State Fish Commissioner and I were 
fishing from an anchored boat in Lake 
Winnebago just above the mouth of 
upper Fox River, and were having good 
sport with white bass. Our attention 
was drawn to a boat just entering the 
lake in which were a boatman and two 
anglers trolling. 
eee LS a sturgeon of perhaps 
a hundred pounds leaped from the 
water within a few feet of the boat and 
after attaining an altitude of several 
feet turned and took a nose-dive back 
to his native element, just grazing the 
gunwale of the boat, and with a loud 
splash regained the water, and at the 
same time deluged the occupants liber- 
ally. As soon as he recovered his breath 
one of the anglers exclaimed, his voice 
tremulous with fright: 
“G-G-Git back to the hotel at Neenah 
as soon as you can! I’ve had all the 
pleasures of angling I will need this 
/ summer!” 
| Sturgeon enter the lake through 
lower Fox River from Green Bay. The 
Fish Commissioner seemed well pleased 
_ to know that there were still some stur- 
_ geon left, saying: 
_ “IT am glad to know that there is 
still a prospect for caviar and smoked 
halibut!” 
The “Calico Bass,” otherwise known 
as croppie, silver bass and a dozen other 
Names in various parts of the country, 
‘North and south, is a favorite panfish 
_ wherever found. It is fairly abundant 
in the state, especially in the central 
and southern parts, in lakes and lake- 
lets. It is capable of furnishing fair 
' sport on very light tackle, especially to 
‘ladies and adolescent girls and boys at 
the summer resorts. The croppie is not 
at all remarkable for gameness when 
_on the hook, but this is compensated 
for by its excellence on the board when 
fried with bacon. It is closely allied 
to the southern croppie or newlight, 
‘but is more robust and reaches a pound 
or two in weight. 



| NE day, while residing in Ocono- 
mowoc, I was sitting under a shady 
tree on the bank of the lake, smoking 
| ae pipe and reading a book. Nearby, 
on the landing pier, two friends, a lady 
and gentleman, and their 
_ two boys were about to try 
_their luck fishing for crop- 
| Die. The gentleman was 
professor of English liter- 
_ature in a college in a 
‘neighboring city. He was 
Somewhat pedantic and 
fond of his phraseology, 
‘which his wife sometimes 
humorously ridiculed by 
‘adopting a similar style. 
The father was trying to 
| 
| 
| 
coach the boys in the use of the float. 
Incidentally, I was amused as I listened 
to the following colloquy. 
PATER. “Now, Willie, keep your eyes 
on your cork, as it will indicate to you 
what is going on beneath the surface. 
When the cork spins around in little 
concentric circles it is an indication that 
the fish is coyly and closely inspecting 
the bait, to determine whether or not 
it is to his liking. This is a premoni- 
tory symptom that the fish is very much 
interested. When the cork bobs up and 
down in an eccentric manner it shows 
that the fish is toying with the bait, but 
is not yet convinced that it is the psy- 
chological moment to negotiate it.” 
Mater. (With a twinkle in her eye.) 
“And Willie, peradventure the cork be- 
comes entirely submerged, and the line 
shoots off at a tangent, and cuts through 
the water in erratic curves, and anon 
in straight dashes, it is an indication 
that you should retrieve your line, and 
in the meantime keeping it straight and 
taut, in order to ascertain if perchance 
there is anything on your hook. This 
procedure is paramount to insure suc- 
cess and should be resorted to more or 
less frequently.” 
JOHNNIE. (From the other end of 
the pier.) “Hully gee! I’ve caught 
two croppies and a rock bass while you 
all have been talking about corks; talk’s 
easy, but it takes gumption to catch 
fish.” 
‘ie Cisco is a landlocked variety of 
the herring of the Great Lakes. 
It resembles the lake herring very 
closely, but is smaller both in size and 
weight. It is a pretty fish, silvery, 
greenish on the back, elliptical in out- 
line and compressed. It is also an in- 
teresting fish and is remarkable for 
dwelling in deep water lakes, where it 
can be caught in winter, through the 
ice, in water fifty or sixty feet deep. 
In mid-summer, when the May-fly, or 
sand-fly, appears in immense swarms in 
the lake region, completely covering the 
sides of buildings and wharves, the 
cisco appears on the surface of such 
deep water lakes as Oconomowoc, 
Okauchee and La Belle in Wisconsin, 
and Tippecanoe and one or two others 
in northern Indiana, to feed on this 

winged manna during the brief season 
of this ephemeral fly. 
T Geneva Lake, in southern Wis- 
consin, cisco fishing was a very 
popular sport during the incursion of 
the May-fly, both lady and gentlemen 
anglers were enthusiastic lovers of the 
sport. At this time the surface of the 
lake was alive with the cisco-fly. The 
natural fly was used on No. 8 or 10 
hooks, as bait, but many employed a 
gray artificial fly, especially the “green 
drake.” It is fine sport while it lasts, 
and is still indulged in when the May- 
fly, sand-fly, cisco-fly or Canada soldier, 
as it is variously known, appears. 
Cisco fishing always reminded me of 
the “gudgeon” fishing near Baltimore 
during my boyhood. This small fish, 
also known as “silversides,”’ enters the 
tributaries of the Patapsco River dur- 
ing its spawning season in April. At 
this time there is an exodus of men, 
ladies and boys equipped with light 
cane poles, lines, and small hooks, No. 
12, and almost any kind of natural bait, 
but usually earth-worms, which the 
fish would take as soon as the bait 
struck the water. Many used two 
hooks with spreader, and sometimes 
four hooks with a cross spreader; and 
as a rule each hook took a gudgeon. 
It is a fish several inches long, round 
and fat, somewhat resembling the smelt. 
Like the sardine it needs no dressing, 
and the scales being very small it is 
fried crisp and eaten bones, scales and 
all. 
N the early days fresh whitefish and 
lake herring were carried in the 
covered wagon from Milwaukee and 
other lake ports to interior towns, and 
as these fish were taken during Oc- 
tober, the spawning season, the eggs and 
milt oozing from very ripe fish, the 
fertilized eggs were accidentally intro- 
duced into the lakes mentioned. This 
I know to be true in the case of the 
Wisconsin cisco. 
The rock bass is a true game-fish 
when weighing a pound or more, and 
with very light tackle is worthy the at- 
tention of any appreciative angler, one 
who loves sport for sport’s ce. It 
will take any kind of natural bait and 
responds readily to the 
artificial fly when properly 
presented. He is a free- 
lance, frequenting com- 
paratively shallow water, 
near weeds or gravelly 
shoals, but mostly in rocky 
situations, as his name in- 
dicates. I know of no fish 
that puts up a better fight 
for his size, and he is not 
lacking in strategy and 
(Continued on page 377) 
325 
