January, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
17 
ed end above the water. He has to so 
manage the net that its pocket under 
the water will be placed between his 
limbs. This position of the net gives 
him a warning the instant a trout gets 
into the pocket. Machi-ami is used only 
when the water is muddy, for then eies 
rush toward the sea. 
T O catch malta, the largest of the 
three varieties I have mentioned, 
requires a specially devised net, a 
round net from fourteen to eighteen 
feet in diameter. Pockets are placed 
along the edges of the net and are 
fringed with sinkers. A heavy cord is 
attached to the center of the net by 
which the net is held when it is cast 
from the shoulders over the water. 
When it is cast by an expert thrower 
the net spreads like a parachute. Skill 
and strength is needed, since it is some- 
times necessary to cast twenty or 
twenty-five feet away to cover the 
trout. Malta generally live above a 
deep pool, and being shy, they quickly 
retreat into the deep water before the 
fisherman can closely approach them. 
It is not uncommon for an expert 
thrower of the net to catch at one throw 
from twenty to twenty-five maltas. The 
record of the greatest number of maltas 
caught by a single cast was made by my 
uncle. He and I one day wandered 
along the banks of a river to find some 
maltas, and came upon a school of 
them. They were in water not more 
than two feet deep, but the current was 
rather swift. As it was in the fall, the 
fish were gorgeously colored. The 
school consisted of no less than one 
thousand maltas, of an equal size. Their 
heads were against the current, and 
their bodies almost touched one an- 
other, but without motion except slight 
undulations of their fins and tails. 
The sight was splendid. 
“Let me try it,” whispered my uncle. 
Taking the net from me, he crept to- 
ward the edge of the water. He raised 
himself cautiously, his body being slight- 
ly bent forward, and he flung the net 
over the water. It sailed through the 
air like a mammoth eagle spreading its 
huge wings, and landed on the spot 
where the fisherman intended it should 
land. Instantly there were mighty 
splashes. Hundreds of trout outside of 
the net broke the water. The maltas 
which were trapped made fearful rush- 
es toward the deep pool. The swift 
current helped them on their onward 
rush and they nearly carried the net 
with them over the steep wall into the 
pool, but we finally dragged it out. 
Perhaps no other fisherman has ever 
been . present at such a scene as we 
looked upon. Forty-two handsome trout 
flapped within the net in tumultuous 
confusion. Each fish was beautifully 
colored with red, yellow, and dark sil- 
ver. Their broad fins and broad tails 
looked like frost-bitten maple leaves 
whirling in the wind. “Oh Boy,” shout- 
ed my uncle, “it is glorious!” That was 
a great catch. Forty-two maltas 
weighed exactly 151 pounds. 
N OW I must tell about a mammoth 
trout I once caught. One after- 
noon while I was out fishing I hap- 
pened to look under a bridge, beneath 
(continued on page 43 
THE INS AND OUTS OF ICE FISHING 
THE WINTER ANGLER CANNOT EMPLOY THE ARTS USED BY THE SUMMER 
FISHERMAN BUT HE GAINS MUCH FROM HIS CONTACT WITH THE ICE 
By A. B. GILBERT 
T HE ice fishing season is here and 
in common with other lovers of the 
sport I am out at every opportunity 
in all kinds of weather. Not a few of 
us look forward to it 'in the late fall 
with as much anticipation as the boy 
does to skating time. But I almost 
never meet on the ice the men I pass 
while casting in the summer. 
Why is this? Does the sportsman of 
the summer feel that catching a fish 
through the ice is unsportsmanlike? He 
might say so if we were to ask him but 
in my candid opinion the real reason is 
the failure ever to give ice fishing a fair 
trial. I laid my tackle away for 6 
months for years before I made so much 
as one attempt at winter fishing. I was 
afraid of Jack Frost and hugged the 
radiators in the city until spring. 
The ice fisherman cannot employ the 
arts of summer fishing with light rod 
and slender line, but he has much to 
learn before he can consider himself 
successful. It is a game which must be 
learned and the best of us sometimes re- 
turn with nothing but ah enormous ca- 
pacity for food. And then there is that 
great object of all fishing at all times — 
the open air. Winter air is certainly 
open. 
A friend of mine takes his vacation in 
the dead of winter in Northern Canada. 
He thinks two weeks then in that heat- 
forsaken part of the world of snow-shoe- 
ing, dog-sledging, and hunting are worth 
a whole summer off in the process of 
laying by a store of good health. One 
can do a surprising amount of hiking, 
lugging and ice cutting without fatigue 
on a zero day and the vigor gained ap- 
The result of a day’s fishing 
pears to stay by. The logger comes out 
of the woods in the spring a splendid 
specimen of man, the animal. 
The principal thing about comfort in 
ice fishing in our Northern states or 
sledging in Northern Canada is being 
dressed for it. The man who is going 
out for the first time should put on all 
the clothes he thinks he will need and 
then add about as much more. Lake 
temperatures, with the open sweep of the 
wind, can not be estimated in the city 
or by the thermometer. Above all, the 
feet should be cold proof and dry, al- 
though I have fallen in un to mv knees 
and then fished all day without experi- 
encing any bad effect. 
The despised pickerel, or snake as the 
fisherman call him here, is choice eating 
after the ice has formed. Crappies 
which are soft and lean in mid-summer 
become hard and fat. Sunfish and perch 
are likewise improved. The despised of 
the summer become worthwhile in the 
winter, and in my opinion the ice fisher- 
man should be content with them and let 
the summer game fish, such as bass, pike, 
or trout, alone. 
The ice fisherman, whether amateur 
or otherwise, does well to fish where 
other men have made holes, for in winter 
the location of the fish cannot be judged 
by the natural signs as in summer. If it 
is a shallow lake the pickerel will be in 
the deep parts. In other lakes we find 
them in 10 to 15 feet or even only 3 to 5 
feet of water. Crappies which in sum- 
mer are found in shallow water appear 
to go to the deepest holes and stay there 
during the winter. In some lakes the 
crappies will bite during the day ; in 
others one must get them just after day 
break or just before dusk. And in one 
lake near St. Paul they are hungry 
enough to bite only between 9 and 10 
o’clock at night. In another lake near 
St. Paul the fisherman can get only 
large sunfish and must have worms. At 
times these sunfish want any kind of a 
worm and at other times they will take 
only a red worm. Such are a few of the 
things the ice fisherman must be posted 
on. He should secure information about 
the fishing methods used at the lake and 
when he gets there he should set up near 
(continued on page 33) 
