Tragic Fishing Moments 



Lake, a body of water that has a reputation among 

 fishermen as a " hard " bass lake. Muskies, pike, and 

 pickerel can all be secured by the man who tries in this 

 lake, but black bass seem to bear a charmed life. It 

 isn't that there are none there that theory has long 

 been dispelled by anxious investigators. It seems 

 merely that they are too wary to be taken by the means 

 ordinarily employed. Naturally, all the real fisher- 

 men are more than anxious to land a few just for this 

 reason. 



The year the big fracas burst out in Europe, my wife, 

 my sister and I occupied Doc Grosskopf s cottage on 

 the north shore of Pelican Lake for about three weeks 

 during the month of August. Luck was " fair to 

 middlin'," even though I wasn't exerting myself as 

 much as usual that year. One fine Sunday morning 

 I overcame my scruples sufficiently to row the old 

 punt out beyond the bulrushes to do a little lazy man's 

 fishing for perch. Funny how a man will try to keep 

 his city habits concerning Sunday while in the woods, 

 and then succumb in the end, even if only to wet a line ! 

 The perch didn't worry about Sunday though, and 

 kept my little alder pole busy. I soon had approx- 

 imately forty on my stringer. 



I had another short alder pole in the boat, and as it 

 had a heavier line and hook on it too heavy for 

 perch I baited it with a small crab and placed it in 

 the bow of the boat. I had completely forgotten about 



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