268 Fisumxe iy AMERICAN WATERS. 
Forthwith I mounted my toggery, took a cracker, and fol- 
lowed Jack to the boat, where all things were in readiness, 
and he sculled me out to a raft or float on the lake, which had 
been anchored at one of the best feeding-places for the long- 
noses. Leaving me with my half dozen poles, ten feet long 
each, and a pail of live minnows, Jack returned to the shore. 
Among the numerous methods of still-baiting for pickerel, 
that from an anchored float is the most quiet and casy. As 
I was attaching a line to each pole, a deer, with clegant but 
timid tread, came to the margin of the lake and took a drink. 
It was September—a month for excellent venison; but then 
he was too pretty and innocent-looking to kill, and, though 
within short range, I had no rifle with me. The god of day 
had not yet appeared, but the merry songsters made the 
copse and fields joyous. To each stout pole I tied a line, 
three feet longer than the pole, and at the end of each I at- 
tached a gimp-snelled hook, and covered the connection of 
line and snell with a small strip of sheet lead. The water 
was from seven to nine feet deep, and for a float I tied a piece 
of pine shingle, which produccd no resistance to a bite, but 
merely kept the bait a foot above the bottom, The shingle- 
float was ten inches long, two inches wide at the thin, feath- 
ered end, and tapered to a point, being halfan inch square at 
the end where I made the notch and tied the line. 
In still-baiting for pickerel, if the fish takes the bait, and 
learns that it is anchored, or not at liberty, the fish at once 
rejects it; but by means of the sharp-ended float no percep- 
tible resistance is offered, and the pickerel swims off toward 
a convenient place to gorge it. There were places arranged 
on the float for properly setting the poles, and arm-chairs at 
intervals invited to rest between bites. By the time I had 
baited my sixth hook and set my last pole, saw the shingle- 
float to one of my lines tip up a trifle, and glide along the 
surface of the water, sinking gradually as it moved. I gave 
a sudden jerk with the pole to an opposite direction from 
that which the float was moving, and thus hooked and landed 
