200 Fisninc in AMERICAN WATERS. 
Sometimes it is best to take an extra supply of worms, and 
cut some of them into small pieces and throw them into the 
fishing-pool to attract the fishes to the place where you in- 
tend angling. The liver of any animal is good bait for sun- 
fish, shiners, chubs, dace, etc. If angling in salt-water for 
white perch, smelt, spearing, porgees, and tomcods, use shrimp 
for bait; or, if they can not be procured, use either soft or 
hard shell clam. Rig the line with only one hook, and let 
papa regulate the whole tackle according to the size of the 
fishes to be angled for. 
Oh! well do I remember the time when I first essayed to 
capture the finny beauties of the brook. I was about seven 
years old, and as my father, who was devoted to educational 
pursuits, had found both recreation and consolation in an- 
gling, he used sometimes to permit me to accompany him 
and carry his strings of trout, and finally rigged me out with 
a wand, line, and hook. The first fish that I caught was a 
shiner. The sensation caused by the bite of the fish, and the 
sight of the trembling and shining beauty as I cast it over 
my head, and when realizing, by running to my hook and 
learning that I had actually caught it, were moments as in- 
describable as they were ecstatic. I was anxious to return 
home at once and show the trophy to the family, and was 
not dissuaded until my larger comrades pointed out the pos- 
sibility of my taking a long string of such jewels. 
After practicing a season with this light tackle, it will be 
best to procure regular perch-tackle, and the next season a 
reel and trout-rod may be added to the outfit. Then grass- 
hoppers will be found the favorite bait for trout and young 
black bass, and small shiners and white grub-worms will be 
found most attractive after a shower for large trout, black 
bass, perch, and now and then a sand pickerel, which some of 
the fishermen call dorée. The lad will soon learn that the 
most rapturous sport is realized along a stream and among 
the birds as they chirp and sing while flitting from spray to 
spray, for they rightly regard the young angler as a friend, 
