CHAPTER XVIII. 



WHITE PERCH AND CAT-FISH ANGLING IN THE 

 VICINITY OF NEW YORK. 



By T. D. L. 



LAZE fishing lacks one element of interest possessed by the 

 salt water, namely, the condition of hopeful uncertainty respect- 

 ing the sort and size of your game. Between the humble 

 Flounder and the noble Sheepshead are many kinds of game 

 fish, and greater disparities of weight and value than exist 

 between the fish of fresh ponds, which are less various and more 

 equal. Moreover, the salt water tribe come and go with sea- 

 sons and tides, and cannot, like their inland brethren, always be 

 followed and found. There is therefore an excitement in the 

 doubtful chances of sea-fishing wanting in that of the lakes 

 which presents greater uniformity of character and certai nty ot 

 success. 



But though still water fishing, as compared with the flowing 

 salt, is inferior in interest, perhaps it has superiority in the gene- 

 ral satisfaction it affords. In the numerous lakelets of New 

 York, fish, of some sort, can at any time be taken. Not, how- 

 ever, always with equal ease. When the water is warm and 

 the fish well fed, the angler will find occasion for all his art ; 

 m the successful exercise of which, and not in the magnitude of 

 his fishing, lies, after all, the chief satisfaction. Perch, large 

 and lively, both yellow and white : Sunfish, sometimes of con- 

 siderable size ; Pickerel, which are shy, and employ all your 

 cunning and skill ; Cat-fish, whether you would or no ; are 

 taken in our hundred little lakes ; and the angler, with light rod 

 and fine tackle (which are indispensable to enjoyment), will 

 find fishing in them anything but a dull and tame affair. 



