THE PIKE FAMILY. 



are spoken of where the weight was as much as seventy 

 pounds. 



Angling for Mascalonge is the same as for Pickerel, the 

 spoon being almost universally used. They are active, and 

 have more pluck than the large Pickerel ; though any angler 

 who holds a stout trolling-rod, with a good multiplying- 

 reel and a hundred yards of good line, if he* is cool and waits 

 assiduously on his enemy, is sure of him. I had rather trust 

 to a good grip on the nape of the neck, than to a gaff-hook in 

 getting one into the boat. 



I know of old anglers who have experienced better things, 

 who make long excursions in pursuit of Mascalonge, who will 

 sit on a cushioned seat with a cushioned back in the stern of 

 a boat, and suffer themselves to be pulled about all day, with 

 a trolling-rod extended from each side. I never could appre- 

 ciate this inactive mode of taking fish, which is little better 

 than cockney punt-fishing, and does not require one-tenth the 

 skill. If spoon-fishing had been practised in Maelzel's day, 

 and that ingenious man had been an angler, no doubt he 

 would have constructed an automaton Pickerel-fisher. 



