MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. 



327 



Frogs, as bait for Pike, are much used in some parts of the 

 country. They are generally employed as live bait, by passing 

 the hook through the skin of the back or belly. Some use the 

 double Limerick Pickerel hook, attached to brass wire, making 

 a hole through the skin of the back or belly with a baiting 

 needle, and fastening it with thread to prevent its getting out o 

 place ; others pass the hook through the lip of the frog, and 

 some again through the back muscle of the hind legs, and then 

 tie up the limbs to conceal the hooks. They are mostly used 

 on the top of the water (still-fishing, or trolling). When em- 

 -ployed in mid water, or near bottom with a float, it will be 

 necessary to use a good size sinker, or a few large shot, to keep 

 them down. In all cases, in live bait angling, they should be 

 allowed to come to the top occasionally for air ; but not quite 

 as long as the Virginia abstractionist, as related in the N. Y. 

 Spirit of the Times, who, using an insufficient weight, or giving 

 his line too much freedom, found, after fishing all the morning 

 without a bite (whilst taking a bite at his 12 o'clock lunch), 

 his veritable bait sitting on a stump opposite, looking at him. 

 Frogs are very tenacious of life, the piercing of the skin in baiting 

 doing them very little injury. The hind legs are very success- 

 fully used in trolling, and make a bait, when skinned and placed 

 on the double or single hook, perhaps the most taking in the 

 whole list of pike baits. 



The gentler sex in this country as well as in the Old World 

 are becoming captivated with, and enthusiastic on the subject 

 of angling. In some parts of our trouting districts there are 

 many ladies that can throw the fly with as much dexterity and 

 grace as those that are made of sterner stuff. 



An artificial bait called the Kill-devil, which has been in use 

 a number of years in England, has proved very successful with 



In appear- 



some of OUF sportsmen, in trolling for trout or pike. 



