152 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



frog, or a piece of white bacon-rind cut in the 

 semblance of a fish, or a frog's hind legs, skinned, 

 are skittered or fluttered on the surface near the 

 lily-pads and pickerel weeds. The fish should be 

 kept on the surface if possible, when hooked, and 

 drawn into open water ; otherwise it may become 

 entangled in the weeds and lost. 



The pickerel may also be taken by still-fishing 

 from a boat with the live minnow or frog. On 

 open water, a very successful way is trolling \vith 

 a small spoon and single hook, or a dead minnow. 

 For these methods the reader is referred to pike 

 or black-bass fishing on previous pages. 



I have found the pickerel as far south as east- 

 ern Florida, where it is known as " pike," though 

 it is rarely met with, and owing to its rarity is 

 held in pretty fair esteem as a game-fish. In the 

 marshes and rice ditches of South Carolina, and 

 some sluggish streams of southeast Georgia, it is 

 rather more plentiful, though usually of inferior 

 size and dusky coloration. I once caught several 

 on the Cooper River in South Carolina when 

 fishing with very light tackle for " bream," which 

 were unusually active and strong, and which im- 

 pressed me as entitled to a better reputation as 

 a game-fish than is commonly accorded to it by 



