FOREST AND STREAM 
803 
sired, a hasp and padlock may be placed on each 
end. 
Now place the box lengthwise of the stream to 
such a depth that the water will a little more 
than half fill it, and fasten down by placing 
heavy rocks on the bottom. 
A box of this order will accommodate a great 
number of minnows for a long while. A few 
bread crumbs may be thrown into the box occa¬ 
sionally, but as the minnows are living under 
almost normal conditions very little food is nec¬ 
essary; they get their natural food from the 
water constantly running through the box from 
end to end. 
This box may also be used for crawfish if a 
closer weave is used for the bottom net. Cover 
the bottom with sand and place a few more smal¬ 
ler stones in advantageous positions. Lean a 
large stone on a small one so that the crawfish 
may crawl under and they will thrive just as 
well as if in their natural homes. 
Worms may be kept by burying a barrel half in 
the earth and filling it with earth. They will 
live fairly well under these conditions. But the 
very best method is to fill a small keg with moss 
well broken up, not packed in, but thrown in 
loosely. Distribute the worms evenly through 
this and they will live for months with practic¬ 
ally no feeding at all. Keep the keg as far as 
possible in a cool, damp place and the moss will 
retain it* moisture for an indefinite period. 
When taking the worms out in the boat do not 
place them in dirt; use a small pail and place 
some of the moss in it, or grass will do as well 
for a short while if kept damp. When using 
grass it is not necessary to distribute the worms, 
put them on top and they will work their own 
way to places of vantage. 
This may seem like useless trouble to keep a 
mere worm alive, but it must be remembered that 
bass like all their food lively, so it is absolutely 
useless to fish with dead bait. 
In the spring time, before the season opens 
and before the boat is placed in the water it 
should be painted and caulked well, for a leaky 
boat is an abomination and not to be tolerated 
if a dry one can possibly be procured. 
More misery, worry and hard work will ensue 
The Women of Your Family Will Get as Much 
Enjoyment Out of These Little Trips as 
You Do Yourself. 
from a leaky boat than from almost any other 
one thing that a fisherman has to do with. It is 
always on the mind and one can never be quite 
free to set their thoughts on fishing alone, which 
is absolutely necessary if a good catch of fish 
is to be the result of the day’s work. It seems 
that the only time that a leaky boat needs bail¬ 
ing is when the fish are biting at their best, and 
we must needs stop fishing and throw the water 
over the side, not only losing time, and precious 
time too, but scaring all the fish that may be in 
a neighborhood of a hundred yards or more. 
For caulking mix putty and white lead to¬ 
gether until it makes a good stiff dough, and 
after scraping off all the old paint and pulling 
out all the old caulking, fill all the cracks with 
it, supplementing it with cotton, or tow (which 
by the sailors is called “oakum,” being simply 
unraveled manila rope) in the larger cracks. 
Soak the cotton in linseed oil which has been 
thickened with a little white lead. 
Fill up the cracks pretty well with the cotton 
and then finish it with the putty and white lead, 
forcing in all that is possible without pushing 
out the cotton on the other side. 
We all like to know the reasons for doing any¬ 
thing, and the reason for the above method is 
just this: 
A heavy dough like this will stay compara¬ 
tively soft long after the outer coating of paint 
is applied, for two or three weeks in fact, so 
that when the boat 'is placed in the water the 
wood will swell before the caulking is altogether 
dry and hard, consequently forcing it into every 
nook and cranny that may be remaining, and 
when it does finally dry, as it will eventually, the 
boat will be absolutely water tight. 
After the boat is thoroughly caulked it should 
receive a first coat of paint, applied the same 
day as the caulking if possible. This should dry 
for one week, when the second coat may be put 
on. After this has dried for at least three days 
the boat may be placed in the water. 
There are several boat builders that claim a 
boat should be placed in the water on the same 
day the second coat of paint is applied, but this 
is a foolish thing to do, as the paint must “set” 
for several days first or all the second coat will 
be washed off entirely in a very short time. 
So far as we know there are no perfect paints 
to be used on boats in fresh water. There are a 
number of them made for use in salt water, but 
they do not seem to work out well in fresh. 
Their specialty seems to be the prevention of 
barnacles, but as the barnacles of fresh water 
are soft and easily gotten rid of we do not have 
to have a paint for their prevention. 
For two years we used a very fine quality of 
copper paint, but it peeled to such a great ex¬ 
tent that it was soon discarded entirely, and we 
began to cast about in desperation for a paint 
that would do the work that we wished it to do, 
i. e., to last one complete summer, keep the boat 
water tight and not peel, for the caulking will 
not keep it altogether water tight without the 
aid of good paint. 
One year we decided to mix a paint to our own 
liking and see if it could not be done so that it 
would last better than the professionally mixed 
paints. After some thought we secured the fol¬ 
lowing ingredients, mixed and used that year and 
every year since with a great deal more satisfac¬ 
tion than any used before. 
Twelve and a half pounds of white lead, two 
Rather Pretentious in Everything But Rent. 
quarts of unboiled linseed oil—best quality—a 
quarter pound of lamp black and a quarter pint 
of drier. 
This made a beautiful pearl gray paint, some¬ 
what rough to be sure, but one that lasted longer 
and stayed harder than any we ever used. 
Turpentine should be avoided as a plague for 
fresh water paint, for if used the water will 
crack and peel the paint in two weeks or less. 
As to a desirable color for a boat every one 
has his own fancy, most every one deciding in 
the end that to please his own sense of color 
scheme is the only thing that figures, but experi¬ 
ence will teach us otherwise. Perhaps it were 
foolish to imagine that we could not catch as 
many fish in a white boat as we could in a gray 
or green one, but it is so nevertheless. The very 
best color to paint a boat if we wish to make 
universally good catches of fish is pearl gray. 
Although a light green will seem to jibe bet¬ 
ter with the general color of the water to one 
looking down at it, it must be realized that a 
fish is looking from underneath up at the sky 
and clouds, and the most natural color of the 
clouds is a decided gray. 
Therefore, a gray boat will prove to be the 
best “sneak” boat of any, and when the sun is 
shining a “sneak” boat is certainly the only one 
possible. 
Bass are not fools by any means; they know 
just about as well what a boat is for as we do 
ourselves; at least, they know that it is a human 
agent of destruction, and the ways and means 
employed it is not necessary for them to figure 
out to make them turn tail and vanish, except 
in still fishing, when they do not seem to be quite 
sure as what the nature of the object on the 
surface may be—a raft of logs, an overhanging 
cliff or what not. 
This is proved by the fact that bass may be 
caught again and again directly under a boat 
that is stationary, when if it be drifting along 
the shores it very seldom happens, much less 
when the oars are being used. 
Occasionally, to be sure, bass are caught close 
to the gunwale, but this only happens as a rule 
when they have been so interested in following 
the bait that they have had no eyes for anything 
else, and so come rather close to the boat before 
they are aware of its proximity. Even then 
they generally see the boat at the same time the 
bait is seized and, through their being undecided 
as to just what to expect, a very half hearted 
strike is the result. 
