422 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1920 
These sandbars are also good for fishing 
in the winter-time, for you are almost 
certain to find fish along the bars then 
too. Merely line up with your marks 
on shore and you will strike the place. 
Many lakes are spring-fed from the 
bottom. Such lakes are, of course, ideal 
for the small-mouth bass and that they 
are found in such lakes in great numbers 
around these places is well known. They 
keep themselves from one to twenty feet 
from the bottom and you will find both 
the large-mouth basses and the small- 
mouths together, besides other fishes tak- 
ing advantage of the cool water. How 
deep must you go down for them at these 
places, will be asked. Often as deep as 
one hundred and fifty feet, but some- 
times no more than seventy-five feet, 
everything de- 
pending upon cir- 
cumstances, and 
the lay of the 
lake’s bottom. It 
may be difficult to 
find the spring- 
holes but once 
they are found 
the place can be 
spotted in much 
the same manner 
as I have stated 
concerning the lo- 
cating of sand- 
bars — by lining it 
up with marks or 
trees on shore. 
The hotter the 
weather the more 
certain you are of 
catches around 
the spring - holes. 
Any time of the 
day from eight in 
the morning to 
three in the af- 
ternoon you will 
find them there. It may be twelve, noon, 
with the sun fairly making you dizzy but 
by getting your bait to the cool places, 
one hundred feet down, near the bottom if 
need be, you will be catching them one 
after another as fast as you can pull up. 
You may think this an exaggeration but 
it has been well proved to be the truth as 
any wise deep-fisher will state. When 
fishing off of a sandbar, or in the deep 
holes, and you do not wish to troll (the 
method being still-fishing), you hook on 
the minnow right back of the dorsal fin, 
but in such a manner that the spine is 
not touched. The minnow then swims 
around and is eagerly seized by the bass. 
But at this point I want to state that 
there is a time when to set the hook in 
the jaw of the fish and a time when you 
should not pull, or jerk the line. The 
average fisherman, upon feeling that a 
bass way down in those deep places has 
seized the lure, will instantly jerk the 
line and the result will be exactly noth- 
ing. He is at once disgusted and mar- 
vels that the hook did not sink in when 
the fish actually had the minnow in its 
mouth, but he must take into considera- 
tion that the bass often seizes the min- 
now by the forward part of the body and 
not the back part. Thus, if a jerk is made 
on the line to set the hook when the bass 
first seizes the minnow it will pull the 
minnow out of the mouth of the fish be- 
fore the hooked-in portion of the minnow 
may have come in contact with the bass’ 
jaw. When a bass strikes do not get im- 
patient; let him run with the lure in his 
mouth. He may run fifteen or twenty 
feet when he will abruptly stop. After 
that stop he will be mouthing the lure. 
After a minute or so the hook can be 
set for then all of the minnow should be 
in the mouth, though not swallowed. 
Also remember, therefore, to let the bass 
run with the lure after he has seized it. 
After the first stop, let him mouth it and 
then set the hook. The result should be 
a sure catch. Also remember to have 
your hooks needle-sharp and of good 
quality so you can depend upon them. 
The reward of the angler who knows where to fish 
T HERE are two ways of fishing deep 
down in the holes in the lake during 
the hot days of summer. The first 
method is still-fishing, in which the min- 
now is fastened alive to the hook just 
back of the dorsal fin. It should be let 
down the required length and then al- 
lowed to swim around with the hook till 
it is seized by a fish. To successfully fish 
in this manner it is best to know the 
depth and to fish a certain distance from 
the bottom. Very few anglers can be 
persuaded to go down deep for fish, 
strange as it may seem. All would like 
to fish a certain distance from the top 
of the water and anything over thirty 
feet down they deem useless. We will 
presume that the hole is one hundred feet 
deep, do you think that you will have 
success by merely letting the line down 
fifty feet? You will not. Your fish will 
range from one to fifteen feet from the 
bottom and to get in range with them 
you must strike that level. To get the 
distance right let down a line with a 
piece of lead on it; when the lead lies on 
the bottom there will be a noticeable 
slack to the line. At the point where 
the line comes out of the water tie on a 
piece of white thread — grocery string is 
all right. Now pull up the line and 
measure out a like length on your fishing 
line, tying a bit of string to the line at 
the point which indicates the depth. If 
you wish to fish one foot from the bottom 
pull the line up so that the water sur- 
face will be one foot from the string tied 
on the line. If two feet pull up so that 
the water surface will be two feet from 
the tied place, and so forth. This is an 
unfailing method for deep fishing. 
Where a live lure is necessary for 
bass and lake trout there is nothing to 
equal large minnows. These may be ob- 
tained in two and one half to three and 
one half inch lengths. Red-fins, chubs 
and the shiners with their unexcelled 
glitter are tempting lures for these fishes 
and it is an epicurean in scales indeed 
that will pass up such a delectable mor- 
sel navigating around his home quarters. 
These may be ob- 
tained where they 
occur in the lakes 
by building a fire 
on the sandy 
shore at night. 
This light will 
draw in the min- 
now schools, 
when, after a 
half hour, or an 
hour (for good 
measure), a net 
is run around the 
light - showered 
area and all the 
minnows you will 
need for many 
weeks of fishing 
will be obtained. 
Minnows that 
are captured for 
use in the hot 
weather of sum- 
mer should be 
kept in water 
that is frequently 
changed, and 
pail it is a good 
when in a minnow 
idea to have a piece of ice in the water 
which keeps the minnows lively. Some 
minnow pails are provided with means 
for admitting air to the water. A bicy- 
cle pump can be used for pumping air 
into the water. Used now and then as 
an aerator it is a satisfactory means 
toward a desired end. 
Aside from the still-fishing method we 
have the trolling method to consider, and 
because this is a tempting subject with 
many satisfactory ways and means con- 
nected with it I am tempted to go more 
into detail than is offered by a few trifling 
paragraphs. One of our most common 
trolling lures is, of course, the spoon- 
hook of which there are many types and 
styles. The success of the trolling spoon 
lies in the fact that it is taken by the 
fish to be a minnow or a minnow disabled 
and struggling in the water. The more 
a spoon glitters the more sure it is to at- 
tract fish. It is for this reason that 
spoons having flutings or ridges along 
their sides are more attractive; the ridg- 
ing on the spoon makes it possible to con- 
cenlrate the light and send it forth with 
a greater penetration than will an ordi- 
nary un-ridged spoon. I am firmly of 
the belief that nine-tenths of the trolling 
done on our waters annually is with the 
