PICKEREL. 173 



But the most wonderful mode of all is that practised 

 in the St. Lawrence, and generally among the larger 

 waters of Canada and the northern States. The fisher- 

 man places himself in the stern of a light canoe-shaped 

 boat, with his face forward, the oarsman sits near the 

 bows, of course facing aft ; on each side of the fisherman 

 are pegs like row-locks, or grooves, in the gunwale, with 

 corresponding round holes in the stretchers on the oppo- 

 site sides ; two short, stiff rods are laid across the boat, 

 projecting on each side like wings, kept in their places 

 by the pegs, and their buts supported by the holes. A 

 long line is let out from each rod, say forty yards, armed 

 with a spoon bait ; while the fisherman holds an ordinary 

 trolling-line in his hand, and is thus rowed about till 

 either he, or more frequently his oarsman, perceives from 

 the bending of the rod that he has a bite, or he feels a 

 dead drag on his hand-line. If it falls to the share of 

 the rod, he takes the latter up, ends it round till he can 

 reach the line, when he pulls the fish in by hand. If he 

 uses a reel, it is a good plan to take one or two turns of the 

 line round it, so that it will just render. By so doing he 

 might save the rod from breaking, which would be apt to 

 happen with a heavy fish. Mascallonge invariably stop 

 perfectly still when struck. 



In landing a fish by hand, which is always the prefer- 

 able mode, the reel only being used for an emergency, 

 hold the line very lightly between your fingers and give 

 to every jerk or rush. Innumerable large fish are lost 

 by an endeavor to pull them in by force, and I have seen 

 men, with their hands cut by the line, complaining that 

 they had lost a mascalonge of forty pounds. Pickerel 



