FI6HIXG FOR TROUT, TICKEREL, AXD BASS. G5 



Make a box six feet square and six feet deep, and turn 

 it upside down on tlie ice over a bole about twenty inches 

 across. Have a door in the side of the box through 

 which you can go in and out. You may also have a bench 

 and a stove inside, to keep yourself snng and warm. 

 When you are in, close the door so that it will be quite 

 dark ; then you can see for some distance in the water, 

 but it is best to be where it is only about two feet deep. 

 Bait your line vvdth a little wooden fish, weighted with 

 lead, and with tin fins. Keep this playing about in the 

 water, and the pickerel, which are always on the lookout 

 for prey, will come after it, aud you can coax them up 

 near to the surface and then strike them with a short 

 bearded spear. 



Another way to fish through ice is to set a lot of Imes 

 about thirty feet long with a cork float to keep the hook 

 off the bottom, baiting it with a small live fish. The rest 

 of the line may lie coiled up near tlie hole so that it will 

 pay out easily, and the other end of it may be fastened to 

 a little bush stuck up in the ice. When the pickerel takes 

 the bait, he runs away w^ith it as he swallows it, and the 

 Ions: line is needed to f>ive him a chance to do this. The 

 shaking of the bush will show w^hen you have a bite, and 

 you can attend to twenty lines at once, and have more 

 sport. 



Fishing for bass is quite another business. To my 

 mind, they are a much better fish than the pickerel. 

 There are several kinds of bass, — the black, the striped, 



