FISH AND FISHING. 



3 6 9 



After 15 minutes of give and take, fight- 

 ing every inch of line, I got him near enough 

 to slip the net deftly behind him — he was 

 almost too big to go into it — and gently 

 brought him into the boat. The first of the 

 season and a beauty. An honest 5 pounder, 

 and the pluckiest bass I ever landed. He 

 was fought to a standstill and had scarcely 

 a quiver left as he lay in the bottom of the 

 boat. 



As I watched his iridescent form glitter 

 in the sunbeams, I thought it was almost 

 a shame to kill so plucky a fighter. Rowing 

 quietly homeward, I reflected that I had 

 made a good commencement for Independ- 

 ence Day. J. J. Dodds. 



A GREAT DISCOVERY. 



In April Recreation, under the heading 

 " Another Device for Fish Hogs," is an 

 article in relation to a fish catching appara- 

 tus operated by an electric battery. The in- 

 ventor of that device is deserving of great 

 credit for placing within the reach of all 

 true sportsmen an easy method of killing 

 off the finny tribe. The contrivance is per- 

 haps a missionary scheme in disguise. We 

 know that many otherwise good sportsmen 

 use peculiar language when they fail to plant 

 the hook in the front end of a fish immedi- 

 ately on receipt of a bite; therefore, the 

 invention of brother Ogden may win for 

 him a crown of glory. 



Without aspiring to great honor in the 

 piscatorial world I must, in spite of my great 

 modesty, claim the discovery of a compound 

 that will entirely revolutionize the art of 

 fishing. This wonderful preparation, when 

 rubbed on a fish line with a brush made 

 from the bristles of a 2 year old hog (clipped 

 in June), will attract the fish for miles 

 around, and the instant they touch the line 

 they are held firmly and cannot escape. It 

 has the same power over fish that a magnet 

 has over iron dust, only the attraction in 

 the case of my compound is much greater. 

 To make a thorough test of its properties 

 I took a small portion to the river last Sat- 

 urday. After smearing about 25 feet of trot 

 line I threw the smeared part in the water 

 and tied the other end to a stout sapling 

 near by. In a few seconds there was a ter- 

 rible commotion in the water, and I could 

 see immense numbers of bass, pike, muska- 

 longe, trout, red herring, flounders, sar- 

 dines and rainbow codfish almost breaking 

 their necks to get to the smeared line. The 

 fish kept coming in shoals, until the water 

 was a mass of fish and foam, and the spray 

 that was raised wet me through and through. 

 I tried to pull the line out of the water but 

 could not budge it. I ran to the nearest 

 farm house and told the farmer I wanted 

 the use of his team to pull my fish line out 

 of the water. He laughed and told me to 

 take a crowbar and pry it loose. It took 

 me 10 minutes to explain to the old fool 

 that I had about 2,000 fish on my line, 



but at last he harnessed up and came with 

 me. At the stream we hitched the team to 

 the end of my line. The horses pulled des- 

 perately and succeeded in getting 10 feet 

 of line out of the water. It was covered 

 with all kinds and sizes of fish. After the 

 horses rested, we got the remainder of the 

 line out and began removing the fish. We 

 piled the fish in a heap and counted 987 red 

 bass, 850 white bass, 246 blue bass, and a 

 quantity of Spanish mackerel. 



Besides this fine catch on the line, we 

 picked up, high and dry on the shore, gasp- 

 ing for breath, over 350 assorted bass, 76 

 salmon, 25 phantom minnows and the big 

 fish that got away, huddled around the little 

 can of compound where I dropped it before 

 starting for the team. I expect to rid the 

 stream of all fish within a few days. This 

 will be good news to anglers in this vicin- 

 ity, as it will save them much money in rail- 

 road fare and bait. I am positive my com- 

 pound is the best thing yet invented for tak- 

 ing fish in large numbers. 



Thomas P. Bresnan, Oil City, Pa. 



THE FIFIELD LAKES. 



Bass fishing has been unusually good in 

 the group of lakes 15 miles West of Fifield 

 on the edge of Price county, Wis. The bass 

 are the large mouthed variety, are strong 

 and weigh, usually, from 2 to 4 pounds. 

 Several of the lakes have outlets into the 

 North fork of the Flambeau river, yet the 

 bass in that stream are all the small mouthed 

 kind and are desperate fighters. Three and 

 a half and 4 pounders are quite common 

 and occasionally one weighing 5 pounds is 

 found. Many wall-eyed pike are caught in 

 the river. 



The muskalonge in both the lakes and the 

 river bit fairly well last summer, but not 

 more than one in 6 hooked was got into 

 the boat. Most amateur fishermen seem too 

 anxious to get in a big fish when he is 

 hooked and their tackle will not stand the 

 strain which they put on it. They are also 

 slow to learn that to give a heavy muska- 

 longe even a little slack is to lose him. I 

 lost the first 3 I hooked because I thought 

 I could keep a tight line on them by the 

 reel alone. I found I must keep a strain 

 on my rod all the time and an extra strain 

 when the fish went out of the water and 

 tried to shake out the hook. Since then I 

 have lost but one out of some 18 hooked. 

 August 12th I captured one measuring 45^ 

 inches in length, 20 inches in girth and 

 weighing 29 pounds. An hour later I took 

 a 19 pounder. 



I was glad to note a disposition among 

 the guests this summer to either cease bass 

 fishing when a fair catch had been taken or 

 else to return the fish to the water. There 

 was now and then a mild specimen of the 

 fish hog, not always of the masculine sex, 

 but on the whole there was a noticeable im- 

 provement this year over last. Some of the 



