A MATTER OF A MASCALONGE 
Where ’Longe-fishing Is Best—Some Tackle Hints, and the Story 
of a Memorable Catch 
BY HARRY L. MEANS 
]T WAS an Englishman, 
IP I believe, who, after 
ae 

landing a tarpon with 
the aid of side-arms 
alone, vouchsafed the 
opinion that as a sport 
tarpon fishing was com- 
parable to only one 
other in America—that of pig-sticking. 
This conclusion was prompted, as I inferred 
from reading the article in which the English 
angler was thus quoted, by the discovery 
that the tarpon’s flesh is uneatable. 
I trust, however, my brother angler did 
not depart for his native land without a try 
in our Northern waters; for a mascalonge 
once landed would, I trow, gratify his desire 
for sport, and later, properly prepared and 
served steaming hot, compensate for any 
previous disappointments by tickling be- 
yond compare his epicurean palate. 
To those of my readers who have never 
hooked, played and landed a mascalonge, I 
will say it is worth your while. It may mean 
a pilgrimage from down East, out West, or 
from the sunny South to the balsam-laden 

wilds of Wisconsin; it may tax your patience 
and make inroads upon an otherwise per- 
fect nature, ere the memorable strike—and 
then, the thrill, the ecstacy that follows may 
as suddenly surrender to a cherished mem- 
ory and an erstwhile nourished tackle—yet, 
I still urge, it will repay the effort. 
There was a day, if I am to credit the 
sayings of older, better and more fortunate 
anglers than I, when, with bark canoe and 
an Indian guide, the taking of big masca- 
longe was a matter of little time, and more, 
of less concern. I have listened with 
cupidity to the telling of these wondrous 
catches of one, two, three and even a-half- 
dozen in a single day, with weight ranging 
from thirty to forty pounds, in the vain hope 
that some day good luck might proffer me 
an emulation. But alas, the days are no 
more! Yet, I do recall that the little fellows 
—those of twenty pounds and under, as 
my informants confided—were given their 
freedom that they might grow in strength 
and gameness to the delight of the succeed- 
ing generation of anglers. We live in grate- 
ful remembrance of the consideration! — 

So TS 
TYPICAL "LONGE WATER IN WISCONSIN—THE 

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