136 PRACTICAL BAIT CASTING 



On cloudy days and at evening it will often rise 

 well to the fly, but the best casting bait is a minnow 

 or crawfish. It is a night feeder, as can be guessed 

 from the size and appearance of its eyes, and fre- 

 quently they can be taken on moonlight nights with 

 artificial baits like a small-bodied underwater plug, 

 white or aluminum in color, by casting on the bars in 

 lakes or near rapids and dams in streams. 



The pike-perch spawns very early in the spring, 

 usually before the ice is gone, and prefers gravel bot- 

 tom for the purpose. A two-pound fish will produce 

 about ninety thousand eggs. The young grow quite 

 rapidly. The average weight of the pike-perch is 

 around two or three pounds, although they probably 

 reach a weight of twenty pounds or over. One of 

 twelve or fifteen pounds is a large specimen. 



In lake fishing, pike-perch are caught mostly in the 

 spring or midsummer, while on the stream the best 

 time seems to be in the fall after the first light frost. 

 They do not strike with the savage rush of the bass 

 or muskellunge and as fighters they rank only fair. 



OTHER FISHES 



The black bass, because of his sterling qualities and 

 wide distribution, is the principal quarry of the bait 

 caster, but in most bass waters other species co-exist. 

 These are most frequently the pike, pickerel, pike- 

 perch, and muskellunge, although other fishes, like 

 the rock bass and croppie, often strike the caster's 



