182 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 29, 1910. 
upon it, for it was work or freeze. At last the 
twelfth hole was cut and ready for the hook, 
and twelve holes through eighteen inches of 
ice represent a lot of work. In my haste to 
set the last tip-up I was unfortunate or awk¬ 
ward enough to break it. “Good thing,” com¬ 
mented the doctor, “now I have an excuse for 
setting a line without a made tip-up. Just bring 
me a wand of red willow and we will have this 
hook fishing in a jiffy.” 
The doctor cut about eighteen inches from the 
middle, where the brush was about as large as 
my little finger. At one end he fastened the 
line; the other end he thrust into the snow ice 
in such a manner that it leaned out over the 
hole. “There,” said he, “that is all there is to 
that. Come, let's go to the fire; I’m freezing.” 
But even as the doctor turned the lithe willow 
began to jerk and twitch spasmodically, and 
bending quickly I grasped the line and pulled 
out a fine perch, reset the hook and raced with 
my companion for the fire. How good its 
warmth in that biting atmosphere. Just then a 
tip-up went into the air and I forgot the cold. 
The doctor reached the hole first and landed 
the fish, but almost immediately another tip-up 
signaled for assistance and I ran to it. Then 
the sport was fast and furious for a time, for 
perch bite in winter as they do in summer, all 
at once or not at all.- There was <?ne tip-up 
which caught four times as many fish as any 
other; perhaps it was more advantageously 
placed; at any rate it seemed for a time as 
though it was always signalling. All at once, 
as though acting upon a preconcerted signal, 
the perch stopped biting and not a tip-up waved. 
“Might as well eat our lunch now,” said the 
doctor, “for the fish probably will not bite again 
for some time. Strange, isn’t it, every perch 
in a given locality seems obsessed with the same 
idea at the same instant. While we were cut¬ 
ting those holes not a fish bit, then you took that 
first one and immediately they began biting all 
along the line. Well, the ways of fish, like those 
of women, are past finding out.” 
“Have you forgotten that you were going to 
show me how to set a line for pickerel?” I 
asked. 
“All right, we will warm up, then we will set 
a deep-water hook. You intimated that- this is 
a lake noted for its great pike. Where do- you 
catch them?” 
“Off that point down yonder,” I replied, 
“there is a weed bed close in shore with deep 
water just outside; it’s a good place.” 
“All right, we will put a line out just for 
luck. One never knows what may happen. Ten 
years ago I was ice fishing with a friend in 
Northern New York and—” 
“Hold on, doctor,” I interrupted, “you meanly 
held up my story yesterday, now I am in a hurry 
to get that line out.” 
“Waited twenty-four hours to even up, did 
you? Well, I will show you some things not 
dreamed of in your philosophy before I am 
done with you, but we will put that line out at 
once. Cut two sprouts four feet long and an 
inch in diameter,” and he swung off down the 
lake, shouting: 
“Blow, blow, thou wintry wind, 
Thou art not so unkind 
As man’s ingratitude. 
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, 
That dost not bite so nigh 
As benefits forgot.’’ 
I secured the sticks and followed the doctor 
out over the lake. Even as I rubbed my nose 
to keep it from freezing I found myself quot¬ 
ing the doctor, “In all of Florida there is noth¬ 
ing so beautiful.” 
“Good to be alive, eh,”, he asked, looking up 
from his work and divining my thoughts. 
“Yes,” I replied, “but if a fellow were dead 
out here he’d have to be almighty still, other¬ 
wise he’d disturb things.” 
The doctor laughed as he chopped away. 
“Now,” said he, “you take the chisel and ream 
out that hole. Sorry, but now I will have to 
remove my mittens. Now watch me.” 
Getting down upon his knees with his back 
to the wind, he said: “You see, beginning about 
two feet from the end I wind this line about 
the fingers of my left hand until I have formed 
SHOWING HOW THE DOCTOR MADE SKEIN FOR 
PICKEREL HOOK. 
a skein which contains ten or fifteen feet, and 
then slip the skein from my fingers. I now 
wind five or six wraps about the center of the 
skein and tuck a loop of the free end under 
the wrapping. You see, a sudden pull upon this 
end will release the wrapping and the skein 
will unwind. I will allow about eight feet of 
free line to hang below the skein, to the end 
of the line I attach this 7/0 hook and a sinker. 
For a bait we will use a frozen perch, and per¬ 
haps you won’t believe it, but it will come to 
life again as soon as it thaws out. There, now 
I will lower away. See, the skein is below the 
ice. The water in the hole can freeze, but the 
skein is free. Now a pike can take in that 
perch as soon as he pleases; the line is ready 
to run out at the first tug, and Esox lucius can 
play himself to exhaustion. That’s the advan¬ 
tage of the skein; the fish can play himself. I 
tie the end of the line to the middle of this 
stick and fix the stick across the hole in such 
a manner that the pike can’t pull it in if he 
comes along before the line is frozen in. The 
other stick I put up by the hole as a marker. 
Now for the fire and dinner.” 
While I got dinner the doctor made the 
rounds of the tip-ups, broke the ice that had 
formed about the lines and removed two perch 
and one crappie. When he reached the fire the 
coffee was steaming and the bacon sputtering. 
“Gosh!” he ejaculated, “how good things 
smell. Wish you had fried some fish.” 
“I’ll fry them if you will scale them,” I re¬ 
plied. 
“Upon second thought I don’t believe I care 
for any; I’ll be satisfied with bacon and pota¬ 
toes.” 
Before we were through with the meal two 
tip-ups were heads down and during the after¬ 
noon we caught several fish, but by 3 o’clock 
the cold had become so intense that we wound 
up our lines. Before leaving the ice the doctor 
took a look at the pickerel line and reported it 
“doing well,” but left it fishing. The next day 
he visited the lake and found that the line had 
disappeared. O. W. Smith. 
The Anglers’ Club of New York. 
New York City, Jan. 19.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: At the regular annual meeting of the 
Anglers’ Club of New York, held on Jan. 18, 
the following officers were elected for the year 
1910: President, N. S. Smith; Vice-President, 
Edward B. Rice; Secretary, Edward Farnham 
Todd; Treasurer, Harry Friedman; Directors, 
the officers and Harold G. Henderson, G. M. L. 
LaBranche and James D. Smith. 
The committee appointed to investigate the 
legal aspects of the site for a permanent home 
for the club at Lackawaxen, Pa., reported favor¬ 
ably and a committee was appointed with full 
power to act for the club in making some defi¬ 
nite arrangement for: taking same with instruc¬ 
tions to report at the next meeting. The club, 
therefore, will probably be settled in its new 
home in time for the spring fishing. 
After the meeting the members adjourned to 
the adjoining room where tables were set for 
the annual dinner, which was thoroughly enjoyed 1 
by all present. The speakers were the Rev. Dr. 
Hoyt, who made the opening prayer; N. S. 
Smith, the newly elected president, who recited 
some impromptu verses; R. B. Lawrence, who 
presented a fly-rod from the members to the 
retiring president; H. G. Henderson, who re¬ 
plied appropriately, and Dr. R. J. Held, wha 
spoke on tournament casting and other subjects. 
A number of moving pictures of fishing and 
hunting scenes in various countries were then 
shown and the club adjourned well satisfied with 
a well spent evening. 
Edward Farnam Todd, Sec’y. 
Newark Bait- and Fly-Casting Club. 
Newark, N. J., Jan. 1 6 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: At our annual meeting, held on the 
night of Jan. n, the following were elected to 
office: President, Chas. T. Champion; Vice- 
President, John Doughty; Secretary, Fred T. 
Mapes; Treasurer, A. J. Neu; Captain, Geo. R. 
Endersby; Lieutenant-Captain, P. J. Muldoon. 
Efforts are being made to organize a casting 
club which will be known as the West Hudson 
Casting Club. Plans are about completed for 
the forthcoming third annual banquet of the 
Newark Bait- and Fly-Casting Club, and the 
date will be announced later. 
Fred T. Mapes, Sec’y. 
