50 
hart baits are winners in this respect. A pair 
in the tackle box will not be amiss. Their poli- 
wog bait, with its darting and diving always is 
a sure mark for the attention of the bass. Look 
for quality in workmanship. Good baits have 
enamel upon them that wears like iron; poor baits 
after little usage shed their enamel. If you desire 
to use your baits without the side-gangs, unscrew 
them. Most minnows now are so made that they 
may be unscrewed. 
Use your baits carefully, and try them out 
thoroughly. The man who deplores the non-catch¬ 
ing qualities of the artificials is the man who 
manipulates such a bait a few times, happens to 
catch nothing and thereupon ceases. In my own 
case I have made ten casts over a bass, before I 
had finally got him mad enough to strike it, and 
when he did the water fairly boiled. Another 
man would cast two times over the same bass, 
would have no luck, and would thereupon instant¬ 
ly change from artificial to frog, and I will not 
say he may not be successful. Using frog I get 
my bass at the third cast, if I am keen enough and 
wise enough to understand what is taking best 
that day. I have a lightning change system. It 
is one of those wire slip affairs, with a swivel to 
it. Instantly I can bend the catch off that bait, 
slip on another, whether alive or artificial, it takes 
but a moment. Some sort of system like this 
should be adopted. 
Do not keep in the same rut all the time. Make 
a change frequently. In this way you will discover 
what bait is taking best that day. Usually two 
men in a boat, one using artificial minnows, the 
other live bait, will strike the correct medium for 
that day. Remember your pads, your deep holes, 
your pockets in among the northern moss. Bass 
lie beside fallen trees, rocks and other things. 
In small sheltered, sequestered coves you will find 
them on blustery days. Often in the pouring rain 
they come inshore and they may then be taken 
in great numbers by means of angleworm and a 
common hook. The reason they come in is this : 
Many living things are washed down in the water, 
and the fish are on the alert to feed upon them. 
And yet only one fisher in a hundred seems to 
be aware of this. 
Row your boat cautiously along the outer side 
of the weeds and cast inshore. At all times use 
caution. Some writers have it that no matter how 
much disturbance you make in the boat, the bass 
will not become alarmed. I do not know as to 
the veracity of this report. But I have always 
found that by going about my fishing , simply, 
cautiously and painstakingly I have had better 
sport. Evening hours, right on the verge of 
nightfall, when the last light is silvering the wa¬ 
ters, makes a fine time for bass. Go out alone, 
or with a companion that can be trusted, and who 
know how to row the boat to meet all exigencies. 
If your artificial minnows will not do the work 
after a certain number of trials, then shift to 
frogs. Remember that sometimes you will have 
ill luck for a long time, and it will seem that you 
will have to go home without anything. But then 
some bass have to become just so much aroused 
before they take things. And then like as not 
you will get the biggest fish. I know that big 
fish have to be won with skill and patience. For 
I have lured a bass in plain sight, and have final¬ 
ly taken him. 
Allow me to recommend you to the pork rind 
bait. Here is a bait that receives little attention 
FOREST AND STREAM 
from the fraternity. There is on the market a 
spoon hook contrivance having two hooks on one 
shaft, the smallest hook being in front, and to this 
the pork is hooked. There are two wire weed- 
guards over the hooks. The piece of pork is cut 
something to resemble a frog. The small hook is 
hooked on at the head. The belly of the imita¬ 
tion frog rests on the shaft and is tied down on 
it with ordinary string. Thus, either back leg of 
the frog will be on either side of the back hook. 
A piece of red flannel at the lead will arouse the 
ire of many a pugnacious fellow. The merit of 
the pork rind bait is that it may be used day in 
and day out, without wear or tear. 
HAROLD TELLS HOW THE DEER WINTERED 
IN PARADOX AND SCHROON. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
From an Adirondack guide to a storekeeper 
and post-master in a large and prosperous sum¬ 
mer colony is the jump or “change” as he him¬ 
self would call i ! t, that Harold L. McGuire has 
made this year. No longer shall we hear the 
steady swish of his mighty paddle, as the “birch” 
sweeps past our lodge on Eagle Lake on its way 
down to the farm, just as the first robin warbles 
its matin in the oak overhead, while we turn over 
for another nap, sure that the big tin pail on the 
dock will find its way into that craft and its re¬ 
turn full of milk in just 40 minutes by the 
watch, will be heralded by a gentle whistle. 
Yes, Harold, always so optimistic and cheerful, 
even when the fishing was “off,” will cruise no 
more about our island-studded gem of the Adir- 
ondacks, serenading with voice or violin on pleas¬ 
ant evenings, or “calling” the rustic dances for 
“city folks” and instructing them in the “figgers.” 
Let it not be supposed that Harold is a staid 
middle-aged man, although he occupies so respon¬ 
sible a position in the Paradox Colony of Essex 
County, N. Y., a resort put somewhat more 
prominently last season on the map by the so-» 
journ there of Mayor and Mrs. Mitchel, of New 
York City. No; McGuire is only a mere boy, 
just out of his teens, but it would be hard to find 
an old guide better qualified in every way to 
take care of a “sport” in the North Woods 
wilds than he. He is one of those lucky young¬ 
sters who can strike the game almost every time 
they go out, and his skill in the fishing season 
is only equalled by that shown in the deer forests 
in autumn. 
I well recall when he came home with his first 
rifle, a little 30-30 tick-tack. He tried some gold 
pencils in it, firing down from Mr. Fitz Gerald’s 
Cedar Turret Lodge on Side-Mill Bay, where 
Harold was engaged two years ago. Well, the 
bullets struck the opposite shore but were not 
satisfied to stay there, so they gaily glanced at 
the proper angle, flew over the club grounds 
about half a mile and finally struck in the tall 
timber above my lodge, causing a Wall Street 
man and the writer to lie low behind a snug stone 
wall until the ordnance practice had ended. 
Of course, we spoke to “Child” Harold about 
the matter next day, and he assured us with con¬ 
siderable emphasis that no further Schuetzen 
fests of that nature would be indulged in by him. 
With the same little rifle while still hunting 
up Potter Mountain way one day that very fall 
he spied a big buck deer on a ridge fully 200 
yards distant and hit him the first shot. The 
deer dropped but immediately sprang up and 
was off like a flash. 
Well. Harold climbed up the ridge across the 
valley and found a piece of that buck’s antlers. 
He felt then that his Winchester was “sure some 
gun,” as he expressed it, and lay around awhile 
for that deer, with the result that by nightfall he 
had the master of the bunch and a younger buck 
hanging up out of the way of foraging bears or 
foxes. 
Harold has been too busy with his new occu¬ 
pation, coupled with his farm duties to do much 
fishing this year, but his interest in local game 
conditions is unabated, as the following extract 
from his recent letter will show: 
“Deer and birds wintered fine to my knowl¬ 
edge, as there was no ice or crust through the 
woods to keep them herded in the swamps. The 
deer travelled everywhere and anywhere they 
wished to go. There have been reports that so 
and so found one deer'dead, but I found none— 
only those that were killed. 
“I had fine luck deer hunting. I killed two 
fine bucks this year and was only out six times. 
“Most generally in winter we have a heavy 
crust or else it is very dry. A year ago 
last winter, deer had a hard time of it, as they 
could not get on the mountains to get grass or 
moss, and if they were in swamps they had to 
stay there. 
“Last winter was different. Though there was 
a heavy coat of snow it did not stop the deer 
from getting on the mountains. You know there 
is never so much on the mountains as there is in 
the woods, as the wind has a good chance to 
get at it and pile it up in the small hollows and 
valleys. 
“So, whenever the deer can get on the moun¬ 
tains, they can always find small shoots and moss. 
“If there is a heavy crust, deer have to stay in 
the swamps and live on ground hemlock. Deer 
