FISHING IN AUTUMN AND WINTER. 



BY T. L. PITT. 



IN the fall, beside the ordinary methods of fishing with hook 

 and line, which are too familiar to need description, the trap- 

 per may have opportunity for spearing salmon-trout on their 

 spawning beds. This operation, to be successful, requires these 

 preliminaries : 1, plenty of fish, and good spawning beds ; 

 2, a good canoe or boat ; 3, a good spear ; 4, a good jack ; 

 5, plenty of fat pine and white-birch bark ; 6, favorable 

 weather; 7, an expert spear man. The jack is a sort of con- 

 cave gridiron structure, made of wire or iron rods, and placed 

 on an upright post about three feet and a half high, in the 

 bow of the boat. In the jack the fat pine and birch bark are 

 burned to give light to the spearman and those who paddle 

 the boat. Fat pine, is pine that is full of pitch, and is usually 

 found in the knots and roots of fallen and decayed trees. The 

 spear should be made with five barbed prongs, about five 

 inches in length and three fourths of an inch apart, and set on 

 a line with each other. The prongs should be made of the 

 best steel, well tempered. The four outer prongs should 

 be barbed on their inside edges. The middle prong on both 

 edges. 



The practical operation of spearing is as follows. Having 

 arrived on the spawning ground the spearman kindles the fire 

 in his jack, as soon as it is dark enough. He then stands 

 near the bow with spear in hand, and peers keenly down into 

 the water for the desired fish. The paddler stands near the 

 stern, and follows the directions of the spearman in paddling 

 and guiding the boat. The spearman must stand firmly in the 

 boat, and in striking must allow for the refraction of the light 



