

through the clear water. To watch his 
maneuvers and to wonder what he will 
do next keeps one guessing. The fish 
is gradually brought to the boat and 
landed with a large gaff hook. A few 
blows on the head soon makes him safe 
company. 
The trip is wonderful whether you 
fish or not, but to bring back eight to 
ten red-meated beauties ranging from 
5 to 25 lbs. does not detract from the 
pleasure of the trip in the least. 
If the summer vacation seeker comes 
to the top of Wisconsin in early Au- 
gust, he may combine fishing pleasure 
with a visit to the Apostle Islands 
Indian pageant at Bayfield—an outdoor 
— spectacle of three hundred Indians— 
overlooking Chequamegon Bay and the 
islands, where the bay joins Lake 
Superior. 
J. P. O'MALLEY, 
Pres. First National Bank. 
What Became of the Suckers? 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
ss HEN the Lord had finished 
making the other fishes He 
gathered up all the bones that were 
left and put them in the mullet.” At 
least this is the local saying in the 
vicinity of my former home near the 
Indian River. We could always catch 
mullets, which are also known by the 
names red finned suckers and red horse 
suckers, and, as “familiarity breeds 
contempt,’ we considered them one of 
the most worthless of fishes. One of 
my earliest recollections is of trying 
to land a big red-finned sucker when 
I was about five or six years old. I 
could just raise the fish to the surface, 
where it flopped and splashed water 
until my father hurried to my assis- 
tance. ' 
It is true that in warm weather their 
flesh is soft and tastes “flat” unless 
skillfully handled by the cook, but they 
have at least two redeeming qualities— 
they bite well and they are a pretty 
fish. I have seen some very beautiful 
trout and yet I think that they were 
hardly more beautiful than the mullet, 
providing the latter has been caught in 
good bright running water. Of course 
any fish, even the grim-visaged bull- 
head, is much better when taken from 
clean flowing water than when taken 
from a sluggish muddy stream or stale 
pond. Compared with the German 
carp the mullet is a celestial fish, for 
the carp is, according to my experience, 
one of the very worst of fishes. They 
are so slow about biting and are dis- 
appointing in more ways than one. 
Josh Billings said that slavery was “the 
most cussidist of all things cussid,’* 
and I think that many disciples of the 
good Izaak Walton feel the same way 
about the carp, 

J. W. Skinner and his 350-pound 
Minnesota buck. 
Some twenty years ago black suckers 
and eels were quite plentiful in the 
Indian River. (not the one in Florida 
but the one in the northern part of 
New York State), but it has been many 
years since I have heard of one being 
taken there. What is the reason? Also 
there are not as many bullheads in this 
river as there were some years ago, 
although some very good ones are still 
found there. My grandfather, who 
lived on the bank of this river for 
nearly ninety years, used to tell of 
catching dace and shiners too, but none 
are caught there now. Instead of these 
the wall-eyed pike and the pike perch 
have appeared—a welcome change, of 
course. I think that I caught about the 
first wall-eyed pike that was taken in 
that vicinity. It was a small one 
weighing perhaps a pound and a half, 
and was the only one that I saw that 
summer. About two years later we 
began catching more of them, and now 
one or two good ones may be taken 
almost any day when the weather is 
right. 
I have never caught a big string of 
pike, nor of mullets, pickerel, or any 
other fish, for during the many years 
that I have fished in various lakes and 
streams it has been my invariable cus- 
tom, and the custom of nearly every- 
one that I have known, to stop fishing 
when we had caught enough for a meal. 
Also some of the people with whom I 
have fished have had sense enough to 
dip their hand in the water before re- 
moving a small fish from the hook to 
return it to the water, thus the “slime- 
like” covering which is essential to the 
well-being of the fish is not removed 
and it has a better chance to grow 
larger and delight the angler at some 
future time. Some, however, not only 
neglect this simple precaution, but even 
fail to return the small fish, taking 
them home “to the cat” or just leaving 
them on the bank. People who neglect 
to do the decent thing in such cases are 
not, and cannot be, good fishermen. 
For there is Art and Ethics to all fish- 
ing, whether it is bait-casting for mas- 
calonge or still-fishing for sunfish. 
Anyone who takes a genuine interest 
in this quiet recreation can become so 
proficient in its various branches by 
careful observation and practice that 
almost any fish will furnish him sport 
if rightly pursued. I have caught, for 
example, rock bass weighing over a 
pound and sunfish nearly as large 
which gave me as much pleasure as 
any black bass or pike taken by cast- 
ing. But they were not caught by 
using soggy worms and in the crude 
manner of those who give no thought 
to the art. 
In late years bait-casting has come 
to the popularity that it deserves. For 

A typical deer hunters’ camp in Minnesota. 
Photo by J. W. Skinner. 
