FOREST AND 
STREAM 
445 
As it swam through the circle of light it looked almost as long as the canoe 
the smallest of the fishes known by the 
generic name of Esox, and does not often 
exceed two feet in length. The pike is 
next, reaching a length of four feet and 
a weight of twenty to thirty pounds. It 
is said that in Europe pike grow to 
enormous size, especially in England and 
in the Scottish mountains, but in the 
United States these monster pike have 
not often been found. The Muskalonge, 
however, the king of all the species, 
grows quite commonly to six feet in 
length and reaches a weight of sixty 
to eighty pounds. The largest fish that 
the writer ever saw weighed fifty-five 
pounds, but there are reports of fish be- 
ing caught up to eighty pounds and even 
one hundred pounds. 
In appearance the Muskalonge is al- 
most exactly like the pike. The head is 
a trifle shorter and broader than that of 
the pike, and the shoulders heavier and 
the tail somewhat slenderer. The body 
is an olive-green, dark along the back, 
shading to greenish-white and white on 
the belly. The distinctive marking is a 
succession of transverse stripes, from 
back to belly along the body, consisting 
of rows of irregular splotches just a 
trifle darker than the body color of the 
fish. These rows of spots are not very 
distinct when the fish is first taken from 
the water, but as the skin drys they 
become more pronounced and turn a 
brownish color. In some cases these 
spots are not in rows, but are unevenly 
spread over the body. 
In smaller fish the body marking is 
not so distinctive, and it resembles the 
pike very much. But an infallible way 
of telling the Muskalonge from the pike 
is to note the arrangement of the scales 
on the cheeks and on the large bones that 
cover the gills. The pike has the cheeks 
entirely covered with scales and the 
lower halves of the gill bones are bare. 
The lower halves of both the cheeks and 
the gill bones are bare of scales in the 
case of the Muskalonge. 
The home of this kingly fish is the 
deep water and he haunts the edges of 
the channels for his food. He is a 
savage killer, but not voracious like the 
pike, and is therefore rarely caught with 
a spoon or artificial bait. He swims 
along deep down below the usual depth 
of the smaller fish, with his eye cocked 
upward, watching for his prey swimming 
in the lighter water above. Once he has 
singled out the especial morsel that he 
desires, a savage rush upward and the 
long, ugly mouth, with its needle - sharp 
teeth, makes short work of the luckless 
quarry. He always strikes from below 
and from the side, and carries his prey 
some twenty to forty feet with an im- 
petuous rush before slowing up and 
turning it head down to swallow. Some- 
times, if the banks of the channel are 
steep and the rush of the big fish is 
nearly perpendicular, he will break water 
and flash through the sunlight five or six 
feet high and fall back with a resound- 
ing flash. 
Never in the same place two days run- 
ning, he is the nomad of the depths and 
pursues his lonely way, as but few fish 
swim so deep. There is but one other 
who shares his solitude, the armor-clad 
sturgeon, who, safe in his dull-brown 
mail and greater bulk, lazily and inso- 
lently eyes him as he passes on his lonely 
way. 
'T' O capture a Muskalonge, one must be 
* very skillful and patient, and great 
care must be taken to select the proper 
tackle. One may fish for several sea- 
sons and never even get a strike. But 
like the Indian of our legend, those who 
are fortunate enough to land one of 
these great fish are entitled to a seat at 
the inner circle at the council fire and 
have full license to rise and boast of the 
exploit. A steel rod, about nine feet 
long, is about as good a rod as can be 
used. It should be of medium weight 
and fairly light in the tip, as it is very 
important to be able to feel the play of 
the bait. 
The reel should be stout and capable 
of holding one hundred yards of line 
made of raw silk, of as high a test as 
can be obtained. Select a woven line, 
dull-colored and with a little blue in it 
if possible. Raw silk we found to be 
the best, as it will not absorb water and 
cling to the rod or tend to foul in the 
guides. The dull color is very essential, 
as one has to fish fairly deep. A light- 
colored line will loom up in deep water 
like a white clothesline against a bank 
of trees. A four-foot double gut, mist- 
colored leader, should be used and a 
No. 4/0 snell-hook with a double gut snell. 
In most cases a sinker is not neces- 
sary, as one has to troll very slowly with 
a large bait and long line. The weight 
of the line usually keeps the bait deep 
enough below the surface, but if it does 
not a sinker will be necessary. Do not 
use the ordinary manufactured sinker 
with the little brass eyes at each end, as 
the brass makes two little shiny spots on 
the line, and sometimes these little points 
of light will flash amazingly. The most 
convenient sinkers are made from thin 
lead wire or narrow stripes cut from 
thin sheet-lead. When a sinker is re- 
quired, twist three or four inches of the 
lead around the leader, about eighteen 
inches up from the bait. If that is not 
sufficient, twist another piece on a little 
further up the leader. It is better, in 
any case, to twist several small pieces at 
intervals along the leader, as then one 
avoids making the bait swim at an awk- 
ward angle. A good stout gaff-hook 
completes the outfit. 
Great care should be taken of the 
tackle, so that everything shall be in 
first-class condition when one hooks his 
big fish. The line should be carefully 
dried each time it is used, the hooks and 
leaders tested frequently and frayed guts 
discarded at once. The reel should be 
well oiled and carefully adjusted at all 
times, and be sure that the joints of the 
rods are tight and the reel-hook firm. 
In the years that the writer has guided 
on the St. Lawrence he has seen a num- 
ber of fine catches spoiled by slovenly 
tackle. One instance in particular is re- 
membered where a fisherman had a wee 
knot in his line, about thirty feet from 
the end, and his rod did not seem very 
tight in the joints as he set it up for 
business. The knot was so small, and 
drawn so hard that it did not seem pos- 
sible that it could cause any trouble, be- 
cause it seemed to run through the guides 
without difficulty. The writer’s warn- 
ings in regard to these two points were 
laughed down and we proceeded to fish. 
About four o’clock he hooked a beauty 
and all went well for about twenty min- 
utes. The fish fought sullenly and the 
line came in bit by bit until the fatal 
( Continued on page 466 ) 
