14 PRACTICAL BAIT CASTING 



hook. The minnow is allowed to sink and then is 

 reeled in slowly. 



One strike and a lost fish is the only result produced, 

 BO blaming it on the time of day, the fisherman beaches 

 his boat, a cook kit is put to work, and soon the air is 

 laden with the scent of cooking fish and bacon, and 

 "bilin' " coffee not at all unpleasant to the hungry 

 angler. After the "dishes are done" a pipe is lighted 

 and while the lines are drying an hour's rest is taken 

 in the shade of a willow tree. 



Then the gravel bottom is given another trial, as this 

 fisherman has a pronounced fondness for small-mouth 

 bass. The first cast brings forth a hard strike, and a 

 ten-minute battle nets a specimen of a small-mouth bass 

 that would bring joy to any fisherman's heart, and two 

 hours more work produces two more bass and a pike- 

 perch of fair size. Another half hour of fishless effort 

 and the boat is headed toward the boathouse where 

 things are put in ship-shape order and the waders again 

 donned for the homeward journey down stream. 



He does not fish so carefully now, because he con- 

 siders that he has done a good day's "work" his 

 catch now amounting to nine bass, one pickerel, and 

 one pike-perch. True he has not had one of those 

 red-letter days when the fish are "hittin' hard," when 

 three fish are often taken on three successive casts, 

 but on the other hand it was not one of those days, not 

 infrequent, when a day's casting produces not a single 

 strike. 



