Feb. I, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
137 
disgusted. The ha\' had worked wonders on 
him. We got out as soon as possible, exercised 
a bit to be able to meet the cold, and then 
started off. It was dark and cold; Julius looked 
like a sour cheese and bore on his shoulders an 
immortal grudge. 
However, after walking for a time, swing¬ 
ing our arms now and then to keep the blood 
in motion, we succeeded in making the best of 
the situation. Julius suggested waiting a couple 
of hours and building a fire; this did not appeal 
to me at first, but I succumbed to the thought 
of warmth. We crossed the lake and sought 
out a sheltered place, scraped away the snow 
and built a fire. There was plenty of firewood 
in the shape of dried oak. Seated before the 
fire Julius brightened up, his outlook upon the 
world became vastly more comfortable, and his 
intelligence broadened to a remarkable degree. 
The minnows were alive and active in the pail; 
the salt we had put in the water helped to sus¬ 
tain their energy. I was for going out at once 
and starting to fish, but Julius said it was far 
too early. Fie averred that the fish had not yet 
left their beds. Nevertheless, I fixed out my 
line and hook, took the minnow pail and the 
ice prong, and set out. 
Fishing through the ice is a winter pastime 
for the followers of the princely sport, and 
while it has nothing in it to compare with the 
0|)portunities afforded in summer, it will yet 
suffice to keep the light burning and the thoughts 
fresh. Ice fishing is, however, closely associated 
with the man who catches for the market, and 
the winter harvest is great, indeed. On some 
lakes it is not rare to see shack after shack, 
each covering some hole in the ice where an 
industrious human is busily drawing the broad¬ 
sided fellows from the deep day in and day out. 
Rut there are also those who go out just to 
break the dead mid-winter monotony with some¬ 
thing new and appealing. The sport of it is 
confined mostly to how many fish you are able 
to get, and how wise you are at selecting the 
right spot. Conditions being favorable, and 
given the benefit of a fine day, one is able to 
realize a certain proportion of enjoyment quite 
original in its class. 
Calculating the place of my operations by 
my observations of the previous summer as to 
the locality of the fish, I was soon busy cutting 
the hole. It was none too warm. Once I heard 
Julius shouting, but I could have sworn he was 
eating a cheese sandwich and was deriding my 
efforts. However, I soon had the hole shaped, 
and at once began to fish. On the slender hook 
I treaded on a wiggling minnow, in such a fash¬ 
ion that it lay horizontal in the water, hooked 
through from the back to the belly and then 
again back up through. Down went the line to 
the required depth, and I was ready for my wait. 
I lifted and lowered the bait at intervals to 
ascertain, if possible, the level at which the fish 
stayed. I will here answer a question a gentle¬ 
man ounce asked: Why is it that a man fish¬ 
ing on one side of a boat will get no fish no 
matter how he tries, while another fishing on 
the opposite side will, to use a common term, 
“pull in all kinds of them" ? Very easily answered, 
as illustrated above. Fish stay at a certain 
level in the water. One man was fishing at 
exactly the right level, the other was fishing too 
deep, and although the fish were aware of the 
existence of that bait below them, they were 
disinclined to go down and investigate. Very 
simple. I have not been mooning and ponder¬ 
ing over drove after drove of the finny brethren 
without realizing this simple yet exotic rule, but 
this rule did not seem to fit in with my present 
case, for after raising and lowering the line and 
holding it at about every height, I came to the 
conclusion tliat there was something the matter. 
I had not had a bite. 
I decided to set my stick and let the bait 
rest at a certain height. This set stick, or two, 
as I should say, is composed of one laid across 
the hole and another tied to it in the center. 
One end is free, and to it is attached a rag; the 
line is fastened to the other. When a fish nib¬ 
bles or takes the bait, the stick rises, announc¬ 
ing to the fisher to lie in readiness, or to pull 
up. I had just rigged up my affair and was 
taking a turn on the ice when Julius came run¬ 
ning, tackle box in hand, hope prodding him 
between the shoulder blades. He seemed very 
well fed as the gray light of that winter day 
fell athwart his wistful visage, and 1 knew there 
were fish on his horizon. 
“Got to go out further," he advised. “Give 
me that ice prong and watch me. The fish 
come and eat out of my hands. There is a 
peculiar magnetism about me. I used to work 
in a fish market." He at once began making a 
hole in the ice so wide that even by shouting 
across, one could but faintly make himself un¬ 
derstood if he desired to communicate. He en¬ 
livened me with the information that he would 
presently pull out a fish distinguished among all 
other fish for its length and breadth. I watched 
him in unenvied silence. 
Suddenly up went my flag, and the next 
moment I was pulling in a lusty fellow of about 
one pound and a half. Up he came with much 
Bopping and was soon on the ice. Julius made 
haste to finish his hole. 
“Now, you will kindly keep your eyes on 
me," said Julius, as he threaded on a minnow, 
putting lordly emphasis on his remark. "Thus 
do I bait the hook, thus I walk to the hole and 
thus 1 drop it into the deep. Drop, O smooth 
and velvety line, to the nether regions, drop. 
Come ye corn-fed fishes. Even now I can hear 
your tails slapping a tattoo upon my brain." 
Things happen in this world. Where least 
expected will they bloom as the flowers, 3’ield- 
ing their delicate fragrance to the balmy air. 
One bloomed for Julius, for hardly five minutes 
had elapsed when he got an awful tug on his 
line. He had just remarked: “Fish may come 
and fish may go, but this one will leave me 
never.” As if in answer he was rewarded. 
For a few minutes Julius was about as intimate 
with that fish line as a man could l)e. Back and 
forth it cut the water and then up came the 
fish, a pickerel, but Julius had not seemed to 
have learned from experience that a pickerel 
saves all its energy for the final flop. The flop 
came; there were three or four Juliuses in 
motion something like you will note in the 
comic supplement—an exclamation, a movement 
in the water and the big one got away. All of 
this had happened so quickly that it took my 
breath. And on Julius’ shoulder gloom sat en¬ 
throned with sinister visage and menacing mien. 
Julius walked back and forth on the ice 
wringing his hands. “That's always the way; 
that's always the way." he said. “That was a 
fish. He must have been about two feet long. 
I never saw such a creature for length." Se¬ 
cretly I was happy. 
“Fish may come and fish may go, and I 
know one you will get—never." I told him, but 
he scorned my existence. I left him to his sor¬ 
row and filled in my time with pleasure and 
profit pulling in crappies. The commotion 
around Julius' fishing place having subsided, the 
ill luck soon departed, and better luck took its 
place. He was eminently successful, and grad- 
