178 PICKEREL. 



small piece of flat board about nine inches across, and 

 pass a stick through a hole bored in the centre so as to 

 project above and below it ; the lower end is then loaded, 

 and to the upper is attached a line of some twenty or 

 thirty feet, that is baited with either a live or dead min- 

 now. The line is coiled on one side of the wood, and 

 leaving sufficient end for the bait to sink to a proper 

 depth is fastened slightly in a slit cut in the wood like 

 the thread of a spool. As many as you please to use 

 are then placed in the pond and left to fish while you 

 row about or otherwise employ yourself. If a pickerel 

 takes the bait, the line is jerked out of the cleft, and 

 uncoiling, allows him to carry off and pouch the bait, 

 but when he undertakes to move away he is hooked 

 by the resistance of the wood against the water. The 

 motion of the float can be seen from some distance, and 

 it is quite interesting to chase one after another that go 

 " bobbing around," as fish after fish is hooked. A plan 

 somewhat similar to this is described by Walton and 

 other writers, and it is merely a modification of an old 

 invention. 



The best season for pickerel fishing is after the first of 

 September, although they are taken at all times, includ- 

 ing their spawning seasons of February, March and 

 April, and are quite good, voracious and abundant in 

 July and August. The English pike is reported to show 

 an abstinence from food in Summer that our fish never 

 exhibit, and, indeed, differs from ours in many particu- 

 lars, and none more to his credit than his scarcity. In 

 Summer our fish resort to the shallow water, as they are 

 also said to do in their spawning season, and at both 



