TROLLING. 483 
its parts and strengthening its joints in preparation for the 
momentous struggle! We impatiently questioned our oracle, 
George Holland, as to the chances of success in trolling; 
but George, like all other oracles, was both prudent and 
mystical. He saw that we were determined that it should 
be in season, whether or no; that we would take some 
salmon trout, “bite or no bite;’’ and therefore he waived 
answering our questions directly, but told of his success four 
weeks ago; said the day was not very fine for ’em—but we 
might try, and if they did bite, we would probably take 
some! Encouraging, very! and the sly twinkle in the fellow’s 
eye, still more so! But we hadn’t come two hundred miles 
to be discouraged, and we went. 
My friend had new-rigged his tackle with the painstaking 
skill of true science—while I, who pretend to no knowledge 
of the niceties of art, had left mine to the' experience of 
George. The ‘shiners’ were taken for bait with a dip net 
at the outlet, and then in a light boat we launched upon 
the lake. We were two in a boat—which is contrary to all 
precedent, as laid down in the Journal of Lake Piseco Trout 
Club, which has been appended to Wiley & Putnam’s elegant 
edition of Walton and Cotton. There it is described ex 
cathedra, as follows— 
The trolling is done by rod and reel, each fisherman 
using two at the same time; the reels are improved by 
having a bearing upon them instead of a catch, so that the 
rod may be laid down with the line extended without running 
out, unless struck by a fish or some other obstruction. When 
a fish seizes the bait the oarsman quits his oars, the other 
is handed to him, and he reels up the line to prevent its 
falling upon the bottom, or the fish, from entanglement. 
This, of course, implies one fisherman to a boat—but with 
such an oarsman as ours, we found there was not the slightest 
danger of entanglement, with one at each end, while the 
oarsman was left free to use the gaff without apy risk of 
