

 than fried crappies, we want to be introduced to it. 

 It is not all unusual to take them weighing a pound 

 each, but this seems trifling when the Methodist 

 preacher aforementioned tells us that he caught 

 seventy-five in Lake Itasca in less than an hour 

 which averaged two pounds each. Bass are here 



