70 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 1919 
surprised that if close observation was 
made it would be found the same condi- 
tion prevailed in many of the coast states 
besides New Jersey — that is, that many 
of the streams emptying into the arms 
of the sea hold innumerable numbers of 
these fish. I would not argue, however, 
vision is legitimate and welcome prey as 
well as young ducks, frogs and a great 
variety of other objects. In the stom- 
achs of large specimens rats have been 
found and hunger seems to be at all times 
the paramount issue with them. I was 
once fishing with a friend in a lake ad- 
marked traits and habits. They appar- 
ently enjoy lying concealed behind some 
cover such as a bunch of water grass, 
spatter-dock or lily-pads, or when they 
are to be found watching motionless for 
any unsuspecting thing to approach, 
when with the swiftness of light they will 
that they run to the ocean proper. I 
have no knowledge that they do; but 
they do trade down and into brackish 
water when opportunity affords and it at 
those points where they are met with 
in the best of condition. 
T he pickerel is not at all fastidious 
as to what he may get to eat and 
when hungry will strike at almost 
any moving object. Any of the smaller 
fish which come within his range of 
jacent to the ocean when he caught a 
large pickerel which had gorged a cat- 
fish. Its sharp spike-like rays were ex- 
tending through the sides of the pickerel, 
and would seem to 'have caused such suf- 
fering that no desire for food would have 
been present; but there was the evidence 
which could not be doubted, the fish was 
feeding while in this deplorable condition. 
In my early days I lived where these 
fish were most abundant and had many 
opportunities to be witness of their 
flash out and gather in the quarry. The 
victim has but little chance for escape, 
once the murderous teeth are fastened 
into its flesh. I have often seen the 
largest fish lie in such quarters abso- 
lutely motionless, save the occasional al- 
most unperceivable motion of tail or fin, 
just enough to keep their position and 
frequently with the head just at the sur- 
face of the water, and while yet in my 
teens I often shot them in that position. 
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 84) 
THE KILLING OF THE OUANANICHE 
ONE OF MANY ANGLING IDYLS FROM A COMPANIONABLE BOOK THAT TEMPTS YOU 
OUT-OF-DOORS AND KEEPS YOU THERE. “MACNHILD. A TALE OF PSYCHIC LOVE” 
( ( UT tell me, do you really have the 
If fish of the Grande Decharge in 
Lake Sunapee?” 
“Yes, we have been planting them herr 
for years, and if one takes a fancy to 
your spoon, Magnhild, you will realize in 
an instant that you are fast to the gamest 
of all American fresh water fishes. Now 
release the click, which checks the line 
from running out too freely when a fish 
is fast, by pushing up that button, and 
let the line pay slowly out as I row, and 
Miss Barrett will be ready with the land- 
ing net to help you. I am sorry it is not 
larger. We came out after bass. I was 
not expecting to show you the points of 
salmon fishing. There, I guess you have 
enough line out, I should judge about 100 
feet. So push down the button and re- 
store the click, and keep your thumb on 
the handle of the reel so that if a fish 
strikes, he will strike against something 
solid and be securely hooked.” 
“Oh ! I see.” 
“And don’t hold your rod straight out, 
at right angles to the course of the boat, 
but slant it toward the stern. There 
now, if a fish strikes, you have the best 
chance of holding him without shivering 
your rod or breaking your line, and he 
doesn’t get so much spring that the hook 
will fail to fasten.” 
They had rowed a quarter mile or more 
over the ground where the doctor had 
expectations, when suddenly the rod was 
Courtesy of The Gorham Press, Boston. 
BY DR. JOHN D. QUACKENBOS 
almost twisted out of Magnhild’s hand 
by the strike of a lusty fish. 
“Give him line!” shouted the doctor, 
“take your hand off the reel handle, it’s 
a big one”; and as Magnhild obeyed the 
instruction, the reel whirred merrily as 
the fish dashed away on the top of the 
water in a quick succession of leaps. But 
he failed to break his hold. 
“Now check him, and reel in! Reel 
swiftly! Thank Heaven, he is making 
for the deep water, for there he is much 
more manageable. Now he is coming 
toward you with a rush! Reel with all 
your might! Well done! Keep on reel- 
ing. He is heading for the boat. His 
game is to cut under it and part the line. 
I’ll foil him there. He is taking your rod 
right under the water. Hold on to it 
tight. Now give him line, as I force the 
boat ahead. Aha! he found only water 
for his purchase and he is thoroughly 
maddened. Be prepared for ” 
“Oh! Doctor, what a magnificent 
spring,” cried Rhoda, as a bar of living 
silver shot into the air, showering water 
drops into her face while the boat darted 
ahead. A second prodigious leap! The 
salmon cleared the water by four feet 
and turning a somersault in the air 
alighted on the bottom of the skiff — but 
only an instant did he keep company with 
the astonished occupants. A flash and a 
splash, and he was out of sight; but in 
his rapid descent, the line noosed the 
bamboo handle of the little bass-net 
Rhoda was holding in readiness, jerked 
it from her startled grasp, and it sped 
away across the water in the wake of the 
frenzied fish. 
“A ten pound ouananiche!” cried the 
doctor, “and he did not catch us napping. 
Keep your hand off the reel now, for he 
is ugly and may run one hundred and 
fifty feet if the net does not incumber his 
movements.” 
“How he goes. Doctor, and I love to 
listen to the music of the reel.” 
“No time for music now, Magnhild. 
Check him a little, and be ready, for at 
the end of his run he will make his leap 
paramount”; and verily as the doctor 
spoke, the salmon flung himself into the 
air, lifting the little net which had run 
out with the line and was midway be- 
tween fish and fisher, a foot above the 
water, at the same time disengaging it so 
that it floated fifty feet from the boat. 
“What shall I do now?” implored 
Magnhild, “and we have no net to take 
him in with.” 
“He is making for deep water. Reel 
him in cautiously, slowly, and if you are 
fortunate enough to exhaust him I will 
show you how to lift him into the boat 
without a landing-net. We have to de- 
pend on our wits in the woods, when mod- 
em appliances are lacking.” 
“But, Doctor, you can’t lift that fish 
out of the water with that delicate lead- 
