May 2i, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
411 
PICKEREL {Esox rectkulatus). 
PIKE {Esox htciiis). 
MUSCALONGE {Esox vobilior). 
80s I fully explained, to my own satisfaction, that the 
original Ojibwa name of mas-kinoje had been corrupted 
into its many modern forms just as their tribal name 
has been perverted into "Chippeway." In their tongue 
"kinoje" means a pike, and "mas" is their term for 
spotted. 
In those days I had paid little attention to the differ- 
ent fishes beyond the species which I had seen in the 
Hudson and Mississippi rivers, but I clearly remember 
seeing what I then called "pickerel" drying by hun- 
dreds on the frames built by the Indians for preserving 
food for winter, a- strange form which was black spotted, 
and which the Indians called "mas-kinoje," a name eas- 
ily twisted into maskinonge, etc. The book spelling 
has been followed, but the name of the pike, as I re- 
member it from the spoken Ojibwa, was more like 
"kinozhee," but it is hard to put an unwritten language 
in type. Scott says: "The Ojibwa name of this fish is 
'maskanonja,' meaning 'long snout.' " When we take 
this all in it is funny, because Scott took his translations 
at second hand. Norris, that American Walton, wisely 
skips all reference to nomenclature, and only tells what 
he knows, and therein discounts all the writers who 
came after, with their accumulated knowledge of strange 
fishes which were not accessible in the days when they 
wrote.. 
The range of the mascalonge is quite limited. It does 
not exist in the Adirondacks, although the St. Lawrence 
River and Lake Ontario are its home. It is found in the 
Great Lakes and in Chautauqua .Lake, in the southwest 
corner of New York, which, although near Lake Erie, 
drains its waters into the Alleghany River through Cone- 
wango Creek, and thus the fish gets into the Ohio Valley. 
Curiously, this isolated branch of the species is not spot- 
ted, nor does it grow as large as in the Great Lakes, 
where there are legends of its having obtained a weight 
of loolbs. I have seen this fish among the Indians about 
Crow Wing and Mille Lacs, Minn., in the 50s, but never 
saw one that would weigh over lolbs. with them. These 
were black spotted, and as these waters flow into the 
Mississippi River, the only reason that they differ from 
their brothers of the upper Ohio Valley seems to be that 
there must be impassable water in the rivers before they 
join. 
Differences in Habit. 
The pike will go on mud flats in spring freshets, and in 
hot weather is found in shallow, warm water among the 
weeds, while a mascalonge loves deep, cool lakes or 
swift, clear waters. Floods do not tempt him to roam 
over lands that are temporarily flooded, and with this 
knowledge we may find a key to the problem of distri- 
bution and of the isolation of some members which by 
interbreeding have lost the spots. Tlie Wisconsin fish 
are spotted. 
Pickerel Fishing. 
The angler for pickerel may take his fish in many ways, 
and with as little consideration for his game as the pick- 
erel has for a toothsome trout. The fish is the worst 
kind of a cannibal, and one that weighs twice as much 
as another thinks of his smaller relative merely as some- 
thing to decorate his interior. This is the best trait in 
the character of this whole family — ^they destroy each 
other — and as a fishculturist I wish they would emulate 
the famed Kilkenny cats. The world would be better 
without them. Therefore any kind of a mouthful of steel 
is pardonable to use on the brutes. I took one of about 
4lbs. weight which had three small trout in its pouch, 
and which wanted my chub to add to its collection! 
Three trout to feed a durned pickerel! It brought to 
mind the portents which foreshadowed the murder of 
Duncan by Macbeth, as related by the Old Man, who 
said: 
"On Tuesday last 
A falcon,, towering in her pride of place. 
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed." 
From my point of view those three trout were 
sadly misplaced in the economy of nature, for they should 
have met a better fate; they were "lads of high de- 
gree," and they went to sustain a fish which Adiron- 
dack guides call a "snake-eater." 
In trolling for pickerel, if you use a spoon, and it is as 
good to troll with as a minnow gang, and less trouble, 
let it be suited to the size of the fish which you may 
reasonably expect to strike. A pickerel has an eye for 
fish which will fill his bill, and seldom makes the mis- 
take of tackHng a fish, which is too big, although in the 
South Kensington Museum, London, I saw a plaster 
cast of a 2olb. pike which had choked to death in trying 
to swallow one too near its size, and had been captured 
and set up as a horrid example of greediness. There- 
fore let your spoon or minnow be in proportion to the 
game which you expect to get. This is something which 
the beginner must learn, and perhaps there is no better 
,way than to consult a first-class tackle dealer, but it is 
better to err on the side of smallness, whether of spoon 
or minnow. 
Trolling the Spoon. 
In trolling from a boat, use an ordinary trout or bass 
bait rod — a fly rod is hardly the thing if the fish are 
large. Row slowly, with just enough motion to spin 
the spoon well, and you can judge of this by putting 
it over the side and watching it. The slower the b.etter, 
if the spoon spins and glitters well. 
These remarks apply to all of this family, and there- 
fore there is no need of repeating them for the pike and 
mascalonge. Having fed all these fishes in the confine- 
ment of aquaria, and watched them take live minnows, 
I may be pardoned if I say just how all the pike family 
approach arjd take their prey. When they are very 
hungry they_ will make a sudden rush from below and 
seize the living minnow and then retire with it to con- 
sider the next move. Then, if it has been taken cross- 
Wise, or tail first, it is ejected and turned so as to be 
taken head first, when the fins and scales He in the 
proper manner to slip down easily. 
If, however, the pike or pickerel is not hungry, but 
would take a little something if it looked tempting, the 
tactics are dift'erent. There is no sudden rush; the 
game is pointed as a setter points a woodcock. There 
is no motion of the body, nor of that propeller which 
we call a caudal fin, but a wary motion of the dorsal 
and anal fins sendii the fish slowly ahead, while its eye 
glitters with suppressed excitement. The distance is 
gauged, there is a rush, a flash, and the minnow or 
spoon is engulfed. 
If using a spoon the angler knows whether his game 
is hooked or not, and that the fish cannot eject the bait 
if it would; and then, after a short struggle, the fish 
yields. In describing how a pickerel, which is not hun- 
gry, approaches a fish, the only object is to warn the 
angler not to row too fast and thereby pass too quickly 
from the field in which a pickerel or other member of 
(he family wishes to approach its prey. 
The Minnow Gang. 
There is a gang on gut or gfimp, consisting of a lip 
hook for the minnow and a hook to be carried over its 
back and inserted under the dorsal fin, and then one 
of a triplet is hooked into the tail in a way to bend the 
ininnow and thereby give it a semi-rotary motion. It 
■is a most murderous combination, but none too severe 
for this cannibalistic family. 
Skittering. 
A stiff cane is used for this work, and should be from 
18 to 2oft. long in order to cast 30ft., and then "skitter" 
a minnow on the surface of the water. I have used a 
ringed Limerick hook, size 4-0, but do not know why 
this has been preferred further than that it was the first 
hook I used for the work, and so to use it has become 
a habit. To-day, if a change was made, it would be for 
the more 'modern turn-down eye Pennell hook of that 
size, or of a size larger. A foot of gimp or of piano wire 
should connect the hook with the line. The minnow or 
frog should be hooked through both lips, and it is mer- 
ciful to pierce the brain with a knife, because the bait 
is as good dead as alive, and it is cruel to kill it by such 
rough usage as skittering. 
From the shore the bait should be cast into open 
places among the weeds, but from a boat the angler 
should stand in the bow and cast ahead into unbroken 
water. 
Still-Fishing. 
A good bait rod and reel are the proper tools, and a 
live minnow hooked just under the dorsal fin, or a frog 
hooked firmly in the muscle of a hindleg, near the back- 
bone, is the best of baits. It a float is used it should 
allow the bait only 3ft. to go down, tmless the water 
is over loft. deep, because all of this tribe seek prey 
that is above them, as is denoted by their lower jaw 
being longest. A float is a nuisance when a reel is 
used, but is one of those evils which we sometimes term 
"necessary." 
Keep Cooll 
When a pickerel seizes a spoon hook it is either 
well hooked or lost at the moment of contact, as the 
fish knows at once that it has made a mistake, and will 
get rid of the combination of steel and other ingredients 
if possible. With a minnow or frog it is dift'erent. The 
pickerel may take it crosswise in its mouth and run to 
cover with it. Let him run and have time to gloat 
over his prize, eject it, and take it head on and ,pouch 
it. This may consttme some minutes, during which 
there is no sign of life at the far end of the line. Wait. 
After the bait is fairly down the pickerel moves and 
finds itself fast, and then the angler may begin the 
fight with no danger of drawing the bait away and 
alarming his game by a premature movement. 
Pike Fishing. 
The same methods are used for pike as for pickerel. 
Their habits are much the same, and they are found in 
similar waters. For the larger fish we must use larger 
hooks and baits. Where pike of lolbs. may be looked 
for, a 7-0 hook or larger is the right size, and the min- 
now should be 5 to 6in. long, frogs in proportion. 
Spoons are made in so many shapes (and the makers 
have a scale of sizes of their own) that the angler must 
work out this problem of size. 
There are spoon baits in great variety, and all of 
them will catch weeds, some more than others, and 
the angler must reel up occasionally to look for weeds, 
since a bit of green weed on spoon or minnow tells 
your game that it is an undesirable morsel, for the fish 
knows that no living minnow or frog drags weeds 
with it. 
Both pike and pickerel are taken through the ice 
with live baits, and this is the only winter sport of the 
fresh-water angler. Many holes are cut and the lines 
are attached to "tip-ups," which signal the fact that a 
fish is hooked. 
Mascalonge. 
It is in the Great Lakes where this king of the pike 
