A Day on the Maquoketa. 



"Hello, Doc ! Get a move on you ! It's almost 5 o'clock and 

 we should be at the Quaker Mill right now, if we expect to get 

 any bass today." Such was the greeting fired at me from the 

 door by my old chum Arthur Green who was impatiently 

 awaiting me to join him on a proposed fishing trip to the mill. 

 I jumped into my fishing togs as fast as possible, got together 

 my tackle, minnow bucket and lunch, and we were off. 



It was one of those beautiful October mornings so common 

 in Northern Iowa during the Indian summer season, and as we 

 turned off Franklin Street and entered Acre's Grove I could not 

 but be thankful for the spark of Waltonian fire within me 

 which called me out on such a glorious morning. Chatting 

 merrily as we tramped along the sandy road, we found our- 

 selves on the bank of Honey Creek before we realized it. Here 

 was where we expected to fill our minnow pails. Taking off 

 our shoes and rolling up our trousers, we made a swing around 

 below the bar with our little seine and scooped up a fine lot of 

 minnows. Hiding our seine in the willows, we were off for 

 the mill. It was but a fifteen minutes' walk to the pond, and 

 storing our outfit in the old flat-bottomed boat, we were ready 

 for the day's sport. 



Successful bass fishing is an art, even when the streams are 

 full of them, and the novice frequently comes home after a hard 

 day's work, tired and worn out, with an empty string the bass 

 upon which he doted being most conspicuous by their absence. 

 The most essential things necessary to lure the bronze-backed 

 beauties from their haunts are good lively minnows, good 

 tackle, a steady boat and, last but not least, a cool head and 

 patient judgment. Flattering ourselves that we possessed all 

 of these requisites, and reasonably assured of a good day's 

 sport, we rowed slowly up-stream. The ground covered by the 

 backwater of the pond had once been heavily timbered and 

 when the high log dam was built the water had backed up 



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