Bait Angling for Common Fishes 



fresh waters, and to catch it represents 

 the lowest depths of depravity in fishing 

 with hook and line. This of course de- 

 pends on the manner and method of fish- 

 ing. Dr. Bean tells in his " Food and 

 Game Fish " that in Lake Erie catfish are 

 taken chiefly by means of set lines, and the 

 fishing is best during June, July and 

 August. The method consists of from two 

 hundred to four hundred hooks attached 

 by short lines to a main line, which is 

 from five to seven fathoms long, according 

 to the place in which set, the line being held 

 in place by poles or stakes pushed into the 

 mud. Herring or grasshoppers are used 

 for bait, and the fish taken average eight 

 or ten pounds' weight. Some of the lines 

 have as many as two thousand hooks. 



The catfish is a ready and voracious 

 feeder, any kind of bait being greedily 

 swallowed, and a large fish, when he feels 

 the hook, goes for some distance at aston- 

 ishing speed, pulling and tugging with bull- 

 like strength. In angling for them with 



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