288 . AMERICAN FISHES. 



shadowy streams, with dark, creeping waters, and shores fringed with 

 Pickerel-weed, water-lilies, and marsh grass ; and the best places in 

 which to cast for them are the edges and openings of the floating 

 weed-patches, under the cover of which they are wont to lie expecting 

 their prey. 



When the fish has taken the bait, the great thing is to give him 

 time enough to gorge it, and not to mar all by impatience in 

 striking before it is time. Once hooked, a steady hand, and cool 

 temper, will soon ensure his capture ; for though he is strong and 

 fierce, his boldness and incautious way of biting permits the use of 

 very strong tackle ; and though he fights hard for a while, he has nei- 

 ther the arrowy rush nor the innumerable artful resources of the true 

 Salmon. 



Pickerel fishing with trimmers on large lakes, as described under 

 the head of Eel fishing, is by no means bad sport ; and if seve- 

 ral large fish chance, as is very often the case, to be hooked at once, 

 the sinking and reappearance of the gaily-painted buoys, and their 

 rapid motion through the water as the terrified fish rush away with 

 them, ofi^er an amusing spectacle, while the rapid chase with swiftly- 

 rowed boats is fuU of gay excitement. 



For this sport all the limpid ponds and lakelets of this abundantly- 

 watered land are most admirably adapted, from the farthest regions of 

 New England through all the Eastern States to the fine inland lakes 

 of Northern Pennsylvania. But to enjoy this sport, or that of trolling, 

 in perfection, the angler should visit the Great Lakes and the streams 

 of the great basin of St. Lawrence, and that stupendous river itself ; 

 in which, from the Thousand Islands, among which swarm both the 

 Masoalonge and the Great Northern Pickerel, up to the farthest 

 tributaries of Lake Superior, he will find sport, how gluttonous soever 

 he may be of killing, which will not disappoint his wildest wishes. 



In the same manner as the Pike is the Pike-Pearch or Sandre, Im- 

 cioperca Americana, erroneously called the Ohio Salmon, and other 

 absurd provincial nicknames, which is a very fine and delicate fish, as 

 well as a very sporting one, to be taken. 



In the western waters he is the most abundant, and his favorite 

 haunts are the tails of mOl-races and whirling eddies under shady 

 banks. 



