218 
F OREST A N D S T R E A M 
April, 1918 
interested but scornful observer. “Fish 
don’t swim around with their heads out of 
water waiting for somebody to chuck ’em 
a line.” 
“Apparently,” I replied, “you have sprung 
a joke, but in reality you are nearer to the 
truth than you have any idea. Bass and 
pickerel have a fondness for hanging around 
stumps, rocks, lily pads, etc., waiting for 
food or excitement. If jour lure slaps 
down near one 
of these wait¬ 
ing fish, he is 
very liable to 
grab it from 
hunger, curios¬ 
ity, anger or 
just pure cuss¬ 
edness. Put it 
as you wish. 
As to accuracy, 
if you didn’t 
have control of 
your lure, you 
might cast at a 
likely spot and 
shoot way be¬ 
yond into a 
mass of brush 
or snags. To 
get your lure 
free, you would 
be compelled to 
row or wade to 
the spot where 
it was snagged, 
and in this way 
you would spoil 
the water for 
fishing as well as scare the fish.” 
“Haven’t you got some frogs, dobson, or 
night-crawlers with you ?” queried a skeptic. 
“Not a thing but artificial bait,” I replied. 
“I never had any luck with ’em,” he an¬ 
swered. “I’ve got quite an assortment too.” 
“Well, here’s the whole thing in a nut¬ 
shell,” I advised. “No artificial bait is any 
good if you fail to use it correctly. And 
when you compare still fishing with arti¬ 
ficial bait casting, it is this way: When 
still fishing, you wait for the fish to come 
to you; when bait casting, you go after 
the fish. Now, you fellows have been 
fishing today. You fished a while in that 
cove; a spell off that point; and tried your 
luck south of the island. Then you quit. It 
was pretty dull sport, too, now wasn’t it ?” 
They did not say anything, so I went on: 
“There are fifty good places for bass 
around this lake. You tried three, still 
fishing. In the same length of time, we 
will make a circuit of the lake and even 
if we don’t get a strike, the chances will 
be sixteen to one in our favor. Further¬ 
more, while you sit in the boat listening 
to the ‘chuck! chuck!’ of the waves under 
the bow, getting cross-eyed and dizzy 
watching a cork, or if you don’t use one, 
eyeing your line to detect a ‘run,’ we will 
be poking along enjoying the scenery if 
nothing more. And believe me, Jimmie 
and I are great on scenery.” 
We got into the boat and pulled out. 
Behind us, we left some who believed, 
but there were more who were skep¬ 
tical. They doubted so much that they 
just settled themselves down on the 
shore and waited. They waited until 
we came back. They waited to give 
us a big “horse” laugh—worse than 
that—a regular “Plee-haw !” 
I TOOK the oars and let “Jimmie” da 
the casting. She likes to cast and she 
likes to get advice—I like to give it. 
“Cast easily,” I remarked, “and not too 
far.” Then I continued, “Twenty medium 
length casts can be made while you make 
only ten long ones. You get the most 
strikes in the first ten feet you reel in be¬ 
cause in addition to casting at the likeliest 
spots, the splash of the lure attracts the 
fish and they dart for it instantly. Othti- 
wise the chances are they don’t strike at 
all that cast. The next cast may do th< 
trick. If the spot is a good looking one 
make at least three casts before abandon¬ 
ing it. The oftener you cast, the better 
are the chances for a strike. 
“The extra long cast is a fruitful source 
of backlashes. Casting into the wind with¬ 
out extra thumb pressure on the spool, 
will cause backlash. When you get one 
of these unpleasant snarls, look for the 
loop that is formed on the spooled line 
and pull the end out for three or four 
inches; then pull on the line that passes 
through the guides. Usually this pro¬ 
cedure will remedy your trouble. After 
clearing up a backlash, make a long cast 
out into clear water to get line out a 
goodly distance below the point on the 
spool v here the backlash occurred. After 
a strike or after hooking a snag, where a 
yank has been given the line, use care on 
the next cast. As your line runs from the 
reel spool, it glides freely until the point 
is reached where the strike or snag pro¬ 
duced the jerk. The line at this point may 
have been drawn down between two lower 
coils and got pinched. You can’t help 
this, but you can use care in the cast. 
“When you are reeling in, keep your 
thumb going back and forth so as to spool 
the line evenly. Don’t let it wind in a 
ridge at one spot and don’t let it run 
up on the spool ends or there will be 
trouble. 
“If you hear a buzz at the reel, look 
for a loose loop of line on the spool. 
Make a long cast to get it off the reel. 
Don’t continue casting with the line in 
this condition or it will whip on the 
cross bars and wear unnecessarily, not 
to mention retarding the cast.” 
B Y this time 
we had 
arrived at 
the further end 
of the lake and 
hadn’t had a 
strike. We 
didn’t w o r r y. 
There was a 
bunch of lily 
pads well i n 
towards shore 
in shallow 
water where 
nobody ever 
fished—that is, 
nobody but us. 
“Right over 
close to the 
center,” I di¬ 
re 11 e d as I 
held the boat 
with the oars. 
Jimmie made 
a cast but no 
results. 
A second one 
nearer shore 
and before she had reeled in a yard of line, 
the rod tip dipped and there was something 
besides the lure near those pads. 
“Set the hook hard, Jimmie!’’ I urged. 
“More fish are lost by not setting the 
hooks deeply that most fishermen are aware 
of. There never was a fish that could get 
off a hook that was set deeply.” 
Twice he broke water—he was a good 
fighter but he did not get away. 
We put him on the “keep-’em-alive” 
stringer after ascertaining that he pulled 
two pounds on the scales. 
We kept the lures spatting here and there 
as we circled the lake, and I was rewarded 
with a two pound pickerel to put on the 
stringer with Jimmie’s two pound bass. 
Soon I had a pound bass and then I said: 
“Let’s figure up the results.” 
We had been out two hours and had had 
our lunch during that time, but we had 
received nine strikes and landed four fish. 
“We’d better quit,” said Jimmie, “the 
crowd will be getting tired waiting for us.” 
“Now is just the time we ought to be 
doing our best casting,” I answered but I 
turned the boat towards shore. 
As I beached the craft, Jimmie lifted up 
the fish. Our catch was small, but to that 
fishless crowd, they looked good. 
If you will believe it, that crowd has kept 
me busy making them exchange rods, reels, 
lines, etc., that they purchased in their 
wild endeavors to get into the game. 
Some of them came to me with single 
action reels and heavy lines nicely en¬ 
ameled. One chap had some trout flies. 
They take advice slowly but they are 
fast' becoming convinced that artificial 
bait casting is a mighty attractive wav 
to put the “funis” on fins.” 
Enthusiastic anglers practising casting in a city park 
