The Pike Family 135 



The bait or spoon may be trolled along the 

 edges of the channel, just outside of the weed 

 patches, from a moving boat, with a line of thirty 

 to fifty yards. In trolling, the revolving spoon, 

 glistening and shining, is the attractive lure, and 

 any addition of a minnow, or strip of fish or pork- 

 rind, or other bait, as is often resorted to by some, 

 is entirely unnecessary. It adds nothing to the 

 chances of hooking a fish, and should never be 

 practised by the consistent angler. He may 

 use pork-rind if he wishes, but let it be used 

 alone, on its own merits. A spoon is bad enough 

 in any case, but it only makes it more repre- 

 hensible and repulsive, to the angler at least, to 

 handicap it with bait of any kind ; even the 

 bunch of feathers that usually adorns the spoon 

 should be discarded, as it is of no practical use. 



Most mascalonge are taken, I am sorry to say, 

 by trolling with a hand-line of heavy braided 

 linen, size B or C, and a spoon of very large 

 size, as large as No. 8, which seems to be the 

 favorite size with hand-troUers. In this method 

 of fishing the mascalonge hooks himself when he 

 strikes the spoon. It is then drawn in, hand 

 over hand, as the sailors say, with might and 

 muscle. And as might be supposed, those who 



