The lure is cast by a steady side sweep 
of the rod, the line stripping through 
the guides from the coils. Short casts 
are the rule, as pickerel will often 
■ strike a lure within a few feet of the 
boat or shore. 
The fly rod is the ideal weapon for 
almost every kind of fresh-water fish¬ 
ing, for by reason of its resilient ac¬ 
tion it responds to the fishes’ every 
move, and because of this, the angler 
R derives more sport from its use than 
is possible with the stiffer bait and 
bait - casting rods. Fly - fishing, the 
highest form of angling, is there¬ 
fore really only one step removed 
from strip-casting. And the pickerel 
will take the fly readily, if the an¬ 
gler supplies the proper conditions. 
When fly-fishing for pickerel, the 
angler must remember that his pros¬ 
pective quarry has a very tender 
mouth and therefore he must use 
large flies. Number 1/0-2/0 and 
even number 3/0 flies are not too 
large. What has been said previ¬ 
ously about the pickerel’s habit of 
severing a gut snell from a bait 
hook applies equally well to the fly. 
Therefore, the provident angler will 
use eyed flies with about six inches 
of phosphor bronze or German sil¬ 
ver wire attached to obviate this 
difficulty.' The flies should be gay 
in hue. Parmacheene Belle, Profes¬ 
sor, Ibis and Jenny Lind are good 
ones. As a general thing, the pick¬ 
erel will not eject the fly as quickly 
as trout or bass, and if . - 
i the angler, upon feeling the 
1 strike, responds with an 
even pull instead of the 
usual quick jerk, he will 
find that he hooks and 
holds a larger percentage 
of his fish, as the hook is 
not so apt to pull through 
the thin membrane of the 
fish’s mouth. 
Using floating bugs and 
feathered minnows with 
the fly - rod is a sporty 
method of taking pickerel, 
as the fish strike on the 
surface and the attendant 
swirl and splash adds to the sport. 
The foregoing methods of taking 
pickerel include about all the ways in 
which these fish are taken by fair and 
sportsmanlike methods. The old-timer 
has his favorite method, and whether 
it be fly-fishing, trolling or bait-casting, 
he enjoys it thoroughly. But the be- 
1 ginner who has never fished for pick¬ 
erel has no traditions to break down, 
and he will find the greatest sport pos- 
sible with the fly-rod, whether he use 
fly, floating bug or spinner. 
As a rule, there are practically no 
months in the year when pickerel will 
not bite, but the best times in the 
whole season have been defined by old 
anglers as “in the spring when the 
apple blossoms are out” and “in the 
fall, when the red maples are coloring 
up.” When the heat of summer is 
upon us, the best times to fish are dur¬ 
ing the early morning hours and dur¬ 
ing the last two or three hours of day¬ 
light in the evening. 
Dear old Nessmuk, the master of 
woodcraft, was a pickerel fisherman 
and with considerable pride wrote “that 
he could catch them in their off seasons 
// 
n 
fSsA 
7 
/ 
y 
K 
V 
‘t 
r 
V 
-W J ScHaldaxh* 
THE PICKEREL IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF ACTION 
as well as at any time.” 
He had a pork bait and a home-made 
snell. He could see no virtue in “gangs” 
or “trains” or small hooks, and his snell 
was made by wrapping a strong hook 
to the end of a 15-inch brass wire snell; 
then a second hook was attached at 
right angles with the first, and one inch 
above it; and a third and smaller hook 
above that for a lip hook. This with a 
loop at the end made a snell about one 
foot in length, with the two lower hooks 
standing at right angles, one above the 
other, and a smaller hook in line with 
the second an inch and a half higher up. 
Nessmuk also held that all hooks for 
pickerel had twice as much barb as 
was necessary, and he used to file his 
hooks down to the upper part of the 
barb and then hone them to a perfect 
point. He argued that the sharp bend 
of the barb prevented the entering of 
the hook in the hard, bony structure 
so that a little loosening of the line and 
a shake the hand sets them free; but 
no fish could shake out a hook well 
sunken in mouth or gills, though two- 
thirds of the barb be filed away. 
The pork bait is made as follows: 
Slice off a clean, white pork rind, 
1 four or five inches long by an inch 
and a half wide; lay it on a board, 
and with a sharp knife cut it as 
nearly to the shape of a frog as 
your ingenuity permits. Prick a 
slight gash in the head to admit the 
lip hook, which should be an inch 
above the second one, and see that 
the fork of the bait rests securely 
in the barb of the middle hook. 
This bait should be cast along 
the edge of the lily pads, allowed to 
sink a few inches and then brought 
around in a slight curve by a quick 
succession of draws, with a momen¬ 
tary pause between each. The ob¬ 
ject being to imitate as nearly as 
possible a swimming frog. If this 
be neatly done and if the bait be 
made as it should be at every short 
halt the legs will spread naturally 
and the imitation is perfect enough 
to deceive the most experienced bass 
_ . or pickerel. When half a 
dozen casts to right and 
left have been made with¬ 
out success, it is best to 
move on, still keeping in¬ 
side and casting outside the 
lily pads. 
Finally, the man who in¬ 
sinuates that the pickerel 
is a bony creature not fit 
to eat, probably never has 
tasted one properly cooked. 
Few fish are more bony 
j than the shad, yet this 
same man undoubtedly 
relishes the flesh of the 
latter fish because it is a 
shad and forgets all about the bones. 
The bones in a pickerel are large and 
forked and quite easily avoided, and 
these same bones are clothed with the 
firm white flesh of a keen, active fight¬ 
ing fish. It is not an exception to other 
fish inasmuch as it takes on more or 
less of the flavor of the waters it in- 
habitates, nevertheless a pickerel care¬ 
fully fried to a brown “finish” or 
planked with strips of bacon before an 
open fire is real food, and a man 
doesn’t have to have an appetite born 
of the fragrance of the woods or the 
wind-swept lake to be able to enjoy it. 
Page 359 
