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 THE BOOK OF 
 THE PIKE 
 
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 Book ,PkS 5 
 Copyright^N?_ 
 
 COEHHGHT DEPOSFK 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/bookofpike01smit 
 
THE AUTHOR FRYING PICKEREL IN CAMP 
 
 (See Chapter XIII) 
 
THE 
 
 Book of the Pike 
 
 BY 
 
 O. W. SMITH 
 
 Angling Editor "Outdoor Life," 
 Authot of "Trout Lore," "Casting Tackle and Methods," etc. 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 STEWART KIDD COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
c,v\tf 
 
 COPYRIGHT, lS>aa 
 
 STEWART KIDD COMPANY 
 
 Ml rights reserved 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 The Caxton Press 
 
 'Everybody Jot Books." Ihis is one of the Interlaken Library. 
 
 M 1 7 1922 
 
 ©&A674638 
 
TO 
 
 "CHUM" AND "JUNIOR NIMROD," 
 
 WIFE AND DAUGHTER, 
 
 Who have borne with the whims, fancies and idiosyncrasies 
 
 of a dyed-in-the-wool-angler, this little book 
 
 is most affectionately dedicated 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. By Way of Introduction 19 
 
 A clearing of the ground for the task. 
 
 II. Literature and History 23 
 
 A general survey of the subject from ancient 
 times until the present. 
 
 III. Description of the American Pikes . 33 
 
 Mainly scientific, the matter of nomenclature, 
 and how to distinguish the various pikes. 
 
 IV. The Little Pickerels 45 
 
 Their distinguishing marks, habits. Casting 
 and fly-fishing for them. 
 
 V. Casting for Great Pike with Artifi- 
 cial Lures 58 
 
 Habits of this morose gentleman, with re- 
 marks upon proper rods, reels, lines, and 
 lures to employ in casting. 
 
 VI. Great Pike and Live Bait ..... 73 
 
 A dissertation upon this much-abused method 
 of angling, with a sufficiency of information 
 as to tackle, etc. 
 
 VII. Fly-Fishing for Great Pike .... 88 
 
 Some remarks upon a method of angling which 
 is seldom indulged in for this fish, with 
 words of wisdom regarding tackle. Always 
 underneath runs the record of habits. 
 
 VIII. Trolling for Great Pike 1 
 
 When all other methods fail, this wins. How, 
 when, and where, as well as tackle. 
 
 7 
 
 02 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 IX. Ice-Fishing for Great Pike . . . . 115 
 
 A description regarding how to set about this 
 fascinating sport, with information regard- 
 ing the peculiar outfit required. 
 
 X. Muskellunge and Artificial Lures . 128 
 
 Description, where found, habits, and tackle 
 required to outwit this wolf of the North. 
 
 XI. Muskellunge and Live Bait .... 142 
 
 When all other methods fail, then live bait, 
 tackle required, and how to employ it. 
 
 XII. Trolling for Muskellunge .... 156 
 
 Advantages of method, with description of 
 tackle, and directions for handling. 
 
 XIII. The Fine Art of Pike Cooking ... 169 
 
 Not an apology for cooking the fish, but di- 
 rections for doing so, with a few receipts. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. The Possibility of Hybrids Between 
 
 Great Pike and Pickerel . . . . 185 
 
 A scientific dissertation based on an article in 
 the "Journal of Heredity." Conclusion is 
 that these fish may cross. 
 
 II. A Day's Still-Fishing for Great Pike 
 
 with Live Bait 190 
 
 How it is done. An account of the author's 
 greatest battle. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Author Frying Pickerel in Camp, Frontispiece 
 
 Facing Page 
 How to Identify a Pike - - - - - 37 
 
 A Study of Heads __-«-- 42 
 
 Shore Casting for River Pickerel - - - 52 
 
 Some Casting Tackle - 66 
 
 A Pair of Great Pike ------ 82 
 
 Some of the Author's Pike Rods - - - - 96 
 
 Spoons - - - - - - - - -112 
 
 A Compact Casting Outfit - - - - 112 
 
 An Ice Outfit for Great Pike - - - - 118 
 
 A 44-PouND Muskellunge - 138 
 
 Spawning a Chautauqua Muskellunge - -158 
 
 Heads of Pike, Pickerel, and Hybrids - - 186 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 To All My Good Friends of the Angle, Greeting: 
 
 I come to you with another fishing book, not be- 
 cause of any particular fitness of myself for the task; 
 rather, because there is so much need for the work. 
 So far as I know, there is no American book dealing 
 exclusively with the pikes, a family, by the way, which 
 I think has not received its just due from the great 
 host of anglers and angling writers. Of course the 
 muskellunge has always been given an honorable place 
 among the fresh-water fish of the world, but I under- 
 take to prove that there is a place for even the despised 
 pickerel in the ichthyic scheme of things; furthermore, 
 that on suitable tackle he is a foeman worthy of any 
 angler's skill. But read the chapter "The Little 
 Pickerels." The reader will find the subdivision "Fly- 
 Fishing for Pickerel" something of a revelation I am 
 sure. Right here I ask the reader's careful and charit- 
 able consideration of any new and original methods of 
 angling described or advocated. Do not judge hastily 
 or without some experimentation along the lines sug- 
 gested. In other words, do not *damn me without 
 something further than a hearing. 
 
 Scientific diagnosis of species is gone into with some 
 care, for the matter of when a pike is a great pike or 
 muskellunge, and not a pickerel, is a question that is 
 asked over and over again. I think anyone can readily 
 see that a pike as a great pike is just as much of a 
 
 ii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 game fish as when he is a muskellunge. Unfortunately, 
 this matter will never be settled satisfactorily for all, 
 because certain anglers maintain that a lunge is a 
 better fighter - than a great pike. Resort keepers are 
 insisting that their fish are lunge, when in fact they 
 are great pike. Now the truth of the matter is, there 
 is just as much sport in playing a thirty-five-pound 
 great pike as there is in playing a muskellunge of the 
 same weight. 
 
 At first I proposed to call the common pike, the fish 
 most widely distributed of the whole family, Esox 
 lucius (Great Lake's pike), but a little reflection con- 
 vinced me that such a name would be too cumber- 
 some to be popular. Neither is it descriptive of a 
 fish so widely distributed, for lucius is the pike found 
 the world round. After much thought I came to the 
 conclusion that "great pike" would be descriptive, 
 dignified, easy to use, and altogether happy. In reply 
 to a question, Mr. Evermann, one of the authors of 
 "American Food and Game Fishes," said that he re- 
 garded "great pike" as a very good name indeed for 
 a fish regarding which there is more than a little con- 
 fusion. Perhaps, too, the name, being a wee bit more 
 high-sounding than mere "pike," will lead the anglers 
 to feel that in catching great pike they are catching a 
 fish worth while, and not a pickerel. A great pike is 
 a great pike from minnowhood up, even as a pickerel 
 remains a pickerel, and a 'lunge a 'lunge all the days 
 of their existence. 
 
 What confusion there is regarding the whole pike 
 family! — a confusion that has been accentuated by 
 the entrance of a fish that absolutely has no relation- 
 ship with the pikes: I refer to the so-called "wall-eyed 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 pike," which is not a pike, but a perch, as its book 
 name, "pike-perch," indicates. However, the book 
 name has nothing but its truthfulness to recommend 
 it; it is not exactly descriptive and far from easy to 
 use. I have urged from the platform and through my 
 pages in Outdoor Life the past several years that we 
 call the fish "wall eye," an easy name to use and 
 sufficiently descriptive. Leave the "pike" off always. 
 When we say "pike," always mean pike and nothing 
 else. 
 
 There is the so-called great, northern pike, the gray 
 muskellunge of a few Wisconsin and Minnesota lakes. 
 Now he is no more the "true lunge," as some assert, 
 than is his close relative, the Ohio or Great Lakes 
 fish, some writers and fishermen to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. Call him "northern pike" if you want 
 to, but oh, I beg of you, never call the wall-eye a pike! 
 
 I have enjoyed the gathering together of these 
 chapters even as I enjoyed their first preparation for the 
 pages of Outdoor Life, and I may as well here as any- 
 where make my bow to that good magazine for the 
 privilege of republication in book form. Also I desire 
 to thank Forest and Stream for permission to publish 
 in the appendix the chapter on hybridism of pike and 
 pickerel, for it first appeared under my name in that 
 magazine and brought me many letters from all 
 over the country; therefore it seemed wise to me that 
 it should appear in this, the first American book 
 treating exclusively of the pike family. 
 
 Much of the matter is original, as the reader will 
 discover, and many of the first chapters that appeared 
 in Outdoor Life have been thoroughly rewritten. I 
 have not hesitated to change pages and paragraphs as 
 
 13 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 necessity has arisen. The book is true to facts in so 
 far as I can make it so. That no errors have crept in 
 I will not say, for "to err is human," you know. 
 Simply I have tried to produce a safe guide for the 
 anglers who seek one great group of our fresh-water 
 fishes. Whether or not I have done my work well, I 
 leave the reader-fisherman and the fisherman-scientist 
 to judge. 
 
 I can say in utmost truth that this has been a work 
 of love, for I dearly love to catch fish and write of the 
 fish I catch. I have tried to get the reader to see that 
 not merely the science of the subject, nor the important 
 matter of tackle, nor yet the successful taking of fish 
 has been my lodestar, but that the getting out into 
 God's Out-o'-Doors, where the free breezes blow and the 
 flowers tone and scent the air, has been the thing of 
 utmost importance. I hold myself to be a sort of 
 preacher, a preacher of the gospel of the Out-o'-Doors. 
 What we need in this day and age is more men going to 
 the woods and waters for doubt's anodyne and care's 
 surcease. There is such a thing as the Religion of the 
 Open, and it is not mere Godless pantheism, either. 
 
 Perhaps some will criticize me for spinning so many 
 yarns, casting my information so often in story form; 
 but to them I can only say, "It is not all of fishing to 
 fish." I turn from many of our American writers to 
 our English cousins, for they take time, some of them, 
 to see the flowers and hear the birds sing. I have re- 
 lated many an incident, each one, however, I think 
 the reader will agree with me teaches some concrete 
 lesson, presses home some angling truth. While I have 
 no desire that this book become "popular," I have 
 tried to write it in a popular style, though I have 
 
 14 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 studiously avoided slang and vulgarity. I have tried 
 to be dignified, yet companionable. I hope I have 
 produced a book that readers will pick up long after 
 the streams and lakes of the Middle West shall know 
 me not, and say not "He was an ichthyologist of parts," 
 nor, "He was a great angler," but, "He loved the 
 woods and waters." 
 
 In conclusion, let me thank all the correspondents 
 everywhere who have helped me build this book. 
 Especially would I thank the picture-takers, partic- 
 ularly the men of the New York Fish Commission for 
 the use of the pictures of Chautauqua muskellunge. 
 Whenever possible full credit is given. 
 
 So I hand the volume over to you, reader. May the 
 fire leap high and the Red Gods smile upon you. 
 
 The Author. 
 Evansville, Wisconsin. 
 
 15 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 "The pike family are most remarkable for the large size of the head which 
 is flattened and the lower jaw which projects. They have a terrible array of 
 sharp teeth of assorted sizes, and on the edge of each side of the lower jaw are 
 several long, bayonet-shaped fangs — in the larger fish nearly an inch long, 
 some of them curved inward like the tusks of a bear." 
 
 —Mr. Louis Rhead, in "The Book of Fish and Fishing." 
 2 
 
Chapter I 
 
 By Way of Introduction 
 
 DURING the years in which I have filled an 
 angling editor's chair no single topic has 
 elicited more questions than has the pike 
 family. To go through my correspondence files amply 
 proves the statement. In one month during a certain 
 summer no less than sixty-three letters appeared upon 
 my desk, their subjects ranging from the time-worn 
 question, "What is the difference between a pickerel 
 and a muskellunge?" and "Which is the best time of 
 the year for muskellunge fishing?" If I were to add 
 the questions regarding the relationship of the "wall- 
 eyed pike" (pike-perch) to the pike family, I would 
 almost double the number. Now I have answered the 
 same questions over and over again. Still the stream 
 does not diminish; rather, is gradually on the increase. 
 Consequently I am convinced that there is real need 
 for an American work upon the subject. 
 
 It is my purpose to go into the matter as exhaustively 
 as possible, not only treating of the various members 
 of the family and the literature of the subject, but 
 also writing of tackle and the methods of employing 
 it; in fact, it is my purpose to prepare a work that 
 shall obviate once for all, the answering of multi- 
 tudinous queries. The reader will realize that it is no 
 small task I have assigned myself. However, the 
 greater the labor expended the greater the reward. 
 
 19 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 Life's profits are always in exact ratio to investments. 
 The thing which costs nothing is nothing worth, a 
 statement which applies not only to angling lore, but 
 to material things and mental wealth as well. 
 
 The angler's success is always in proportion to his 
 knowledge and skill. While I realize the importance 
 of tackle, am the proud possessor of some valuable 
 rods and reels of various makes, I wish to reassert, 
 "The angler's success is always in proportion to his 
 knowledge and skill." Any man can catch fish when 
 the water teems with hungry game, but only a habit- 
 wise and skill-wise handler of rod and reel can secure 
 a good string of muskellunge when those fish are few 
 and far between, therefore shy and wary passing 
 belief. A man may be a "lucky fisherman" now and 
 again, but if his luck continues week in and week out, 
 season in and season out, you may rightly conclude 
 that fish-knowledge and skill with tackle, rather than 
 the fickle jade Luck, are the secret of the success. Luck 
 may be a good mare for a spurt, but she is a poor 
 beast for a steady up-hill climb. 
 
 Perhaps I shall step on some brother's ichthyic 
 corns before I have finished with the pikes; it will be 
 strange if I do not, for every angler is possessed of 
 sensitive spots. When I come to write of the little 
 grass pickerel,^ that "snake" of sluggish water, as a 
 game fish, some will rise up in righteous wrath; and 
 when I laud fly-fishing for pickerel as a sport worthy 
 the consideration of any descendant of Izaak Walton, 
 some, I am sure, will lift hands of piscatorial horror. 
 Oh, I realize full well, none better, what I am letting 
 myself in for. Still I must, here in my introduction, 
 insist that the little pickerel has not received his 
 
 20 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 proper due at the hands of anglers and angling writers. 
 He is not as black, not as green rather, as he has been 
 painted from time immemorial. On suitable tackle he 
 is a foeman worthy of any angler's skill. "On suitable 
 tackle." Therein lies the secret. 
 
 It shall be my purpose, so far as in me lies, not to 
 lose sight of the fascination of this particular sport; to 
 emphasize the sesthetical, if the reader will allow that 
 somewhat effeminately flavored word. I fuss with the 
 average angling writer. His instructions are about as 
 interesting as an array of vital statistics. I could never 
 understand why the attractivity of the sport, the lure 
 of the open, the blandishment of God's Out-o'-Doors, 
 should not have place even in a book on tackle and how 
 to use it. We do not fish just for fish, in all conscience. 
 So if I stop to gather moccasin flowers while fly-fishing 
 for pickerel, or leave the boat to collect highly colored 
 autumn leaves when casting for the fighting muskel- 
 lunge, don't find fault. Why should I be other than 
 I am, even in a book? He who angles with me must 
 become accustomed to my habits, my idiosyncracies, 
 or we will speedily dissolve partnership. I have always 
 held that flower-gathering and bird-study are an im- 
 portant part of fishing; and whether I am fishing for 
 aristocratic trout or plebeian pickerel, I take time to 
 become acquainted with my surroundings. 
 
 Then, too, what other anglers have said about 
 fishing, history and literature, must play its part. 
 Pike fishing is an ancient pastime, and there is con- 
 siderable literature upon the subject, especially Old 
 World literature, for in England the pike is more 
 highly thought of than he is upon this side the briny. 
 Be it said, however, upon this side there has no work 
 
 21 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 appeared, so far as I know, dealing exclusively with 
 the family. Much has been written of the lordly 
 muskellunge. It is a "lordly fish," if we are to believe 
 the magazine writers, and we will not disagree with 
 them; but if the muskellunge is a noble fish, why, in 
 the name of all that is reasonable, is not the great 
 pike — by which name I propose to designate the large 
 pike we all know — just as noble, pound for pound? 
 That the muskellunge, pound for pound, is one whit 
 more gamy than the great pike I will not for a moment 
 admit. So you see, I may get into trouble right here 
 in the introduction. 
 
 What I hope to do, in addition to giving some in- 
 formation on tackle and methods of angling, is to help 
 clear up the matter of names; enable the angler to tell 
 the difference between pickerel, pike, and muskellunge, 
 impressing upon him over and over again that the 
 so-called "wall-eyed pike" is not a pike at all, but a 
 perch; tell him what I have learned of the habits of 
 the various pikes, and of the tackle employed for their 
 capture. It is a "large order," and it will take some 
 time to fill it, but we have all the time there is. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 22 
 
Chapter II 
 
 Literature and History 
 
 "The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the Tyrant, as the 
 Salmon is the King, of the fresh waters. 'Tis not to be doubted 
 but that they are bred, some by generation and some not: as, 
 namely, of a weed called Pickerel-weed, unless learned Gesner 
 be much mistaken: for he says, this weed and other glutinous 
 matter, with the help of the Sun's heat in some particular months, 
 and some ponds apted for it by nature, do become Pike. But 
 doubtless divers Pikes are bred after this manner, or are brought 
 into some ponds some such other ways as are past man's finding 
 out, of which we have daily testimonies." — The Compleat Angler. 
 
 IN comparison with the Old World, there is a dearth 
 of American literature upon the subject of the pike 
 family; indeed, I know of no single work dealing 
 with the pickerel, pike, and muskellunge alone. Here 
 and there, as in McCarthy's "Familiar Fish," Rhead's 
 "The Book of Fish and Fishing," Henshall's "Favorite 
 Fish and Fishing" and "Bass, Pike, Perch and Other 
 Game Fishes of America," Rhead's "Bait Angling 
 for Common Fishes," Dixie Carroll's "Lake and 
 Stream Fishing," and books of that ilk, we find 
 short chapters dealing with one or all members 
 of the family, but that is about all. Upon the 
 scientific side of the question we find such brief 
 articles as those in Jordan and Evermann's "American 
 Food and Game Fishes" and Goode's "American 
 Fishes." Then there are bulletins from the United 
 States Fish Commission and those states that have 
 undertaken to propagate the pikes. Good as all the 
 foregoing are, they are not complete enough to satisfy 
 
 23 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the inquisitive angler, much less the angling literatus 
 who derives almost as much enjoyment from angling 
 in books as in fishing in lakes and streams. 
 
 Upon the other side of the water, the pike (for they 
 do not have the small pickerel and muskellunge) is 
 much honored, is fin and scale a part of folklore 
 and legend; indeed, as one digs into the cobwebby 
 past, it is exceedingly difficult to separate fact from 
 fancy. Cholmondeley-Pennell's "Book of the Pike" 
 and "Trolling for Pike, Salmon, and Trout," the first 
 issued in 1865, the latter somewhat later, are well 
 worth the American angler's time and money, e'en 
 though he must look in second-hand stores for them. 
 William Senior's "Pike and Perch," a volume of the 
 well-known "Fur, Fin, and Feather" series, an English 
 work issued on both sides of the water, is as complete 
 a thing as I know, a single chapter upon "Some Foreign 
 Relatives," treating of our purely American pikes. 
 John Bickerdyke's "Angling for Pike" is another 
 English work worth having, as is "Pike and Other 
 Coarse Fish," by Cholmondeley-Pennell, a volume of 
 the Badminton Library. In fact, there are so many 
 English books, some of them very English, that I can- 
 not mention them all here ; but I think I have enumer- 
 ated a sufficient number to prove to the curious or 
 interested American angler that he need not lack for 
 information in so far as the Old World pike is con- 
 cerned. Be it said, however, that we Americans 
 would not agree with the directions given in the Eng- 
 lish books for pike angling. 
 
 So ancient are the early mentions of pike and pike 
 fishing and, as pointed out at the commencement of 
 the foregoing paragraph, so interwoven is legend with 
 
 24 
 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY 
 
 fact, that it is extremely difficult to tell where one 
 leaves off and the other begins. That Izaak Walton, 
 that Nestor of anglers, believed many odd things 
 regarding this "Tyrant" is true, to-wit, his statement 
 that undoubtedly the fish is sometimes the offspring of 
 common pickerel weed. When he tells of two young 
 geese being found at one time in the stomach of a pike, 
 we are somewhat staggered; but when he soberly 
 affirms "A Pike, in his height of hunger, will bite at 
 and devour a dog that swims in a pond," we have a 
 faint suspicion that perhaps the gentle Izaak was a 
 wee bit too credulous, e'en though he adds earnestly, 
 "I might say more of this, but it might be thought 
 curiosity or worse." Evidently even in his day a 
 fisherman's "yarns" were regarded with some sus- 
 picion. 
 
 One of the most weird bits of "information" he gives 
 us is the following, which he credits to Dubravius, a 
 bishop of Bohemia, who wrote a book upon "Of Fish 
 and Fish Ponds," and Walton says, asserts he saw with 
 his own eyes. I quote verbatim: 
 
 "As he [Dubravius] and the Bishop Thurzo were 
 walking by a large pond in Bohemia they saw a Frog, 
 when the Pike lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore- 
 side, leap upon his head, and the Frog, having expressed 
 malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and staring eyes, 
 did stretch out his legs and embrace the Pike's head 
 and presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with 
 them and his teeth those tender parts; the Pike, 
 moved with anguish, moves up and down the water 
 and rubs himself against weeds and whatever he 
 thought might quit him of his enemy; but all in vain, 
 for the Frog did continue to ride triumphantly and to 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 bite and torment the Pike till his strength failed, and 
 then the Frog sunk with the Pike to the bottom of the 
 water; then presently the Frog appeared again at the 
 top and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror, 
 after which he presently retired to his secret hole. 
 The Bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his fisher- 
 man to fetch his nets, and by all means to get the Pike, 
 that they might declare what had happened: and 
 the Pike was drawn forth, and both his eyes eaten 
 out, at which when they began to wonder, the fisherman 
 wished them to forbear, and assured them he was 
 certain that Pikes were often so served." 
 
 If we are to accept as fact the legendary ichthyic 
 history of England, then we must believe that a mule, 
 bending to drink at a stream, was bitten through the 
 lip by a pugnacious pike, which would not loose its 
 hold, but was drawn from the water. Furthermore, it 
 must have been extremely hazardous to bathe in 
 English pike water in the long ago, for was not a maid, 
 busy with her mistress' washing, seized by the foot? 
 Perhaps here is the reason for the modern English- 
 man's love for his "tub:" he is fearful of open water. 
 I am surprised that Darwin never elaborated it. But 
 cheer up; worse is yet to come. 
 
 To write of pike in literature and not mention the 
 famous Kaiserweg Lake fish would be to commit an 
 ichthyic unpardonable sin. Before he mentions the 
 fish from "Swedeland," Walton, with all the canniness 
 of a Scot, tells us that Sir Francis Bacon thought that 
 a pike might live to be forty years old. Then he pro- 
 ceeds to tell of the fish that was put into Kaiserweg 
 Lake by one of the German emperors and there lived 
 some two hundred and sixty-seven years. Just how 
 
 26 
 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY 
 
 much truth there may be in the yarn I am unable to 
 determine, but it appears in every English angling 
 work upon pike read by me. Personally, I regard it 
 as highly apocryphal. Yet Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell, 
 in his book mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, 
 not only relates the story, but also gives a facsimile 
 of the ring worn by the fish, with the following transla- 
 tion of its Greek inscription : 
 
 "I am the fish which was first of all put into this 
 lake by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, 
 Frederick II, Oct. 5, 1230." 
 
 As the talented author remarks, it is somewhat 
 strange that the engraving found in the old black- 
 letter copy of Gesner's famous work, published in 
 Heidelberg, A. D. 1606, should have escaped discovery 
 for so many years. We are expected to believe that 
 this fish grew to the prodigious length of nineteen 
 feet and reached the not inconsiderable weight of 
 350 pounds! Advocate of light tackle though I am, 
 I am not altogether sure that I would be willing to try 
 conclusions with that minnow, even with my heavy 
 bass rod, which weighs seven ounces. Unfortunately 
 for the story, the skeleton, which was for a number 
 of years preserved in the Cathedral of Mannheim, was 
 found, by a shrewd anatomist acquainted with the 
 bones of a fish, to have been lengthened by artificial 
 means to agree with the story. But why investigate 
 too thoroughly? Has it been altogether a gain to 
 discover that Pocahontas did not save the life of 
 Captain John Smith, and that the story of George 
 and the cherry tree has no basis in fact? Why be too 
 matter-of-fact? I do not care to examine any fish 
 story too closely. 
 
 27 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 While digging amid the English legends regarding 
 this storied fish, it may not prove uninteresting to 
 note some of the supposed medicinal properties of the 
 pike. One of the most effective remedies for "pleu- 
 risies" was derived from the powdered jawbones, while 
 the heart yielded up a sovereign remedy for par- 
 oxysms. Fair anglers should remember that pul- 
 verized pike's eyes is the last word in cosmetics. "The 
 liver -of a pike — " but why continue? Enough has 
 already been said to prove that the pike was, if not is, 
 a veritable swimming country doctor. 
 
 When we turn our attention from the Old World 
 pike to the fish of America, we are at once confronted 
 with a dearth of legend and story; that is, outside of 
 the Indian tribes, who knew the fish and accredited 
 it with much lore and occult wisdom. The New World 
 angler can but lament the fact that he does not possess 
 tomes and tomes, volumes and volumes of ichthyic 
 literature regarding his game fish. But our fishing is 
 not ancient enough, and we have been too busy and 
 too matter-of-fact to manufacture legends. Legends 
 are the products of leisure and credulity, neither of 
 which is a characteristic of America. We do not 
 believe, for instance, that a pike may be the offspring 
 of a pickerel weed, but we do hear of "sore-teeth days," 
 when muskellunge are supposed to shed their teeth, 
 evidence or proof of which I have been unable to dis- 
 cover, though I have searched the scientific records 
 diligently. Nevertheless, the superstition, if it be that, 
 lingers in many localities. Personally, I have yet to 
 take my first 'lunge with "sore teeth," or to find evi- 
 dence of dental trouble, perhaps because my fishing 
 has not been done in August. Even though science 
 
 28 
 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY 
 
 has nothing to say upon the question, anglers are con- 
 vinced that there is a basis of fact for the belief. 
 
 Says Dixie Carroll, the well-known author, in "Lake 
 and Stream Game Fishing": "About the middle of 
 August the musky*4oses his teeth and his mouth is in 
 such shape that it takes something mighty aggravating 
 to arouse enough anger to make him forget his sore 
 molars and strike." Then, after taking a gentle slam 
 at those who do not agree with him, Dixie continues: 
 "September tenth of last season I examined three 
 musky caught on that day, and in the mouth of each 
 was a new set of sharp-edged teeth, firmly set, while, 
 hanging loosely in the back, were still the remains of 
 the old teeth, which had not entirely parted company 
 with their owners." In the face of such testimony 
 there is nothing to say, though I beg the reader to 
 remember that in lower forms of life rudimentary 
 teeth are common. In the rattlesnake, for instance, 
 the zoologist finds, lying back of the fang in use, a 
 second as perfect, and back of the second a third not 
 quite perfect, and back of that another less perfect, 
 and so on. In case a rattler loses his fang through 
 accident, a second is ready to take its place. The 
 whole matter of "sore-teeth days" will not be settled 
 until ichthyologists leave the laboratories and take to 
 the woods and waters for study. The United States 
 Fish Commission knows nothing about the "sore- 
 teeth" period. Here a man is permitted to believe as 
 he chooses, only this I am sure of: August is a poor 
 month for muskellunge fishing. 
 
 Scientifically speaking, the oldest of our American 
 pikes, the eastern and western pickerel, both described 
 by Le Sueur in 1818, is one hundred years; a very brief 
 
 29 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 period indeed, when contrasted with the recorded his- 
 tory of the European pike reaching well beyond the 
 thirteenth century. There is an earlier mention of the 
 pike, though Le Sueur records it in the same year with 
 the pickerels, and we will have to let his date stand. 
 The muskellunge, the Great Lakes fish, is mentioned 
 by Mitchell in 1824; the Ohio fish by Rafinesque in 
 1 81 8; the Wisconsin fish, though often mentioned in 
 sporting journals, was not, to the best of my knowl- 
 edge, described by a scientist until Jordan put his 
 capable hand to the task in 1 888. Naturally, there is 
 considerable confusion regarding the matter of the 
 muskellunge, the differences between the various fish 
 being so slight, forms seeming almost to intergrade, 
 that it is wise to postpone the discussion to a later 
 chapter, when we can take up the whole question 
 carefully. 
 
 As will be seen from the foregoing paragraph, if we 
 do not possess ancient ichthyic lore relative to the pike 
 family, we have confusion worse confounded in regard 
 to descriptions of the various fish. As I have searched 
 the early manuscripts and scientific journals, I have 
 been more than once cast all adrift by contradictory 
 statements and overlapping descriptions. We need 
 some wise, scientific angler to straighten out this 
 whole matter of pike history and description, and also 
 to collect the Indian legends regarding the storied 
 northern fish. 
 
 I have already mentioned Henshall's book, "Bass, 
 Pike, Perch, and Other Game Fishes of America," as 
 readable a work and as authentic as any I know. 
 However, it is to magazines of the outdoor class that 
 we must go for angling information, though unfortu- 
 
 30 
 
LITERATURE AND HISTORY 
 
 nately the great majority of those who write for the 
 press do not possess even a smattering of scientific 
 training. Therefore, while their angling lore is good, 
 their scientific (?) dissertations are emphatically not 
 worth while. To illustrate: A writer in one of the 
 oldest and best of outdoor magazines takes the au- 
 thors of "American Food and Game Fishes" to task 
 for saying that the muskellunge is native to all the 
 Great Lakes, and asserts that to his certain knowledge 
 no muskellunge were ever taken from those waters. 
 The fact of the matter is, if the author had been 
 better acquainted with his subject, he would have 
 known that the Great Lakes muskellunge and the fish 
 of Northern Wisconsin — which, to his provincial mind, 
 is the only true 'lunge — are not the same fish, though 
 both are true muskellunge. The book mentioned a 
 few moments ago, "American Food and Game Fishes," 
 is a safe guide, criticisms to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 The reason the American pike — and now I speak of 
 the whole family — is not more highly appreciated is 
 because we have so many more worthy fish in all our 
 lakes and streams, the doughty black bass, for instance. 
 Just the same, there is fine sport in angling for even 
 the despised pickerel, a proposition which I boldly 
 affirm and am going to undertake to prove in its proper 
 place. After all, the quality of the sport depends 
 almost as much upon the angler and upon his tools 
 as upon the fish for which he angles. The right sort 
 of a man, properly equipped, will get as much sport 
 out of angling for sunfish as others will fishing for 
 muskellunge with a hand-line. A "contemptible" — the 
 word is not mine— river pickerel taken on a fly with a 
 
 3i 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 three-ounce rod will put up a battle that will surprise 
 one who has never essayed the game. A chapter on 
 fly-fishing for pickerel will find place in this book 
 later on. 
 
 I desire my reader to disabuse himself as far as 
 possible of all preconceived notions, ideas, and preju- 
 dices and approach this whole subject with a mind 
 open to conviction. If I do not convince him that I 
 am right in my conclusions, likes, and dislikes, I shall 
 at least have the satisfaction of knowing that I have 
 supplied him with some not easily secured informa- 
 tion. Ever since a boy I have been a student of fishes, 
 in later years something of a biologist as well as angler, 
 almost as much interested in how the animal is built 
 as in its capture. Unless you have a penchant for 
 scalpel and dissecting knife, know that you can never 
 be certain of the identity of any given fish. The 
 ichthyologist must ever agree with the poet — "Things 
 are not what they seem." As "beauty is only skin- 
 deep," so the markings of a fish are only on the surface, 
 and specific rank depends upon anatomical differences 
 and not mere coloration. 
 
 Before I close this chapter I wish to say a word or 
 two for the articles appearing in the various outdoor 
 magazines upon fishing for members of the pike 
 family. Probably the very best and latest information 
 is to be found in the outdoor periodicals. I planned 
 to give a list of articles that had been a help and 
 inspiration to me, but within a year such a list would 
 be antiquated. But read outdoor magazines, bind 
 them, or at least make scrapbooks, and in due time 
 you will possess a veritable encyclopaedia of fishing. 
 
 32 
 
Chapter III 
 
 Description of the American Pikes 
 
 "One of the earliest writers by whom the pike is distinctly 
 chronicled is Ausonius, living about the middle of the fourth 
 century, and who thus asperses its character: 
 
 'Lucius obscurus ulva lacunas 
 
 Obsidet. Hie, nullos mensarum lectus ad usus, 
 
 Fumat fumosis olido nidore popinis.' 
 
 "The wary Luce, midst wrack and rushes hid, 
 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood, 
 
 Unknown at friendship's hospitable board, 
 Smokes midst the smoky tavern's coarsest food.' " 
 — Pennell's "Book of the Pike." 
 
 MY READERS have already discovered that 
 America is rich in pikes. The Old World 
 can boast of but one species, Esox lucius, the 
 fish which, with us, should be known as Great Lakes 
 pike or great pike, to differentiate it from the common 
 pickerel, though unfortunately that latter name is 
 often bestowed upon the Great Lakes fish and even 
 the muskellunge itself. Hereafter I shall denote the 
 Great Lakes pike — not the muskellunge, you under- 
 stand — as Great Pike, and use the name throughout 
 this work. 
 
 The great pike is fairly common in all suitable 
 waters of North America, Europe, and Asia, the one 
 cosmopolitan of the family. In North America we 
 have, according to Jordan and Evermann, six addi- 
 tional species, to wit, the banded pickerel, little pick- 
 erel, eastern pickerel, muskellunge, Chautauqua mus- 
 kellunge, and great northern pike or plain 'lunge, 
 3 33 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 which with propriety might be called the North 
 Wisconsin-Minnesota muskellunge, for the name "pike" 
 here is confusing, and the fish is found only in the two 
 states named. The great northern pike is a muskel- 
 lunge — get that fact clearly in mind; while the great 
 pike, sometimes growing to almost fabulous size, is 
 but a pike. As there is considerable confusion in the 
 minds of anglers regarding the several species of pike, 
 it seems wise to devote some time and space to the 
 discussion of the subject. 
 
 Perhaps for convenience it might be a good plan to 
 tabulate the family, giving common names, scientific 
 names, and range, following with a tabloid descrip- 
 tion of each species : 
 
 COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME RANGE 
 
 Little pickerel Esox vermiculatus. Upper Mississippi 
 
 Valley and streams 
 emptying into 
 Lakes Erie and 
 Michigan. 
 
 Banded pickerel Esox Americanus . East of the Allegheny 
 
 Mountains, from 
 Massachusetts to 
 Florida. 
 
 Eastern pickerel. . . . Esox reticulatus. . . Common everywhere 
 
 Green pike east and south of 
 
 the Alleghenies, 
 from Maine to 
 Arkansas; common 
 in the Ozarks. 
 
 Common pike Esox lucius From New York and 
 
 Great Lakes pike. . . Ohio northward. 
 Pickerel Common in Can- 
 Jack ada. Not found on 
 
 Great pike (name the Pacific Coast 
 
 used in this work). outside of Alaska. 
 
 The one member of 
 the family found in 
 four continents. 
 
 34 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 
 
 COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME RANGE 
 
 Muskellunge Esox masquinongy Native of all the 
 
 'Lunge masquinongy. . . Great Lakes, upper 
 
 St. Lawrence River, 
 and tributary 
 streams ; also cer- 
 tain northern lakes. 
 
 Ohio muskellunge . . 
 Chautauqua mus- 
 kellunge 
 
 Great northern pike. 
 Plain muskellunge. . 
 Plain 'lunge 
 
 Esox masquinongy 
 Ohiensis 
 
 Esox masquinongy 
 immaculatus 
 
 Chautauqua Lake 
 chiefly, but has 
 been reported from 
 certain portions of 
 the Ohio Valley. 
 
 Only found in Eagle 
 Lake, Wis., and 
 other small lakes in 
 the northern part of 
 that state and also 
 in Northern Minne- 
 sota. 
 
 The first three fish mentioned deserve the name 
 
 "pickerel," a cognomen which, by the way, should 
 
 never be applied to any other pike. Bear in mind 
 
 that the pickerel is not a small great pike. It will 
 
 remain a pickerel all the days of its aqueous existence. 
 
 The fisherman can easily tell whether or not a given 
 
 /specimen is a pickerel or an immature great pike. If 
 
 iboth cheeks and gill-covers are covered with scales, 
 
 lit is the former. Hold that one fact in mind and you 
 
 will never be confused. A great pike has cheeks 
 
 covered with scales, while the lower half of gill-covers 
 
 are bare. Always a pickerel has both "squamated," 
 
 that is, scaled all over. 
 
 To describe the three pickerels is hardly necessary, 
 the Mississippi Valley fish not being found in the 
 eastern portion of the country, while the two eastern 
 pickerels are not found in the West. The western 
 pickerel is almost a duplicate of the banded pickerel-— 
 
 35 
 
HOW TO IDENTIFY A PIKE 
 
 i. Pickerel— Note both the cheek and gill-cover are fully 
 scaled. 
 
 2. Great Pike — All of cheek and half of gill-cover scaled. 
 
 3. Muskellunge — Upper halves of both cheek and gill-cover 
 
 scaled ; naked below. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 
 
 indeed may be said to be the western representative 
 of that fish — and is found in all weedy and sluggish 
 streams throughout its range. It is a small fish, a 
 "boy's fish," seldom attaining greater length than a 
 foot and a weight of a pound or so. Though many 
 anglers affect to despise both these fish, I can enjoy a 
 day with the little fellows if properly equipped, as 
 will hereinafter appear. 
 
 The eastern pickerel or green pike is something of a 
 rish, under favorable conditions reaching a length of 
 two feet or so and attaining a weight of several pounds. 
 This fish is built more on the lines of a great pike, 
 though the coloration is markedly different. The 
 belly is always white, while the sides are an olive- 
 brown or greenish, with a sort of goldenrod luster. 
 The lower fins are often pink, sometimes almost red. 
 The sides are covered with dark lines and streaks, 
 oblique and horizontal, forming a sort of rough net- 
 work, hence the name sometimes bestowed upon it, 
 "chain pickerel." Of course, reticulatus is never found 
 in the Middle West, so there is little danger of con- 
 fusing it with vermiculatus, if that were . possible. 
 Later on when we come to talk of fishing for pickerel, 
 we will class these three fish as one, for the methods 
 used in angling for one may well be employed for all. 
 
 Undoubtedly more than one-half of the so-called 
 pickerel taken in the Middle West are great pike, the 
 cosmopolite of the family. If, as the fish savants 
 assert, vermiculatus seldom attains a weight much 
 in excess of a pound or two, then the great ma- 
 jority of the "pickerel" caught in the Mississippi 
 Valley are something else; for in my experience the 
 average fish is somewhat heavier. If the angler will 
 
 37 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 bear in mind the one point mentioned regarding all 
 pickerel — the squamation of cheeks and gill-covers — 
 and will take pains to examine his captures, he may be 
 certain of their identity. Any pike with cheeks covered 
 with scales, while the gill-covers are decorated on the 
 upper portions only, is a great pike — the great pike. 
 
 We have to do with a real fish now, a pike worth 
 while. Personally, I had just as soon fish for great 
 pike as muskellunge, for the former will attain a 
 weight of forty pounds or so, a sixteen- or twenty- 
 pound fish being not at all uncommon. Pound for 
 pound, I cannot see much difference in the game 
 qualities of the great pike and the muskellunge, though 
 I cannot imagine what anglers will do to me for con- 
 fessing such heresy. To my notion, in cold water a 
 great pike is every whit as gamy as a muskellunge. 
 
 As this fish coexists with the Great Lakes muskel- 
 lunge, the angler should be able to tell the two apart, 
 which is an easy matter if he has impressed upon him- 
 self the cheek and gill-cover scaling of the great pike. 
 Cheeks fully scaled and only upper halves of gill- 
 covers. The muskellunge, on the other hand, can show 
 scales only upon the upper halves of both. If the angler 
 discovers that a capture of his is without scales upon 
 the lower halves of cheeks and gill-covers, he may be 
 assured that he has taken a muskellunge, no matter 
 what its shape or color or markings. However, in 
 body-form and color the great pike does not ordinarily 
 resemble the muskellunge, being more "pot-bellied" 
 and of a darker hue. 
 
 The coloration and markings of the great pike are 
 more constant — at least, so it is said — than that of 
 any other member of the family. The ground color is 
 
 38 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 
 
 a dirty greenish-gray, darker on the -back, and paling 
 to a clear white on the belly. The sides, from head 
 to tail, are decorated with many irregular, oblong, 
 yellowish-white spots, each usually smaller than the 
 eye, and of a lighter shade than the ground color. 
 Ofttimes it seems as though the spots or blotches were 
 arranged in rows running from head to tail, though 
 this is not a constant feature, or rather is a case where 
 the eye of the observer is deceived. Lay a rule along 
 the side of a fresh-caught fish and discover for your- 
 self. The caudal, dorsal, and anal fins are also spotted 
 or splashed with dark spots, darker than the ground 
 color. The head is large for the size of the body, 
 sometimes being one-fourth as long, while the jaws 
 open wide and are armed with a truly formidable 
 array of strong teeth. Ill betides the angler who is 
 unfortunate enough to get his hand caught between 
 those cruel jaws. 
 
 When we turn to the muskellunge of the Great 
 Lakes, a muskie which some anglers say does not 
 exist, we are confronted with a fish very similar in 
 appearance to the great pike just described. We 
 have the same general body-form, though often more 
 "pot-bellied," as was pointed out. Of course, here only 
 the upper half of the cheeks and gill-covers can show 
 scales, because it is a muskellunge. While in the 
 great pike the markings were of a lighter shade than 
 the ground color, in the muskellunge the markings 
 are darker, and in old fish may show a tendency to 
 coalesce. The general effect is that of a dark gray 
 body, with blackish oval spots superimposed. The 
 Chautauqua and Ohio fish is of a greenish-brassy 
 shade, the darker spots coalescing and forming broad 
 
 39 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 vertical bars of a darker green which do not break 
 up distinctly into spots. The fin-spots are greenish 
 rather than black. The North Wisconsin fish, Esox 
 immaculatus, differs from the first muskellunge men- 
 tioned, in having the body entirely unspotted, some- 
 times with indistinct darker cross-shades. 
 
 It is this fish of the smaller Wisconsin and Minne- 
 sota lakes which is responsible to a great extent for 
 the confusion in some anglers' minds. So different is 
 it in appearance from the others that they are inclined 
 to argue that the other muskellunge do not belong to 
 the Esox nobilior, as some ichthyologists prefer to 
 denominate the muskellunge. Jordan and Evermann, 
 whose classification I follow, and who are responsible 
 for the three species, confess that the Wisconsin- 
 Minnesota form has not been studied critically in 
 relation to the other two. Personally, I have not had 
 sufficient opportunity to study the Chautauqua fish to 
 render an opinion, though by the mere fact that the 
 Wisconsin-Minnesota angler is so determined that his 
 is the only true muskellunge, I am quite convinced the 
 markings of his particular fish must be very uniform 
 and well denned. So far as my own observation has 
 gone, the Wisconsin-Minnesota fish does differ in ap- 
 pearance, though not in squamation, branchiostegals, 
 dentition, or body-form from the Great Lakes denizen. 
 As all anglers know, the classification of fish depends 
 not upon appearance or coloration, which are largely 
 the result of food and environment, but upon ana- 
 tomical or structural differences. 
 
 All ichthyologists are not agreed that there are 
 three varieties of muskellunge, maintaining that the 
 asserted differences are not constant. Dr. James A. 
 
 40 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN_PIKES 
 
 Henshall, the well-known savant, in "Bass, Pike, 
 Perch, and Other Game Fishes of America," speaking 
 of this matter says (I quote by permission) : 
 
 "I have examined and compared specimens from 
 the St. Lawrence and Indian Rivers, New York, Lake 
 Erie, the Wisconsin Lakes, Lake Pepin, Chautauqua 
 and Conneaut Lakes, Scioto and Mahoning Rivers in 
 Ohio, and have seen preserved heads of large ones 
 from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and found that 
 they all agree so well in the number of branchiostegals, 
 squamation of the cheeks and opercles, in dentition, 
 fins, and measurements, that they must all be con- 
 sidered one and the same species. At the Chicago 
 Columbian Exposition there were some twenty very 
 large specimens of mounted skins from Canadian 
 waters in the exhibition of the Ottawa Museum which 
 showed well the variations in markings. Some still 
 showed dark spots on a gray ground ; others were more 
 or less distinctly barred with broad or narrow bands; 
 others showed bars and diffused spots; and still others 
 were of a uniform slate or grayish coloration, without 
 markings of any kind. In the museum of the Cuvier 
 Club, in Cincinnati, there are quite a number of 
 mounted skins of muskellunge from the Wisconsin 
 lakes, mostly large ones. They also show all the 
 various markings, as well as those of a uniform col- 
 oration." 
 
 When scientists disagree, what wonder that mere 
 anglers quarrel? Perhaps it will be some time before 
 the whole matter is threshed out and the status of 
 the muskellunge fixed. Till then let each angler keep 
 his temper and add his bit to the information on the 
 subject. My guess is that never will we regard all 
 
 4i 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 muskellunge as belonging to one species, for the maker 
 of scientific names is abroad in the land, eager to have 
 his cognomen attached to some one of God's creations. 
 Suffer this word of exhortation, brothers of the angle, 
 remembering what has been said upon the marks of 
 the muskellunge: Do not say that the other fellow's 
 fish is not a true muskie simply because its coloration 
 is not like yours or was not caught from your water-shed. 
 
 To show how restricted some would make the range 
 of the "true muskellunge," casting out all but one 
 particular form as "mere pickerel," let me quote from 
 a magazine article supposed to be authoritative: 
 
 "Its distribution is not extensive; in fact, it seems 
 to be limited to the lakes and rivers of the Upper 
 Mississippi system and to portions of Canadian St. 
 Lawrence waters. It is a strange circumstance that 
 in the United States the muskellunge is never found 
 in the St. Lawrence waters. In Wisconsin, where the 
 watershed is narrow, and the lakes flowing into the 
 rivers which are tributary to the St. Lawrence are but 
 a quarter of a mile distant in many cases from the 
 lakes emptying into the rivers of the Mississippi 
 system,- the muskellunge will be numerous in the 
 latter waters, but entirely absent from the former." 
 
 So this author, who evidently knows the fish of his 
 district and how to angle for it, would reject as spurious 
 the so-called Chautauqua muskellunge, and with it, of 
 course, all the work accomplished at the Chautauqua 
 Hatchery by Dr. Bean and his associates, who have 
 successfully propagated what they supposed were 
 muskellunge! The preacher may have been right, and 
 too much knowledge is a weariness to the flesh, but a 
 judicious amount will prevent some egregious errors. 
 
 42 
 
A STUDY OF HEADS 
 
 Head of a Large Chautauqua Muskellunge. (Note the plain scaling 
 
 on cheek and gill-cover.) 
 Head of Same Fish. Front View. (Note the well-developed teeth.) 
 
 Courtesy N. Y. Fish Commission. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 
 
 I hold the resort men responsible for helping to 
 confound the muskellunge question, for they have ad- 
 vertised muskellunge fishing, knowing that men think 
 it an honor to take that fish, when what they had to 
 offer was great pike fishing. Now the great pike is 
 under no necessity of swimming under borrowed fins. 
 He is well able to care for himself as a plain, pugna- 
 cious great pike. As I have said before, and will en- 
 large upon later, I had just as soon go up against an 
 eight-pound great pike as a muskie of the same weight. 
 Fin for fin and scale for scale, I regard the former as 
 doughty an antagonist as the latter. Quite recently 
 there was shipped me from a Wisconsin resort the 
 head of a "muskellunge" which was said to have 
 weighed thirty-two pounds, and gave his lucky captor 
 a busy twenty minutes. Now that head — cheeks fully 
 scaled, gill-covers half scaled — disclosed a great pike. 
 Could that fish have rendered greater sport had he 
 worn cheeks and gill-covers half scaled? In the name 
 of Father Izaak, let us be fair to the great pike. 
 
 As to the edibility of the members of this family, 
 there is no great unanimity of opinion. Most anglers 
 give the muskellunge high rank, the great pike low 
 rank — if under two pounds, and they call him ' 'pickerel' ' 
 or "watersnake," no rank at all; while the little pickerel, 
 the creek fish, should hardly be mentioned in good 
 ichythic society. As to just why a muskellunge should 
 be regarded as "good eating," and a great pike of the 
 same size "poor eating," is beyond my comprehension. 
 The habits and food of the two fish are practically 
 the same — almost anything from a tin can to a member 
 of its own family. I cannot discover much difference 
 between the flesh of the two fish. All depends upon 
 
 43 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the water inhabited. I have found a five-pound great 
 pike from the waters of Lake Superior good eating, a 
 twenty-one pounder very tasty, though slightly dry, 
 and I have enjoyed fried river pickerel when they were 
 taken from a one-time trout stream. I think, to bor- 
 row one of Walton's expressions regarding another 
 matter, he who turns down the great pike as an article 
 of food is "a little too superstitious." Unquestionably 
 no member of the pike family can be compared either 
 to the yellow perch, wall-eye — "pike-perch" or black 
 bass as a pan fish. However, later we may revert to 
 this question again, giving some cooking directions, 
 as I did in "Trout Lore," for the aristocrats of cold 
 water; for the pikes, as quaint Izaak observes, properly 
 cooked, are "choicely good." 
 
 44 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 The Little Pickerels 
 
 "The apostles, though they were fishers, too, were of the 
 solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on in- 
 land waters." — Henry David Thoreau. 
 
 THE hermit of Walden was neither an angler nor 
 a fisherman, yet he sensed the attractivity of 
 pickerel fishing. Angling for pickerel is not the 
 serious business that fishing for Atlantic salmon is. 
 It is not the goal, but the journey thereto, that counts. 
 Never for a moment does the possible outcome of the 
 battle worry the pickerel angler. What if the fish 
 escape; are there not others as small? What if no fish 
 rise; are not the trees, flowers, and birds ever present? 
 Says the author just quoted (Thoreau): "I have 
 frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the 
 most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer 
 supposed that he had got a few wild apples only." 
 I leave the reader to construct a paraphrase for him- 
 self. Pickerel fishing is for the poet-angler. Unless 
 you can creel something beside a few bony fish when 
 you angle, for pickerel, you had best omit this chapter. 
 In the preceding chapter I described the three 
 pickerels of the United States — the eastern pickerel 
 (Esox reticulatus) and the banded pickerel (Esox 
 Americanus) being found east and south, while the 
 little pickerel or grass pike (Esox vermiculatus) is found 
 north, and west. Bear in mind, any pickerel may be 
 
 45 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 known by the fact that both cheeks and gill-covers are 
 fully covered with scales, and that is all you need to 
 remember for identification. If other arrangement, 
 you may have a young great pike or even muskel- 
 lunge. Pay no attention to the matter of color and 
 spotting. As the habits of the three pickerels are 
 practically identical and the method of angling for 
 one is the method to be employed for all, henceforth 
 in this chapter I will write of pickerel as though there 
 were but one species. 
 
 The pickerel is essentially a. river fish, though he 
 may be taken from shallow, weed-infested ponds. He 
 is not a lover of overly deep water or cold streams. 
 Like the great pike, spawning early in spring, as soon 
 as the ice goes out you will find him making his way 
 upstream or seeking Out the shallows close inshore for 
 spawning purposes. As the pickerel and great pike 
 spawn at the. same time, there is a possibility of a 
 cross or hybrid (see appendix). Spawning accom- 
 plished, the fish takes up the even tenor of its way, 
 lying in wait amid weeds and rushes or habituating 
 itself in a reedy or rooty pool, from which it can dash 
 in pursuit of some luckless minnow, mouse, or frog. 
 Indeed, like all members of the Esox family, anything 
 that can satisfy hunger is grist for its mill. None of 
 the pickerels are as solitary in their habits as are the 
 great pike and muskellunge. Once locate a "pickerel 
 hole," and it is almost a safe bet that the understand- 
 ing angler can take all of the little fish he desires. Yet 
 one must proceed with considerable circumspection, 
 for the fish is more wary than the uninitiated imagine. 
 
 The western fish, small in size, is not so much sought 
 after by anglers, though the eastern pickerel, ranging 
 
 46 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 anywhere from one to eight pounds, is highly thought 
 of by some fishermen, not to mention the ubiquitous 
 small boy. However, I dare defend even the little 
 pickerel as a "game fish;" that is, when hooked on 
 proper tackle. When one reads of fishing for pickerel 
 through the ice, a fascinating sport to be described 
 later on in this work, it is usually the eastern pickerel 
 (Esox reticulatus) and the great pike (Esox lucius) the 
 writers have in mind. One should not troll for pickerel : 
 the fish run too small, and there is a better method, 
 namely, casting. 
 
 Casting for Pickerel 
 
 This is essentially shore casting, for few ideal pickerel 
 streams are navigable for even canoes, so choked are 
 they with fallen trees and drift; but where one can get 
 along with a light craft, casting from a -boat may be 
 indulged in. Nevertheless, the problems confronting 
 the shore-caster are so many and so difficult of solu- 
 tion that I give that method first place. The average 
 pickerel river presents tangled banks — woodbine, star 
 cucumber, and clematis festooning sumac and prickly 
 ash with an almost impenetrable tangle of cobwebby 
 streamers and rope-like vines. To secure and main- 
 tain a casting position is sometimes a problem. More 
 than once I have made my perilous way out upon a 
 protruding log, only to discover that I had neglected 
 to figure out some way of netting a hooked fish, my 
 light tackle being inadequate to lift the capture by 
 main strength and awkwardness. Yes, more than 
 once I have found myself in the position of the man who 
 needed someone to help him let go the bear. As be- 
 tween the value of a twenty-dollar one-piece casting 
 
 47 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 rod and a two-cent fish there is not much room for 
 argument. Standing upon a projecting log or trunk 
 of a dead tree some ten feet above the surface of the 
 water, I have invoked high heaven to rid me of the 
 very thing I had journeyed far to capture. 
 
 As intimated in the foregoing chapter, tackle for 
 such fishing (casting) should be of the most delicate. 
 The lightest one-piece tournament split bamboo, if you 
 are adequate to that sort of tool; if not, then a five- 
 foot six-inch steel. The latter is not likely to break, 
 even should you fall from some precarious position 
 into a "bramble bush and scratch out both your eyes." 
 The former may be broken on a ten-inch pickerel in 
 an unwary moment should you lose your head. About 
 the only reel at all adapted to such a stream as I have 
 in mind at the moment is one of the self-spooling 
 variety; the angler will have other employment for 
 his left hand than spooling a line. Where there are 
 open fishing, clear banks, and wide pools, there is 
 nothing equal to that aluminum tournament reel with 
 large spool. Use the lightest quadruple multiplier 
 possible to procure. Do not imagine because your 
 game is "nothing but a river snake" that the tackle is 
 unimportant. The smaller and less resourceful the fish, 
 the more important the question of tackle. Always re- 
 member when angling for small fish it is not strength 
 of tackle, but lightness, that makes for sport. The 
 lure should be a small surface or surface-underwater, 
 brightly colored, reds, yellows, greens and whites, 
 singly or in combination. Let the line be a small- 
 caliber soft braided silk, No. H or finer; a tournament 
 "thread" will provide thrills. 
 
 In casting from the shore, the angler must fish the 
 48 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 far side of the stream. A little experience will soon 
 instruct the observing where to shoot the lure. Over- 
 hanging banks, grassy shores, snags, and piles of drift 
 may all shelter fish, though pickerel are not so much 
 given to lairs as are bass, preferring the shady side of 
 a shallow pool. I have already pointed out that the 
 fish is inclined to gregariousness, one strike being but 
 the precursor of others, if the angler handle his lures 
 with skill and wisdom. Do not over-cast. If the fish 
 follows the lure in, wait a bit before casting a second 
 time, or cast in some other direction. Do not reel in 
 too swiftly; for, while the pickerel can swim at a rapid 
 rate, he is quite apt to regard a swiftly moving lure 
 with suspicion. I am inclined to believe that the lure 
 should strike the water without much commotion; 
 for, unlike the bass again, this fish seldom strikes the 
 lure at the instant of its impact upon the water. Let 
 the ripples chase themselves shoreward before you 
 begin to reel. There is something about the splash of 
 the lure which seems to awaken the suspicions of the 
 fish, and they will often follow the lure some distance, 
 just a few inches behind the rear hook, without striking; 
 indeed, it is not uncommon for them to follow right 
 up to the angler's feet without manifesting any tend- 
 ency to strike. Reeling by "fits and starts" will 
 sometimes induce a reluctant pickerel to strike if at 
 all in the mood. 
 
 We all remember Walton's apothegm regarding "no 
 bad horse of a good color," as applied to weather. And, 
 with all due respect and consideration for that wise 
 saying, let me say that the weather and time of day 
 have considerable influence with pickerel and his larger 
 relatives. In warm weather the early morning is far 
 4 49 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 and away the best time for casting, evening taking 
 second place, though a close, mizzling day, with a 
 menace of thunder in the air, is ideal. Then, if ever, 
 pickerel will rise. Upon a cold, blustering day one will 
 be compelled to resort to live bait, more regarding 
 which when we take up the study of the great pike. 
 
 Speaking of the weather reminds me of a rather 
 unique experience a few summers ago, the narrating 
 of which has been reserved through the passing seasons 
 for this work. I, in company with a lifelong friend, 
 was fishing a little unimportant river which finds its 
 tortuous way into Green Bay, an arm of Lake Mich- 
 igan. Time was when the stream contained that 
 aristocrat amid fresh- water fishes, the speckled trout; 
 but the encroachment of farmers had quenched feeder 
 springs, and the temperature of the water had risen 
 above the durance of the aristocrat, his place in time 
 being taken by the humble chub and much-maligned 
 Esox vermiculatus. The stream had disappeared from 
 the map so far as outside anglers were concerned, the 
 small boy and cane pole alone remaining to mark its 
 ichthyic course. For an angler with rod and reel to 
 appear upon its banks was to invite the good-natured 
 contempt of the farmers through whose land it made 
 its way. Nevertheless, my companion and I in due 
 time parked our cars close to the water's edge, where, 
 in days long gone, Indians had erected their conical 
 wigwams. 
 
 My first cast out upon the placid surface of the little 
 pool before us resulted in a "short rise." Slowly reeling 
 in, I saw the little pickerel following the lure at a safe 
 distance. Probably it was the first "wobbler" he had 
 ever seen. Waiting a few moments for the water to 
 
 50 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 "rest," I cast again and reeled in slowly. He struck, 
 and the lithe rod, built especially for such baby casting, 
 set the hook firmly without any effort on my part. 
 The battle was on. Yes, it was a battle. Snags above 
 and below offered the fish safe refuges, provided he 
 could reach them; then, too, the rod weighed a scant 
 three ounces. The initial cast was something like ioo 
 feet. The odds were all in the fish's favor. Not caring 
 if I lost him, I could bend all my energies to playing in 
 the most approved manner. Right there lies the great 
 attractivity of such angling — the playing. The fish 
 itself is of no importance. In due time I lifted the 
 little fellow from the water and, with a sharp knife- 
 blade thrust through the spine just back of his head, 
 ended his career. Back of me were the women with 
 waiting fry-pans. 
 
 We separated. I fished up- and my friend down- 
 stream. The river was alive with pickerel and I 
 thoroughly enjoyed the sport. It was the game of 
 childhood reversed. Instead of playing at being a 
 man, I was playing at being a boy. The day grew 
 unaccountably hot, with a continuous mutter of thun- 
 der in the west and north. The air was perfectly still ; 
 not a ripple disturbed the surface of the little pools, 
 while even the ever-trembling leaves of the asp forgot 
 to shiver. Awesome thunderheads, shading from pure 
 white above to blackest nimbus below, appeared above 
 the treetops. I spent little time studying the heavens. 
 The pickerel were feeding, and that was enough for 
 me. The sky became dark and thunder boomed and 
 crashed around me. I was a fool, I am willing to 
 admit now, but I fished on. 
 
 Perhaps I was half a mile above the party, when I 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 was startled by what I took to be a stone striking the 
 water just beyond the tip of my rod, followed imme- 
 diately by a second and third. Thinking that my 
 chum was playing tricks, I turned to the brush back 
 of me and admonished him to "cut it out." Still 
 stones and more stones fell. A severe thump on top 
 of my head brought me to a realization of the situa- 
 tion. Thor was not only letting fly his thunderbolts, 
 he was also pelting me with hailstones as large as 
 hickory nuts. It was a terrific storm while it lasted, 
 and effectually ended our pickerel fishing for the day. 
 It was a wet and bedraggled party, nursing innumerable 
 "sore spots," which made its way back to town. 
 
 Fly-fishing for Pickerel 
 
 The man who has not learned to angle for incon- 
 sequential fish with fly-rod and click-reel has neglected 
 a very pleasurable sport indeed. There is no game or 
 near-game fish that will not rise to a properly offered 
 fly. I speak after years of experimentation. Else- 
 where I have told of the attractivity of fly-fishing for 
 sunfish, and later on in this volume I shall tell of fly- 
 fishing for great pike, a sport for kings, whether from 
 boat, bank, or knee-deep in the sedge. Fishing for 
 river pickerel, as the little pike is often called, is truly 
 enjoyable if the angler possesses requisite tackle, does 
 not demand too much strength from the fish, or ex- 
 pect too much from the flesh when it is in the pan. 
 
 A three-and-one-half- or four-ounce rod is none too 
 light for the little pickerel, and even should one of the 
 the larger great pike happen to take the fuzzy-wuzzy 
 lure, if the angler be expert enough, he can net it with- 
 out trouble. I would advise a single-action reel, which 
 
 5* 
 

 
 SHORE CASTING FOR RIVER PICKEREL 
 
 1. The Rise. 
 
 2. All In. 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 I would not do if angling for great pike, for reasons 
 which will appear later. The lightest reel will prove 
 none too light if it balance the rod. For ease in cast- 
 ing, the medium-sized regular enameled silk line is 
 recommended. I would have the line of a shade to 
 harmonize with the color of the water to be cast over. 
 As to flies, select flamboyant patterns like "Silver 
 Doctor," "Scarlet Ibis," "Jungle Cock," "Royal 
 Coachman," etc., tied to regular bass hooks. The 
 flies cannot well be too large. If you have any skill 
 in fly-tying, fashion something for yourself of brilliant 
 colors with streaming tail. I once made some mistake 
 in feather dyeing, and instead of securing the desired 
 color, produced a shade of purple of unimaginable 
 brilliance, unlike any color ever seen tinting wing of 
 gauzy ephemera of lake or stream. Yet those feathers 
 made wonderfully alluring flies. A peacock-herl body, 
 purple hackle, streaming purple and crimson tail 
 feathers formed a fly pickerel and great pike seemed 
 unable to resist. The point to remember in fly-fishing 
 for members of the pike family is that the unusual is 
 apt to prove successful. I doubt very much if these 
 fish strike at the moving object because it looks like 
 some accustomed food, but because it moves, and is 
 therefore something that will satisfy an insatiable 
 appetite. The pickerel is not a particular feeder. 
 
 As to the method of handling flies, little need be 
 said. I take it for granted that the reader knows some- 
 thing of the methods of casting flies and lures. If you 
 have ever taken black bass on artificial flies, you will 
 experience no difficulty in hooking pickerel. He takes 
 the fly with a rush usually, and, like the man who 
 marries in haste, repents when he has ample time for 
 
 53 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 repenting. One should cast exactly as in bass fly- 
 fishing, allowing the flies to settle well in the water 
 before reeling in, and reel slowly with a right and left 
 jerking motion unless the current prevents. Which 
 leads me to say that if the river possesses much cur- 
 rent, the fish will be found in pools above jams, in 
 eddies and elbows of the stream. Cast upstream and 
 reel with the current. Do not hurry. The fish has 
 all the time there is and so have you, or you would not 
 be fishing. 
 
 You will often see, as in bait casting, the little fellow 
 following the fly in, a trick he may repeat again and 
 again. Do not worry or become overly anxious for 
 him to strike; he is only investigating. More than 
 once I have compelled the fish to "take" by simply 
 drawing the fly through the water quite rapidly and 
 then stopping suddenly, the result being that the 
 pickerel would take the fly instantly, overrun it, as it 
 were, to all appearances without intending to do so. 
 
 Not always, however, is a pickerel hooked when the 
 fly is mouthed. The fish has an armor-plated mouth, 
 not easily penetrated by the hook. The angler must 
 "set" the hook with an exaggerated "wrist motion." 
 Swing the rod sharply to the right or left, as the case 
 may demand, against the current if possible. Always 
 keep control of the fly. A slack line is suicidal so far 
 as "net results" are concerned. The only place for 
 haste in pickerel fly-fishing is when the fish has over- 
 run the hook; then strike instantly, upon the fraction 
 of a second, or the lure will be rejected. Verily there 
 is more to the game than first appears, and, wanting 
 better sport, it is rare fun. 
 
 I well remember a shallow pond in North Minne- 
 
 54 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 sota, called by courtesy only a lake, upon which I have 
 had unlimited sport with pickerel. The shores, sedge- 
 grown, were wadeable, which added to the fun. There 
 is never quite the sport in casting from a boat or river 
 bank, that there is in working along waist-deep in 
 water and playing your fish with rod held high in the 
 air. Even a small pickerel can puzzle an experienced 
 fisherman under such conditions. 
 
 Upon the lake of which I write, one "mosquito day" 
 (every Minnesotian knows what I mean) the last of 
 June some twenty years ago, I was working along the 
 edge of sedge and pickerel weed just as the sun poked 
 his red rim above the rolling prairie to the east. 
 Countless numbers of "suggema" buzzed and roared 
 about my head, biting now and then in spite of liberal 
 dressings of "dope." Still the pickerel were rising to 
 feathers, and as I had been denied any sort of angling 
 for nearly two years, the reader will not be surprised 
 at my remaining in the game e'en though, like the 
 immortal Bozzaris, I bled at every pore. Again and 
 again I failed to hook my fish, for it was exceedingly 
 difficult to secure the requisite "purchase," so deep in 
 the water was I. Nevertheless, now and then a little 
 olive-green squirmer found its way into my creel and 
 I was content. The fish averaged small, all under a 
 foot, probably, and as a pickerel is almost one-third 
 head, my store of vulgar meat did not increase rapidly, 
 and I was fishing for breakfast. 
 
 At last, with seven or eight fish in my creel, I waded 
 to the shore and climbed the highest bluff where the 
 breeze could catch the mosquitoes, and built a little 
 fire of sagebrush. In due time the bacon was fretting 
 in the pan, and then the pickerel sputtered in turn. 
 
 55 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 Pickerel may not be "good eating," "are too full of 
 bones," "are too soft," are too this, that, and the other; 
 but as I look back over the years, the memory of that 
 morning meal above the mosquito-infested sedge 
 stands out as one of the most savory and satisfactory. 
 Whatever pickerel flesh may be like when taken from 
 warm water, from cold lakes and once-were-trout 
 streams it is sweet and savory. (Perhaps not a little 
 depends upon the outdoor appetite, too.) 
 
 Strange what tricks memory plays with facts. As I 
 sit here at my desk arranging the matter for "The Book 
 of the Pike," with a "cord" of notebooks and refer- 
 ence works galore on the shelves behind me, one of the 
 most pleasant memories is that of the mosquito- 
 infested lake. The rush of the hooked fish thrills my 
 arm yet, as it did that morning so long ago after months 
 of piscatorial abstemiousness. Even the memory of 
 that cloud of stinging, buzzing mosquitoes is meta- 
 morphosed into a sort of glorified halo. Very far away 
 and very unreal seems the impatient anger of the 
 morning, a thing to laugh over. I could not have made 
 a better memory than He who ordained that unpleasant 
 things should sink into abeyance with the passage of 
 time, pleasant happenings alone remaining permanent. 
 And now abide these three — the thrill of battle, the 
 lift of victory, the mellow memory, and the greatest 
 of these is mellow memory. 
 
 Remains to mention that a pickerel will take a spoon, 
 for any rapidly moving object has great attraction 
 for him. The average trolling spoon is too large for 
 this fish; the gang has too many hooks. With a treble 
 in his mouth the little fellow loses whatever pluck or 
 courage he may have had, a truth which obtains of 
 
 56 
 
THE LITTLE PICKERELS 
 
 more worthy fish than the despised pickerel. Too 
 many hooks spoil the sport, even as too many cooks 
 are said to spoil the broth. The best spoon bait is 
 simply a single blade attached to a weighted streaming 
 fly and cast with a regulation bass fly-rod. If you can 
 handle a lure without, omit the weight. If you do 
 not care to manufacture a lure for yourself, then invest 
 in one of the trout spoons so much used in certain 
 sections for that fish, substituting a larger and more 
 showy fly for the one attached. Believe me when I 
 say that there are possibilities in pickerel fly-fishing 
 for the discriminating and appreciative angler, for the 
 one who has learned that success is not a matter of 
 pounds and weighty possibilities. 
 
 Granted, as has been intimated all along, pickerel 
 fishing, however practiced, is "boy's fishing," never- 
 theless it is truly enjoyable, an agreeable rest from the 
 more strenuous methods of angling. Perhaps, as a 
 friend of mine asserts, pickerel fishing is to 'lunge fish- 
 ing what marbles is to baseball, but even so, there is a 
 legitimate place for marbles. If the reader, like the 
 writer, has followed the trail of muskellunge and great 
 pike week in and week out, season in and season out, 
 he, like him, will be glad to turn to the little, unim- 
 portant pickerel for rest and recreation. 
 
 So we have arrived at the place where we must "put 
 away childish things." Our next chapter will begin 
 the discussion of great pike fishing, which may be a 
 man's sport. 
 
 57 
 
Chapter V 
 
 Casting for Great Pike with Artificial 
 Lures 
 
 "Whence and what are you, monster grim and great? 
 Sometimes we think you are a 'Syndicate,' 
 For if our quaint cartoonists be but just, 
 You have some features of the modern "Trust." 
 A wide, ferocious and rapacious jaw; 
 A vast, insatiate and expansive craw; 
 And, like the 'Trust,' your chiefest aim and wish 
 Was to combine in one all smaller fish, 
 And all the lesser fry succumbed to fate 
 Whom you determined to consolidate." 
 
 —Wilcox. 
 
 AS HAS already been emphasized, the great pike 
 A-\ (Esox lucius) is the one cosmopolite of the 
 family. The rodster of Europe and the fisher- 
 man of Asia, no less than the angler of North America, 
 may take the "mighty Luce or Pike." Wherever found, 
 he is the same solitary, vindictive individual, a cruel 
 tyrant, and insatiable gourmand. The horrid gleam of 
 his malevolent yellow eye is a true index to his char- 
 acter. One finds it easy to believe that he kills for the 
 pure joy of killing, though I am not sure that he is 
 guilty of the crime. I am aware that great pike are 
 often taken with the tails of recently captured fish 
 protruding from their mouths, but so are wall-eyes 
 and bass taken on live bait when it would seem im- 
 possible for them to swallow another morsel. Indeed 
 even the aristocratic brook trout are found feeding 
 upon worms after a heavy rain, even though stomach 
 
 58 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 and throat are literally packed with partly digested 
 and undigested "garden hackle." I doubt very much 
 if, pound for pound and inch for inch, the great pike 
 is more of a gourmand than some more highly appre- 
 ciated game fish. To the charge that he is a born 
 murderer, a sort of ichthyic degenerate, I can only 
 reiterate that I am somewhat skeptical. Always re- 
 member that it requires several pounds of other fish 
 to make one pound of pike. Few of us would exchange 
 twenty pounds of brook trout, say, for one pound of 
 great pike; that would not be an even exchange, there- 
 fore robbery. 
 
 I once knew a private trout pond, devoted to the 
 propagation of rainbow and eastern trout, in which 
 the fish were apparently doing well. Two years after 
 stocking, I myself took two-pound rainbow from its 
 waters. Then it was noticed that the trout seemed 
 less numerous, fewer and fewer were taken by ardent 
 anglers, until at last a rise was unknown. Then the 
 pond was drained and thirteen lusty great pike were 
 found, but no trout. Some boys had liberated a few 
 "pickerel" minnows, not over four inches long, into 
 the feed stream "just to see them swim," and they 
 had swum right down into the trout pond, a location 
 they found very much to their liking. 
 
 One summer I captured a number of "pickerel" 
 minnows (they were true great pike, I afterwards dis- 
 covered) and confined them in a tank for the purpose 
 of study. Though the little fellows were fed regularly, 
 were supplied with all the food they could eat, they 
 just would attack one another. Once a minnow had 
 secured a grip on a fellow minnow, he would hang on 
 with bulldog tenacity, not letting go until he had 
 
 59 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 killed his victim. This tenaciousness is a characteristic 
 of the whole pike family. Again and again great pike 
 have been brought to gaff when untouched by the 
 hook, simply because they would not let go the bait. 
 I have fastened a knot of red-and-white cloth to a 
 trolling-line and captured pike without a hook, a not 
 at all difficult feat. 
 
 Added to the fish's insatiable appetite, wolfish 
 ferocity, and bulldog tenacity, is a liking for solitude. 
 The larger the fish, the more he is inclined to a hermit 
 life, save at the spawning season. I am tempted to 
 believe that both great pike and muskellunge have 
 "homes" and well-defined hunting grounds, but more 
 of the matter further along. As soon as the ice goes 
 out, great pike feel the urge of procreation, and seek 
 out the shallows and marshes to spawn. During the 
 spring freshets when creeks and rivers are out of their 
 banks, pike may be found well inland. The size of 
 the fish is often a revelation. From a "fished-out" 
 lake will come eight-, ten-, and fifteen-pound "lunkers," 
 not singly or in pairs, but dozens and scores. Where 
 they keep themselves during the open fishing season is 
 a problem for anglers to solve. Around the marge of 
 a certain Wisconsin lake and out on the overflowed 
 marshes at the outlet I have seen some sights to 
 gladden the eyes of the lover of great pike fishing. 
 Yet, when spawning was over, the weather warm, and 
 the season open, one would have to fish hard early 
 and late in order to take a pair of medium-sized fish. 
 
 It is while the fish are spawning that the spearers 
 and illegal fishers generally get in their nefarious work. 
 As a boy I have hunted pickerel on the marshes, the 
 result being a wetting and a severe cold, for I was seldom 
 
 60 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 quick enough to shoot or spear my prey, though I 
 found fish in plenty. Honestly — and confession is said 
 to be good for the soul — I never succeeded in spearing 
 but one fish, and if the Red Gods will forgive me that 
 crime, I shall go down to my grave content. 
 
 Hunting at night with a "jack" (some sort of artifi- 
 cial light raised above the bow of the boat so that 
 the spearsman, standing back of it, can see down into 
 the water) is uniformly successful. The fish has no 
 chance. Fortunately, and rightly, the method is out- 
 lawed in most of the states. Some of the catches 
 made during a night's spearing is passing belief. I 
 have known a single individual to return in the morn- 
 ing with a washtub full of lusty great pike, perhaps 
 but a fourth or sixth of the night's catch. Obviously 
 not only will true sportsmen frown upon the practice, 
 but will do all in their power to bring the offenders to 
 justice. Spearing is cruel and wasteful at any season 
 of the year, but doubly short-sighted in the spring, 
 when each female represents thousands of fry. Un- 
 doubtedly there is a certain attractiveness, romance, 
 about night spearing — the circumscribed area of bright 
 light with its wall of dense darkness beyond, the slow- 
 moving panorama below with its myriad forms of 
 strange life, the all-encompassing silence, deep and 
 audible — all this and more appeals to that innate love 
 of poesy to which every outdoor man is heir. Never- 
 theless, the practice is inexcusable, because short- 
 sighted, cruel — many wounded fish escaping to die a 
 lingering death — and contrary to law. It must cease. 
 
 In a foregoing paragraph I mentioned the great 
 pike's solitary habits. Probably there are other reasons 
 than evil temper for the fish's dwelling alone. As has 
 
 61 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 already been pointed out, it takes more than a little 
 food to supply a great pike with sufficient nutriment, 
 a single mouse, frog, or minnow being but an appetizer. 
 Naturally the hunting ground is divided up between 
 large fish, consciously or unconsciously. Of course, I 
 do not know that a great pike defends his hunting 
 ground against invading fish, but I have witnessed 
 terrific fights between males during the spawning 
 period, and I would not be surprised to discover that 
 the approach of a large fish would be the signal for 
 an attack from the great pike lying in his usual lair; 
 especially so since I demonstrated again and again 
 that a pike strikes at a moving object when hungry, 
 waiting to determine the nature of his prey after 
 capturing it. 
 
 As to whether or not a great pike wanders far from 
 its lair, an observer is unable to determine, though the 
 fact that a given fish may usually be expected to strike 
 at a given point, actually strikes again and again and 
 upon succeeding days until captured, is a strong argu- 
 ment in favor of a restricted range. In my experience 
 the older, and consequently the heavier a fish, the more 
 disinclined it is to leave certain well-defined hunting 
 grounds. Therefore the expression commonly used by 
 anglers, "I'll go back there and get that old fellow 
 some day," is something more than an ichthyic crow. 
 I think what we may term "home instinct" is more 
 largely a determining factor in a fish's life than most 
 anglers imagine. 
 
 I remember a certain deep hole in the Wolf River, 
 Wisconsin, just below a long, grassy flat, from which 
 during a certain camping trip I was always sure of 
 securing a strike from a goodly great pike. No, I never 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 succeeded in hooking the fish, for some reason or other, 
 though I caught several heart-quickening glimpses of 
 him. I believe that with my increased pike knowl- 
 edge, I could go back there to-day, and succeed in hook- 
 ing the old fellow. In those days I was altogether too 
 anxious to catch fish, swung my lure too often, and 
 pulled it through the water too rapidly. 
 
 The combination mentioned in the first sentence of 
 the foregoing paragraph, "deep water, with marging 
 grass," indicates good great pike fishing if found in 
 pike water. Great pike desire deep water for hot days 
 and perhaps for retirement after a full meal. The 
 marsh grass, reeds, or weeds form a good lurking place 
 and are the home of frogs, minnows, and small fish. In 
 lakes you will often find water lilies growing at the edge 
 of deep water, the marge of which is sure to be pre- 
 empted by great pike and pickerel. From the manner 
 in which the fish attack, I am inclined to believe that 
 they lie with their bodies concealed in the weeds, head 
 pointed outward, so when some luckless minnow or 
 small fish passes they can literally leap upon it. The 
 edges of any aquatic growth is good casting ground 
 along rivers as well as in lakes. The caster must al- 
 ways remember to cast to something, not in any direc- 
 tion, for pike do not lie anywhere, though a hook 
 trailing behind a boat may attract fish when least 
 expected, a matter which will be discussed under the 
 heading of "Trolling." 
 
 Perhaps I shall be unable to utter a more meaningful 
 bit of advice than the foregoing — "cast to- something." 
 Therein lies the secret of success, implying as it does 
 considerable fish knowledge. Early in the day, again 
 late in the afternoon, and when feeding, great pike lie 
 
 63 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 in their waiting places. Then cast; at other times you 
 will get exercise, but no fish. It is useless to cast with 
 artificial lures, unless fish are feeding on or near the 
 surface. At other times wise anglers resort to other 
 methods — under-waters, live bait, trolling spoons, etc., 
 methods to be discussed in their proper place. Mem- 
 bers of the pike family are not as apt to take up their 
 abode in the branches of a down tree or beneath drift- 
 wood as are bass, though I would always fish out such 
 places on the chance of their concealing fish. Allow 
 no chance — possible chance — to pass. It is better to 
 cast many times uselessly than to miss some record- 
 breaking great pike. Take for your consolation that 
 even those who have made a lifelong study of the fish 
 are unable to surely foreknow where a great pike may 
 hide or just what he may do under any given circum- 
 stance. It is the element of uncertainty that makes 
 great pike angling or any other fishing, as for that, so 
 attractive. 
 
 That casting is far and away the most successful and 
 sportsmanlike method of taking great pike I am firmly 
 convinced. More successful, because the angler is 
 actually casting where the fish lurks, waiting for food ; 
 and more sportsmanlike, because the handling of arti- 
 ficial lures is always a finer and nicer method of angling 
 than where bait is employed. "Finer," "nicer," those 
 two words do not adequately convey just what I have 
 in mind, yet they must serve. There is something 
 very attractive about the swinging rod, the forward 
 shoot of the lure, while the reel shouts an accompani- 
 ment; the dull "flop-plop" of the striking lure, followed 
 by the occasional noisy commotion of an attacking 
 fish. That great-pike fishing with lures is about the 
 
 64 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 last word in casting, I am ready to affirm. The reader 
 should remember that all I have said about the fish's 
 habits, and will say regarding tackle, applies to the 
 muskellunge equally well. 
 
 The tackle employed in casting for great pike 
 differs in no essential from that used by the bass 
 caster; so if the reader desires the author's opinion 
 upon the subject — a somewhat exhaustive discussion 
 of the matter — he is again urged to read the chapters 
 in "Casting Tackle and Methods," dealing with rod 
 material, weight, length, etc., types of reels and lures, 
 that he may more fully appreciate what correct tackle 
 means. Yet, "by and large," as the saying has it, 
 tackle for great pike fishing need not differ greatly 
 from that affected by the bass caster. 
 
 Naturally, a wise angler would not employ one of the 
 ultra light rods sometimes affected by those fishermen 
 who are in the habit of courting thrills. A three-and- 
 one-half-ounce rod is rather light to use in angling 
 where the lucky fisherman may hook a twenty- or 
 twenty-five-pound great pike. (My largest great pike 
 taken while casting, weighed twenty-three pounds two 
 ounces, dead. Not a large fish as the species run.) 
 The mere weight of such a fish might wreck a three- 
 ounce bamboo. Some years ago I wrote the maker of 
 a certain well-known split-bamboo caster, asking if he 
 would recommend his light rod for muskellunge fishing. 
 To which he promptly replied in language something 
 like the following: "Most emphatically, no. The 
 light-waisted rod was never made that would stand 
 up under the strain; but we build a rod for Florida 
 bass fishing which we unqualifiedly recommend for 
 heavy pike and muskie. Properly handled, we will 
 5 65 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 guarantee the rod against breaking on a fish." I se- 
 cured the heavier rod, and, strange to say, it weighed 
 but half an ounce more than the so-called "light bass," 
 though it seemed much larger in the butt joint and was 
 of the same length as the first. I tested the rod out, 
 then used either as I happened to feel like doing, and 
 when I took my record fish was handling the lighter 
 tool. Whatever the opinion of the maker, I would go 
 up against any great pike or muskellunge that ever 
 flipped a fin with that light rod and without a fear for 
 its integrity, either. 
 
 At the same time I wrote the makers of the Bristol 
 No. 33, asking them if they would recommend that 
 rod for muskellunge and great pike of avoirdupois. 
 Back came the answer by return post, "Most cer- 
 tainly!" After that reply I honestly tried to break the 
 rod, playing many a heavy fish from the rod instead 
 of reel, as one should, actually "pumping fish" with it, 
 but the "33" never complained to the extent of a set 
 even. Take the "33" in "De Luxe" dress, and you 
 have the ideal great pike and muskellunge rod. Oh, 
 I know scores and scores of anglers will rise up to 
 curse, but the truth must needs be spoken, the truth 
 as I see it. Needless to add, I have no interest in the 
 Bristol rod nor any other. I am a simple, honest 
 fisherman. 
 
 I have said nothing of length and construction, 
 having discussed all that in the previous volume, 
 "Casting Tackle and Methods," so will only say: 
 Employ the regular five-foot or five-foot six-inch rod, 
 split-bamboo or steel. Do not be tempted into pur- 
 chasing a longer than the five-foot six-inch caster, 
 either the one-piece in split-bamboo or the long tip, 
 
 66 
 
SOME CASTING TACKLE 
 
 GREAT PIKE AND LUNGE LURES 
 1. South Bend "Min Buck." 5. "Chippewa." 
 
 2. South Bend "Undeiwater." 6. 
 
 3. Jamison's "Mascot." 7. 
 
 4. "Rush Tango." 1, 
 
 "Shovel-nosed Wobbler.' 
 
 "Surf-Oreno." 
 
 , and 5 are underwaters. 
 
 FOUR OF THE AUTHOR'S SELF-SPOOLING REELS 
 
 1. South Bend "Anti-Backlash," with level-winder. 
 
 2. "Pfluger Supreme," free-spool, self-thumber, self-spooler. 
 
 3. Shakespeare, "Marhoff," simple level-winder. 
 
 4. "Beetszel," free-spool, self-thumber, level-winder. 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 short butt construction. Of course in steel the number 
 of joints is not of supreme importance. But — and 
 listen to me — for great pike fishing get a good rod. 
 
 In the matter of reels there is a constantly broaden- 
 ing field for selection, and the angler should remember 
 that there is no single "best" reel for any given fishing, 
 writers to the contrary notwithstanding. Every angler 
 sufficiently experienced to be allowed space in a mag- 
 azine for an expression of preference naturally will 
 have a favorite reel, and for him it is the best. How 
 many quarrels would be obviated if angling writers 
 would learn to say "My favorite reel is" instead of 
 "The proper reel is" or "The best reel is." How many 
 times I have had my anger stirred, unreasonably, I 
 admit, but stirred nevertheless, by some angler whose 
 cocksureness as to what constitutes the best reel or 
 rod is equaled only by the theoretical theologian. 
 Remember, please, that while your favorite reel may 
 be best for you, there is a chance that mine is best 
 for me. 
 
 My favorite reel for great pike casting is a level- 
 winder, and with as large a spool as it is possible to 
 place behind the level-winding device. Such a winch 
 will cost money, but it will last a lifetime if handled 
 properly, carefully cleaned, and sent back to the 
 factory once in a while for readjustment. The ad- 
 vantages of the level-winder, or, as it is sometimes 
 called, self-spooler, are too obvious to require enlarge- 
 ment here. One can bend all his energies to playing 
 the fish; need not keep his eye on the reel-spool all 
 the time, a little matter which bulks large in the day- 
 long enjoyment. Be sure and select a reel large enough 
 to handle with ease at least fifty yeards of line, size E, 
 
 67 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 say, which should test in the neighborhood of twenty- 
 three pounds. Muskellunge and great pike lines are 
 built to test up to forty pounds, but I doubt if it is 
 ever necessary to employ such a "rope" in casting 
 artificial lures; indeed, to my mind, the weight would 
 militate against distance and control, as it would inter- 
 fere in playing the fish. My largest great pike was 
 taken on a size G line, testing only eighteen pounds, 
 which, in the great majority of cases, would be suffi- 
 ciently strong. The modern great pike fisherman does 
 not expect to drag a fish around in the water as the 
 small boy drags his toy boat. 
 
 As to lures, I would simply say, select standard 
 bass attractors, though the hooks should be some- 
 what larger, stronger, and well attached. The smash- 
 ing power of a great pike's jaws is considerable. Al- 
 ways there should be a tail-hook, something not needed 
 for bass. There is no necessity, as I see it, for the large, 
 many-hooked lures sometimes illustrated in catalogues 
 and displayed in tackle-store windows. Undoubtedly 
 a full-grown great pike can swallow the largest artifi- 
 cial lure upon the market, but you cannot handle it 
 with the regulation casting rod, neither is there any 
 necessity that you should. I once saw a man fishing 
 for muskellunge upon a Northern Minnesota lake, and 
 his "caster" was a regulation six-foot tarpon rod, to 
 which he had attached a salt-water reel containing 
 300 feet of line! Wait, there is more. He was using 
 live bait — ten-inch suckers! He caught some good 
 fish, too. Just the same, the real heart-joy of angling 
 was not for him. Parenthetically: Just the other day 
 I picked up an outdoor magazine in which a writer 
 recommended suckers a foot long as muskellunge bait. 
 
 68 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 Such a fish may make a good "bait," I am not saying 
 it will not, but I do say that there is more sport, fun, 
 if you please, in taking heavy fish on light tackle, 
 tackle that cannot be employed in casting "young 
 suckers." 
 
 Another matter, a little thing but vastly important, 
 always provide the lure with a steel trace or wire 
 gimp; for when any pike "strikes over" its sharp teeth 
 are sure to sever the line. I know of nothing in the 
 whole realm of angling quite so heart-rending as to 
 have a large fish depart, taking with him some choice 
 lure. I have enjoyed (?) the experience a number of 
 times and therefore I know whereof I speak. A wire 
 gimp costs but a few cents, and is comparable to a life 
 insurance policy in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. 
 Do not neglect it. My largest great pike came in fast 
 to a Heddon "dummy double," the lure out of sight in 
 the fish's mouth, while its teeth clinched the wire gimp 
 ferociously but unavailingly. 
 
 So much for tackle proper, though there are a few 
 other articles which should be included in every great 
 pike fisher's outfit. The ordinary landing-net is not 
 adapted to pike fishing unless unusually large and 
 strong and preceded by the quieting "gun" or club. 
 A good, strong-throated gaff is much better. I have 
 tried the so-called "automatic gaffs," two much-ad- 
 vertised makes, but both failed to penetrate the fish's 
 hide. The shape of a great pike's body is such that it 
 slips out of the nippers. Try it and see. Anyway, the 
 things are the refinement of cruelty. A good thick 
 club to whack the fish on the head, or, better, a 32- 
 caliber revolver with which to give the capture his 
 quietus while yet in the water, will save many a fish 
 
 69 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 and obviate much strong language. Every outfit 
 should contain a file or hook-hone, for the hard bones 
 of a great pike's mouth will quickly dull even the best 
 of hand-forged hooks. A disgorger is of little use with 
 a multi-hooked lure, but here is a simple contrivance 
 which every pike fisherman should carry: A steel spring 
 which can be inserted in the fish's mouth, holding the 
 jaws open while the hook is being removed. One cannot 
 be too careful of wounds from a pike's teeth, for they 
 are painful, hard to heal, and generally troublesome. 
 A little tube of iodine in the tackle-box with which to 
 paint a scratch at once is well worth while. So much 
 for outfit and additions thereto. 
 
 I can say but little as to the method of casting, for 
 the wise great pike enthusiast employs the same 
 tactics that the bass fan finds successful. As has 
 already been pointed out, great pike are not as much 
 given to tree tops and rocky beds as are bass, though 
 the shadow of a log is not to be neglected as you work 
 your way along a lake shore. It is to weed beds and 
 grassy shores you will pay the most attention, for 
 those spots are beloved of the great pike. The cast 
 should be made directly to the edge of the bed. If 
 there are open spots back in the field and the weeds are 
 of such character that you can coax a fish through 
 them, then cast into the open places; but I warn you 
 that such ventures are to be made only in fear and 
 trembling, a sort of last resort, for disaster lurks close 
 upon the heels of such casts. Sometimes a great pike 
 will strike upon the instant, though ordinarily he will 
 wait for the lure to move away, sometimes following it 
 questioningly, suspiciously, a characteristic of the 
 whole family, from little pickerel to lordly muskellunge. 
 
 70 
 
CASTING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 In retrieving the lure, do so by "fits and starts," a 
 method which seems to tickle the imagination of the 
 fish or stirs his anger. Often when so deviled, he will at- 
 tack the lure or over-run it, in any event hook himself. 
 
 I have already warned the reader that a heavy fish 
 is to be played from the reel rather than with the rod, 
 though the rod ably seconds the efforts of the reel. 
 The backbone of a five-ounce split-bamboo is not stiff 
 enough to do battle with a twenty-pound great pike. 
 It should keep a sufficient tension upon the line to 
 prevent the fish from throwing out the hook, a not very 
 difficult feat, once the fish secures a little slack. Do 
 not be afraid to give the capture line; let him run; 
 that is what you have a reel for. The more he moves, 
 the quicker he will become exhausted. Play him. If 
 he is lazy and refuses to move, make him. More than 
 once I have tired a big great pike by paddling about 
 while the hooked fish was simply towed behind. Al- 
 ways be sure your fish is thoroughly exhausted before 
 you attempt to use the gaff, and remember, the shoot- 
 ing should come before the gaff. It is surprising how 
 much vitality a great pike has stored up in his body. 
 He is never captured until in the boat or upon the 
 shore. 
 
 While lure-casting is best from a boat, I have had 
 unalloyed pleasure in casting from the shore. Shore 
 casting is to be resorted to only as a last choice; that 
 is, unless you are one of the seldom anglers who can 
 brook disappointment and broken tackle. There are 
 so many odds in the fish's favor — logs, trees, rooty 
 stumps, rocks, and, last but not least, treacherous 
 currents. To tire a big fish, reel him to your feet, then 
 have the current pick him up and sweep him away, is 
 
 7i 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 an experience which may be good for one's soul, but 
 it is heart-breaking at the time. 
 
 One of the best fights I ever saw a great pike put 
 up, one I hooked near the mouth of the Chippewa, 
 River, a Wisconsin stream, conducted. "Conducted" is 
 right, for, for full fifteen minutes the fish engineered 
 the doings. I was casting for bass at the foot of a 
 rocky ledge; that is, I had been casting all along the 
 rocks without results, then walked down to an eddy 
 below them, a bit of water more ideal for pike 
 than bass. I cast clear across the eddy to a fringe of 
 pickerel weed upon the far side. I thought I had 
 struck a snag, for my hook stuck. To my surprise, I 
 found that I was fast in a good fish. He sulked, some 
 hundred feet away. I pulled steadily (my tackle was 
 of the best) until I had coaxed him out into the current, 
 then he suddenly awakened, and for twenty minutes 
 kept me very busy indeed. Three times I had him 
 at my feet. Three times he managed to secure the 
 advantage of the strong current and was swept away. 
 I all but despaired of gaffing him. Once he leaped in 
 a hog-wallowing way, shaking himself, having secured 
 sufficient slack line for the maneuver. For a few sec- 
 onds I was mightily worried, for there are no more 
 dangerous tactics resorted to by any of the pikes. 
 Hooks held, line remained true. In the end I landed 
 the fish without assistance, though it was no credit to 
 me, for I had shouted lustily for aid, but there was none 
 to hear. That one battle looms largest on my mental 
 horizon of all my contests with great pike. Not because 
 it was an unusually big fish, and it was a good one, re- 
 ported in the newspapers ; but because of the surround- 
 ings and the length of the struggle, a full half-hour. 
 
 72 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 Great Pike and Live Bait 
 
 "The mediocrity of pike as a game fish is doubtless a just 
 estimation in a majority of cases, but once in a while one will 
 exhibit game qualities that will surprise the most doubting and 
 contemptuous angler, compelling his admiration and forcing him 
 to admit that there are exceptions to all rules, more especially 
 in fishing." — Dr. James A. Henshall. 
 
 THE great pike is a lover of live bait, I sometimes 
 imagine, putting up a better fight when caught 
 on a minnow or frog than when taken with arti- 
 ficial lures, though perhaps the belief is another of my 
 angling whims. This fact enters in, however, that on 
 live bait there is ordinarily but a single hook, while the 
 usual artificial lure is possessed of several trebles. 
 Three sets of trebles fast in a great pike's jaw are quite 
 apt to take the fight out of an otherwise combative 
 individual. A word to the wise is sufficient. 
 
 There is no question but that the use of artificial 
 lure is the cleaner and — shall I say it? — more sports- 
 manlike method. There are days and waters, however, 
 when and where live bait will prove more availing. 
 He who refuses to use live bait at all shall be, to mis- 
 quote Father Izaak, "a bit superstitious." By the 
 way, I am always suspicious of the angler who "never" 
 uses anything but artificial flies or casting lures of 
 some sort, feeling that perhaps it would be a good 
 idea to go through the pockets of his fishing-coat care- 
 fully. Be that as it may, the man who employs live 
 
 73 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 bait upon occasion, and knows how to handle it, is 
 sure of a few good fish, when the faddist must needs 
 return empty handed. 
 
 All members of the pike family are preeminently 
 bait fish, from the little pickerel up to the fighting 
 muskellunge. One has but to observe the habits of the 
 fish to satisfy himself of the truthfulness of the asser- 
 tion. For four years I lived near a chain of lakes — 
 might almost say lived on them — that contained great 
 pike of fighting propensities and avoirdupois, and, 
 being something of a fish student as well as angler, 
 naturally availed myself of the opportunity for ob- 
 servation. I discovered that the fish had well-defined 
 lairs and ranges. To toss a small chub or sucker any- 
 where near a given point was to invite an attack nine 
 times out of ten. Naturally it follows that when the 
 sucker or chub was attached to a hook and the bait 
 cast in a skillful manner, the great pike was hooked, 
 though not always brought to gaff. The hooking of a 
 big great pike is the least part of the game. 
 
 I had a fighting acquaintance with one monster (I 
 think he would have weighed in the neighborhood of 
 twenty-five pounds), which I had named "Big Arthur," 
 in honor of an eccentric lad who haunted the lake and 
 often fished with me. "Big Arthur" had his home in 
 a bed of water lilies near the upper end of the lake, 
 where the water shoaled sharply from thirty feet to 
 four or five. Naturally that weed-bed was the home 
 of sunfish, bluegills, and perch, a matter which "Big 
 Arthur" knew right well. Sometimes the latter lay in 
 the weeds just at the edge of the bed, and when some 
 hapless, reckless "punkin* seed" ventured into the open, 
 he more often paid toll with his life than returned to 
 
 74 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 his home to tell of his adventures. It was while fishing 
 for well-beloved "sunnies" in a pocket amid the weeds — 
 for I love to fish for the little fellows with a two-and-one- 
 half-ounce fly rod, and have an appetite for sunnies 
 rolled in cracker crumbs and fried in sweet butter — that 
 I was "introduced" to "Big Arthur." When I saw 
 him dash out from his lair not ten feet distant from my 
 location and capture an unfortunate perch, I mentally 
 resolved to try conclusions with him. 
 
 Hastily I fastened a four-inch perch to a strong hook 
 which I had in my tackle-box, and sent the little fellow 
 hurtling through the air to land "plop!" right where 
 the attack had been made. Nothing resulted, and I 
 thought that I caught a glimpse of a shadowy form 
 slipping through the water. When too late, I told my- 
 self what a fool I had been. "Big Arthur" was not in 
 the habit of having his fish come flying through the 
 air to land right in front of him with noise and com- 
 motion. Long life had made him sly and wise beyond 
 his kind. 
 
 Next morning I was in my position betimes and 
 ready for the battle, but my friend the enemy was not 
 at home; "off his feed," suspicious, or something; at 
 any rate, I failed to make connections or even catch 
 a glimpse of his greenish-gray body. Then I rested 
 the pool for a week, and one night as the heavy shades 
 crept in from the east I quietly drew a sunfish through 
 the water over his lurking-place. That time I con- 
 nected up all right — and still have a broken three and 
 one-half-ounce caster as a memento of the battle. So 
 it went all that season and the next. Now and then 
 I would see the fish, once in a blue moon induce him 
 to strike, semi-occasionally — fifteen times during the 
 
 75 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 two years — hook him. Always something happened — 
 not always because of a lack of skill on my part — and 
 the fish escaped. Then Fate decreed that I should 
 move from that locality, and my one great regret in 
 leaving was that "Big Arthur" still lorded it over the 
 lesser fry at the head of Clark's Lake. Some day I 
 am going back there and try conclusions with him 
 once more, for of course he still is waiting for me, 
 though a dozen and more years have sped since our 
 first friendly battle. 
 
 When casting live bait — with perhaps the exception 
 of frogs — for large and "educated" great pike, I much 
 doubt the wisdom of noisy casting, such as is so at- 
 tractive with bass. Better far, if possible, allow the 
 bait to slip into the water without any commotion 
 whatsoever. Again and again I have fastened a min- 
 now in the weeds in such a manner that I could release 
 it with a gentle jerk, row my boat to a position 150 to 
 200 feet away, and wait half an hour for the water to 
 quiet down, then pull my bait over the known lurking 
 place of some ultra-wise great pike. Taking the 
 matter by and large, the user of live bait should at- 
 tempt to duplicate natural conditions. To my mind 
 there is more sport in circumventing some aged and 
 wise great pike, a fish that has defied anglers for 
 seasons without number, than in capturing many less 
 educated individuals. And the way to capture such 
 fish is with live bait used intelligently. 
 
 In the matter of what bait to use, the angler will 
 study the feeding habits of the great pike in the par- 
 ticular water to be fished. It is a mistaken notion that 
 a man, simply because he is a good caster, can go to 
 an unfamiliar water and catch as many fish as the 
 
 76 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 man acquainted with every deep and shallow, as well 
 as knowing when and upon what the great pike feed. 
 The reason why the country boy with a tamarack pole 
 and cotton line catches more fish than the rodster 
 with his expensive outfit is not a matter of parapher- 
 nalia, but of water and fish knowledge. Give the 
 scientific angler the same intimate acquaintanceship 
 with lake and stream, and he will discount the native 
 50 per cent. Time and again, when I have become 
 thoroughly familiar with a trout stream, I have caught 
 two fish to every one taken by my Indian guide. 
 With but three days to spend upon a great pike water, 
 I am thoroughly convinced that if the angler were to 
 spend two of them, from earliest dawn to dark, study- 
 ing water and feeding times as well as food, he would 
 catch more than enough fish on the third day to make 
 up for the two spent in study. There is no defeating 
 the angler who knows. However, I am free to confess 
 that I have never been able to curb my impatience for 
 two days. 
 
 For all waters probably there is no more attractive 
 minnow than the shiner, say from four inches up to 
 six. I have in mind the flat silver white minnow, such 
 as can usually be caught along the edges of weed-beds 
 in lakes and wide streams. A glass fish-trap baited 
 with breadcrumbs, a seine or dip-net will take them, 
 though I prefer to catch them with a minnow hook 
 and line, for those so caught are usually of the correct 
 size; and, wherever possible, I like to take them from 
 the very water in which I am to fish for great pike, for 
 those are the most alluring. Quickly released from the 
 hook, with moist hands to prevent breaking the pro- 
 tecting slime, and placed in a double minnow bucket, 
 
 77 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 they will remain alive for several hours, provided the 
 bucket is not too crowded. A dozen minnows should 
 be amply sufficient for a half-day's fishing. As a close 
 second I would place the ordinary chub and sucker, 
 giving perch, sunfish, and small bluegills third place. 
 By the way, few anglers realize what a splendid bait 
 sunfish or bream make. Again and again I have been 
 surprised to find members of the pike family taking 
 the little "gold dollars" with avidity, especially in 
 waters inhabited by them. Perhaps I should say here 
 that as a rule successful bait for any given water is 
 determined largely by the natural food found therein. 
 It is next to useless to fish with a "foreign" bait. 
 
 A very good bait in some waters, especially for troll- 
 ing, which will be discussed further along, is the com- 
 mon green or meadow frog. I have found the brown 
 frog utterly unattractive times without number, and 
 must warn anglers against it. The meadow frog, so- 
 called, though perhaps some of my readers are ac- 
 quainted with it under the name of leopard frog, is a 
 splendid casting bait for any member of the pike 
 family, save for large muskellunge. Of course, as was 
 suggested in the foregoing paragraph, in water where 
 frogs are not found, where there are no environing 
 marshes and "froggy land," the gymnastic batrachian 
 is apt to prove a disappointment. For obvious reasons 
 great pike are not in the habit of feeding upon them. 
 That bait alone upon which the fish is accustomed 
 to feed is sure to prove attractive. Of course one may 
 take a great pike with a frog from waters uninhabited 
 by batrachians, but by and large, it is not the part of 
 wisdom to employ frogs where sunfish and shiners are 
 the every-day diet. That the great pike will upon 
 
 78 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 occasion take anything edible or near edible is a well- 
 known characteristic of the family. I have more than 
 once taken good great pike up to four pounds upon 
 angle worms. 
 
 While upon the question of baits, I would like to 
 mention one seldom resorted to because of the trouble 
 of securing it, as well as the difficulty the caster ex- 
 periences in fastening it to his hook. I refer to mice. 
 I am free to confess that I do not know how to attach 
 a mouse to a hook, and am only glad to get it half 
 fastened if I can escape with whole fingers. A mouse 
 possesses teeth. Perhaps some ambitious angler will 
 yet invent a "mouse harness," and so win thanks, 
 fame, and fortune. Till that time arrives I must pass 
 this best of baits with but a word. The mouse should 
 be so fastened to the hook that it is free to swim upon 
 the surface, and there is little for the rodster to do 
 save cast it where it should go. 
 
 I once used a mouse very successfully. I was spend- 
 ing a little time at a great pike water, a grassy, weedy 
 lake fairly alive with the wicked gentry, but notwith- 
 standing their numerousness I failed to secure a good 
 fish. So one day I captured a mouse under a "figure- 
 four trap," chloroformed it, and while it was quiescent 
 wired the body to a double hook, to which I attached a 
 trailer. By the time I reached my chosen fishing ground, 
 my bait was very lively ; indeed, I was worried for fear 
 that it might escape from my hook altogether and run 
 amuck in the boat. My first cast with the somewhat 
 unusual bait was a good one, well in amid the fringing 
 cat-tails, and Mr. Mouse set out for shore. Hardly 
 had half a minute passed before a splendid great pike 
 had him, and I was hard and fast in the heaviest fish 
 
 79 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 of the trip. And yet the bait does not appeal to me; 
 seems "unsportsmanlike;" though why a live frog 
 should be sportsmanlike and a live mouse unsports- 
 manlike it is hard to see. Probably we shall never be 
 able to settle that much-argued question to the satis- 
 faction of all. 
 
 Perhaps, so long as I have been discussing live bait, 
 it would be well to begin my remarks upon tackle with 
 the hook, for that surely is closely connected with 
 bait. In great pike fishing the hook should be large 
 and strong. There is little danger of selecting one too 
 large; the fish can manage anything, and the jaws are 
 almost viselike in crushing power. There are some 
 very good minnow and frog harnesses upon the market, 
 but where they come with hooks already attached, the 
 latter are seldom strong enough to hold a big great 
 pike. A small hook is easily swallowed, a matter to 
 be avoided wherever possible. For average great pike 
 fishing, I would say get a No. i-o hook — it will prove 
 none too large — to which must be attached a strong 
 wire gimp or leader; for when the fish "strikes over," 
 unless the line be protected by such gimp the fish and 
 hook will be lost. Some day someone will produce a 
 frog harness and minnow hook built especially for 
 great pike fishing. Till then we who fish for large 
 Esox must content ourselves with large-sized regular 
 hooks. 
 
 I much prefer hooking the bait through the head, 
 from below upwards. Yes, I know the minnow soon 
 dies, which happens after a few casts, anyway, no 
 matter how hooked. Sometimes anglers insert the 
 hook in the minnow's mouth, out through the gills, 
 and back through the body. Very good, were it not 
 
 80 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 for the fact that the minnow soon doubles down on 
 the hook-shank and whirls like a spoon when drawn 
 through the water instead of traveling naturally. 
 There is just one way of attaching a minnow or frog 
 to a single hook, and that is through the head; but as 
 all members of the pike family are in the habit of 
 striking from the rear (unlike bass), unless they reach 
 far enough over the bait to be impaled upon the hook, 
 the bait is severed and the fish escapes. Every great 
 pike fisherman knows the vexation of short-striking. 
 It is an easy matter to use two hooks, either a gang 
 built especially for the work or a second hook attached 
 by its ring to the first. More than once I have made 
 a "great-pike gang," wiring the body of the minnow 
 or frog to the shank of the second hook, to the conquer- 
 ing of "lazy" great pike. 
 
 Every rodster is acquainted with the casting spoon 
 to which an auxiliary hook is attached, and every 
 caster of live bait for great pike should be. (We will 
 not enter into a discussion regarding the ethics of the 
 matter here, why it is "unsportsmanlike" to use a 
 spoon in combination with a live bait.) When live 
 bait has ceased to be alive, or when using preserved 
 bait, the spoon is- a great aid, as it serves to attract 
 the fish's attention to the morsel of food and perhaps 
 serves to make it appear in a lifelike manner. I know 
 from many an experience that it is a fish-taker. Such 
 a spoon (the blade should not be large like those 
 usually found upon trolls) will not interfere with cast- 
 ing to any great extent, as it does not offer much re- 
 sistence to the atmosphere and is little affected by 
 the wind. 
 
 All that was said in the previous chapter concerning 
 6 81 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the importance of leader or gimp, and emphasized in 
 this, should be held in mind at all times, no matter 
 what the bait or lure under consideration. To lose 
 one record fish by having the line cut by a great pike's 
 teeth is enough to last a fisherman for several seasons. 
 
 Above the hook, I have not much to add to what 
 was said concerning tackle in the foregoing chapter 
 upon artificial lure casting. I would employ prac- 
 tically the same reel, some type of level-winder like the 
 "Shakespeare," "Beetzel," "Supreme," "Heddon's," or 
 "Southbend." The line would be one I knew tobestrong 
 enough for the work, though as light as is consistent 
 with safety. I might use a heavier rod, depending 
 upon the weight of the bait to be handled. I would 
 not jeopardize a light caster by attempting to cast a 
 minnow weighing four or five ounces, as I have seen 
 men do. If I thought it necessary to use a young fish 
 for bait, I would select a somewhat heavy rod to handle 
 it. Personally, I much doubt the advisability of em- 
 ploying an overly large minnow for casting, upon the 
 theory that a large bait insures a large fish. More 
 often I think the practice results in a lost fish. The 
 ordinary casting rod will handle a two- or three-ounce 
 minnow without difficulty. A heavier bait should be 
 thrown from the tip of a rod somewhat thicker in the 
 waist — more stalky and somewhat stiffer, consequently 
 slightly heavier in weight. However, every ounce the 
 caster adds to his rod is subtracting a definite thrill 
 from the battle. The great pike fisherman who will 
 not take a chance, court a thrill, is missing one of the 
 joys of the sport. 
 
 The actual casting of live bait does not differ much 
 from casting artificial lures, save, as a rule, the object 
 
 82 
 
A PAIR OF GREAT PIKE 
 
 Courtesy L. E. Cavalier, Cable, Wis. 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 of the caster is not to make a great commotion upon 
 the surface of the water when the bait strikes. We 
 are now fishing with a fish for a fish, and our object is 
 to duplicate nature. Every angler has seen a minnow 
 dart along the surface, closely pursued by a hungry 
 great pike. That should be a sufficient hint. There 
 are times when to "skitter" a minnow along the sur- 
 face, allowing it to sink slowly at the end of the move- 
 ment, will bring results. As a rule, however, I cast 
 toward the shore if fishing from a boat, allowing the 
 minnow or frog to sink for a few seconds, then slowly 
 — note I say slowly — reel in. My object in casting is 
 to get the bait to slip into the water without excite- 
 ment or commotion. With me, noise and splashing 
 are taboo. 
 
 To cast a live bait with skill and accuracy is some- 
 thing of a task. I honestly believe there are fewer 
 good casters of live bait to-day than there are handlers 
 of artificial lures. I mean in proportion to the number 
 fishing, of course. There was a time when we were 
 students of live-bait fishing, but that day is long since 
 past, though I expect to see a revival of the sport. 
 Perhaps I shall lay myself open to criticism when I 
 say that it requires more skill to cast live bait properly 
 than it does to handle a plug, but nevertheless such is 
 my conviction. Watch the average bait-caster handling 
 minnows, and draw your own conclusions. 
 
 The regular lurking place for great pike, such as are 
 investigated by the lure handler, should be carefully 
 fished out by the bait fisherman, who should remember 
 that he is fishing with the natural food of the great 
 pike, and endeavor to simulate the actions of that food 
 when unattached to hook and line. Logs, stumps, 
 
 83 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 weed-beds, deep "holes," all should be thoroughly in- 
 vestigated and conscientiously fished out, slowly and 
 methodically. Never should the rodster be tempted 
 to hurry, for haste is always destructive of highest 
 art, and, believe me, properly casting live bait is an 
 art. Care must be exercised both at the beginning 
 and end of a cast, or the bait will be torn from the 
 hook. As the "back cast" is the danger point in fly 
 casting, so ofttimes it is in handling live bait. The 
 cast should not be begun too quickly and sharply. 
 Ginger should be injected after the bait is in motion. 
 
 I have been writing of live-bait fishing for great pike 
 as though it were a sport to be indulged in only from 
 the vantage ground of a boat, though the truth of the 
 matter is, a wise and careful angler can cast success- 
 fully from the shore. My largest great pike was taken 
 from the shore, and on a green frog at that. Local 
 conditions must govern when, where, and how. I, nor 
 no man, can tell how, nor when, nor where on paper. 
 As the wise bass fan does not cast "any old place" for 
 his chosen game, so the great pike fisher must not 
 expect to win out "going it blind." Let him study the 
 water and the feeding habits of the great pike therein. 
 While, by and large, great pike agree in their general 
 habits, voraciousness, love of solitude, and deep, quiet 
 swims, still there are little differences in the habits of 
 fish dwelling even in contiguous water, the knowledge 
 of which marks the successful angler. 
 
 It is wonderful what a cool and expert rodster can 
 make his captures do, what obstacles he can over- 
 come. Not so long ago I was casting on a mill pond 
 where numberless logs were floating, confined by a 
 
 84 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 continuous "boom." The deep water lay within the 
 boom and I was upon the shore. So I cast some fifty 
 feet beyond the boom and, as luck would have it, 
 hooked a big — for the water — great pike. Fortunately, 
 the bank upon which I was standing was somewhat 
 elevated above the surface of the water. Reeling in as 
 rapidly as I could get the fish to travel, I waited until 
 he was at the edge of the boom, then, holding the tip 
 of my rod high in air, I gave a sudden strong jerk of 
 the line, with the result that the great pike leaped out 
 of the water and fell upon my side — the shore side — of 
 the boom. "Luck?" Well, perhaps, but it worked 
 out as I planned it. The fact of the matter is, the re- 
 sourceful angler can overcome almost any difficulty, 
 circumvent the most crafty great pike, if he only 
 thinks he can and keeps his head. 
 
 Naturally, not all rivers, and few lakes, can be 
 fished from the shore. Ofttimes, usually, the water 
 near the shore is shallow, or obstructions upon the 
 bank make casting impossible. Yet it is surprising 
 how much fishing the shore angler can get if he but 
 keeps at it. I have even waded out into a lake waist- 
 deep and cast successfully, something of a trick, as 
 the reader will find if he undertakes, it. Once I hooked 
 a goodly great pike, so standing, and the fish dashed 
 between my legs, to the travail of my soul and the 
 fish's liberty, not to mention the result of the taut 
 line against my bare legs. 
 
 Still-fishing for great pike with live bait has not 
 been productive of results with me. I can count the 
 fish so caught upon the fingers of one hand, perhaps 
 because the waters fished were not adapted to the 
 
 8* 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 sport, though I am under the impression that still- 
 fishing is uniformly unsuccessful.* The great pike is 
 as much the caster's fish as is the famous black bass, 
 and the casting of live bait is, to my mind, the method 
 that will take the sly old denizen of avoirdupois and 
 experience, suspicious of unnatural lures and spoons. 
 If the reader knows of some "Old Arthur" that has 
 successfully defied the caster of lures, my best advice 
 to him is, try live bait — minnow, frog, or mouse. 
 
 Always the rodster should exhaust his fish before 
 attempting to net or gaff. The heavy fish should be 
 stunned before either is used. A revolver or pistol is a 
 handy thing to have, lacking which, a good, thick 
 club may be made to serve, though it should be handled 
 with care. A blow across the line or leader is disastrous. 
 I watched a man playing a good great pike in Lake 
 Superior, a large one (there are some big ones taken 
 from its cold waters) and liberate his capture by a 
 misdirected blow. "How did it ever happen?" Easy 
 enough. The fish was not thoroughly exhausted, and 
 when the fisherman struck, the fish flopped, and that 
 was the end of the story. Be sure the great pike is 
 played until played out. A gaff is a better landing 
 tool than a net, obviously, and it should be well made, 
 strong of hook, throat, and haft. 
 
 Let no one laugh at the user of live bait for great 
 pike. He is the man that will get the large fish, all 
 else being equal, as will be emphasized times without 
 number probably throughout this work, whether he 
 angles for pickerel, great pike, or muskellunge. Three 
 times in my experience I have won out where others 
 
 *See Appendix II, "Still Fishing with Live Bait." 
 86 
 
GREAT PIKE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 failed, twice by employing minnows and once by the 
 use of frogs, not to include the few occasions when I 
 have resorted to the unusual mouse bait. After all, 
 there is more in live-bait fishing than the disciple of 
 plugs or the user of spoons realizes. 
 
 Note. — For some years I have been busy experimenting with 
 live bait and live-bait tackle, gathering data everywhere, the 
 results being set down in my forthcoming "Fishing with Live 
 Bait," a book considerably larger than this. The whole question 
 of live-bait fishing is thoroughly discussed, from finding and 
 keeping the bait to how to handle it upon lake and stream. 
 The reader of this chapter, interested in the subject, is invited 
 to secure the work. 
 
 87 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 Fly- Fishing for Great Pike 
 
 ". . . Pike-fishing, in fact, has been with me the hobby — 
 the hobby, I might almost say — of a life." — H. Cholmondeley- 
 Pennell. 
 
 IN Chapter IV I discussed fly-fishing for pickerel, 
 speaking of tackle as well as methods, though 
 naturally I did not go into the matter exhaustively, 
 that fish being so "unimportant." However, I wish 
 to reassert what was emphasized there: Fly-fishing 
 for pickerel, provided proper tools are used, is an 
 enjoyable game and worth-while sport, whatever one 
 may think of the fish when killed and in the pan. 
 
 When we turn to the great pike, fly-rod in hand, all 
 is changed; the possibilities for sport raised to the 
 nth power. Imagine a nineteen-pound, cold-water- 
 bred, fighting pike on a twelve-ounce rod, say. I can 
 assure the reader — a recent experience in mind — that 
 such a proposition spells trouble with a capital "T." 
 Perhaps it might be as well for me to spin the yarn 
 right here in the opening of the chapter, as it teaches 
 some things that the fisherman must learn if he is to 
 cope successfully with that combative werewolf of 
 northern waters. 
 
 I am fortunate enough to possess a little cottage on 
 Chequamegon Bay, so near the main lake as to be 
 almost in Superior itself. Some miles up the bay is 
 the mouth of a slough, which extends well back in- 
 
 88 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 land, the abandoned mouth of a river. Now, that 
 slough is deep and marged with pickerel weed, water 
 arum, and other aquatic plants. Naturally, it is the 
 home of numberless great pike and pickerel, for while 
 perhaps it is not generally known, Lake Superior's 
 sloughs or bayous, as they are sometimes called, 
 afford excellent great pike fishing. Some of the finest 
 catches of great pike seen by me in recent years have 
 come from Kagagan, not far from Ashland, Wisconsin. 
 What is true of the sloughs visited by me is true, I 
 think, of the great majority of those along the South 
 Shore of that Great Lake at least. I am constantly 
 surprised that this section is not more often visited 
 by the lovers of the giant Esox. The fish run large. 
 Where the waters have not been fished hard, I have 
 seen them weighing in the neighborhood of forty 
 pounds, and I have reason to believe that larger fish 
 may yet be taken. 
 
 One cool September morning just as the tardy sun 
 was rising from his watery bed I set out for the slough, 
 crouched in my light canoe, for I am one of those 
 fellows who like to add a spice of danger to great- 
 pike fishing by employing a canoe, though I do not 
 want to be understood as recommending the craft for 
 .the sport. I had left my casting rod in the cottage — 
 for the temptation is always to use that efficient tool 
 for great pike — taking instead a nine-ounce fly-rod, 
 nine and one-half feet long, rather thick in the waist, 
 but possessed of sufficient backbone to shoot a heavy 
 fly remarkably well. The reel was an aluminum 
 quadruple, built for fly-fishing, without the balance 
 handle. (I understand that only a few of those reels 
 were made, but I cannot understand why they might 
 
 89 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 not become popular for heavy fishing if constructed 
 from some other material. Aluminum is too soft a 
 metal for reels.) The fly for the morning was a rather 
 large buck-tail with a red "tag," a conspicuous fly on 
 dark water and one that has proven uniformly at- 
 tractive to great pike. 
 
 Reaching the field of operation, I sent the light craft 
 along just within casting distance of the fringing weeds 
 and grass, for it is never the part of wisdom when 
 doing any fishing to "stretch the cast," to cast beyond 
 control. Not a breeze ruffled the surface, something 
 which obtains usually only early in the morning along 
 Superior's fretful shore. I cast easily, the hair and 
 feather fly landing with a little splash just at the edge 
 of a bed of pickerel weed, a plant which my readers 
 will remember Father Walton thought mothered the 
 mighty "Luce." Probably because my mind was busy 
 with the ancient history of the fish I was seeking, I 
 missed my first rise. There was a splash, a flash of 
 green and white, and a fish shot from the weeds into 
 the depths. I did not cast a second time, for the fish 
 had gone out and down, and some little time, I knew, 
 would elapse before my game would return to his 
 lair. I beg the reader to remember that the great 
 pike is not only a lover of solitude, but he is also more 
 shy than he is given credit with being by most fisher- 
 men. While the fish will often follow a lure right up 
 to a boat's side, the angler will discover that he will 
 take more fish in the course of a day's casting if he 
 deport himself as though his quarry were as shy as 
 the speckled denizen of our cold-water brooklets. 
 
 A resounding splash "like a log falling into the water" 
 notified me that somewhere above a mighty leviathan 
 
 90 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 was feeding. Without casting, and disturbing the 
 water as little as possible with my paddle, I edged my 
 light craft along. (Therein lies the great advantage 
 of the canoe for any fishing — quietness and ease in 
 handling.) Slowly I made my way upward, ever on 
 the lookout for the leviathan's lurking place. A bed 
 of spatter-dock, with a forest of cat-tails close inshore, 
 held my attention, my fish sense telling me that it 
 must be the home of the monster whose plunge I had 
 heard. 
 
 Replacing my combination buck-tail with an ex- 
 aggerated scarlet ibis of my own manufacture, I sent 
 the bunch of brilliant feathers through the air, to land 
 with an audible "plop" just at the edge of the floating 
 broad leaves. Nothing stirred, so I waited for the fly 
 to sink. As the feathers were dry, perhaps three 
 minutes passed before the little spot of color disap- 
 peared beneath the surface. Then, with the "jerk-and- 
 wait" movement, I began to reel in the line. Before 
 the lure had traveled far, came a rush, a mighty 
 wallowing splash, and my rod was bending perilously, 
 while the thrumming line whispered of danger. Then 
 was disclosed the advantage of a multiplying reel for 
 great pike fly-fishing. I was compelled to fight the 
 fish in a circumscribed area. Remember, I was in a 
 narrow slough, comparable to a river, with weed- and 
 reed-marged shores upon either side. The first act of 
 the fish was to rush to, and under, the canoe. It was 
 but the act of a second on my part to throw a loop of 
 line around the bow and gently snub my capture before 
 he reached the protection of the weeds upon the far 
 side. How he fought to enter them! Wallowing 
 upon the surface, throwing up a smother of spray. 
 
 9i 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 I trembled for the integrity of my tackle, wishing, it 
 must be confessed, for a heavier rod. But Fate was 
 kind that morning, for the fish became possessed of 
 another idea, and shot straight down the slough, lake- 
 ward. I was content to let him go, knowing that my 
 reel held full 200 feet of new line. (It never is the part 
 of wisdom to fish for great pike with an old, worn-out 
 line.) 
 
 I wondered, as I watched the line disappear from the 
 spool, if the fish had started for the Soo at the foot of 
 the Great Lakes. Reaching the sandbar at the mouth 
 of the slough and evidently fearing the shallow water, 
 he turned and made directly for me with all the speed 
 of a reckless autoist. I reeled like mad, blessing my 
 quadruple fly-reel, as I realized that I was able to keep 
 a taut line upon my capture. (Beg pardon — hooked 
 fish.) Passing near the canoe, I caught a glimpse .of 
 his magnificent proportions and imagined that he was 
 longer and heavier than a certain mounted specimen 
 that graces the place of honor above a well-remembered 
 fireplace. I grudgingly gave him line, made him fight 
 for every inch, tiring him as best I could. For the way 
 to fight a great pike on a fly-rod is to fight him. Never 
 let the fish conduct the battle: that is the prerogative 
 of the fisherman. 
 
 A fault-finding correspondent, who can see no sport 
 in fly-fishing for members of the pike family, writes: 
 "But a great pike or pickerel will not leap from the 
 water, as does a bass or salmon." No, not as does a 
 bass or salmon, but as a great pike. The leap of the 
 great pike, while not as finished and spectacular as 
 that of the small-mouth, say, is no less confusing, 
 dangerous, and tackle-testing. He throws himself 
 
 92 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 awkwardly from the water, seldom, if ever, clearing 
 it, but managing somehow to fall upon the line three 
 times out of five unless the angler be learned in the 
 fish's ways and more than a tyro with fly tackle. 
 That a five-, ten-, or fifteen-pound fish falling upon a 
 line will work havoc with the best of tackle, no rodster 
 needs be told. The leap of a twenty- or thirty-pound 
 fish, especially if near the boat, is something to wit- 
 ness and dream about when angling days are over. 
 
 Believing, perhaps, that he could play the trick, or 
 leaping, maybe, in an excess of terror, my capture 
 reared — I do not know how better to express it — and, 
 I honestly believe, tumbled over backward! But failing 
 to fall upon the taut line, the tactic availed him noth- 
 ing. Again he was away for the weeds, but a steady 
 strain discouraging, he gave up, went to the bottom 
 and sulked. But I would none of that, stirring him 
 up with strength of line and rod alone. Again on the 
 surface, he wallowed like a bathing elephant. But 
 manifestly he was weakening, and I was glad of it, for 
 arm and eye were weary. The first time I brought him 
 alongside, the sight of the boat sent him scurrying 
 away with a sudden access of strength; but I only 
 bided my time, for I knew it could not endure. Again 
 I brought him in, and again he turned away in spite 
 of me. I realized the end was near, transferred the 
 rod to my left hand, placed the 22 pistol within easy 
 reach, and reeled him in. A single shot between 
 wicked, malevolent eyes, a moil of blood-flecked water, 
 and I plunged home the gaff. 
 
 I have learned from much canoe fishing that it is 
 never the part of wisdom to lift, or attempt to lift, such 
 a fish into the boat when alone, if it can be avoided. So 
 
 93 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 towing my capture at the stern, I paddled to the 
 marshy shore and dragged the heavy body out upon 
 the grass. To those who can see no beauty in the fish 
 nor sport in its capture I only say, I wish you had been 
 with me that morning. The battle had been great, 
 just great, and I have been in at the finish of many a 
 mighty bass and weighty rainbow. As to beauty, 
 well, that spotted greenish-gray body, irradiant, 
 scintillating, was not devoid of beauty. His had been 
 a good fight, and he had surrendered only to the 
 inevitable, and that would have been enough for me 
 had he been as ugly in appearance as a bullhead. 
 I wish to emphasize two points regarding the end of 
 the fight: First, that I did not attempt to lift the 
 fish into the canoe; second, that I killed the great 
 pike with a well-directed shot before attempting to 
 use the gaff. A fish of fifteen pounds and upward is 
 something of a problem upon a gaff, unless stunned 
 with a shot or blow before pricked with steel. Many 
 a capsized canoeman and angler mourning loss of 
 record fish will bear me out. Always play the great 
 pike until exhausted, and then for two or three min- 
 utes, "just for good measure," before attempting to 
 gaff. 
 
 What was that? "What did I do with the fish?" 
 Foolish, foolish. Baked great pike is not to be sneezed 
 at, as will appear when we reach the chapter upon 
 cookery. 
 
 My excuse for narrating the foregoing incident is 
 twofold: Its suggestiveness ; and then, "It is not all 
 of fishing to fish." If one could collect and publish 
 the just-as-it-happened stories of anglers in various 
 parts of the country, what a wealth of authoritative 
 
 94 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 and entertaining information we would have at our 
 command! The angling writer who cannot forget 
 himself now and then and "just yarn" of his own ex- 
 periences is, to my mind at least, hardly a good guide 
 to follow. Strikes me that the majority of the angling 
 writers of to-day take their job too seriously. We 
 have lost our Primes, our "Adirondack" Murrays, our 
 Fred Mathers, and their ilk, and, lo, in this strenuous 
 time there are none bold enough, unless it be van 
 Dyke, to take their place. 
 
 In fly-fishing for great pike, the wise angler will 
 devote considerable time and thought to the selection 
 of a rod, for more will depend upon that part of the 
 outfit than upon all the rest of the paraphernalia. The 
 rod can be somewhat longer and stiffer than those used 
 for black bass, for more will be required of it. The 
 salmon rod, by and large, is a good tool. I should say, 
 then, for a general-purpose rod one weighing in the 
 neighborhood of twelve ounces should be selected, 
 though I have gone up against several doughty fish 
 with my favorite nine-ounce black bass fly-rod. My 
 reason for recommending the heavier tool is that 
 sometimes the great pike fisherman will connect with 
 a twenty- or thirty-pound fish, and then where would 
 he be with a three-ounce rod? I saw one weighing 
 twenty-nine pounds that was taken on a nine-ounce 
 rod. But it is not wise to subject so light a rod to 
 such a strain. The fly should be large and somewhat 
 heavy; therefore, a heavy rod can be used with ease. 
 A properly built twelve-ounce rod of either split-bam- 
 boo or solid wood will give the angler sufficient casting 
 power and action when it comes to playing the fish. 
 
 I have said that the rod is the most important item 
 95 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 of the outfit, and will let that stand, but the line must 
 be strong also. I use a rather heavy enameled line, 
 such as is employed for salmon fishing, and have yet 
 to find cause for complaint. Undoubtedly one could 
 use an ordinary trout line (I once played and landed 
 a two-pound black bass on an ordinary No. 60 cotton 
 thread; nevertheless I am not recommending such 
 thread for bass fishing), but it would be very unwise 
 to run the risks. At least 100 yards of either size D 
 or E should be about right. One could use the regular 
 silk casting line, but it does not lend itself so admirably 
 to fly-casting, and remember, fly-fishing for great pike 
 is fly-casting, though the tackle may seem somewhat 
 exaggerated to a user of 2>^ounce trout rods. 
 
 In the matter of a reel I am certain that as a rule I 
 would select a double multiplier, though I have used 
 large single-actions with supreme satisfaction. How- 
 ever, instant control of the line is a matter of para- 
 mount importance, and I find that that can be most 
 happily secured by using a regulation multiplying 
 reel. Of course in employing such a reel the off-set 
 handle will bother to a certain extent, and the angler 
 who cannot suffer a tangled reel handle with equa- 
 nimity is strongly urged to provide himself with a 
 regular single-action salmon winch. The reel should 
 be wide of barrel and easy running, for the fish should 
 be played from the reel, once it is hooked. Do not 
 attempt to play the fish with the hand and with up- 
 heaped line on the bottom of the boat. Confusion and 
 disaster are almost certain to result. 
 
 When it comes to the selection of the fly, there is a 
 wide field for choice. Of course, sometimes the large 
 bass flies will prove availing, but they are most de- 
 
 96 
 

 
 I 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 JJ 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 ' 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^i 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 SOME OF THE AUTHOR'S PIKE RODS 
 
 1. "Dowagiac," split-bamboo. 
 
 2. Solid wood, western yew, built by author. 
 
 3. De Lux, Bristol. 
 
 4. "Shakespeare," three-piece split-bamboo, 6' — 6" long. 
 
 5. Seven-ounce split-bamboo fly-rod. 
 
 6. Stiff live-bait rod, 9' — 6" long, split-bamboo, built by author. 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 cidedly not recommended by the writer as a regular 
 lure. The factory-built buck-tails, especially the white 
 tabbed with red, are very good, though I do not see 
 the necessity for the treble hooks ordinarily employed. 
 I prefer a single hook. I have seldom experienced any 
 difficulty in hooking a fish, once I have gotten him to 
 rise. The hooking is a matter for the angler's wrist, 
 as in all fly-fishing. If the angler has had any experi- 
 ence in building flies, is never so great a tyro, only 
 knows how "to stick the feathers together," he should 
 tie his own fuzzy wuzzies. The more flamboyant and 
 outlandish the creation, the more attractive -it will 
 prove. Let red figure in every fly, is one of my cheer- 
 fully obeyed rules. I made one once out of black 
 feathers, a large scraggly fly, with a streaming red 
 tail, which in a certain northern river proved very 
 attractive on bright days. As a rule, the fly will prove 
 sufficiently weighty, once it is wet, to sink beneath 
 the surface, and I have never found "floating flies" 
 very successful for great pike. The fly should sink 
 six or eight inches beneath the surface. If the fly is 
 unusually light, one could weight with a wrapping of 
 tinfoil or lead, but do not render the fly so heavy as 
 to make the casting comparable to lure handling. 
 Bear in mind that you are fly-fishing and deport your- 
 self as a fly-fisher. 
 
 I am convinced that in fly-fishing for great pike the 
 time of the day is not so much a matter of vital im- 
 portance as in other handling of the feathery lures. 
 I have found great pike rising at midday with avidity, 
 and again I have discovered that they would not look 
 at my most temptingly offered lures at midday, in the 
 evening, or early morning. I think there is no more 
 7 97 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 moody fish which the fly-fisher can rightly regard as 
 his own than the great pike. When he will, he will ; 
 and when he won't, he won't. That is about all there is 
 to it. In unrelieved hot weather, such as comes in 
 midsummer, when most of us are compelled to take 
 ■our vacations, undoubtedly the early morning hours, 
 from six to nine o'clock, are the most prolific in rises. 
 Strange to relate, I have had indifferent success in the 
 evening as a rule, though there have been occasions 
 when evenings have been good. When the atmosphere 
 has been heavy, possessed of that something which we 
 say presages a thunderstorm, I have found the fish 
 rising freely. And, too, there have been days of this 
 sort when I failed utterly to bring them to the surface, 
 though they would take an under-water or live bait 
 freely. Again, let me emphasize what I have said 
 before: When it comes to fly-fishing at least, the great 
 pikes are about as moody fishes as flirt caudal fins in 
 the eager angler's face. 
 
 The methods of the great pike fisher might fittingly 
 be described as emphasized or exaggerated black bass 
 casting. The methods of handling the lures are prac- 
 tically identical. The feathers are cast into likely 
 spots and allowed to sink for a minute or so, or until 
 some six or eight inches beneath the surface, then re- 
 trieved with a tantalizing movement. Such a move- 
 ment causes the feathers or hairs to open and close, 
 fanlike; where the red tag or "tail" is used, disclosing 
 it with every jerk. It is very striking, and from the 
 great pike's point of view, attractive. The particular 
 pattern of fly is not so much a matter of importance, 
 so long as it is bright and commotion-making. I 
 much doubt if, strictly speaking, it is true fly-fishing; 
 
 98 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 simply, the fish takes the moving lure to be something 
 edible because it moves. As has been pointed out 
 before, every member of the pike family is dowered 
 with an insatiable appetite, and anything is grist that 
 comes to his mill. Realizing this, the fisherman need 
 not worry about pattern, color, and so forth. All that 
 is required is a bunch of feathers sufficiently con- 
 spicuous to attract attention. 
 
 In order to render fly-fishing effective, the angler 
 must be perfectly familiar with the water to be whipped. 
 There is little use in casting here and there at random, 
 though that haphazard method may result in a capture 
 once in a while, when a great pike happens to be within 
 sight and unalarmed. When the angler is acquainted 
 with the lurking place of the fish, moves circum- 
 spectly and with knowledge, he is as sure of a rise as 
 he can be of anything in the ichthyic world. A great 
 pike must attack a bunch of feathers striking the sur- 
 face of the water with a splash, if unwarned by shadow 
 of boat or rod. A moderately long line should be cast. 
 I know of no fishing where ability to lay a long line is 
 a greater asset. The marge of a weed-bed, especially a 
 tangle of water lilies, is a good spot. Let the fly strike 
 just at the edge and be ready with a taut line to re- 
 trieve the instant the fish strikes, or as soon as the fly 
 has sunk to the required depth. With a taut line the 
 chances are that the fish will hook himself; otherwise 
 no wise trout will more quickly and effectively reject 
 the hook. 
 
 A deep pool, such as occurs in all great pike-infested 
 water, is a good place for fly-casting early in the morn- 
 ing and again in the evening, though on a bright day 
 the difficulty one experiences in approaching such a 
 
 99 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 place unheralded is so great that an angler will be more 
 than likely to frighten a fish to the bottom. More 
 than once, just at the edge of night, I have let my 
 boat down to the head of such a pool by the aid of a 
 long rope, and so circumvented the wary old denizens, 
 to my great joy and sport. I can assure the reader 
 there is an abundance of sport in a twelve-pound great 
 pike at the end of ioo feet of line attached to a reel 
 on a twelve-ounce rod. Take my word for it, you will 
 be required to call upon all your skill and angling 
 knowledge to bring such a fish to gaff. Always my 
 method is to fish out the near water first, covering 
 carefully and without haste all the pool until the far 
 corners are reached. I should emphasize "without 
 haste." Perhaps more fish are frightened from our 
 lures by our overeagerness than by any lack of skill 
 on our part, a statement which is true of all angling. 
 The old fable of the hare and the tortoise is very appli- 
 cable to the angling game. Then, too, the fisherman 
 who has learned how to make haste slowly has dis- 
 covered the great secret of enjoyment, as well as of 
 success. Where others hurry, I often loiter — and catch 
 fish. 
 
 I have had but poor success wading for great pike, 
 for waters containing fish worth while are seldom 
 shallow enough for wading. I fished one lake once 
 where there was what might be termed a ledge of 
 clay some two hundred feet or so from the shore, over 
 the edge of which the water was probably in the 
 neighborhood of forty feet deep. There were no 
 marging weeds of any variety. However, the lake was 
 alive, literally, with medium-sized great pike (from 
 three to six pounds), and standing near the edge of 
 
 ioo 
 
FLY-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 the deep water upon the day when I visited the lake, 
 an angler at all expert with rod and reel could take his 
 quota of fish without trouble. I should think one 
 might wade certain rivers, though he would have to 
 proceed with care, lest he get beyond his depth. I 
 would not advise the use of waders of any sort for 
 such an undertaking, and I would insist that the 
 angler be an expert swimmer. 
 
 Remains in this chapter but space to urge once more 
 the necessity for strong and dependable landing tools — 
 a good .32 revolver of some sort and a sharp gaff. 
 Lacking the gun, have a good thick club handy. Never 
 attempt to land or gaff a great pike — any pike — until he 
 is thoroughly exhausted; not then unless first stunned 
 with a bullet or blow between the eyes. It is truly 
 surprising what even a six-pound fish will do when you 
 undertake to slip your fingers through his gills, a pro- 
 cedure fraught with considerable danger. A "pike 
 bite" produces a disagreeable sore. Anyway, the fun 
 of the game is playing the fish, so let us prolong the 
 fun. Play every fish to exhaustion always, unless you 
 are actually in need of food. 
 
 i©i 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 Trolling for Great Pike 
 
 "Burnished with blue and bright as damask steel, 
 Behold the Belone of pointed bill ; 
 All fringed with teeth, no greedier fish than they 
 E'er broke in serried lines our foaming bay. 
 Soon as the practiced crew this frolic throng 
 Behold advancing rapidly along, 
 Adjusting swift a tendon to the line, 
 They throw, then drag it glistening through the brine." 
 — Ciannetazzio, Sixteenth Century. 
 
 PERHAPS it is true, as sometimes asserted, that 
 trolling has fallen into disuse these latter days, 
 since the advent of the short rod and multiply- 
 ing reel, which, if so, only proves that anglers some- 
 times forego a great pleasure in order to secure a greater. 
 I hold that trolling for great pike is a true and legiti- 
 mate sport, and to be fully enjoyed should be practiced 
 with short rod and multiplying reel. I have used the 
 hand-line, whirling the heavily weighted spoon about 
 my head, so casting far from the boat and retrieving 
 hand-over-hand. I have used the long ' cane pole, ' ' with 
 line of equal length, without a reel, so capturing many 
 a lusty great pike. I am not crying down those meth- 
 ods, believing that a sportsman could use them and 
 remain a sportsman, were he the right sort of a man; 
 but long experience has taught me that there is more 
 real enjoyment in playing a fish from the reel, using 
 the regular heavy casting outfit. Furthermore, I 
 honestly believe that so accoutered I can capture two 
 
 1 02 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 fish to the hand-liner's one, and keep it up all day, both 
 being equally well acquainted with the water. 
 
 I realize full well that the foregoing lays me open to 
 the charge, the odious charge, of porcine proclivities, 
 but I must trust that those who are familiar with my 
 writings, as well as those who have fished with me, will 
 not be "backward in coming forward" in my defense. 
 I am not, and never have been, a mere fisher for fish. 
 That is why the unjust strictures of men who take 
 five fish to my one always hurt. However, I long ago 
 came to believe with Elbert Hubbard that it is foolish 
 to attempt to explain. Our friends do not need ex- 
 planations, our enemies would not believe us anyway. 
 
 As I have already intimated, for trolling I always 
 employ the short rod, the regular bait-casting rod; 
 not the very light tool, but the so-called "southern 
 bass" type. It is needless to add that the steel is a 
 splendid article for the sport, but by all means pur- 
 chase as good a one as possible. There are grades in 
 steel, as in every rod material. The reel should be — 
 indeed, must be, for best results — rather large. I like 
 at least 7$ yards of line; am better satisfied if I know 
 my reel contains 100. The line should be size F, test- 
 ing 25 pounds, though if one is trolling where unusually 
 large fish are sometimes connected up with, the fisher- 
 man will feel more safe if he be provided with a line 
 testing up to 28 or 30 pounds. However, a new line 
 even smaller than the F will hold a great pike. Never 
 venture the sport with an old line or one that has been 
 much used in casting. It is a very good plan to de- 
 vote the trolling-line to that sport exclusively, drying 
 carefully and thoroughly after each excursion, and not 
 using it overly long, either. 
 
 103 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 In the matter of the trolling spoon I do not know 
 that there is much choice, though naturally I have my 
 prejudices, emphatic ones, too. However, I am chari- 
 table and fair-minded enough to admit that angling 
 prejudices, even my own, are not always well founded. 
 I give first place always to the fluted spoon, with the 
 kidney a close second. I have not much use for the 
 new and odd shapes, one sometimes sees on the market, 
 though many of them may possess untold virtue. In 
 my experience I have found the two old reliable shapes 
 hooking the. most fish, so what will you? Of course it 
 may be possible that I use the favorite spoons more 
 faithfully, and I know from experience there is some- 
 thing in believing in tackle. When an angler "knows" 
 that a certain lure is going to take fish, it generally 
 does. My friend up at the college, the learned pro- 
 fessor of psychology, explains just why believing in a 
 bit of tackle reacts, etc., but I have plain old-fashioned 
 faith — and catch fish. 
 
 For trolling there is no better and more convenient 
 reel than the level-winder, but unfortunately few are 
 large enough to handle ioo yards of 28-pound test 
 line, though some will spool size F. The fisherman 
 must not attempt to crowd the spool, for it spells 
 disaster every time. A little reflection will explain 
 why. It is the last ten yards of line which is most 
 important; that must be got on the reel or the gaff 
 will never reach the fish, and that ten yards must be 
 spooled after the reel is already comfortably filled. 
 It is easier and better to use a line a few yards shy of 
 the required length than to employ one taxing the 
 capacity of the reel. Lacking the level-winder, any 
 well-made reel, solid and thoroughly dependable, will 
 
 104 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 do. The reel is important, for it will be used con- 
 tinuously in such trolling as I have in mind. 
 
 While the angler may have a boatman, perhaps he is 
 of the go-alone variety, in which case he will need a 
 rod holder. The instant a fish strikes — and there will 
 be no need of a bell to warn of the moment — the angler 
 will want the rod in his hands. To have a rod clamped 
 in by a set-screw, as I once saw an arrangement, must 
 be peculiarly vexatious. The wise rodster will not 
 attempt to troll without a boatman or some variety 
 of rod holder. The practice of laying a rod on the 
 bottom of a boat, tip protruding over the stern, is 
 hazardous in the extreme. A large fish, or even a snag, 
 may jerk the whole outfit from the boat before the 
 lone fisherman can drop his oars, much less grasp the 
 rod. Even though a reel have just sufficient pressure 
 of drag to keep the line from paying out, the unexpected 
 may happen at any moment, the line slightly snarl, 
 and the fisherman lose his outfit. 
 
 It will not be necessary here to repeat what has 
 been said upon landing tools — gaff, club, revolver, etc. ; 
 only, the angler who neglects to plan for the gaffing 
 of the record fish is getting ready to lose it. Always 
 the wise fisherman conducts himself as though he 
 were going to catch the prize-winner every time he 
 shoves his boat out from the landing. To do otherwise 
 is to court disaster. More than once I have lost a good 
 fish because I happened to be without a net or gaff, 
 and thought it would not matter anyway. 
 
 Quite recently I left my cottage one morning for a 
 day's trout fishing on a little stream much fished by 
 me. A few rods from the door I bethought me of the 
 net, then went on, remarking to myself: "Shucks! 
 
 105 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 What is the use of carrying a net, anyway? I never 
 get big fish on the 'Onion'." So I went on without the 
 net. That day I hooked a German brown, the largest 
 of the season anywhere, and I lost him after exhausting 
 him, simply because I was without a net. Then and 
 there I resolved to carry a net forever and forever. 
 (I have worn out two nets on that stream since that 
 morning, and have failed to hook, even see, another 
 fish as large as the one that got away.) 
 
 Now the same thing has happened to me in great 
 pike fishing, and I presume has happened to others. 
 Lacking a gaff or .32 revolver, a good thick club will 
 come in handy. I am sometimes asked about the 
 automatic gaffs one occasionally sees in the tackle 
 stores. Well, I have attempted to use two different 
 makes, and always with anything but flattering re- 
 sults. I have yet to find one that will hold a great 
 pike. The shape of the fish's body is such that the 
 tines of the gaff slip off, in spite of the angler's best 
 efforts. It is not clear to me why it happens. I only 
 know it does. 
 
 I well remember a large muskellunge — a muskie is 
 but one of the pikes, you will remember — that I lost 
 in the Chippewa waters of Wisconsin. About half- 
 way down from Glidden I hooked what I think was 
 an unusually large fish for even those waters, hooked 
 and played him until he floated helplessly, belly up, 
 on the surface within reach of the canoe. Then I 
 lunged with the automatic gaff, one of those that is 
 supposed to "go off" when the fish is touched. It 
 sprung, all right, but the tines failed to penetrate the 
 hide of the fish. With a tremendous flop the great 
 fellow shot out. I nearly broke my rod, for I was not 
 
 106 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 expecting such a denouement. Why the gaff did not 
 hold the fish is more than I can understand. The 
 tines would penetrate a block of pine wood to a depth 
 of half an inch or so; yet the round, yielding body of 
 the fish offered the steel no secure hold. The mus- 
 kellunge did not break away on the first failure, but 
 while I was resetting the gaff he was reviving, and 
 when I brought him near enough for a second attempt, 
 the plunge of the gaff was met with a terrific tackle- 
 destructive surface leap. Mr. Muskie was free, and I 
 filched of a good spoon. Nowadays I prefer a simple 
 old-fashioned gaff, plain and solid, lacking which a 
 good heavy club, built after the shape of a policeman's 
 "billy." 
 
 As has been emphasized several times in these 
 pages, the secret of successful gaffing is the complete 
 exhaustion of the fish. I know that great pike are not 
 regarded very highly as fighters, but I must confess 
 that again and again I have been surprised, not only 
 by the fish's resourcefulness, but by his staying qual- 
 ities as well. More than once I have had a fish hooked 
 on a spoon stay with the game for fifteen minutes. 
 I am sure that other fishermen can narrate incidents 
 where the fish has "come to life" just when the gaff 
 was about to be used, to the chagrin and bitter dis- 
 appointment of the angler. Perhaps it is not the 
 sight of the boat that awakens the fish to renewed 
 strength, but it looks uncommonly like it to me. Oh, 
 I know certain nature students ask with great scorn, 
 "What can a fish know about a boat?" But to my 
 mind the fact that a fish cannot know a boat as a 
 boat proves nothing. Every fisherman will back me 
 up when I say that no sooner does a great pike, or 
 
 107 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 almost any game fish, as for that, near a boat than he 
 is imbued with new energy and fighting strength. 
 If it is not the sight of the boat and its occupants, I 
 would like to know what it is that stirs the fish to 
 unlooked-for activity. Never count a great pike 
 played out until it is. 
 
 I am afraid that trolling is not generally under- 
 stood. I realize how foolish that must sound, but I 
 make the assertion only after years of observation 
 and personal study. Watching men engaged in the 
 sport, again and again I have been impressed with 
 the fact that the average fisherman does not under- 
 stand the best and most successful methods of pursu- 
 ing the game. Nine out of ten anglers troll too fast 
 and do not allow sufficient line. This was brought 
 home to me a number of years ago, the incident serv- 
 ing as a starting point for my study. 
 
 I was fishing, trolling, on a small lake with a com- 
 panion. He used a short line, and I a comparatively 
 long one, from 1 50 to 200 feet. I caught exactly three 
 fish to his one. That convinced me as to the efficacy 
 of a long line. The second point I noticed, which 
 caused me to do considerable thinking, was the fact 
 that every time we "came about" I would get a strike 
 or hook a fish. Finally I came to the conclusion that 
 the slowing up of the spoon in turning around gave 
 the great pike a better chance to grasp the lure. 
 My companion laughed at my "notions," but when 
 it came my turn to row I gradually slowed up, and, lo, 
 we both got strikes. The seed was sown. I began my 
 investigations. Now I can say without fear of success- 
 ful contradiction that what we often call a "Ashless 
 water," or a water in which great pike are "off their 
 
 108 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 feed," will prove remunerative if we but troll slow. 
 Troll slow, just as slow as you can, and keep the spoon 
 above the weeds and free of the bottom. 
 
 When the angler uses i oo feet of line or more, very 
 little extra weight will be needed; the weight of the 
 line and lure will be sufficient. The reader can readily 
 see that when the boat slows up the lure is bound to 
 sink, too deeply if much weight in the way of "sinkers" 
 is added. Of course the character of the water fished 
 must be taken into consideration. When it is snaggy 
 or very weedy, one cannot handle so long a line. But 
 always use as long a line as possible, so the hook will 
 be well behind the boat and its disturbance. 
 
 Which brings me to another matter that has been 
 discussed in a preceding chapter — the shyness of fish. 
 The better I become acquainted with great pike, the 
 more certain I am that they are more shy than most 
 anglers think them. The shadow of a boat is sufficient 
 to make them suspicious, and the splash of an oar 
 will send them to shelter. What fisherman has not 
 seen a great pike follow a lure up to the boat and then 
 turn and glide away, a ghostly specter, without strik- 
 ing? Shy. Now it is a safe bet that if the fisherman 
 were to stand off from the weed-bed or lair of the fish 
 and cast in, or pass slowly by, the lure 1 50 or 200 feet 
 behind the boat, the fish would strike, and strike hard. 
 I have proven it in numberless cases. As I have said 
 several times in this work already, I am learning to 
 treat all members of the pike family as though they 
 were credited with being as shy as brook trout on a 
 bright day. The net results have been truly surpris- 
 ing. I can go out alone where the other fellows say 
 there are no fish and take a mess almost any day. 
 
 109 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 The very best trolling ground is in the deep water 
 along the edges of weed-beds, though of course the 
 fisherman must have a care lest he hook a weed. 
 Hooking weeds is not disastrous, though mighty un- 
 pleasant when upward of ioo feet of line is dragging 
 behind the boat. The next best place is over sub- 
 merged weeds, though that variety of trolling is to be 
 attempted only with much prayer and patience. 
 Always the hooks will become entangled with the up- 
 rearing weeds, for not always are the tops of submerged 
 weeds of an even height. Usually the weed will break 
 and so the hook be freed, though cumbered with a 
 tangle of cerements that must be removed. But if the 
 weed does not break, there should be sufficient line 
 upon the reel spool to obviate disaster. It is never 
 the part of wisdom to use up the last ten yards of line, 
 no matter what the temptation to let out more. One 
 never knows what may happen and when. Usually 
 accidents happen when the fisherman is unprepared 
 or, rather, when he has prepared for them. Next to 
 the weedy places I think I would seek out the inlet 
 or outlet, or deep water just off bars, where minnows 
 are found. There is little use in trolling in deep water, 
 unless there is especial attraction for great pike — 
 weeds, food, etc. The wise angler attempts at least 
 to reason out the whys and wherefores. The longer I 
 angle, the more thought I give to the subject, the more 
 thoroughly convinced I am that fish use more "reason" 
 than most of us give them credit for. I am certain 
 that there is some good "fish-reason" why a red-and- 
 white rag is more attractive to great pike than an all 
 red or all white rag. He who knows the most answers 
 to the whys of angling catches the most fish. 
 
 no 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 There are times when a baited spoon is the success- 
 ful lure. I presume a consistent purist would not use 
 the two in combination, one being live-bait fishing 
 and the other trolling. Perhaps the practice is violat- 
 ing the highest ethics of sport — as to that I will not 
 attempt to say. Only it is a good idea to resort to a 
 frog-baited spoon, when other methods of trolling fail. 
 I tried out the following on a certain lake quite re- 
 cently and several times. Made a circuit of the fish- 
 grounds with an unbaited spoon, then with one to 
 which a frog was attached, followed by a frog alone. 
 Very seldom was the unbaited spoon struck, never the 
 simple frog; often great pike took the two in combina- 
 tion. "Why?" The answer is not easy. Perhaps the 
 whirling spoon attracted the water-wolf's attention, 
 in the first place, and, finding the frog, he struck. I 
 only know that whenever I tried out the method on 
 my "laboratory lake," it won great pike. Of course it 
 is a "froggy lake" — much grass and many weed-beds, 
 where a cast live frog is a splendid lure late evening 
 and early morning. As I think I said in the chapter 
 on live-bait fishing, I doubt the value of frogs in water 
 uninhabited by them. 
 
 As there are frog harnesses and minnow hooks for 
 casting, so these contrivances can be utilized for bait 
 trolling with little difficulty. It is a good plan to wire 
 the frog or minnow to the treble of the spoon, if one is 
 unprovided with some sort of harness or safety-pin 
 arrangement. I have had little success with minnow- 
 baited trolling hooks, however. A streamer of red- 
 and-white strips of cloth attached to the hooks some- 
 times serves to attract the fish's attention. There are 
 days, too, when the buck-tail, mentioned in the chap- 
 
 iii 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 ter on fly-fishing, is a good trolling lure, though it 
 simply travels through the water and makes no com- 
 motion whatever. 
 
 Trolling is peculiarly a lake sport; for, unless the 
 river be so sluggish as to be hardly worthy the name of 
 river, the current will render boat-trolling exceedingly 
 difficult. However, there are rivers sluggish enough to 
 make trolling upstream feasible. Downstream is more 
 difficult, as the spoon must travel very fast indeed to 
 overcome the influence of the current. Often there 
 are wide bends and deep eddies in even a compar- 
 atively rapid river, where trolling can be resorted to 
 with good results. Never pass a grassy slough or 
 bayou opening off from a river. Such spots are almost 
 certain to be the home of large great pike. I have 
 already mentioned the sloughs of Lake Superior as 
 pike-full places. 
 
 There is a method of fishing small streams with 
 trolling spoons that I have found very attractive. 
 Cast out and allow the current to carry the spoon 
 down. Begin to reel when the spoon is opposite your 
 position, so as to bring the spoon back quartering with 
 the current. However, as a rule, it is in the eddies 
 and backwaters that the angler must look for his 
 fish, for great pike are not swift-water lovers. Large 
 great pike will preempt a deep pool and hold it against 
 all intruders until caught. I have hooked the same 
 fish — I am morally certain it was the same great pike 
 — three times before getting the hook to hold. One 
 reason why I thought but one fish inhabited the pool 
 was because, after I succeeded in securing the big great 
 pike, I took no more from that spot for some time — 
 three weeks, if I remember correctly. . 
 
 112 
 
SPOONS 
 
 1. Salt-water rig, but good for great pike and 'lunge. 
 
 2. Knowls' "Automatic Striker." 3. "Skinner fluted." 
 
 4. "Slim Eli." 5 and 6. South Bend "Muskie Spoons." 
 
 A COMPACT CASTING OUTFIT 
 
 This case will contain the rods shown, revolver, gaff, three reels, and 
 a generous supply of lures, etc. 
 
TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 Returning to lake fishing. I well remember a little 
 Wisconsin lake, surrounded by jack-pine crowned hills 
 and bleak, uncultivated and uncultivatable sand plains, 
 which was actually a great pike paradise. One side 
 of the lake was marshy, while the other was fringed 
 by a mass of water lilies. I make no mention of the 
 "ends," for the lake was so narrow that the "ends" 
 were but fingers of water. Where the lake emptied 
 into another and larger body of water were a forest of 
 cat-tails and a field of sawgrass. Early one morning, 
 skirting those cat-tails, my spoon spinning all of 130 
 feet behind the boat, I undertook to swing around 
 without taking in any line. Suddenly the bowing line 
 snapped taut, and I naturally supposed that I was 
 hooked to one of the waving cat-tails. Dropping my 
 oars in clattering disgust, disregardful of fish, I began 
 to reel. Imagine my astonishment and joy, when a 
 big granddad great pike lumbered to the surface with 
 a great splashing and aqueous racket. Setting the 
 drag on the reel, I replaced the rod in the holder, 
 grabbed the oars, and urged that boat out into the 
 lake. So interested did I become in the battle, once 
 I was in the center of the water, that I paid little 
 attention to the boat, in due time finding my fish safe 
 in the marging haven of reeds. And yet everything 
 held. I coaxed the fish out, with a mass of weeds and 
 rushes fast to its head, and finally vanquished and 
 gaffed him. At the tent he tipped the scales at two 
 ounces over eight pounds. Not a big fish, truly, but 
 one that had given me unlimited sport. 
 
 That is one of the attractivities of great pike trolling. 
 The angler can find it almost anywhere, and the outfit 
 required, aside from the boat, is neither elaborate nor 
 8 113 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 expensive. That little lake just mentioned, which 
 must be nameless here, was a favorite spot of ours for 
 eight years. We could drive to it in a few hours, and 
 so poor was the land that, though surrounded by 
 distant farms, we were absolutely alone, away from 
 folks, yet not too distant from a little city. Since 
 leaving that section of the country, I have often won- 
 dered if the little lake remains, as of old, as little fished 
 and as full of fish. I wonder if the farmers have con- 
 quered the sand, cleared away the jack pine, and if fields 
 of rye now wave where once there was nothing but 
 ferns? If not, and I ever become wealthy, I think I 
 should like to purchase the lake and the surrounding 
 hills for sweet memories' sake. It was there my only 
 child caught her first fish, spent many happy vacation 
 days of childhood. There used to be some big great 
 pike in that water, too. 
 
 114 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 Ice- Fishing for Great Pike 
 
 "The fishermen sit by their camp fire of rotten pine wood, 
 so wet and chilly that even smoke in their eyes is a kind of com- 
 fort. There they sit, ever and anon scanning their reels to see 
 if they have fallen, and, if not catching any fish, still getting 
 what they went for, though they may not be aware of it, i. e., 
 a wilder experience than the town affords." — Thoreau's Journal. 
 
 THERE is no fresh-water game fish which lends 
 itself more admirably to the requirements of the 
 winter fisherman than do great pike and pickerel, 
 though of course the former is the preferred fish, be- 
 cause of larger size and greater toothsomeness. I pre- 
 sume any fish that will take live bait in summer can 
 be caught in winter, provided the eager angler knows 
 where to look for them. This does not apply to the 
 black bass in the North, for they become semi-dormant 
 with the arrival of cold weather, though I once took 
 a large-mouth in Wisconsin in January when fishing 
 through the ice for great pike. Probably more anglers 
 seek the ubiquitous perch and unimportant members 
 of the sunfish family than go in quest of the larger 
 pikes, thinking no doubt that the former are more 
 readily taken through the ice in midwinter. I have 
 no charge to bring against the sunfish and perch. 
 Indeed I consider the latter the most palatable fish — 
 fresh-water fish — save the aristocratic speckled trout. 
 But that is not saying that a six-pound great pike is 
 to be treated with contempt by the epicure or passed 
 
 115 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 lightly by by the lover of the red-blooded sport of 
 ice-fishing. 
 
 The tackle required for winter fishing is neither 
 elaborate nor expensive. While I have known men to 
 take rod and reel, with the thought of playing the 
 capture, a little reflection should warn one that the 
 sharp edges of the ice will soon work havoc with the 
 best of lines. I do not imagine that it would be a 
 very pleasant experience to have a six- or eight-pound 
 fish escape, trailing ten or fifteen feet of line. Then, too, 
 the knowledge that the fish was at liberty so handi- 
 capped would not be conducive to happy dreams. 
 Somehow one thinks of the winter life of northern 
 fish more sympathetically than he does of their summer 
 existence, though undoubtedly they are just as "happy" 
 in their ice-locked home as they are when the warm 
 summer winds roughen the surface of the water. Lest 
 we find ourselves discussing that age-old question as 
 to whether or not fish suffer, we will return promptly 
 to the subject at hand — winter great pike fishing. 
 
 The "tip-up" is familiar to every fisherman, and 
 there is no better contrivance for small fish, such as 
 perch, sunfish, and pickerel; but for the larger and 
 more combative great pike, a stronger outfit is re- 
 quired, something that wilf give them line when 
 needed. As winter fishing is indulged in when the 
 water is freezing and ofttimes the set line is left to 
 care for itself for hours at a stretch, it follows that the 
 spare line must be far enough below the surface of 
 the water to be beyond the influence of the frost. One 
 of the most satisfactory arrangements ever employed 
 by me was a simple loop, made by passing the line 
 around the four fingers of the left hand until sufficient 
 
 116 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 spare line was "bunched." Three or four turns were 
 made about the middle of the skein and the end of 
 the line passed under the wrapping. (See the illustra- 
 tion.) When a fish seized the bait, he would pull out 
 the loop and the skein would automatically fall apart. 
 The scheme is a good one for a heavy set line. 
 
 If the fisherman plans upon watching his lines, then 
 he may use a "tip-up," or even a twig thrust into the 
 surface of the ice or snow. But always the line should 
 be attached to a stick midway between either end, 
 and long enough so that, should an obstreperous great 
 pike swallow the bait and start for the lower end of 
 the lake, he will find it impossible to take the whole 
 outfit with him. Not simply a hunger for baked great 
 pike, but common humanity will seek to prevent the 
 escape of a well-hooked fish with an outfit. 
 
 The line should be rather heavy. The old-fashioned 
 trolling or chalk line is ideal, being strong and com- 
 paratively cheap. There is no necessity for expensive 
 braided silk when it comes to set lines. Cheap cotton 
 will serve as well or better. The hook must be heavy 
 and well made, say, size 7-0 or 8-0 ringed Kirby, 
 with a wire gimp or leader, to which are attached one 
 or two swivels. (The "fussy" fisherman will gimp his 
 own hooks.) A rather heavy sinker, No. 6 or 7, will be 
 required, in order to get the line out quickly. Where 
 there is much current, two sinkers may be required 
 and used. So much for the tackle. Now for the bait. 
 
 I have experimented quite at length in the matter 
 of baits, and have come to the conclusion that there is 
 just one best bait for winter use — minnows, shiner 
 minnows. A strip of pork, cut long and thin, is good 
 for an over-night bait when needs must, but a live 
 
 117 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 minnow is more attractive. If one is going to watch 
 the hook, the minnow can be hooked through the body 
 just below the backbone or from the throat up through 
 the head. Where the line is to be left set for any 
 great length of time, I would advise thrusting the hook 
 into the mouth, out through the gills, and back 
 through the body. Some set-line fishermen even wire 
 on the minnow, using very fine spun steel wire. How- 
 ever, I have never resorted to the practice, feeling that 
 the previous method described works well enough. 
 
 At first thought the reader might imagine that the 
 securing of minnows in midwinter would be something 
 of a problem, though they are easily caught by those 
 who know where to look for them. Always they can 
 be taken from open creeks with a dip-net, and spring- 
 fed creeks remain unfrozen even in the coldest of winter 
 weather. Minnows congregate — or, should I say 
 "school"? — where creeks enter a body of water. In 
 midwinter, too, those small members of the fish family 
 gather in great schools of countless thousands, crowd- 
 ing and pushing one another close up inshore. Per- 
 haps they are perishing for want of air; at any rate, 
 that is the usual explanation. I only know that, if the 
 bait seeker cut a hole in the ice, they will literally 
 boil out upon the surface. The taking of a barrel- 
 full of shiner minnows is the work of but a few minutes, 
 a scoop-shovel serving as satisfactorily as a dip-net. 
 Many a fisherman living near a shiner lake lays in a 
 supply of summer live bait long before the spring 
 break-up. There is little difficulty in securing the 
 required minnows, if the winter fisherman knows where 
 to look for them. Some men of my acquaintance, 
 town dwellers, always keep a barrel of minnows in 
 
 118 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 their basements, summer and winter, so as to be pre- 
 pared for fishing whenever the urge is strong upon 
 them. 
 
 While undoubtedly a live minnow is the most at- 
 tractive, a dead one may be used, provided the fisher- 
 man is willing to stand over the hole and "bob"-jerk 
 the line up and down. I have found that such a move- 
 ment, even when using live bait, is apt to attract 
 great pike from a distance. Three set hooks not over 
 twenty feet apart, in a triangle, were baited with live 
 shiner minnows, and the one I bobbed would take 
 fish, while the other two invited great pike in vain. 
 It seemed to make no difference which hook I manip- 
 ulated, the one I kept in motion attracted the "fresh- 
 water wolves." I have noticed the same thing when 
 ice-fishing for perch; therefore I assert that, all else 
 equal, it is the hook that is kept in motion which takes 
 the fish. And why not? Does not a moving minnow 
 attract more attention than a stationary one? Which 
 is the more attractive in summertime? Upon the 
 answer to the foregoing questions will hinge the action 
 of the eager winter great pike fisher. 
 
 As to the locality for ice-fishing for great pike, all 
 will depend upon where the fish "hang out" in winter- 
 time. By and large, a water which affords good sum- 
 mer fishing should also supply winter sport. As has 
 been pointed out again and again in earlier chapters 
 of this work, members of the pike family do not hold 
 a roving commission, but linger in a given locality. 
 About the only thing that will impel any pike to 
 emigrate is dearth of food. Let me add here that 
 once upon a time all the pike fraternity of a certain 
 Wisconsin lake moved out along toward the last of 
 
 119 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 February. The winter had been an exceptionally cold 
 one, with little snow, and ice formed to the depth of 
 two feet or so. Perhaps the fish were "smothering." 
 I know that minnows were very numerous in the 
 water. At any rate, the pickerel and great pike, 
 small and large, moved out in a body. I stood on the 
 banks of the outlet, a small creek, and watched the 
 great fish slip by, fish such as one- dreams of by the 
 campfire or hears splash along about eleven o'clock of 
 a hot July night. Needless to add, the pike fishing in 
 that lake was but indifferent for several seasons after 
 the great exodus. But, as was said a moment ago, 
 aside from the procreative urge, lack of food is ordi- 
 narily the only reason why pike ever move, bag and 
 baggage. 
 
 Out in the center of the lake is not apt to prove a 
 good place for cutting holes. Better far begin opera- 
 tions along the shore just where the water deepens or 
 along the edges of weed-beds, both good locations in 
 summertime. Sometimes near the outlet or inlet 
 there will be a deep channel. Both are good places, 
 for minnows congregate there, and where minnows 
 foregather there look for their arch enemies, the great 
 pike. One must, should, be acquainted with the lake 
 or river and the lurking places of great pike, an ac- 
 quaintanceship which can be consummated only in 
 summertime, for then and then only can depth and 
 conformation be studied. Sometimes a reef out in the 
 center of the water will supply a good fishing place, 
 though at the edge where the water sharply deepens 
 will be more apt to give the fisherman a record-breaking 
 fish. Which leads me to say that now and then the 
 set-line fisher who brayes the winter cold is presented 
 
 1 20 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 with such a fish as seldom comes to the caster's lures 
 or bait-fisher's waiting hook. That there are bigger 
 fish in the lake than the angler has ever taken, is as 
 a rule, I believe, something other than fiction. 
 
 As the reader has undoubtedly already discovered, 
 the writer, if not an expert ice fisherman, is an en- 
 thusiastic devotee of the sport. One reason winter 
 fishing appeals to me is because the outfit is simple 
 and there is little "getting ready" necessary. It is 
 the very antithesis of ordinary angling where the out- 
 fit is as elaborate as the pocketbook of the fisherman 
 will allow. The ice fisherman can carry his whole 
 paraphernalia in his great-coat pocket; that is, unless 
 the ax be considered a part of the outfit. However, 
 there are certain supplemental articles which, while 
 they are not considered absolutely necessary, are very 
 convenient to say the least. An ice-chisel is handy to 
 ream out the hole after the ax-blade has struck through 
 into the water. Then, too, the coffee pail and fry-pan 
 should never be left at home; for I know of no place 
 where a cup of hot coffee and a heaping platter of 
 fried great pike possess greater value or more com- 
 forting power. Every ice fisherman will understand 
 when I say that it is more disastrous to forget the 
 coffee pail than to forget hooks and lines. 
 
 I remember one warm March morning — it was 
 warm on shore — I, in company with one of the best 
 and truest sportsmen, who fills an important place in 
 the world's scheme of things, set out to capture great 
 pike through the ice. Our destination was a slough 
 or side-channel opening off from a large body of water. 
 Many a monster fish had fallen to my rod there in the 
 good old summertime, so why not fish through the ice? 
 
 121 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 Our outfit was the simple one mentioned in the first 
 of this chapter — coiled lines, weighted with two sinkers 
 and strong, well-made hooks. A small pail of shiner 
 minnows provided the needful bait. The lunch oc- 
 cupied more place than the outfit. 
 
 Before I ask you to step with me out upon the ice, 
 I must pause to pay tribute to the winter shores, so 
 different from those of midsummer, yet in a way no 
 less attractive. The transforming miracle of draping 
 snow is something to wonder at and exclaim over. 
 A high bank, with its overhanging cornice of wind- 
 blown snow grotesquely gargoyled, rivaled the finished 
 work of Old World sculptors. A hideous black stump, 
 mute reminder of a vanished forest, had become a 
 pulpit of wonder and beauty, covered with an altar- 
 cloth of immaculate loveliness. It is easy for the ice 
 fisherman to "see things," if he visit the fishing ground 
 after a fall of clinging, wet snow. 
 
 I cut the first hole for two reasons: That I might 
 warm my sluggish blood, and also demonstrate to my 
 companion that there is more to cutting a hole in the 
 ice than first appears. Always in magazines you see 
 pictures of round holes, the idea being to cut a trench 
 around a solid block of ice and lift out the block or 
 core intact. But unfortunately that block usually 
 breaks into a thousand pieces long before the chopper 
 works his painful way through eighteen inches or more 
 of solid ice. The plan might work if the ice were under 
 a foot thick; not otherwise, unless the hole were made 
 too large for fishing. No fancy round hole was my 
 goal. I simply cut a long gash in the ice sixteen or so 
 inches wide and three or four feet long. No barked 
 fingers for me by jamming them against the sharp 
 
 122 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 edges of the hole. As soon as the bit of my ax struck 
 through into water, I took an ice-chisel and rimmed 
 out the bottom of the hole. Quickly fastening a minnow 
 to the hook of an already rigged line, I lowered it some 
 fifteen feet beneath the surface and left it to do the 
 fishing. Of course, the end of the line was securely 
 tied to a stick sufficiently long to prevent the whole 
 outfit being carried away. 
 
 I gave the ax and chisel over into the hands of my 
 companion and busied myself gathering a heap of 
 firewood — logs, stumps, and chunks, some of which 
 were so large that I was compelled to roll them out 
 upon the ice. A good fire is an important adjunct to 
 ice-fishing, for, as I have already intimated, even a 
 warm land day is apt to seem exceedingly frigid out 
 upon a wind-swept lake. In fact, I do not remember 
 a real warm day on the ice, and I have been out when 
 the surface was well a-slush, too. When my fire was 
 going in good shape, I returned to my friend and found 
 that he had finished his first hole and was busily en- 
 gaged upon the second. Without paying any atten- 
 tion to the first line set, I turned to and helped. When 
 we had cut six holes and got out the sets, we concluded 
 that we had enough lines and returned to the fire to 
 warm up, or rather, unfreeze and dry out, the splash- 
 ing of the water having wet our mittens disagreeably. 
 The wise winter fisherman carries at least one extra pair. 
 
 It had not been our purpose to bob for great pike, 
 simply to set lines and wait for the fish to come along; 
 but my friend could not keep away from his holes. 
 Consequently, while manipulating the stick attached to 
 the last line set, he attracted and hooked a fish. Unfor- 
 tunately for him, he did not give the fish sufficient 
 
 123 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 time to swallow the bait, or perhaps it just happened 
 to be insecurely hooked. At any rate, just as he brought 
 his capture to the surface it gave a convulsive flop 
 and fell back into the hole. My companion very 
 foolishly plunged his whole arm into the water in an 
 ineffectual attempt to grasp the puzzled fish, but failed 
 to gain a secure hold — a very difficult thing to do — 
 before the great pike had found the opening into the 
 water below. My friend said some things that tem- 
 pered the wind to the ice fisherman, all right. 
 
 Now I had unbounded faith in the first hole cut, 
 for no good reason under the sun, it is true. But when- 
 ever did an angler have a reason for the faith that is 
 in him, I should like to know? I did not pet nor 
 baby it, simply left it to itself, which is sometimes the 
 wisest plan. At my second visit I found the skein of 
 reserve line pulled out and the minnow gone. With- 
 out saying anything — for language was utterly in- 
 adequate — I baited up, using the largest minnow in 
 the pail. I expected great things of that set. No, I 
 did not spit on the hook. 
 
 My companion won first blood by securing a lively 
 two-pound fish, which put up quite a fight, but was 
 finally drawn out upon the ice to kick and flop its life 
 away. It seemed to me that the lucky angler was 
 needlessly arrogant and heady over his bit of luck. 
 You see, I could not understand why he, a comparative 
 greenhorn, should catch the first fish, when I, an old 
 hand, caught nothing, like the apostles of old, after 
 toiling all night. Well, Luck, especially Fisherman's 
 Luck, has always been a perverse, unreasoning jade, 
 any way, visiting whomsoever she chooses without 
 rhyme or reason. Just to see how patient I could be 
 
 124 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 under affliction, Fate gave the second fish to my chum, 
 and then a third, and a good one, too, a pike that 
 tipped the scales at seven pounds. I emulated Job 
 (outside) and got dinner, frying my friend's first fish. 
 So I had my revenge, and revenge is sweet. So was the 
 great pike, fried in bacon drippings. Fried bacon and 
 great pike, boiled potatoes, bread and butter, coffee, 
 and, to top off* with, a quarter-section of old-fashioned 
 back-country mince pie, with great fat raisins to pop 
 in one's mouth! Reader, did you never toast a 
 slice of thick mince pie on a forked stick, cut to fit the 
 pie? "No?" Well, you certainly have got something 
 to live for. 
 
 After lunch my luck turned, and I secured two good 
 fish in short order; indeed, got both on while we were 
 eating. My companion secured the next fish, his 
 fourth, making six in all. I was satisfied, for six fish 
 is indeed a good catch for the winter angler. Many a 
 time have I secured less. My pet set angled away in 
 vain, though my faith in it was not disturbed in the 
 least. I just knew it would win out if given time 
 enough. I vowed I would not look at it, "just for 
 luck," until we were ready to leave the ice. We talked 
 and visited by the fire, speculating upon the coming 
 open season, which was drawing nearer rapidly, dis- 
 cussed the war and religion, the outdoor press, and 
 ancient literature, with that catholicity of taste so 
 characteristic of all anglers from Izaak Walton down. 
 Ever and anon we would examine our sets, though my 
 first was approached by neither. My friend secured 
 another fish along toward four o'clock, and his pride 
 and lordliness were greatly increased thereby. Strange, 
 how a little bit of luck will set up some people. 
 
 125 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 At four-thirty we decided to pull up and began tak- 
 ing in our lines. One by one we folded them away, 
 and at last I approached the first line set, remarking 
 with an assumption of certainty which I was far from 
 feeling, "Now I will show you a real great pike." I 
 bent over the hole. The line was pulled off to one side 
 and was stretched down taut as a fiddlestring. Even 
 the thick branch to which the end of the line was 
 fastened was bending with the strain. I took the line 
 in my hand gingerly and pulled gently. A dead weight. 
 I exerted more strength. Something down below was 
 galvanized into sudden activity, and the line was pulled 
 through my fingers. Glad was I that the line was 
 new and strong, as well as securely tied to a green wil- 
 low as thick through as my wrist. 
 
 I have fought some worthy fish in my time both 
 with fly-rod and casting-stick, and there have been 
 times when I trembled for the integrity of my tackle; 
 times when I found it hard to breathe from sheer ex- 
 citement; but I must confess to the reader here that, 
 for heart-rending anxiety and smothering excitement, 
 those long moments out there on the glistening ice, 
 clinging to that stinging, burning .chalk line, has them 
 all beaten to a frazzle. The fish was well spent when 
 I first undertook to lift the set. He might have been 
 playing himself for three hours ; otherwise I am certain 
 something would have parted. My companion danced 
 around the hole, shouting advice and abjurations. To 
 the first I paid no attention; to the second I mentally 
 responded "Amen!" Fortunately there came an in- 
 stant when the fish's nose was pointed into the hole. 
 I pulled at the "psychological instant," and the great 
 pike shot out upon the ice. Such a great pike ! Such a 
 
 126 
 
ICE-FISHING FOR GREAT PIKE 
 
 great pike! It weighed — figures will not suffice; I 
 must write it out in words — just fifteen pounds and 
 seven ounces. 
 
 I stood for long minutes gazing down upon the 
 monster, "lost in wonder and amaze," the largest 
 great pike I had ever heard of being taken through 
 the ice, and one of THE large fish of my fishing expe- 
 rience. Large fish are always more a matter of luck 
 than skill, though usually it is the veriest dub that 
 secures the monster, where the expert catches min- 
 nows. Suddenly I was brought back to earth by hear- 
 ing my friend meanly remark: "Well, you needn't be 
 so darn cocky about it. Other fellows undoubtedly 
 have caught larger great pike." Of course, I do not 
 believe that I was half as set up over my great good 
 fortune as was he over a much smaller fish earlier in 
 the day. Anyway, / had good reason for being elated. 
 
 As we tramped along toward home, the big fish 
 swinging from a pole carried on our shoulders, my 
 companion broke a long silence with, "Say, O. W., 
 what would you have done had this fish been too large 
 to pull through the hole?" To the victor all things 
 are possible, so I answered easily, "Oh, I would have 
 drawn him out long!" 
 
 My only excuse for appending the above narrative 
 to this chapter is the one all-sufficient reason — "It is 
 not all of fishing to fish." There are times when we 
 must stop talking tackle and methods and just fish. 
 
 127 
 
Chapter X 
 
 Muskellunge and Artificial Lures 
 
 "A long, slim, strong, and swift fish, in every way fitted to 
 the life it leads, that of a dauntless marauder." 
 
 N beginning a discussion of muskellunge fishing, 
 let me say that I am well aware that I must step 
 upon some angling brother's ichthyic corns before 
 I have finished. However, I am not going out of my 
 way to invite criticism or excite the anger of my 
 compatriots of the rod and pen. I can but set down the 
 result of my own experience. Indeed, if we were all 
 agreed, there would be no need for the "Book of the 
 Pike." Let me urge the reader to turn back to Chap- 
 ters II and III and reread them carefully, especially 
 Chapter III, for such a course will prepare him some- 
 what for what I am about to say upon muskellunge 
 fishing, whether with artificial lures or live bait. 
 
 At the very outset let us disabuse our minds of the 
 notion that a muskellunge is one whit more gamy 
 than a great pike of the same size, in like environment 
 and water. That an eight-pound muskellunge, say, is 
 possessed of greater strength or more resourcefulness 
 than an eight-pound great pike, is an angling super- 
 stition pure and simple. I have tried out both under 
 varying waters and conditions, and am ready to stand 
 back of the assertion. I had as soon angle for great 
 pike as muskellunge. Inch for inch and pound for 
 pound, one is as gamy as the other. 
 
 128 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 In habits, unless the muskellunge is more inclined 
 to solitude than the great pike, there is little differ- 
 ence. In a state of nature, fortunately for the fish, 
 pickerel and great pike spawn in March, while the 
 muskellunge do not seek the overflowed marshes and 
 shallow grassy streams until May. Hence the spawn of 
 the muskellunge is exposed, not only to the ravages of 
 young pickerel, but also to the avid appetite of mud- 
 hens, ducks, turtles, frogs, etc. I think it is Dr. Hen- 
 shall who asserts that comparatively few of the mus- 
 kellunge fry survive. As we know that every pound 
 of muskellunge represents several hundredweight of 
 other fish, we can understand the economy of nature. 
 However, when we add to natural enemies of mus- 
 kellunge the ardent angler, we can well rejoice that 
 at least two states have seriously taken up artificial 
 propagation of the fish. I doubt the wisdom of plant- 
 ing muskellunge and great pike in waters adapted to 
 other game fish; for while bass and pike do coexist in 
 the same waters at times, the indiscriminate planting 
 of the former is to be frowned upon. 
 
 I must confess that the weight of muskellunge, as 
 given by Jordan and Evermann in "American Food 
 and Game Fishes," "ioo pounds or more," appears to 
 me almost fabulous. Even eighty pounds savors of 
 the tales of Munchausen these days, whatever may 
 have been the fish's weight in days long gone by. 
 Mr. Tarlton Bean, in a report of the New York State 
 Fish Commission, records the taking of fish ranging 
 from forty to fifty pounds, but that was twenty years 
 and more ago. At Minoqua, where the Wisconsin 
 muskellunge hatchery is located, they have the record 
 of one forty-pound fish, but that specimen, too, was 
 9 129 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 taken something like fifteen or twenty years ago. 
 Anyone who has followed the records as published in 
 the Field and Stream contests can but conclude that a 
 thirty-pound muskellunge may be considered as a 
 large fish. The average angler who takes a twenty- 
 pound muskellunge is to be congratulated. Now we 
 are down where the average angler does his fishing. 
 I am under the impression that a fish under ten pounds 
 is more active than one over, allowing for individ- 
 uality. Of course, added weight tests tackle, but mere 
 avoirdupois is not gameness. A man of 214 pounds 
 will not prove as good a sprinter as will one of 140, 
 though the former will require a stronger hammock 
 than the latter. Every angler desires to take a forty- 
 pound muskellunge. I hope to have such an one 
 mounted and hung above my fireplace. Once upon a 
 time I took an eighteen-pound fish, and that was a 
 red-letter day in my ichthyic experiences. Strange, is 
 it not, the man who haunts a good muskellunge water 
 a season through must be content with an eighteen- 
 pound 'lunge, while a dry goods clerk from Chicago, 
 who had hardly seen a rod and reel before coming to 
 the lake, should take a forty-pounder the first morning? 
 I have already discussed the three species of mus- 
 kellunge, though I am not willing to give them specific 
 rank, thinking them less than sub-species. (See 
 Chapter III.) In order to refresh your minds, a brief 
 recapitulation. There is, first of all, the Great Lakes 
 fish and the St. Lawrence fish, body grayish-silver, the 
 ground color flecked with irregular blackish spots 
 (Esox masquinongy) ; followed by the fish of the Ohio 
 drainage, including a few New York and Pennsyl- 
 vania lakes, in which the ground color is overcast with 
 
 130 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 darker cross-bars which separate into diffuse spots 
 (Esox ohiensis) ; the fish of the Wisconsin and Minne- 
 sota lakes and rivers, with bodies unspotted or at most 
 with indistinct dark cross-shades {Esox immaculatus). 
 So, whether the angler fish in the muskellunge dis- 
 tricts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, take fish from the 
 Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, or must needs be con- 
 tent with an Esox from the Ohio watershed, he is 
 taking muskellunge, if the proper squamation appear 
 upon cheek and gill-cover. Scientifically speaking, 
 those fortunate anglers who dwell in the Badger or 
 Gopher States have no real right to the airs they some- 
 times assume. Hold that one fact of cheek and gill- 
 cover scaling in mind, and let the colorists rave and 
 quarrel among themselves. A man's connection with 
 the aristocracy, nor yet his fighting ability, depends 
 not upon whether or no dame Nature has embellished 
 his cheeks with freckles. 
 
 Undoubtedly, more muskellunge have been taken at 
 the end of a hand-line trailed behind a boat than by 
 any other method, which, however, is not saying that 
 such is the best and most enjoyable way of taking 
 them. Even when trolling, I always use and advocate 
 a rod and reel. The hand-line on fresh water should 
 be relegated to the museum cabinet, along with the 
 spear and jack. Not that the hand-line is essentially 
 unsportsmanlike, but because there is infinitely more 
 pleasure in handling lures with the short rod and 
 multiplying reel. Then, too, unless the tackle be 
 handled with skill and circumspection, the quarry is 
 bound to escape. I hold that the angler acquainted 
 with the habits of muskellunge can take more fish 
 with rod, reel, and artificial lures handled exactly as 
 
 131 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the tackle is handled in bass fishing. That he must 
 be more than a novice with the outfit, is accepted with- 
 out argument. The rodster must be able to cast ioo 
 feet — 1 50 would be better — with accuracy, for the fish 
 he seeks is exceedingly shy, as well as solitary in 
 habits. 
 
 It is not the part of wisdom to subject a light bass 
 casting rod to the severe work required of muskellunge 
 tackle. A heavy bass split-bamboo is all right in the 
 hands of an understanding angler, while a high-grade 
 Bristol steel is almost ideal. By no means use a cheap, 
 therefore poorly constructed, steel rod for the work. 
 I do not advocate an overly large line, such as is affected 
 by some. One testing twenty-two pounds will play 
 any muskellunge that ever lorded it over the smaller 
 denizens of northern lakes and rivers, provided the 
 angler possesses skill and understanding; if not, let 
 him invest in a heavier line, if necessary up to the 
 "forty-pound-test-muskellunge." Personally, I can 
 see no need for the heavy lines in the hands of the man 
 who is willing and able to play his fish to the point of 
 the gaff. The reel should be one of the level-winding 
 variety, sufficiently large to accommodate 200 feet of 
 size G line. Some fishermen use the self-thumbing 
 reel, claiming that by so doing they are able to give 
 their whole attention to playing the fish. Well, as for 
 me, I prefer to thumb my reel myself, and I believe 
 that I make a better fist of the job than does any 
 mechanism yet produced. However, I am not saying 
 that the self-thumbers are not all their makers claim 
 for them; they are, and perfectly all right for the man 
 who likes them. (See discussion of this whole matter 
 in the author's "Casting Tackle and Methods.") 
 
 132 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 However, as emphasized a moment ago, the level- 
 winding attachment is a great aid> especially so since 
 it can be secured so arranged that it drops down out 
 of the way in casting, if the angler thinks the line- 
 guide a hindrance. It is unnecessary to add that the 
 reel for muskellunge fishing must be well made, of the 
 very best material, for it may be called upon to endure 
 such grief as falls to the lot of the salt-water winch 
 only. 
 
 Once upon a time I wrote a certain rod manufacturer 
 — to be more specific I dare not for obvious reasons — 
 asking him to forward me a good, well-made quad- 
 ruple multiplying reel adapted to muskellunge angling. 
 In return I received a letter stating that a quadruple 
 was not adapted to the sport, and that he was sending 
 a double multiplier, 200 yards capacity. I have that 
 reel yet, a salt-water winch, and it will contain over 
 300 yards of 23-pound test line. But that took place 
 something like fifteen years or so ago, when I first 
 began a serious study of the pike family and pike 
 tackle. Undoubtedly that same manufacturer to-day 
 would recommend an eighty-yard quadruple reel. 
 The man who can not successfully fight a muskellunge 
 with an eighty-yard reel has something to learn and 
 something to experience. 
 
 There is a great variety of artificial lures — "plugs" 
 — running the whole gamut of form and color, built 
 expressly for the muskellunge fisherman, and they are 
 good lures, every one. My only criticism of the modern 
 muskellunge lure is that it is far too heavy for easy 
 or expert handling. Looking over my large but, I pre- 
 sume, incomplete collection, I find many lures from 
 seven to ten inches long, measuring from tip to tip. 
 
 133 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 Those lures weigh all the way from one and one-half 
 ounces for the lightest, to three ounces for the heaviest. 
 I have yet to see the five-ounce split-bamboo rod ca- 
 pable of standing up under the strain of casting a three- 
 ounce lure. I would give the maximum casting weight 
 of a lure as at one and one-half ounces, and that is 
 heavy for easy casting. I had rather that a lure weighed 
 an ounce, or a fraction either way. I am thinking of 
 casting, the reader will understand. Undoubtedly 
 there is a certain attractiveness to an eight- or ten-inch 
 lure from the muskellunge's point of view, but I can 
 handle the smaller lures so much more effectively as 
 to offset the attractiveness of the larger "plug." I 
 always think of my rods, for I love them. 
 
 If the lure be extraordinarily well made, hooks 
 hand forged, attached to a wire running through the 
 body or to the hooks upon the other side — never to a 
 simple screw driven into the soft wood of the body — 
 there should be no danger of a break. I have had hooks 
 fractured by the fierce onslaught of an overly large 
 great pike or muskellunge, but always because the 
 hooks were poorly made. My largest muskellunge 
 was taken on an ordinary bass plug weighing consid- 
 erably less than an ounce. The lure should always be 
 provided with an eight- or ten-inch wire leader or 
 gimp. Nothing but the best of wire should be used. 
 Then let the fish "strike over," if he so desires. The 
 rodster can smile. 
 
 In muskellunge fishing — in all pike fishing, as for 
 that — the angler must think of landing his quarry 
 e'en before he makes the initial cast. Some wise one 
 once averred, "It is too late to repent after the devil 
 comes;" so it is too late to wish for a good gaff, re- 
 
 134 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 volver, or even Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick," when the 
 fish lies exhausted alongside the boat. The relative 
 importance of the three landing tools is indicated by 
 their order. Personally, I always carry a .32 revolver 
 in my pike-kit, for a pellet of lead placed between the 
 evil eyes of a muskellunge has a very quieting effect. 
 After such treatment the gaffing is easy, even un- 
 necessary. To prick a fish before he is thoroughly 
 exhausted, is to lose him nine times out of ten. Eschew 
 all patent automatic grab-' em-quick gaffs. Whatever 
 their value for other fish, for muskellunge they are 
 worse than useless. I lost my first record fish through 
 trying to grab him with one of those spring contriv- 
 ances. 
 
 As the muskellunge is a solitude-loving fish, some- 
 what given to lording it over the smaller denizens of 
 the marshy, weedy marges of deep water, it behooves 
 the circumspect angler to court an intimate acquaint- 
 anceship with any given water before he seriously sets 
 to work with rod and reel. Granted that the first 
 cast of a salad tyro, made at random on a new water, 
 may result in a fish (we have all known of its happen- 
 ing), yet it proves nothing. Lightning may strike the 
 very tree beneath whose friendly branches we take 
 refuge from a sudden thundershower. Surely I need 
 not urge my readers to believe with me that there is 
 something more than luck and chance in successful 
 angling. The muskellunge is not a wide roamer so 
 long as he can find sufficient food to fill his capacious 
 maw. He has his lair and favorite hunting ground, as 
 much as any ravenous beast of the forest primeval. 
 The wise fisherman acquaints himself with first-hand 
 information. I actually think that an expert handler 
 
 135 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 of artificial lures would catch more fish on a three- 
 day muskellunge trip, if he would spend the first two 
 studying the water to be cast over without even wetting 
 a line. Perhaps that is an exaggeration; however, this 
 is the point I would emphasize: In raising fish, a knowl- 
 edge of the water is more important than good tackle. 
 Good tackle is an accessory after the fact. A fine rod, 
 expensive reel, and finished lure are impotent unless the 
 handler knows the habits of the muskellunge and is 
 comparatively well acquainted with the water to be 
 fished. 
 
 I had a fishing acquaintance with a muskellunge of 
 Eagle Lake, Wisconsin, some summers ago, and 
 though he rose to my lures and live bait a number of 
 times, and I hooked him once, always he escaped. 
 Wise old Gray-sides! The careless handling of a 
 paddle, the scraping of a boot upon the floor of the 
 boat, even a flash from the reel was sufficient to awaken 
 his suspicions. Frightened, he never stampeded, as 
 does the trout ; rather, faded away. That is an apt de- 
 scription. More than once I saw him lying near the 
 surface, inert, motionless; then, presto, without move- 
 ment or motion apparently, he was gone. But a bask- 
 ing — "sleeping" — muskellunge seldom if ever strikes. 
 Well do I remember old "Gray-sides' " lair — the top 
 of an upturned tree, reaching out from the shore to 
 the very edge of deep water. The shore itself was 
 bordered with a mat of lily leaves, thick and impen- 
 etrable. Just off the lily bed, the water suddenly 
 deepened to twenty or thirty feet. Any muskellunge 
 fisherman will recognize it at once for an ideal "muskie 
 hole." Ah, "Gray-sides" was heavy, wise, and old — 
 too old and wise and heavy for me. 
 
 136 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 Acquainted with the water, possessed of a knowl- 
 edge of the habits of the fish, the muskellunge angler 
 should be afloat with the first hint or sign of light in 
 the morning. He should hold to the deep water, cast- 
 ing shoreward, lairward. The ability to lay a long line 
 and throw an accurate lure is tantamount to spelling 
 the word "strike." I think the reader will under- 
 stand me when. I say that to be able to handle 150 
 feet of line is more than 50 feet in excess of 100. In 
 fact, every foot of controlled line beyond 100 has all 
 the value of two feet below the century. But note, I 
 am always talking of controlled line. To be able to 
 get out 1 50 feet of line, without being able to place 
 the lure in the proper spot, is without value. Always 
 cast from deep water to lair — obstruction and weed- 
 bed — . Then, if a fish is hooked, the angler is in a posi- 
 tion to coax his capture away from menacing obstruc- 
 tion out into clear fighting water. Furthermore, better 
 casts can be made from the vantage ground of open 
 lake or river. I have found the hours from earliest 
 light to six or seven o'clock the most successful in 
 fair weather. While August is not the best month of 
 the year by any means for muskellunge fishing, still 
 even August may be made to yield a goodly fish or two, 
 if the angler is abroad by three o'clock of a hot morning. 
 
 Next in importance to the morning hours are those 
 from six o'clock — evening — on to dark, sometimes be- 
 yond. One of my largest fish was taken from a lake 
 out from State Line, Wisconsin, just at dusk the last 
 of August. That fish was captured from the shore. 
 We had been casting around the lake from a boat, 
 and though we had worked from six o'clock on, not a 
 single muskellunge had come to our lures. Running 
 
 137 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 inshore preparatory to going into camp, I said to my 
 companion: "Now I am going to send this plug out 
 into the darkness once, just for luck." "Look out," 
 he rejoined, "or you will hook a log. There is one out 
 there; I saw it when first we made camp." But I cast 
 my surface lure and began slowly to reel. It was one 
 of those wise plugs that submerge when drawn through 
 the water. Instantly there came a shock, a sudden 
 stopping of all movement. "Hit your log, all right!" 
 I exclaimed. What my companion said I will not re- 
 peat, for he thought it was going to be up to him to 
 take the boat and go out and feel around in the dark- 
 ness for the hooked lure. Then the log came to sudden 
 life, and things were doing there on the shores of that 
 darksome lake. For twenty minutes I — we, for my 
 companion was an able second — played that fish and 
 landed him. At camp he weighed slightly over nine 
 pounds. While I was handling the rod, I would have 
 sworn to almost any weight above twenty pounds. 
 Had he escaped, what a marvelous story I would still 
 be telling of "the big one that got away!" Probably 
 by this time he would have weighed somewhere in the 
 neighborhood of forty pounds. 
 
 Perhaps the reader noticed in one of the foregoing 
 paragraphs I was careful to emphasize the fact that 
 the early morning is the best time for casting artifi- 
 cial lures if fair weather. Now the emphasis is on the 
 word fair. In foul weather there is no necessity for 
 early rising. A windy day, whitecaps rolling, raveled 
 remnants of storm clouds scudding across the sky, 
 shutting out the sun — under such conditions, fish all 
 day long. Very good for trolling. In midsummer now 
 and then occurs a variety of day which well might be 
 
 138 
 
A 44-POUND MUSKELLUNGE CAUGHT FROM 
 LAKE LE BOEUF 
 
 Courtesy Outdoor Life." 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 characterized as "pike day." I refer now to those 
 mean, mizzling portentous days when the swine make 
 shift at building nests and the barometer seeks the 
 bottom of the glass. With the barometric conditions 
 just right — which are all wrong — I have found the 
 hours from eight to eleven the most successful for the 
 muskellunge fisherman. A man may spend a whole 
 month on a pike lake and never find just those condi- 
 tions ; but should he, he is elected to spend a few hours 
 in an ichthyic paradise. 
 
 Several years ago I was spending three days on a 
 locally famous lake in North Minnesota, more bent 
 upon securing photographs and certain habit data than 
 fish. But upon arising one morning I discovered that 
 all nature shouted aloud of an oncoming atmospheric 
 disturbance of some sort. Parenthetically: I have 
 always been peculiarly susceptible to atmospheric in- 
 fluences. Often a very devil of unrest seems to possess 
 me before the breaking of a midsummer thunderstorm. 
 The more fearsome the tempest, the greater the fore- 
 warning physical disturbance. On the morning in 
 question I left the camera in the tent, and alone with 
 rod, reel, and case of under-water lures, set out upon 
 the lake. We have it on no less authority than 
 Kipling that at times trout are "jumping crazy for 
 the fly." Be that as it may as regards trout, for two 
 hours the muskellunge of that lake had lost all their 
 shyness and moroseness. They were literally wild to 
 take my lures. While as a rule the fish run small — 
 under two feet — I took four good ones, one of which 
 weighed thirteen pounds. Let him explain it who can, 
 I only know that the hours preceding a summer 
 thunderstorm are good hours, liable to be "high 
 
 139 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 hours." Perhaps I should add that those hours of 
 humidity upon the day in question were followed by 
 one of the most terrific hail and wind storms it has 
 ever been my misfortune to be exposed to. I stayed 
 upon the water so long — as any true angler would have 
 done under the circumstances — that I was just barely 
 able to get on shore and under my inverted boat 
 before the storm broke. 
 
 While midsummer is not the most successful time 
 of the year by any means for muskellunge fishing, still 
 the wise caster of lures can secure a few good fish if 
 he knows how to handle tackle and is familiar with 
 the habits of his game. Should he be so fortunate as 
 to have the weather gods present him with a "weather- 
 breeder," when the atmosphere is hot, close, and hu- 
 mid, with a misty haze veiling the sun, let him fare 
 forth with rejoicing; for he should have a wonderful 
 experience, and, if he be a taker of fish, make a record 
 catch. 
 
 In this chapter I have said little of the modus oper- 
 andi of lure handling and have listed no "best lures." 
 The former is unnecessary, for I take it for granted 
 that the reader is familiar with the author's "Casting 
 Tackle and Methods," while the latter is out of my 
 province. Any bait caster should know how to handle 
 his lures before he goes in search of muskellunge. I 
 have tried to get the reader to realize two things: 
 first, that he must know his water; and secondly, that 
 he must know the habits of the muskellunge, its likes, 
 and lurking places. As was pointed out in the opening 
 paragraphs of this chapter, the particular type of lure 
 is not so important so long as it is well made and strong. 
 The color of the lure will depend largely upon the par- 
 
 140 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND ARTIFICIAL LURES 
 
 ticular water to be fished. I am acquainted with one 
 lake where the yellow or perch-colored lure is the one 
 to use. On a certain river I always use, because most 
 taking, a green "Chippewa" under- water. Also, there 
 are days when the caster will find the red and white in 
 combination very taking. At present I would confine 
 myself to those three colors — yellow, green, and red- 
 and-white; that is, if going light. Though I had much 
 rather have with me as wide and varied a selection of 
 makes and colors as tackle-case and pocketbook would 
 allow. Always I would carry duplicates of known at- 
 tractive muskellunge lures in case of accident. Mus- 
 kellunge are fish with which accidents to tackle, 
 especially lures, are apt to happen. It is very annoy- 
 ing, to employ a mild term, to have a single lure prove 
 very attractive, and then lose it. 
 
 141 
 
Chapter XI 
 
 Muskellunge and Live Bait 
 
 "The best bait is a minnow, either alive or dead, though a 
 frog answers very well. . . . Rowing along in water from 
 five to ten feet deep, the bait should be cast as far as possible 
 to the edge of weed patches, reeling it again very slowly; or, if 
 the bait is alive, it may be allowed to swim outside of the water 
 plants for a short time." — Dr. James A. Henshall. 
 
 IT IS not my purpose here to argue for the legit- 
 imacy of live-bait fishing; the method needs no 
 defense. There are days and days when the best, 
 almost the only successful lure for muskellunge is a 
 small sucker, shiner minnow, or green frog. The 
 angler who refuses to employ live bait may be com- 
 pelled to depart from the fishing grounds without his 
 "wasser-wolf," and, while the modern angler does not 
 fish for fish, he is human, and likes to take home with 
 him ocular proof that he has been fishing. More rep- 
 rehensible than taking fish with live bait is the final 
 resort of some — fishing in the resort keeper's live-box 
 with a "silver hook." 
 
 Probably no fresh-water fish are more addicted to 
 a piscivorous diet than are the members of the Esox 
 family. A large mouth, strong jaws, armed with a 
 terrible array of long, sharp, conical teeth of various 
 sizes, indicates that anything that walks, hops, flies, 
 or swims will be accepted as food. That the muskel- 
 lunge is one whit more predacious than pike of equal 
 size is untrue; or that a six-inch chub or sucker will be 
 
 142 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 more eagerly snapped up by the former than the latter, 
 is also an error. However, in my experience at least, 
 I have found live bait more successful with 'lunge 
 than with great pike, probably because I more often 
 employ it with the former than the latter. I think 
 that a large muskellunge is more shy and wary than 
 a great pike of equal size. It is easier to allay the 
 suspicions of a wary fish with a natural bait than 
 with an artificial lure, provided always that the 
 angler knows how to handle live bait. Always, I 
 think, muskellunge fishermen should resort to live 
 minnows when fishing waters where muskellunge have 
 become abnormally suspicious and wary. Then, too, 
 there are days even on a comparatively wild lake 
 when minnows are more attractive than any "plug," 
 spoon, or pork rind. 
 
 I am not altogether sure that there is any great 
 merit in a ten-inch fishlet, though I know a number 
 of good 'lunge fishermen who have a very decided 
 prejudice for that size sucker. I have experimented 
 carefully for more than fifteen years, and must confess 
 to a firm conviction that whatever advantage the ten- 
 inch sucker has over a six-inch chub is more than 
 offset by the difficulty in handling. I know of no 
 seven-ounce wood rod that will stand up under the 
 strain of casting a ten-inch sucker, and I am very 
 certain that I would not want to subject my "De 
 Luxe Bristol" to the abuse. When it comes to still- 
 fishing — well, that is, of course, a different matter .* 
 One could use a ten-inch fish for bait, provided he 
 did not cast. There is no enjoyment nor sport in 
 casting a young fish. If one must cast with so large 
 
 *See Appendix II. 
 
 143 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 a live minnow, then let him use sea tackle, and be 
 done with it. 
 
 For casting average-sized minnows and frogs, I use 
 and recommend the regulation split-bamboo and steel 
 rods, than which nothing can well be better. The 
 tendency these days is toward lighter tackle in every 
 department of angling. When salt-water fishermen 
 essay the capture of denizens of the deep with cotton 
 thread, it behooves the fresh-water angler to reduce 
 the caliber of his line and the weight of his rod. Do 
 not fasten to the hook a minnow so large that the rod 
 will be jeopardized. A six-inch minnow in the proper 
 spot from a distance with utmost finesse is going to 
 bring results more often than the noisy "plop" of a 
 large bait. All my experience has gone to prove that 
 "distance lends enchantment," in 'lunge fishing as 
 well as in some other things. It is well for the angler 
 to remember that muskellunge are not in the habit 
 of having their fish food come sailing to them through 
 the air. In casting for 'lunge the ideal toward which 
 the successful angler strives is lack of commotion, 
 silence, naturalness. 
 
 I presume that every fisherman has his favorite 
 bend of hook. I know that I have, and have had, any 
 amount of fun poked at me by anglers who have a 
 fancy for other makes. My hook of hooks is the 
 square bend or "Sneck," as it is named in the cata- 
 logues. The hook should be quite large, 5-0 or 6-0, 
 and provided with an eight-inch wire leader or gimp. 
 It is unnecessary to add that the hook must be well 
 made, hand forged, and "built on honor." A poor 
 hook is always a poor investment. Sometimes a two- 
 hook frog or minnow gang is used, which holds the 
 
 144 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 minnow in position; but I like to fasten the minnow 
 to the hook with a few turns of copper wire. Un- 
 doubtedly, the double hook, a hook to hold the head in 
 position, is an aid. It will be objected that such a rig 
 kills the bait. To which I would say that a minnow 
 will not outlive a half-dozen ioo-foot casts, anyway. 
 Be sure the minnow is wired to the hook, if you are 
 not well supplied with bait. Where the head is held 
 by one hook and the trailer pierces the rear of the 
 minnow, short-biting fish are apt to be hooked. 
 
 In hooking a minnow for casting, where a gang is 
 not used, the hook should be inserted in the mouth, 
 out through the gills, and back through the body. 
 Quite often when so hooked, the minnow slips down 
 and whirls when drawn through the water, and unless 
 the swivel above the leader works easily, the line will 
 twist and kink. The gang arrangement is more satis- 
 factory, for, by hooking through the head with one 
 hook and through the body with the other, the minnow 
 is held in shape as long as it lasts. No caster need be 
 told that under the stress of continuous casting a 
 minnow will not last long. A simple hook through the 
 head may tear out at the first cast. Of course, the 
 fisherman soon learns to favor his bait in casting, 
 starting carefully and slowing up easily. 
 
 A minnow quietly dropped at the edge of a weed- 
 bed from a distance of ioo or 150 feet is almost cer- 
 tain to stir a 'lunge to attack if he be in a feeding 
 mood. Few men can cast a live minnow with grace 
 and precision these days, for correct minnow-casting 
 is all but a lost art among us. I have before stated, 
 and I wish to re-emphasize it here, there are fewer 
 good casters of live minnows to-day than of lures. 
 10 145 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 When 'lunge are feeding, however, there is nothing 
 quite so "taking" as a minnow dropped at the edge of 
 a weed-bed close up against the outreaching branches 
 of a down tree, or near marsh grass growing shoulder- 
 high in the water. Just why the plant Pontederia 
 cordata was named "pickerel weed" I do not know; 
 but I have discovered that a luxuriant bed of it in 
 muskellunge water is a good place for the minnow- 
 caster to let fall his bait. It is possible, once the knack 
 is acquired, to slip the bait into the water with next to 
 no commotion. Do not "slam" the lure down, as is 
 the way of the caster of artificial lures, but, as it were, 
 "ease" it into the water. Stop the reel gradually, not 
 with a sudden, sharp pressure. There is more to the 
 proper handling of bait than some casters realize. 
 
 After an angler has -fished for muskellunge for a 
 few seasons he will come to feel, to know by instinct, 
 as it were, just where to cast. To the uninitiated 
 this may seem to savor of potash, but it is a veritable 
 fact nevertheless. I used to believe that this phe- 
 nomenon could be explained in the realm of psy- 
 chology, but now I believe otherwise. After casting 
 four or five times into pockets, or at the edge of weed- 
 beds exactly alike in appearance though distant from 
 each other by many miles, and always being rewarded 
 by strikes, a man will come to believe that muskellunge 
 prefer to lie in certain places. A 'lunge lair is a 'lunge 
 lair, and experienced anglers know them instantly. 
 This is not saying that fish may not be found else- 
 where, semi-occasionally almost anywhere, but the 
 chances are that four times out of five a "muskie 
 hole" will conceal a muskellunge. Casting at random 
 with lure or live bait is not the method of the fish- 
 
 146 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 wise angler. Random casting will get you about as far 
 in 'lunge fishing as random work will get you anywhere. 
 
 I remember a small lake in Minnesota, the home of 
 what some of my friends call the "real muskellunge," 
 or Esox immaculatus, the spotless form, where I had 
 good fishing two springs and falls. At the upper end 
 of the lake near the inlet, a log laid, with one end upon 
 the shore and the other well out in the water. Wind 
 and current had mined a deep hole under and behind 
 the log. Youthful then in muskellunge lore, but other- 
 wise somewhat ichthyic-wise, I "felt" it was a good 
 place for a fish. My minnow landed just at the side 
 of the log, there was a splash and boil, and I was fast 
 in the log. Simply the fish had dashed around the log 
 after seizing the hook, and so had hooked me solidly. 
 I kept away from the spot until late evening, then 
 got my fish. Three days later I took a second fish, 
 though palpably smaller, from the same spot. Visit- 
 ing the lake in the fall of the same year, I secured 
 another muskellunge. During the two years I took 
 no less than seven fish from beneath that log. It was the 
 throne-room of all the muskellunge of the water, a 
 throne-room held always by the largest fish taken by 
 me. I there learned my first lesson, viz., there are 
 certain spots which are natural 'lunge lairs. 
 
 The bait fisher— any variety of muskellunge fisher, 
 in fact — will find the middle of the summer com- 
 paratively unremunerative. The "wasser-wolf" is not 
 a lover of hot weather. While fish are taken in July 
 and August, one cannot be sure of a bag, resort keepers 
 to the contrary notwithstanding. Better far wait for 
 the cooling days of autumn. In midsummer 'lunge 
 are morose, surly, and lethargic, lying for hours upon 
 
 147 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the surface basking in the rays of the hot sun, or, as 
 the guides say, "sleeping." When muskellunge are 
 found lying upon the surface, there is little use in 
 casting lures or dangling live baits of any variety. 
 
 Undoubtedly this midsummer habit of the fish has 
 given rise to the "sore-teeth" story. Among anglers 
 we find the belief quite prevalent that muskellunge 
 either shed their teeth or are afflicted with some dis- 
 ease of the gums along about "dog days," which ren- 
 ders it next to impossible for the fish to take food. In 
 different localities the superstition, if superstition it is, 
 takes different forms. Sometimes one hears that the 
 fish are found toothless, and again, that every tooth 
 in the jaws is loose. Personally, I have yet to take a 
 'lunge with loose teeth, in any way needing a dentist. 
 However, I did take one great pike with loose teeth 
 in front. I have been unable to gain any information 
 upon the topic from the Fish Commissions, the reply 
 invariably being that, "We know nothing about 'sore 
 teeth' in muskellunge." It would seem natural, would 
 it not, that those engaged in the propagation of the 
 fish would be able to throw some light upon the matter? 
 I doubt very much if it would make any difference to 
 the rank and file of fishermen should the fish savants 
 come out with a statement that the "sore-teeth" 
 belief is a superstition, a myth. One of the strongest 
 arguments offered for the theory is, "The Indians be- 
 lieve it." Surely that is enough to curb the agnostic! 
 Personally, I regard the matter with suspicion; I am 
 an agnostic. I have never found a muskellunge or 
 pike in need of a dentist's services. Still, I hope I am 
 open to conviction. 
 
 Every angler at all ichthyic-wise knows that the 
 148 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 teeth of a fish, even such a voracious fish as the mus- 
 kellunge, plays a minor part in the securing of food. 
 The only use to which they are put is the seizing and 
 holding of prey; for mastication is something that a 
 fish does not need to worry about. Nature has so 
 provided that an accident to a few teeth is quickly 
 repaired. Indeed, it is exceedingly doubtful if a wound 
 in the jaw causes a 'lunge much, if any, trouble. More 
 than a few times I have taken various members of the 
 pike family with cruelly lacerated jaws and torn 
 mouths, wounds that, from a human viewpoint, should 
 have placed them hors de combat, and yet they were as 
 voracious — sometimes with stomachs distended with 
 recent captures — as perfectly normal fish. Fact of 
 the matter is, it is extremely difficult to study fish; to 
 know all about them. Our beliefs are largely theories. 
 My own belief is that the fish are half dormant dur- 
 ing the heated term, a condition brought about by 
 the warming water, rather than by any dental trouble ; 
 for when hot weather extends into September the fish 
 remain as dormant, as inactive, as in August. As soon, 
 however, as the weather cools off and the temperature 
 begins to fall, the fish take on a new lease of life, 
 assume a new interest in food. By October, when the 
 leaves are painted gold and brown and there is a zest 
 in the air, we find the muskellunge a different creature, 
 eager and combative. Even the early days of No- 
 vember are wont to yield good 'lunge fishing, if the 
 winter be not too early. Of the two portions of the 
 year, spring and autumn, I would say by all means 
 select autumn for a muskellunge trip. Even if autumn 
 did not afford better fishing, because of its wonderful 
 zestful days, it is the time to visit the North Country. 
 
 149 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 When I first took up the matter of bait fishing for 
 muskellunge, I promised to say something upon still 
 fishing before I finished the chapter. Probably few 
 anglers turn to still-fishing these days, for casting is 
 more American; consequently when live minnows are 
 resorted to they are employed exactly as are lures. 
 I wish to say that there is a place for still-fishing with 
 live bait in the muskellunge angler's scheme of things. 
 Still-fishing is a sort of contemplative man's recrea- 
 tion. I think that if Izaak Walton lived to-day and 
 fished for 'lunge, he would often resort to live bait as 
 an adjunct to the still fisher's outfit. 
 
 I would not vary the tackle one iota unless it were 
 to employ a slightly longer rod, like the six-foot six- 
 inch "Henshall pattern," for instance; a longer rod 
 than the 6^-foot will prove too long for the work 
 required of it. The ordinary caster can be used felic- 
 itously, however. As I think I pointed out when 
 writing upon live bait, a larger minnow can be used 
 for still-fishing, even a ten-inch sucker upon occasion. 
 There are ways and ways of attaching the minnow to 
 the hook. The only thing the fisherman should re- 
 member is that the minnow must be kept alive as 
 long as possible, and the hook fixed in such a manner 
 as to reach the striking fish. Some anglers employ a 
 large hook and thrust it through the body midway 
 between the head and tail and just below the back- 
 bone. There are two reasons why I do not advise the 
 method: The hook is in the very worst position for 
 a rear-striking fish like the pike, and the minnow soon 
 dies. To hook the minnow through the head, inserting 
 the hook in the mouth and thrusting up through the 
 top of the head, soon causes the death of the minnow, 
 
 150 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 and a slow-biting fish is sure to cut off the bait just 
 back of the head and therefore is not impaled. When 
 the head hook is used there should be an auxiliary 
 hook trailing beneath the body or wired to it, in order 
 that a slow-biting fish may be securely hooked. 
 
 Personally, I prefer to hook my live bait through the 
 cartilage of the lips only, having a trailing treble 
 attached to the shank and wired to the body of the 
 minnow just in front of the anal fin. There are minnow 
 harnesses upon the market, but I prefer a simple 
 wrapping of fine copper wire. So attached and handled 
 carefully, a minnow, such as the creek chub or sucker, 
 will live for some time. Swimming about in the water, 
 they appear perfectly natural, even to an unusually 
 well-educated muskellunge, a post-graduate of the 
 school of the waters. 
 
 The methods of the still fisher are like and unlike 
 those of the bait caster. While success will come to 
 the man who remains at one spot fishing carefully — 
 provided, of course, he knows a "muskellunge lair" — 
 he runs a better chance of securing a fish by cruising 
 slowly along, pausing for long minutes from time to 
 time to let his live fishlet "fish out" some likely ap- 
 pearing spot. Naturally, quietness and stealth are 
 important requisites. Therefore the angler should be 
 able to handle his boat with skill or be accompanied 
 by an expert boatman, one able to handle a paddle 
 and keep his mouth shut. I know that talking can- 
 not disturb a 'lunge, that the sound of conversation is 
 not communicable to water, but I do not want any 
 talking when I am still-fishing — for muskellunge, least 
 of all. 
 
 The user of live bait must care for his minnows or 
 151 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 they will soon cease to be live bait. A dozen minnows 
 should be sufficient for a morning's fishing, and would 
 not overcrowd the average bucket. Let the bucket 
 be of the largest size possible, the double kind, with 
 inner bucket of wire provided with an air chamber in 
 the top, so that it can be placed in the water without 
 danger of sinking. It is exceedingly difficult to keep 
 minnows alive if the weather be at all warm, and an 
 occasional immersion in the water is a healthful thing; 
 at the same time the water in the bucket can be changed. 
 In exceedingly hot weather a chunk of ice in the upper 
 chamber is a good thing, though the average minnow 
 pail is not built with sufficient room for a very large 
 piece of ice. 
 
 When the angler has located good water, water 
 known to contain fish, and with environment right, 
 he can arrange his line with a float and sit down to 
 invoke his soul. Say the water is twenty feet deep, 
 the float will be attached to the line eighteen or nineteen 
 feet from the hook. The bait then will swim just free 
 of the bottom. The bait should be a large-sized 
 minnow, preferably a sucker, just above which suffi- 
 cient lead is fastened to the line to keep the bait down. 
 The float can be anything, from a plain chip of light 
 wood, sufficiently large to hold up the bait, to an 
 enameled cork. I much prefer the latter, and I want it 
 painted some bright color, so that I can see it through 
 half-closed eyes. The cast should always be with the 
 wind, so that the float will tug away from the boat. 
 It is a simple way of fishing, but highly enjoyable for 
 that very reason. Too much strenuosity in the fishing 
 game these days. 
 
 In fishing along the edges of weed-beds or close in- 
 152 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 shore where marsh grass grows out into the water, 
 while the ideal position for the boat apparently is in 
 the weeds, that is where the muskellunge lie, and 
 should the angler hook a fish he would be in the worst 
 position possible to play his capture. Members of the 
 pike family know instinctively that a weed-bed offers 
 a safe refuge, or perhaps they are in the habit of rush- 
 ing to such spots to swallow their game; at any rate, 
 the instant a minnow is swallowed the fish starts for 
 a weed-bed if one be within reach. Consequently, I 
 advise the angler to fish from outside — from the water 
 side, allowing the minnow to swim toward the weeds 
 or other shelter. If one work along with exceeding 
 care he will not make any great disturbance; at least 
 not enough to frighten the ordinary 'lunge. Let me 
 again reiterate what I have said often: The angler 
 should act as though every muskellunge could hear a 
 whisper and see the flash of a rod from the distance 
 of half a mile. "Absurd!" Perhaps, but the man 
 who makes no noise, all else being equal, is the man who 
 takes the fish. 
 
 I remember a little lake, or rather the arm of a large 
 lake, out south from Manitowish, Wisconsin, in which 
 ten years ago one could find muskellunge of length 
 and avoirdupois. Those days the anglers fished the 
 large lake, saying that the smaller one did not possess 
 sufficient depth nor area to attract the werewolf of 
 northern waters. I had discovered differently, but, 
 angler-like, I kept my discovery to myself. My fish- 
 ing was done, for the most part, in the two orthodox 
 vacation months, July and August, because my vaca- 
 tion, like so many, always happened in dog days. 
 I think I am safe in saying that I found live minnows 
 
 153 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 more attractive than any artificial lure, with the ex- 
 ception perhaps of a trolling spoon, a matter which 
 will be discussed in the following chapter. Certainly 
 I did not find even a spoon, though trolled 200 feet 
 behind my boat, successful when 'lunge were "sleep- 
 ing" upon the surface. I fished early in the morning 
 and again late at night, before storms and when a 
 breeze roughened the surface of the water. But to 
 return to my yarn. 
 
 One evening I pushed out upon the lake just as the 
 sun was going down into a mass of upheaped thunder- 
 heads, indicating that a change of weather was near. 
 (Strange how a man's mind retains such impressions. 
 I have only to shut my eyes now to see the crimson 
 sky above the cathedral spruce which marged the lake 
 to the west.) Up near the head of the little body of 
 water a great bed of spatter-dock reached out from the 
 shore, the home of yellow perch and various sunfish. 
 Attaching a six-inch perch to my hook — an unusual 
 bait with me, by the way, but because of the preva- 
 lence of that fish in the water I thought it wise to 
 use one — and allowing my boat to float, I slipped the 
 minnow into the water. A slight breeze ruffled the 
 surface, slowly driving my boat from west to east. 
 My perch bait started for the weeds, and I let it go. 
 When within some two or three rods of its haven, all 
 motion ceased. I waited a moment, then thinking 
 that perhaps it had fouled on some snag, I straightened 
 the rod. The hook was fast. "Hooked to a root, by 
 Jonah!" I snorted in disgust. Every live-bait fisher- 
 man knows how a minnow delights to wind the line 
 about a sunken branch or the strong root of some 
 water plant. 
 
 154 
 
MUSKELLUNGE AND LIVE BAIT 
 
 I sat for two or three minutes wondering what I 
 had best do, for I did not want to disturb the water 
 by trying to dislodge the minnow. I was just on the 
 point of sacrificing a portion of my line, hook and all, 
 when I noticed that the line was moving. Thinking 
 that perhaps the minnow had released itself, I picked 
 up the rod and began to reel. Imagine my astonish- 
 ment, if you can, when I discovered I was fast in a good 
 fish. Actually, the muskellunge had swallowed the 
 perch and "gone to sleep." "Why?" Oh, I don't 
 know; one of the vagaries of angling which makes the 
 game so interesting. I played that fish full twenty 
 minutes and had him up to the side of the boat a 
 number of times, and when I reached for my revolver 
 the last time, thinking him exhausted, a loop of the 
 line fell over the handle of the reel. Came a convulsive 
 flop, the line parted, and my fish — mine no longer — 
 was free. I think he was the heaviest fish of the 
 season, but please remember, he got away. 
 
 155 
 
Chapter XII 
 
 Trolling for Muskellunge 
 
 "I know of old anglers who have experienced better things, 
 who make long excursions in pursuit of Mascalonge, who will 
 sit on a cushioned seat with a cushioned back in the stern of 
 the boat, and suffer themselves to be pulled about all day, with 
 a trolling-rod extended from each side." — Thaddeus Nor r is, 1864. 
 
 TO-DAY the most expert muskellunge fishermen, 
 those who derive the most pleasure from the 
 pursuit of the "wasser-wolf," do not resort to 
 the long rods to which that early angling writer, quoted 
 at the head of the chapter, refers; neither do they em- 
 ploy the heavy hand-line so much affected a quarter 
 of a century ago. The day of the short rod and mul- 
 tiplying reel even for muskellunge trolling has arrived. 
 It is not unusual to see a fisherman with a cane pole 
 sticking out over the stern of his boat, to which a 
 line of equal length with the pole is attached, rowing 
 slowly around the edge of the lake. However, either 
 he is one of those seldom individuals who hold all 
 modern angling methods in contempt, or he has not 
 yet arrived at the more satisfactory, scientific, and 
 successful method of trolling. As to the old-fashioned 
 hand-line, one will not see it in use on fresh water 
 these days, unless in backwoods districts by the natives. 
 The advantages of the long line and reel have al- 
 ready been set forth in the chapter on trolling for great 
 pike, and need not be repeated here to any extent. 
 The farther away from a boat the spoon travels, the 
 
 156 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 
 
 more likely it is to attract a fish; that is too obvious 
 to need remark. A trolling-spoon traveling 150 feet 
 behind the boat will capture five fish to every one 
 taken on a lure whirling twenty-five feet beyond the 
 disturbing oars. I know whereof I speak. The limit 
 of distance obtainable with a cane pole unprovided 
 with a reel would be, I should judge, about twenty- 
 five feet. With an 80- or 1 00-yard reel, the fisherman 
 can handle 200 feet of line with ease, character of the 
 water permitting. With the ancient heavily weighted 
 hand-line, which was whirled about the fisherman's 
 head to gain sufficient momentum, a muscular man 
 could cast perhaps fifty feet. But think of the labor 
 involved, as well as incontinently dragging in a royal 
 fighter. Does it not appeal to the reader as somehow 
 unfair? Oh yes, the hand-liner may cut his fingers 
 on the line, may even fall out of the boat — that is 
 easy when learning how to swing the weighted line 
 about the head, a somewhat difficult task — but after 
 all, his method is not attractive to the lover of rod 
 and reel. 
 
 I once had a friend, a gray-haired hand-liner, who 
 has long since gone to the reward of all good fishermen, 
 who had a rather amusing experience. We were on a 
 short driving trip, looking for blackberries in a trout 
 and muskellunge country. I leave my readers to guess 
 why my ancient friend led a blackberrying party into 
 a good fishing country. One night we went into camp 
 on the shores of a beautiful little lake which, my friend 
 confided to me on the side, was "jest full of muskie." 
 After camp was made and everybody settled for the 
 night, he and I set out on a hunt for some sort of craft. 
 At last we found an ancient, rotten, leaky Indian 
 
 157 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 dugout, a canoe the red men had long since abandoned. 
 The boat was not large enough for two nor safe enough 
 for one; but my friend was 'lunge hungry, and nothing 
 would do but that he put out in quest of fighting 
 gray-sides. Seated on a stump, I watched him depart 
 with some misgivings. Before he had paddled twenty 
 rods (his paddle was a bit of board rudely fashioned 
 with the camp ax) he was compelled to stop and bail 
 out with his hat. Yet he stuck to his task, paddling 
 up and down along the shore, holding his heavy troll- 
 ing line — chalk line — between his teeth. 
 
 Perhaps half an hour had passed, and I was just on 
 the point of turning away, the old man eight or ten 
 rods off shore opposite me, when his head was -jerked 
 around until it seemed to me that it would be twisted 
 off. Dropping his paddle, he grabbed the line with 
 both hands, quickly winding it about his right wrist. 
 How that fish lunged and plunged, darting to left and 
 right, the old man pulling in line hand over hand the 
 while. I shouted encouragement and cheer from the 
 shore, noting the rapid settling of the decrepit boat 
 with alarm. Still the old man fought on, taking in line 
 whenever he could and paying out grudgingly when he 
 must, paying not the slightest attention to his craft. 
 
 Came a moment when I could contain myself no 
 longer, and I shouted, "Hey, Dad, look out; she's 
 going down by the stern!" 
 
 Came the instant answer, "Let 'er go! Gol dern ye, 
 don't ye 'spose I ken swim?" 
 
 Untwisting the line from his wrist, the old man 
 slipped it between his teeth once more, just as the boat 
 quietly settled beneath the surface. Boldly and bravely 
 the old fellow, whose heart was young and strong, set 
 
 158 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 
 
 out for the shore, fortunately only a few rods distant. 
 That I watched his progress with apprehension is 
 true, for he was many years young. Looking back 
 across the years, I can see that brave old gray head 
 bobbing up and down as it made slow progress shore- 
 ward, and it was with utmost relief that I at last saw 
 him stand upright, feet upon the hard bottom. Stand- 
 ing in breast-deep water, he played his capture to 
 exhaustion, then dragged it to land, where I was given 
 the high privilege of striking the quieting blow. How 
 large the fish was I do not remember, for in those days 
 I kept no notes and carried neither scales nor tape; 
 but it was large enough to supply a noble feed for a 
 large crowd of hungry blackberry pickers. 
 
 I must pause a moment longer, long enough to pay 
 a word of tribute to the memory of my old friend. 
 When I knew him, he was well down on the western 
 slope of the divide, bathed in the mellow sunlight of 
 his departing day. He had no use for "new-fangled 
 notions and fishing contraptions," but he was a true, 
 fair-play-loving sportsman from the crown of his 
 silvery hair to the soles of his life-weary feet. Never 
 would he take a mean advantage of any fish. One rod 
 or line was all that you could get him to employ, and 
 he would not even ground-bait for carp! Here is to 
 you, gentle guide of my early manhood. May the 
 fishing "over there" be as satisfying as that which 
 you enjoyed here, and may I have the pleasure of 
 angling with you in the sweet bye and bye. 
 
 There is no need for a lengthy discussion of the rod 
 and reel adapted to muskellunge trolling, for the reel 
 and rod recommended for great pike trolling is the 
 one to employ. As I have pointed out time and 
 
 159 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 again, the 'lunge is no more gamy and tackle-testing 
 than the great pike, inch for inch and pound for pound, 
 popular notions to the contrary notwithstanding. If 
 the angler desires a slightly longer rod than the regula- 
 tion casting rod, he can select it, though I would warn 
 him to add inches with circumspection. Personally, I 
 use my short caster for trolling usually and ask nothing 
 better. 
 
 My trolling reel is my favorite make of level-winding 
 winch, than which there is nothing better. The line 
 is a regulation casting line, well cared for and tested 
 each time before setting out upon the water. There 
 might be an added advantage in an unusually large 
 reel, if the angler were fishing water sufficiently clear 
 of weeds and other obstructions to allow an unusually 
 long line. My regular casting reel will spool eighty 
 yards of 28-pound test line with ease, which, in all 
 conscience, is enough. A spoon from 150 to 200 feet 
 distant is far enough away to attract the most wary 
 muskellunge that ever lurked in weedy fastness. 
 
 I will not spend much time discussing the type of 
 spoon, for the true angler will employ his favorite in 
 spite of anything I, or any other fishing editor, may 
 say. Then, your favorite type or make of spoon, for 
 the simple reason that you will handle it more faith- 
 fully than one with which you are unacquainted. 
 Therein lies the mysterious power of a certain rod or 
 lure — the angler's faithfulness and care in using. My 
 favorite type of spoon is the old-fashioned fluted or 
 kidney, with the "Slim Eli" a close second, all well 
 made and trustworthy. There is no necessity for an 
 overly large blade, provided the hooks are depend- 
 able and a long wire leader attached; the well-built 
 
 160 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 
 
 hooks to hold the fish, and the wire leader to prevent 
 an over-striking 'lunge from severing the line above the 
 spoon. The pearl spoon is very attractive from man's 
 viewpoint, though I have yet to be convinced that it is 
 equally attractive to muskellunge. While I have never 
 seen a pearl spoon broken by the onslaught of a 'lunge, 
 the possibility has always deterred me from investing 
 in it to the exclusion of the old silver or nickel 
 blade. It is a good plan to carry blades of various 
 colors when going to unknown waters, for there are 
 times when a copper or "gold" blade shows up to better 
 advantage, owing to the color of the water or char- 
 acter of the bottom. Still, day in and day out, there 
 is nothing more attractive than the bright nickel 
 blade, painted a brilliant red on the inner surface. 
 
 I am often asked regarding the value of an orna- 
 mented hook — feathers, red rag, etc. Undoubtedly 
 they possess a certain attractiveness. I have experi- 
 mented somewhat at length and am free to say that 
 I have found the feathered hook more alluring than 
 the one devoid of covering. The angler has but to 
 observe a feathered hook traveling through the water 
 at the rear of a spoon, and then one without such orna- 
 mentation, to understand why a great pike or 'lunge 
 will take the former in preference to the latter. There 
 are times when, if the angler add streamers of red and 
 white cloth three or four inches long, he will find that 
 his lure has an added attractiveness from the fish's 
 viewpoint. Then, too, the buck-tail treble is a good 
 attachment for a spoon, especially if it have a tag of 
 red in the center. The action of the hairs as the lure 
 moves through the water is very alluring. All in 
 all, I would say by all means cover the hooks. 
 11 161 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 In trolling there should be no necessity for a weight 
 or sinker, the long line burying the lure deep enough. 
 In trolling, always allow the lure to travel as far be- 
 hind the boat as is safe, for it is the distant spoon 
 which lures the most 'lunge, all else being equal. 
 With sufficient line out, the fisherman must have a 
 care or his lure will be hooking the bottom. The boat 
 .should move just as slowly as is safe, just fast enough 
 to keep the lure playing free and no faster. Therein 
 lies the secret of success — slow trolling. 
 
 Perhaps I should say here, while I do often troll for 
 great pike and muskellunge, I turn to the method for 
 rest from more strenuous casting, not because I prefer 
 the method to casting. I much doubt if trolling will 
 bring as many fish to gaff as will casting artificial lures, 
 though there are days when a distant spoon will ac- 
 complish wonders. This I would have the reader bear 
 in mind: There is no single best method of angling 
 for 'lunge; he must adapt himself to conditions. The 
 wise angler is ready and able to handle casting lures, 
 live bait, or trolling-spoon as the exegencies of the 
 fishing may demand. Adaptability is as valuable in 
 muskellunge angling as anywhere. Any fisher should 
 be willing to alter his methods, forget preconceived 
 notions for the time, much more the 'lunge fisherman. 
 
 There is little use in trolling or fishing with any sort 
 of artificial lure when the surface of the water is glassy, 
 unruffled by breeze or wind. Every trout fly-fisher 
 .has discovered how useless it is to flip a fly upon the 
 surface of a glassy pool in midday, and so also the 
 'lunge angler will discover that his best lures and 
 spoons will prove unattractive when the surface of the 
 lake is a dead calm. 
 
 162 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 
 
 I remember fishing one of Wisconsin's northern 
 lakes some seasons ago, a lake from which the writer 
 and others have taken some good muskellunge. On 
 the day in question the surface of the water was per- 
 fectly still. Not a ripple nor shade of ripple roughened 
 it to the slightest degree. I cast, I still-fished, I trolled, 
 but all to no purpose. The best hours of the day 
 passed — that is, from 4 a. m. to 7 — and I fished 
 Ashless. Retiring to an island in the center of the 
 lake near the south end, I prepared to while the 
 time away with a book. Early rising and the sun 
 made me sleepy, and soon, the book proving unat- 
 tractive, I rolled over in the shade and dropped asleep. 
 I slept some two hours or so before "a going in the 
 trees" awakened me. A high wind had sprung up 
 from the south and was kicking that lake into a very 
 fury of rage. Fortunately for me the island was com- 
 paratively near the south end of the lake; otherwise 
 I would have been marooned for the day or until the 
 going down of the wind. Quickly launching my boat, 
 I set out for the south shore, paddling into the teeth 
 of the gale. 
 
 More from force of habit than otherwise, I set my 
 rod in the holder and let out some 100 feet of line, a 
 matter which required considerable skill, as I was 
 under the necessity of keeping my light craft bow to 
 the wind. Once with sufficient line out, I bent all my 
 energies to facing the waves. Time and again a white- 
 cap broke on the bow, spraying me disagreeably. 
 With all my attention centered on the paddling, I 
 gave little thought to the trailing spoon. Suddenly 
 there came a jerk so strong and mighty that my little 
 craft hesitated in its course perceptibly. Though click 
 
 163 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 and drag were both set upon the reel, line was ripped 
 off yard after yard. I could not pause in my paddling 
 to take the rod in my hand. For once my go-alone 
 proclivity had gotten me into trouble. I began to 
 fancy myself in the condition of the man who wanted 
 someone to help him let go the bear. 
 
 I paddled straight for shore, shouting lustily, hoping 
 against hope that the three good men and true, in camp 
 beneath the trees, were at home and would hear my 
 cries. After what seemed an interminable time, a 
 slouch-hatted figure sauntered down to the water's 
 edge and bawled, "What's eatin' you?" "Fish, muskie, 
 whale!" I shouted in return. Fortunately, my camp- 
 mate was quick to grasp the significance of things and 
 soon a good, stout boat was putting out to my rescue. 
 I was compelled to hand my rod over to them — taking 
 on board a boatman was an impossibility in that sea — 
 and so they landed my biggest 'lunge of the season. 
 Now comes the moral of the tale: We took seven 
 good fish that windy day, trolling along the shore. 
 Let me add that seven good muskellunge is a bag any 
 quartet of anglers can be proud of anywhere. 
 
 I have found in muskellunge fishing that success 
 depends quite largely upon the condition of the weather. 
 Hot, sultry days, with no sign of wind, are apt to 
 prove poor fish days, save very early in the morning, 
 and not always then. Upon the other hand, raw, cold 
 days, with high wind, are likely to prove very success- 
 ful. The wise angler will not spin yarns by the camp- 
 fire just because the weather is rough. 
 
 In the foregoing narrative I have mentioned my 
 rod-holder, a simple contrivance, which is of utmost 
 worth to the go-alone fisherman. Indeed, I do not 
 
 164 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE' 
 
 see how it is possible to safely troll without it. To 
 lose a rod overboard is a disaster, even though the 
 fisherman is fortunate enough to hook on to the line, 
 as I once was. Let me say also, that once I threw over- 
 board an expensive casting rig, and though we angled 
 away for days it still lays in the silt on the bottom of 
 the lake. Two men can troll together with advantage, 
 the man with the rod sitting in the seat, facing the 
 stern. He is in the correct position to watch his rod 
 and play the fish. I do not like a hired boatman; 
 would much rather fish, turn and turn about, with a 
 brother angler. 
 
 As to where to troll, all depends, of course, upon the 
 feeding grounds and weather. In windy weather the 
 fish seem to roam a great deal. Either the good fish are 
 more scattered, or the movement of the water makes 
 the muskellunge restless. Ordinarily the troller should 
 skirt the edges of weed-beds, follow the shore if the 
 water is deep enough, work out the sandbars, not 
 forgetting the mouths of inflowing creeks. Probably 
 the most likely territory is that of the weed-beds, for 
 there the minnows and small sunfish live, and the 
 muskellunge haunt such places. Upon occasion it 
 seems almost as if a man can take 'lunge anywhere, 
 but even as accidents happen in the best of regulated 
 families, it is an accident. The angler acquainted with 
 the habits of his quarry and the water is going to take 
 fish, where the mere tyro will never get a rise. Knowl- 
 edge is power, it is said, and I know that knowledge 
 spells muskellunge. Of the two important requisites — 
 fish knowledge and good tackle — the first is of greater 
 importance. I do not belittle good tackle; but just the 
 same, unless the fisherman knows something of the 
 
 165 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 habits of the fish he seeks, all the tackle in the world 
 will not make him a fish-getter. While Fate, Luck, or 
 whatever it is that does such things, may present the 
 veriest novice with a record fish on the first day out, 
 she is not going to continue her unreasonable gifts 
 day after day. It is the angler who knows his fish, the 
 water, and how to handle tackle that continues mak- 
 ing large catches. 
 
 Much might be written upon the way of the mus- 
 kellunge with a spoon, without exhausting the topic, 
 for it is one of utmost interest to fishermen. As a rule, 
 the spoon or lure is taken with a rush, from the rear, 
 though now and then a seldom fish will steal upon the 
 lure and "mouth" it carefully. I have seen a 'lunge 
 follow a spoon right up to the boat without offering 
 to touch it; even lie in plain sight for some seconds 
 after the lure has been lifted from the water. Such 
 fish are hard to hook. At times it is possible to tease 
 or exasperate them into biting. Simply retrieve the 
 lure with short, sharp jerks; make the fish believe that 
 unless it strikes at once, the glittering tidbit will 
 escape. Nevertheless, some fish cannot be made to 
 bite. I have seen a good-sized muskellunge follow a 
 lure curiously here and there, eyeing it malevolently, 
 but never offering to touch it. I am not just clear as 
 to the reason for the action. Perhaps the fish is not 
 hungry, or perhaps it has had some sore hook experi- 
 ence, though that would be attributing memory and a 
 rather high grade of intelligence. 
 
 There is little necessity for the angler's "setting the 
 hook," once a muskellunge strikes the lure, though 
 some good fishermen do swing the rod sharply to right 
 or left, as the case may be. A taut line should be main- 
 
 166 
 
TROLLING FOR MUSKELLUNGE 
 
 tained ; otherwise the capture may shake out the hook. 
 His leaps are not like those of the black bass. Indeed, 
 they are not leaps at all, strictly speaking; simply 
 wallowings on the surface. I have yet to see my first 
 'lunge or pike leap clear of the water. When pulled 
 strongly, the muskellunge comes to the surface, plung- 
 ing about in a tackle-testing way. Obviously the 
 proper thing to do with so heavy a fish is to play him 
 on a taut line. Over-eagerness is suicidal. Ofttimes 
 an angler says his fish escapes because insecurely 
 hooked, when the truth of the matter is the rodster 
 tore the hook out by main strength. The angler need 
 not expect a brilliant battle from the muskellunge, 
 but he should look for a well-sustained and stead- 
 fastly conducted struggle. Never underrate the ability 
 of a hooked fish — any fish — much less the 'lunge. Always 
 play a fish until he shows the white flag in surrender, 
 then gaff quickly, lest he "come back" before you are 
 ready. Quite often the 'lunge surrenders all at once 
 at the end of a sustained rush or after wallowing for 
 some seconds upon the surface. But do not be deceived. 
 There may remain in that long body rushings and 
 wallowings galore. I have known fish to surrender 
 incontinently after the first rush and come to gaff 
 meekly. Again, I have known fish to come to life at 
 the first prick of the gaff, smash tackle, break loose, 
 and escape. 
 
 One tactic of the 'lunge, which the fisherman must 
 guard against, is to dash under the boat. The rod 
 must be lifted out and away from the side of the craft, 
 or a broken joint will result. The angler always has 
 a safety-valve in his reel. Give line easily and with 
 tension. In playing so heavy a fish as the muskel- 
 
 167 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 lunge, all depends upon the fisherman keeping his 
 head. Never for a moment should he lose control of 
 the battle. It is easier to fight an offensive battle than 
 a defensive one. A good motto for the muskellunge 
 fisherman would be, "Do unto the 'lunge as he would 
 do unto thee, but do it first." 
 
 And so here is to you, you king of fresh-water fishes, 
 you "wasser-wolf" of the Northland. May you long 
 survive the wiles of the eager fisherman, disport your- 
 self in the clear, cold water you love so well, so that 
 coming generations may have the exquisite pleasure of 
 doing battle with the most satisfactory pike that 
 swims. 
 
 1 68 
 
Chapter XIII 
 
 The Fine Art of Pike Cooking 
 
 "But if this direction to catch a Pike thus do you no good, 
 yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when he is 
 caught, is choicely good, for I have tried it. . . . This dish 
 of meat is too good for any but Anglers or very honest men; 
 and I trust you will prove both, and therefore have trusted you 
 with this secret." — Izaak Walton. 
 
 IF Father Izaak was right, then I need not apol- 
 ogize for this chapter, e'en though I realize that I 
 have no business invading the sacred precincts of 
 the culinary artists. What I do not know about cook- 
 ing would fill more than a single chapter. Still, I can 
 make shift to cook a meal in the open and can prepare 
 pickerel, great pike, and 'lunge sufficiently well for 
 the sharp outdoor appetite. I want it distinctly under- 
 stood, however, that primarily this chapter is not 
 intended for cooks who possess the conveniences of a 
 kitchen. Housewives are requested to treat this dis- 
 sertation as the priest did the man who fell among 
 thieves. With this sad attempt at an apology, I plunge 
 into my subject. 
 
 I honestly think that members of the pike family 
 have not received their just dues at the hands of out- 
 door cooks. Even the execrated and despised pickerel 
 — "river snake" — does not deserve the odium heaped 
 upon him. Not only is he edible, but when taken 
 from moderately cold water and properly cooked, I 
 hold him delicious. I realize full well that the fore- 
 
 169 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 going statement will stir some anglers to wrath, may 
 even bring me acrimonious letters by the dozen. 
 Nevertheless I am ready to stand by my guns, or rather, 
 fry-pans. Quite recently I was out with a friend, a 
 despiser of all pickerel — to most people any pike under 
 fifteen inches is a pickerel — and at noon we took two 
 small fish, real river pickerel, which I fried for dinner, 
 and my friend not only pronounced them good, but 
 went so far as to say they were "almost as delicious as 
 trout." The fact of the matter is, I would about as 
 soon eat pickerel as rainbow trout when both fish 
 came from the same water, were it not for the fine 
 bones in the former. Naturally, a pickerel from a 
 warm, sluggish slough, thoroughly impregnated with 
 decaying vegetable matter, will be "off flavor." Upon 
 the other hand, the same fish taken from clear, cold 
 rivers will possess firm, sweet flesh. The great disad- 
 vantage of the pickerel or any small pike, from the 
 eater's viewpoint, as has already been pointed out, is 
 the numerous bones. Just why all fish cannot be built 
 on the framework of a trout, it is hard for a lover of 
 fried fish to understand. So far as I can see, a trout 
 handles itself as well as the sucker, say, and the latter's 
 flesh is often nothing but a sort of animated pin- 
 cushion of small, sharp bones, sometimes bound up 
 into little bundles, as it were. 
 
 Any fish is better food immediately upon taking 
 from the water than after standing exposed to the air 
 and sun or even being placed on ice. If this be true of 
 such cold-water lovers as the trout, how much more 
 must it be true of soft fish like the pikes. Upon taking 
 from the water, if intended for food, any fish should 
 be killed quickly and mercifully; not allowed to flop 
 
 170 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 its life away on the hot boards of a boat bottom, or 
 strangled to death at the end of a string dangled be- 
 hind the boat. If pike are to be retained for any 
 length of time, they should be put in a live-box or killed 
 at once and placed upon ice. Always remove the 
 gills, eviscerate, and wipe the body cavity clean, using 
 a wisp of grass, or better, a dry cloth. Be sure all the 
 reddish-brown substance from along the spine — "kid- 
 neys" — is removed. Remember, moisture will hasten 
 decomposition. If to be used immediately, then sever 
 the head and wash out the body cavity with as cool 
 water as can be found, drain and wipe dry; then place 
 in the cooking vessel at once. I know of nothing more 
 unappetizing and repulsive than a slimy basket of 
 improperly cared-for fish. 
 
 The pikes will not keep as well after being scaled; 
 but personally, I prefer to scale my fish before leaving 
 the fishing grounds whenever possible. I never take 
 home more than enough for a single mess, at the most 
 two, and nine times out of ten eat them on the shores 
 of the river or lake from which taken. Of course, if I 
 were going to ship any great distance I would leave 
 the scales on. In scaling, one can use an ordinary 
 knife, though one with a serrated back to the blade, 
 like that advertised by the Marble Company, is very 
 convenient, and any of the so-called "fish-scrapers" 
 are efficient and take up but little room in the tackle- 
 box. In a permanent camp nothing is better than a 
 regular currycomb such as horsemen use. At the best, 
 cleaning of scaled fish is a disagreeable job and any aid 
 is very welcome. I have not said that fish scale 
 easily when first taken from the water, a matter which 
 should be emphasized. Of course, a dry fish can be 
 
 171 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 soaked so that the scales can be removed, but such 
 soaking does not improve the flavor of the meat. A 
 pan of slimy, blear-eyed pickerel is not a pleasant 
 task to front, and it stands to reason that fish, soaked 
 for two or three hours in water more or less foul in 
 washings from the other fish, cannot be in the best of 
 condition for food. The point I am trying to make is 
 this : The flavor of any fish flesh depends to a large 
 degree upon the care which an angler has bestowed 
 upon his catch. I am convinced that one reason why 
 my friends find "Smith-fried" pickerel delicious is be- 
 cause of the care the fish have received before they feel 
 the heat of the fry-pan. It is not all, nor half, in the 
 cooking. The proof of the pudding may be in the 
 eating, but the proof of the eating is in the prepa- 
 ration. 
 
 A pickerel may be cooked in any of the ways that 
 other round-bodied fish may. No pike lends itself to 
 planking, though it can be accomplished after a fashion 
 before a slow fire, if the fisherman-cook has plenty of 
 time at his disposal and can possess his soul in pa- 
 tience. I shall give but one method of cooking pickerel, 
 for, after all, he is too small to bother with when larger 
 fish can be secured, and anyway, the angler can use 
 the methods for pike and 'lunge if he so desire. Now 
 I will tell how I fry pickerel, great pike, or even small 
 'lunge. My friends say, you remember, they are 
 "almost as good as trout." 
 
 "Smith-fried" Pickerel 
 
 We will suppose I have caught two fish some fifteen 
 inches in length, killing as soon as caught and giving 
 them time to bleed. The scales are removed and, if 
 
 172 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 time and utensils serve, the bodies are immersed 
 for some thirty minutes or so in a salt bath, a 
 treatment especially advised for fish from sloughs or 
 water impregnated with decaying vegetable matter. 
 Lacking time, the fish are thoroughly washed in as 
 cold water as is obtainable, wiped dry, and salted. 
 Three or four slices of bacon are placed in the fry-pan 
 and the fat extracted. I remove the bacon and place 
 on a warm plate near the fire. Now while the fat is 
 smoking hot, I drop in the fish, cut up into convenient 
 pieces, and fry, being careful not to burn. (Strictly 
 speaking, this process is not frying, but, as the cooks 
 say, "sauting." No more do I fry fish in deep fat.) 
 I remove the fish from the pan to the warm plate and, 
 if obtainable, squeeze over it the juice of half a lemon. 
 The despiser of the "river snake" will be surprised at 
 the tastiness of the dish. 
 
 The outdoor cook may vary the dish in many ways. 
 The flavor imparted by dropping a slice or two of 
 onion in the fat is relished by those fond of the escu- 
 lent bulb. A judicious dash of red pepper or other 
 aromatic condiment will add variety. If the pickerel 
 cook is working where watercress (peppergrass) can 
 be gathered, a few fresh sprays should be served with 
 the dish. While I prefer bacon fat for frying fish, 
 there are folks who do not like the flavor. For them 
 olive oil or sweet butter is preferable, though for the 
 woodsman bacon is the only thing. To my mind, the 
 secret of successful "frying" lies in having the fat 
 piping hot and the fish dry. While I have advised 
 cutting up the fish, if the pan is large enough or the 
 fish small enough they can be fried whole. I know of 
 nothing more appetizing in appearance than a couple 
 
 173 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 of pickerel browned to a nicety and served with a 
 garnishment of peppergrass, gathered hard by the 
 home of the fish. I would not roll pickerel in cracker 
 crumbs, because of the fine bones the eater encounters ; 
 otherwise crumbs are an improvement. 
 
 If one uses cracker crumbs, they should be prepared 
 beforehand at home. It is a good plan to save the left- 
 overs of bread, thoroughly dry, and pulverize. This 
 can be done with a rolling-pin or meat-chopper; then 
 pass through a fine sifter so that the crumbs will be 
 of an equal size. After pulverizing, dry out thoroughly 
 in the oven. They will keep indefinitely, if kept dry. 
 A small sack in the outfit will be found convenient 
 when needed. In order to use crumbs successfully, 
 the cook should have an egg batter in which to dip 
 the fish before rolling in the crumbs; otherwise the 
 crumbs will not adhere to the fish. The foregoing 
 applies to the frying of any pike, save that a large 
 fish must be cut into rather thin slices, not over an 
 inch thick, to cook successfully. 
 
 Baked Great Pike 
 
 Perhaps there is no more delicious way to serve 
 a large great pike — the larger the better — than to bake 
 it. So cooked, as Walton would say, "he is choicely 
 good." For baking, one should catch nothing smaller 
 than a five-pound fish; a ten-pounder would serve 
 better. Once I had the privilege of preparing half of 
 a twenty-four-pound great pike and, take my word 
 for it, the result was a dish fit for an epicure. Par- 
 enthetically: One can imagine a hotel range of suffi- 
 cient length to accommodate a thirty-pound fish, but 
 the reader must remember that I am writing of out- 
 
 174 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 door cooking, and my reflecting baker is but eighteen 
 inches long, therefore the big fish must be served in 
 halves — let us hope, quarters. 
 
 With a reflecting baker it is possible to cook a fish 
 to a nicety before an open fire, for the heat can be ab- 
 solutely controlled. All other cooking should be done 
 at a separate fire. The more coals and the less flame 
 the cook has the better job he will do. It is a wise 
 precaution to have a little pile of small twigs ready, 
 dry as tinder, so that should the heat diminish, the fire 
 can be quickly started up again. Then, too, a hot fire 
 at the last will give the body that delectable brown 
 which is so inviting even to jaded appetites. 
 
 The fish should be dressed as described for frying 
 and cut to fit the baker. Remove the head, as it 
 takes up so much room. Place the fish in a dripping- 
 pan, having first thoroughly anointed the surface of 
 the body with bacon drippings or butter and seasoned 
 to taste. A slice or two of bacon should be placed in 
 the body cavity and one or two in the pan. Butter 
 or drippings can be used. Cook slowly; otherwise the 
 meat will be dried out and rendered flat and flavorless. 
 The secret of cooking before the fire is care. Do not 
 allow the pan to cool, nor yet burn the fish. 
 
 This dish can be varied by "stuffing," if the cook so 
 desires and possesses cracker or breadcrumbs. Stale 
 bread can be used. Moisten the bread with cold water, 
 kneading with the hands. Squeeze out all the water 
 •possible. Add a lump of butter the size of an egg, or 
 bacon drippings. Season with salt, pepper, and sage, 
 or finely chopped onion. The addition of finely 
 chopped bacon is an improvement, whatever the other 
 seasoning. If the cook is partial to oysters and has a 
 
 175 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 can of "coves" in the commissary, they can be chopped 
 up or used whole, as fancy may dictate, and used in 
 place of the bacon. Endless variations will occur to 
 the mind of the natural outdoor cook. This "stuffing" 
 can be placed in the body of the fish and the opening 
 closed with several windings of string, or it can be 
 heaped in one end of the pan. Some people like the 
 "stuffing" well browned. So cooked, the flesh of a 
 great pike from the north country or muskellunge is 
 dry, flaky, sweet, and toothsome. A better and more 
 tasty dish it is hard to imagine. 
 
 A sauce is not needed for baked pike, but can be 
 prepared, of course, if the cook so desires. There are 
 any number of sauces, though a simple butter sauce 
 may serve for the base. Put two large tablespoons of 
 sweet butter in a pan and add a tablespoon of flour, 
 a teaspoon of salt, and a liberal dose of black pepper. 
 Rub these ingredients together until thoroughly 
 mixed, then add about half a cup of boiling water, 
 place in a fry-pan and cook two minutes, and pour 
 over the fish. This can be varied by the use of milk 
 in the place of water; or, the butter can be melted in 
 the pan, and when it bubbles, add the flour and cook 
 thoroughly; remove from the hot fire, but keep sim- 
 mering and stir in the milk slowly. This makes a white 
 sauce. Chopped onions, chopped watercress, pickles, 
 green peppers, in fact any highly flavored relish can 
 be added; young wild mustard leaves are not half 
 bad. It is simply wonderful the amount of vegetables 
 the woods afford, vegetables that can be eaten in the 
 place of well-known domestic varieties, and that can 
 be used for seasoning and garnishes. Personally, I do 
 not much care for a sauce for baked fish, for baked 
 
 176 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 pike needs no addition other than the outdoor appe- 
 tite to make it palatable. 
 
 Boiled Great Pike 
 
 "Why should anyone boil a pike?" methinks I hear 
 someone ask. Well, if a party is spending a week or 
 two in camp, a change of diet is desirable and wel- 
 come. If conservation of food becomes necessary be- 
 cause starvation lurks behind every tree, then boiling 
 is in order to retain every atom of life-sustaining ele- 
 ments in the fish. Even the water in which the meat is 
 boiled can be drunk. May that never be the reader's 
 portion. "But to return," as the Chautauqua lecturers 
 say. Undoubtedly boiled fish as a regular diet, would 
 pall upon the appetite, but for a change now and then 
 it will be greeted joyously by hungry campers, espe- 
 cially so,» if well and toothsomely prepared. 
 
 The larger the fish, the better. Cut up into convenient 
 sections for the camp kettle, carefully tying each piece 
 in a cloth bag if procurable, so that the flesh will not 
 fall apart and be "lost" in the broth. Have the kettle 
 two-thirds full of boiling salted water (note the empha- 
 sis upon the word "boiling"), to which the juice of a 
 lemon or a gill of vinegar has been added. (If on a 
 hard trip, citric acid in crystals will be carried in place 
 of either.) Boil slowly until done (about eight minutes 
 per pound). Of course if the cook has any cooking 
 pot of so unwieldy a shape as to fit the body of a pike, 
 he can cook the fish whole. Onions, spices, or horse- 
 radish can be added to the water, if one likes highly 
 seasoned dishes. The camp epicure will demand a 
 sauce. Directions for making one have already been 
 given. 
 
 12 I77 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 Pike Chowder 
 
 I have said, "Fish chowder is more enjoyed in 
 prospect than in actuality. To my mind, this is one 
 of the dishes to which distance lends enchantment." 
 That was written before I knew. Culinary is one of 
 the progressive sciences. I have learned how to make 
 fish chowder. 
 
 Cut up several slices of salt pork — I use bacon 
 usually, though it is not orthodox — and fry in the 
 kettle in which the chowder is to be made. Now the 
 real chowderist would use nothing but an iron kettle, 
 though the migratory camper will employ his alum- 
 inum kettle. Have ready, sliced, one quart of potatoes 
 and onions. When the pork is fried, the "juice" ex- 
 tracted, add the onions, then the potatoes, and water 
 enough to just cover the vegetables. When half 
 cooked, taste to see if salt enough; if not, add more, 
 and a dash of pepper. If fond of highly seasoned 
 dishes, a dash of red pepper will give a "kick." Lay 
 the fish, cut into convenient pieces, on top of the 
 vegetables and cook. By cooking the fish on the 
 vegetables, the flesh does not come to pieces as it does 
 in the old method, scattering through the ingredients. 
 When cooked, add milk and serve. In using evap- 
 orated milk it, of course, must be used in a dilute form. 
 Some do not like the milk flavor, and for them it can 
 be left out. This is a delicious dish. 
 
 Planked Pike 
 
 While the shape of a pike does not lend itself to 
 
 planking, it can be accomplished with a little care. 
 
 Secure a plank of sweet hardwood two or three inches 
 
 thick and long enough to accommodate the whole fish. 
 
 178 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 Just a word about that plank. One can split it out of 
 a tree, though the green wood will steam slightly and 
 render the flesh too moist. By far the best plank I 
 have ever employed was a bit of wreckage rescued 
 from Lake Superior. It is easy enough to find wood 
 that can be used, along the shores of any large body of 
 water. Somehow the soaking seems to give the wood 
 a cleansing and sweetening that it otherwise does not 
 have. Of course the plank must be dry in order to 
 secure best results; if wet, it must be laid away to dry. 
 In a permanent camp the board can be kept from 
 season to season, with proper care. In migratory 
 camping the fisher-cook will be compelled to put 
 up with a poorer plank. Now for the planking of a 
 pike. 
 
 Dress the fish, leaving the head on. Cut down the 
 back, severing the ribs on one side close to the spine, 
 and spread out the fish, fan-shape, skin side to the 
 board, and nail securely. A number of nails will be 
 required, for as the flesh cooks it falls away. I have 
 covered the fish with a coarse wire screen nailed to 
 the board. Worked well. Screen should be of white 
 wire and thoroughly cleansed, certainly. Of course 
 the fish will be salted and peppered to taste. It adds 
 to the flavor, I think, to pin several slices of bacon 
 along the backbone. Set the board up before the fire 
 lengthwise and tend carefully, keeping an even heat, 
 turning the fish often. Baste with a slice of bacon 
 fastened to a twig, holding it so that the drippings 
 will run over the fish. The secret of successful plank- 
 ing is care, a slow fire, and patience. Serve on the 
 plank on which cooked, garnished with peppergrass, if 
 it can be secured, for its wild flavor is an improve- 
 
 179 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 ment. A well-planked pike is a dish fit for a hungry 
 fisherman. Save the plank; you will use it again. 
 
 Pike Baked in Clay 
 
 Here again it is possible to cook a whole fish, though 
 this method requires greater skill and forethought 
 than even the former. The first thing necessary is the 
 right kind of clay — red or blue. The second requisite 
 is the right kind of fire. Dig a long trench, consider- 
 ably longer than the fish, fill it with hard wood, and 
 burn down to coals. Keep this up until the trench is 
 full of glowing coals ; pile on some more hardwood, lots 
 of fuel, and go out and catch the muskellunge or great 
 pike, the larger the better. I put building the fire 
 first, for the cook cannot successfully — I nearly said 
 artistically — clay a large fish without first having had 
 a hot hardwood fire for at least six hours. The ground 
 — preferably sand — around the trench must be hot 
 and plenty of ashes and glowing coals all about. Ob- 
 viously a one-day stand is no place for clay-baking. 
 Time, patience, care, and right conditions are all 
 essential to success. 
 
 Granted we have the right variety of brick clay. 
 Mix a mortar, somewhat moist. Lay the fish down in 
 the soft clay without scaling or eviscerating. Rub a 
 coating of the wet clay against the scales, filling the 
 gills and mouth. Do not use too much mortar for the 
 first coat. Dry by the fire for a few minutes and re- 
 peat the operation. Two or three — perhaps more — 
 coats will be required before the fish will be sufficiently 
 well encased. Dry between each coat. When the 
 whole fish is covered with a sheet of clay an inch or 
 so thick, lay it by the fire ten or fifteen minutes, turn- 
 
 180 
 
THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 
 
 ing now and then so that it will properly harden, and 
 the fish is ready for the trench. Rake out part of the 
 coals and lay the pike in its warm bed. Cover with 
 coals and ashes. A large pike will bake in from two 
 to three hours. The more clay added to the body the 
 longer it will take to cook and the more certain the 
 results. A good fire should be maintained on top of 
 the trench. When everything is ready, the hungry 
 fisherman waiting to be served, dig out the brick, 
 crack open with the camp ax, remove the backbone 
 and "innards," the latter shrunken to a little ball, 
 sprinkle with salt and pepper, and eat. The unini- 
 tiated will be surprised and delighted with the todth- 
 someness of the dish. As I said of planking pike, so 
 I say of this method of cooking : All depends upon the 
 cook's thoroughness and attention to details. 
 
 Perhaps some of my readers will think I have gone 
 into this matter of cooking with too much thorough- 
 ness, while others may complain that I have not 
 been thorough enough. The angler who cares for 
 nothing but catching fish will have found this chapter 
 more than tedious, should he have read so far, while 
 the angler-cook — and he is constantly on the increase — 
 will regard this as the most worth-while chapter in 
 the whole work. When "Trout Lore" first appeared, 
 more people wrote me about a certain method of 
 cooking trout therein described than regarding any 
 other topic, unless perhaps it was fly-tying. The fact 
 of the matter is, the dyed-in-the-wool angler is an 
 embryonic cook, interested in all toothsome ways of 
 serving his captures. To delegate the cooking of fish 
 in the open to the guide, be he ever so expert, is not 
 the most enjoyable way. He who would sap the last 
 
 181 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 drop of the juice of enjoyment from his sport should be 
 able to cook in the open, not merely make shift at it. 
 
 The angling writers of a day long since passed al- 
 ways added a chapter upon cooking to their tomes 
 upon the pleasures of angling. "The Book of the 
 Pike," by H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, published in 
 England in 1865, gives in the appendix many re- 
 ceipts for cooking pike. Also in the more recent 
 volume, "Pike and Perch," one of the "Fur, Feather, 
 and Fin Series," the English author sees to it that his 
 readers are provided with a very interesting disqui- 
 sition upon "Cookery of the Pike and Perch," going 
 back in the history of the art to the day when pike 
 was spelled "pik," and book, "boke." Cookery is as 
 ancient a "sport" as angling itself, and a sport where 
 one runs as great chances as in playing a twenty- 
 pound muskellunge. 
 
 So I come to the conclusion of my self-appointed 
 task, a task that has been a pleasure. I wish here to 
 thank all my friends throughout the country for their 
 many kindnesses, letters of advice and gentle crit- 
 icism. If I have produced a work worth while, no 
 thanks are due me; the credit is all yours. So here 
 endeth "The Book of the Pike," with a characteristic 
 sentiment from that oldest book upon angling, "A 
 Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle:" "The pyke 
 is a good fysshe: but for he deuouryth so many as well of 
 his owne kynde as of other: I loue hym the lesse." 
 
 182 
 
APPENDIX 
 
The Possibility of Hybrids Between 
 Great Pike and Pickerel 
 
 [Note. — I am indebted to Forest and Stream, of New York, 
 for the privilege of republishing here this chapter, which originally 
 appeared in that well-known outdoor periodical. Also I am in- 
 debted to the Journal of Heredity for the facts, as well as the 
 cut, with which it is illustrated. — Author.] 
 
 Every angler who has given any thought to the 
 matter cannot fail to be impressed with the great 
 likeness between the pickerel and the great pike. 
 For, as has been pointed out in the foregoing pages, 
 were it not for the squamation of the cheeks and gill- 
 covers, not always could an observer be certain of 
 any given specimen. The reader has learned that 
 color and form are not sufficiently constant to serve 
 as a certain identification. This being true, the pos- 
 sibility of a cross or hybrid has undoubtedly sug- 
 gested itself to the thoughtful mind of the angler. It 
 is a matter of record that supposed crosses have been 
 discovered in nature in one or more characters, fish 
 showing a condition intermediate between great pikes 
 and pickerels. Of course when those specimens have 
 been taken, the question has arisen whether or not 
 such fish are mere "sports," a mutation, or the actual 
 result of cross-fertilization. Undoubtedly few crosses, 
 comparatively speaking, occur in nature, for nature is 
 more careful in such things than is man. 
 
 When this paper appeared in Forest and Stream it 
 brought the writer any number of letters and criti- 
 cisms, favorable and otherwise, some anglers main- 
 taining that a cross was an utter impossibility, while 
 others had "caught lots of them." It is difficult to 
 say which attitude of mind is the most reprehensible. 
 
 185 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 There would seem to be no good reason why cross- 
 fertilization might not quite frequently occur between 
 pickerels and great pikes, unless nature has endowed 
 them with a great and insurmountable antipathy for 
 each other, for structurally and in habits they are 
 essentially alike. At the time of spawning, a ripe 
 female, companioned by one or more males, swims 
 about erratically over the shallows or inundated 
 marshes. Eggs and milt are ejected from time to 
 time, here and there, each ejection being accompanied 
 with violent tail lashings and bodily contortions, 
 effectually distributing both milt and eggs over a 
 considerable area. Now as great pike and pickerel 
 spawn at practically the same time (indeed, spawning 
 pickerel have been observed crossing the path of 
 spawning great pike more than once), suppose this 
 crossing should take place at the proper moment, it 
 is inconceivable but that some of the eggs from both 
 species of females should be impregnated by the milt 
 from the males of opposite species. Would such acci- 
 dently impregnated eggs "hatch" and develop into 
 fish? It was to answer the question satisfactorily that 
 Mr. G. C. Embody, of Cornell University, conducted 
 a careful and lengthy series of experiments, as reported 
 in the Journal of Heredity for October, 191 8. I now 
 quote from his article: 
 
 "On March 30, 191 7, the eggs from a 30.5 cm. pickerel having 
 typical characters were artificially pressed into a moistened pan 
 and covered with milt from a male pike likewise typical of its 
 species. The reciprocal cross was not attempted. About 70 
 per cent of the eggs developed normally, and those not pre- 
 served for future study hatched in from six to ten days. A few 
 of the young were reared in an aquarium to lengths varying 
 from 3.8 c, to 6.4 com., after which they were transferred to a 
 small newly made artificial pond of stagnant water. When six 
 months old, three specimens were captured and gave lengths of 
 15.2, 13.8, and 9.1 cm., respectively." 
 
 This is of utmost interest, for it proves that cross- 
 fertilization is possible, at least artificially. Further- 
 more, in the artificially produced hybrids the scaling 
 
 186 
 
' 
 
 HEADS OF PIKE, PICKEREL, AND HYBRIDS 
 
 1. Head of adult pike. Extent of scale covering on operculum (gill-cover) indicated 
 
 by white line. 
 
 2. Head of adult pickerel, operculum fully scaled. 
 
 3. Head of artificially produced hybrid. 
 
 4. Head of supposed hybrid, captured in Cayuga Lake, N. Y. White line indicates 
 
 extent to which scales cover operculum. 
 
 Courtesy "American Journal of Heredity." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 of the gill-covers is extended down on the portion 
 joining the cheek, as never occurs in the true great 
 pike. (Study the illustrations taken from the Journal 
 of Heredity.) In other words, the squamation of the 
 hybrid partakes both of the nature of the great pike 
 and pickerel. The supposed wild hybrids have ex- 
 actly the same squamation. Therefore it seems al- 
 most safe to conclude that if the angler should be so 
 fortunate as to capture a fish with the peculiar scala- 
 tion given in the illustration, he would be justified in 
 concluding that he had a hybrid pickerel. It would 
 be exceedingly interesting to know if the hybrid would 
 reproduce, a matter I deem exceedingly doubtful, for 
 the chances are it would prove a "mule" (infertile). 
 If it did reproduce, would its progeny partake of the 
 characteristics of the hybrid, or would it "throw 
 back" to either the pickerel or great pike form? There 
 seems to be no answer. (A friend of mine who is a 
 trout breeder has carefully selected albino trout, 
 strong and vigorous fish, hoping to reproduce them, 
 but he insists that they are infertile, a matter which 
 I can but doubt until further evidence in support of 
 his claim be brought.) 
 
 In coloration the hybrid, which the reader under- 
 stands is an immature fish, resembles the immature 
 great pike much more closely than it does the imma- 
 ture pickerel, the diagonal light bars with dark areas 
 between them being distinct in the first two and to- 
 tally lacking in the last, the markings being those of 
 the so-called "chain pickerel." If these markings are 
 constant, the fisherman should have little difficulty 
 in differentiating between the great pike minnow and 
 the pickerel minnow, though he might easily be con- 
 fused if given a great pike and hybrid. The author, 
 upon whose findings I am basing this paper, holds 
 that the chances are in favor of the mature hybrid 
 resembling quite closely the mature great pike, the 
 resemblance being so striking in the immature speci- 
 men. One examining the illustrations accompanying 
 
 187 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 the original article in the Journal of Heredity cannot 
 help being impressed with the similarity of the head of 
 the artificially produced hybrid with that of our well- 
 known "wall-eyed" pike or pike-perch. I have shown 
 the picture referred to to a number of anglers and all 
 have asserted that it is a "wall-eye" without doubt. 
 Yet it was the artificially produced hybrid. Of course 
 it may be the fault of the photographer, for I know 
 how difficult it is to reproduce the marking of fish 
 faithfully with a camera. In this case the head is 
 undoubtedly much nearer the camera than that of the 
 adult pickerel. 
 
 The author concludes his article with the following 
 "Summary of Finding," which it is worth our time to 
 give verbatim: 
 
 "The overlapping spawning time and the spawning behavior 
 of the pike (Esox lucius) and the pickerel (Esox reticulatus) are 
 such as to permit of the possibility of a natural cross. 
 
 "The eggs of the pickerel may be artificially impregnated 
 with the milt of the male pike and may develop into healthy 
 hybrids. 
 
 "Artificially produced hybrids and supposed natural hybrids 
 are identical in scalation of the opercula, showing a condition 
 intermediate between typical pickerel and pike. 
 
 "Typical adult pike and supposed natural hybrids' are iden- 
 tical in color pattern. 
 
 "Juvenile pike and the artificial hybrid are identical in color 
 pattern. 
 
 "Thus there is a probability that mature artificial hybrids 
 will resemble in color pattern the supposed natural hybrids. 
 
 "These facts seem to favor the assumption that pike and 
 pickerel occasionally cross." 
 
 Since my paper appeared in Forest and Stream I 
 have had the pleasure of examining carefully two 
 specimens, both of which I am firmly convinced in 
 my own mind were crosses. One I took myself, while 
 the other was shipped from Minnesota for identifica- 
 tion, the thought of the gentleman who sent it being 
 that it was "a new variety of wall-eye" (pike-perch). 
 In both cases there was a very decided wall-eye "cast 
 of countenance," something which I find of great 
 interest. Indeed, one might easily have passed both 
 
 1 88 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 of the fish as sauger or sand pike (Stizostedion cana- 
 dense), a small form of the ordinary wall-eye, were it 
 not for the fins and color. A careful examination in- 
 stantly disclosed how un-wall-eye-like they were, 
 going to prove how easily any careless observer might 
 be fooled as to the identity of a specimen. 
 
 You who have read the preceding pages of this book 
 know how similar the pickerel and great pike are in 
 habits, therefore you are not surprised to learn that 
 artificial hybrids have been produced, and will not 
 be surprised if some time you take a great pike or a 
 pickerel differing in squamation from any other fish 
 on the string. 
 
 189 
 
II 
 
 A Day's Still- Fishing for Great Pike 
 With Live Bait 
 
 It seems wise, even though I have written of still- 
 fishing for muskellunge, to recount the happenings of 
 a clay's still-fishing for great pike, with a few sugges- 
 tions regarding the tackle and methods employed. 
 
 I had long considered the great pike a fish to be 
 taken with cast lures, cast live bait, and trolling spoons, 
 though I had never resorted to still-fishing methods 
 with minnows. Just why is not exactly clear in my 
 own mind, as I look back over my ichthyic experiences. 
 There was no thought in my mind that still-fishing 
 was unsportsmanlike, for long ago I came to the con- 
 clusion that sportsmanship consisted of something 
 other than tackle. Probably the chief reason why I 
 had not resorted to still-fishing was because action, 
 movement, effort, have always appealed to me. I got 
 to thinking over the matter, the result being that I 
 resolved upon investigating the merits of still-fishing 
 for great pike. The lake to which I turned my atten- 
 tion was a much-fished Middle West body of water, 
 one from which now and then a good fish was lifted, 
 but only semi-occasionally, because the great pike 
 were very wary as the result of much persecution. I 
 got my minnows, then waited for a "pike day." 
 
 The securing of good minnows for still-fishing for 
 so large a fish as the great pike is something of a 
 problem. In still-fishing the angler can use com- 
 paratively large minnows, from six to eight inches 
 long — young fish in fact. One will not undertake to 
 catch such bait with a minnow dip-net, nor will he, 
 unless, fortunately situated, resort to a seine. About 
 
 190 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 the most successful — I nearly said only — method is 
 to fish for bait with a hook and line. Probably the 
 most taking bait is a small bit of angle worm, though 
 bait minnows can be taken with an artificial fly. By 
 the way, the taking of bait minnows with a 2>£- 
 ounce fly-rod is not a poor sort of sport in itself. More 
 than once I have gone after bait minnows in the morn- 
 ing with my lightest mountain-trout rod and become 
 so enamored of the sport that I have fished for 
 minnows all day long. A creek with deep pools is 
 almost certain to offer chubs six to ten inches long, 
 and the one provided with a sufficiently large pail will 
 have little trouble in capturing a dozen or two in 
 short order. (I have just touched this matter here, 
 as I have in preparation a book upon live-bait fishing.) 
 Now to turn to my great-pike fishing. 
 
 I watched over my dozen chubs with jealous care 
 while waiting for the advent of a perfect "pike day," 
 but come at last it did, as do all things for which we 
 wait long enough. I recognized "der tag" when I 
 rolled out of bed in the morning. We had been treated 
 to a thunderstorm some time during the night, and 
 when the sun came up he looked out over a rough 
 lake, while the wind chased the raveled remnants of 
 storm clouds across the sky. I hurried through my 
 breakfast, and, with that old reliable "six-foot-six" 
 bait rod, tackle-box, and pail of minnows, I was soon 
 bounding over the angry waves, for the wind had 
 cuffed them till they foamed with rage. One must 
 have a rough sea in order to secure the most remuner- 
 ative still-fishing. 
 
 I chose my location just off a long line of weeds, a 
 lily bed, where the water was fifteen or twenty feet 
 deep, perhaps deeper. I saw to it that I selected my 
 position so that the wind would blow me off-shore. 
 Then I let go my anchor and my boat bobbed and 
 dodged at the end of her rather lengthy tether. You 
 see, if worst came to worst (which would be the crown- 
 ing of the best) I could sever my anchor cord and be 
 blown out to sea. I could get away from the anchor 
 
 191 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 by a simple slash with my knife in case I connected 
 up with one of the mythical "big ones," in which case 
 an anchor rope might lead to as disastrous an entangle- 
 ment as the murder of some tin-crowned prince in a 
 two-by-four country. The reader may smile at my 
 forethought, but to it I attribute the successful issue 
 of more than one ichthyic struggle, and in this case — 
 but read on. 
 
 I have already said the rod was the old tried and 
 true "six-foot-six," though it might have been the 
 regular caster or long cane pole, though if the latter, 
 then fitted with reel-bands and line guides. Personally, 
 I prefer the shorter rod for the fishing. My reel was a 
 large level-winder, the one that happened to be cleaned 
 and in perfect condition, and there was a second in 
 my tackle-case, in case of accident. It held eighty 
 yards of line. My hook was large, No. 7-0, provided 
 with a ten-inch piano-wire gimp and swivel. I placed 
 a float on the line in such a position that the hook 
 would almost reach the bottom, but not quite. There 
 was such a sea running that I found it necessary to 
 attach two large sinkers. I know it sounds like "shark 
 tackle," but, after all, a big great pike is a sort of 
 shark, in nature, at least. 
 
 I selected my minnow from the pail, an eight-inch 
 chub, that reddish-black variety, with little warts or 
 knobs on its nose, called locally "horned dace." I 
 thrust the large hook through the body of the bait 
 about midway between head and tail and below the 
 backbone. To pierce the latter would be to kill the 
 bait, and I desired that it remain alive as long as 
 possible. Hooked, I tossed it into the rough water 
 and the waves quickly carried it away from the boat, 
 out as far as I would allow it to go. I had a rod- 
 holder in my tackle-box; it I fastened to a boat-seat, 
 slipped the rod in, and settled back to rest, invoke my 
 soul, and admire the view. The reader will readily 
 understand that the waves tossing the float or "bobber" 
 up and down kept the bait in motion. That is one 
 reason why I selected a windy day, though, as every 
 
 192 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 pike fisherman has discovered, all pike roam far and 
 wide in search of food in stormy weather. 
 
 I could not keep my eyes fixed on the red-and-green 
 float for the life of me, the ever-changing panorama 
 before me proved so attractive. The angry black 
 water, streaked with long, white streamers of foam, 
 looking not unlike the streamers of clouds whipping 
 across the sky, formed a picture, the like of which I 
 have never seen on canvas. How many "storms at 
 sea" our art galleries display! But whoever yet saw 
 a wind-blown lake? I was the only fisherman out, 
 therefore I had the water to myself, a little matter 
 for which I think I was duly grateful. 
 
 Perhaps half an hour or more passed before the float 
 dived beneath the surface, though I did not know the 
 precise moment when it disappeared, only I looked for 
 it and it was gone. Quietly I took the rod from the 
 holder, "felt the fish," discovered it was on, and set 
 the hook. Instantly that line came to life. To any- 
 one who has had a lurking suspicion that my tackle 
 was unduly heavy, I can only say I wish you had held 
 that rod. If any doubt the gameness of the common 
 every-day great pike, are tempted to call him a "miser- 
 able pickerel," to them I can also say, I wish you had 
 held that rod. It was a great battle while it lasted, 
 and when at last I brought the six-pound great pike 
 alongside the dancing boat and placed a .32 bullet 
 right between his eyes, I was well satisfied with still- 
 fishing with live bait for great pike, not imagining 
 what a wonderful experience Dame Fortune held up 
 her sleeve for me. It is a fact that good fortune as 
 well as ill fortune is more than apt to repeat. One 
 seldom catches a single fish. 
 
 Once more I baited up, which is always an interest- 
 ing and important operation, for the minnow must be 
 properly impaled in order that it may live as long as 
 possible; for while a dead minnow, kept in motion by 
 the tireless waves, will catch great pike, one swimming 
 freely is far and away more attractive. The hook 
 must be thrust through in such a position that the 
 
 13 193 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 minnow will balance as perfectly as possible; otherwise, 
 when it dies, it will hang head down or tail down. 
 "Too particular," did I hear you say? Well, my par- 
 ticularism has given me fish when the other fellow 
 failed, so I continue being particular. I watched the 
 float bob away, knowing that the uneasy minnow down 
 below could but prove attractive to any foraging great 
 pike moving about. So I thrust the rod into the 
 ready holder and settled back in my easy seat, for I 
 had seen to it that I was provided with a back-rest. 
 No necessity for being uncomfortable when one might 
 just as well be comfortable. 
 
 The minutes slipped unregarded by, for I had all the 
 time there was and was not impatient. That is one of 
 the beauties of still-fishing. One can invoke his soul 
 and think his thoughts without interruption. So small 
 and unimportant an object as the green-and-red 
 "bobber" could not hold my attention with the wide 
 lake open before me. The clouds were thickening up, 
 perhaps hinting of more rain before night, though the 
 constantly freshening breeze seemed to preclude that 
 contingency, and it was blowing from the southwest, 
 too. A pair of loons came toward me, bobbing over 
 the water, facing into the waves in a way that made me 
 envy their power. Even while my eyes were fixed upon 
 them my "bobber" must have gone down, for when I 
 turned my attention to the fishing, the float had dis- 
 appeared and the line was running from the reel 
 gently. 
 
 I jerked the rod from the holder and attended to 
 the reel forthwith. The click and drag had not been 
 sufficient to hold the fish, the waves making enough 
 noise to prevent my hearing the click's warning. 
 Though nearly all the line was gone, no harm resulted, 
 and I brought that great pike back where he belonged 
 in short order. It was quite a battle, owing to the 
 heavy sea, but the rod conquered, as it has always had 
 a habit of doing, and I settled the old fellow with a 
 pill from the .32 and added him to my string, after 
 the scales said he weighed a flush five pounds. I was 
 
 194 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 a wee bit disgusted to discover that the fish were 
 running smaller, and I mentally promised myself that, 
 if the third should be off another pound, I would quit, 
 urged to the decision by the constantly increasing 
 wind and roughening lake. 
 
 The third minnow, a fine big sucker all of nine 
 inches long, was committed to the deep without cer- 
 emony and taken off by something before it had 
 reached the bottom; taken with a rush, too, that sub- 
 merged the float and ripped yard after yard of line 
 from the reel. I baited up once more, only half in- 
 terested in the game, for the waves were really too 
 obstreperous for my craft, and it was large and stable. 
 Hardly had the fourth minnow touched the water 
 than it was taken in a manner that left no doubt as to 
 the fish's intent. As the rod was not yet in the holder, 
 I gave the butt with all the force I dared, and no one 
 can convince me, however impossible it may be, that 
 I did not feel that hook go home. I knew I was fast 
 in a good fish. And the battle was on. 
 
 Before I realized it I discovered that I was drifting 
 away from the weed-bed — that I was adrift. The 
 anchor rope had broken. It was just as well, for if 
 that fish circled the boat once, he circled it a dozen 
 times. My line was new and my hook, hand forged. 
 Neither did I tremble for the piano-wire leader. It 
 came from a tackle house whose name is a passport for 
 quality. The only thing that worried me was the 
 mounting sea, already well past the safety mark. I 
 would have given almost anything for a boatman. 
 For once it seemed that my go-alone proclivity had 
 gotten me into serious difficulty. Eagerly I looked 
 about for some chance boatman, without being re- 
 warded, and I told myself bitterly, "You are the only 
 fool out here to-day." Fortunately the boat did not 
 upset, though the waves splashed in until everything 
 was soaked. The revolver I slipped into the pocket 
 of my waterproof coat in order that it might be dry 
 when needed, though I wondered if I should ever use 
 it. It was a great battle, not so much on my side as 
 
 195 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 
 
 on that of the fish. He did the fighting, I sat and held 
 the rod. Even if he did the fighting, I could see that he 
 was tiring, a matter for which I think I was sufficiently 
 thankful. 
 
 In time I began to catch glimpses of his white belly 
 through the waves as he rolled with them, and I was 
 glad; for we were approaching the shore, and I only 
 prayed that the boat might remain afloat until I reached 
 shallow water. And Fates, the Red Gods, whatever 
 you please, were on my side that day. The fish was 
 not destined to escape, and I was. Suddenly I could 
 catch glimpses of the sand, and with a great shout of 
 relief I stepped out into the waist-deep water and 
 started for the shore, the fish lunging and plunging 
 behind. It was not a very satisfactory, a very sports- 
 manlike finish, but the tackle was good and the fish 
 unusually big. I just run him up on the sloping bank, 
 where I literally fell upon him and held him down 
 while I sent the quieting shot into his brain. The 
 fight was over, the fish mine. My boat came in, 
 a-swash, it is true, but with all my paraphernalia safe, 
 though soaked. 
 
 Eagerly I fished out my scales, shook the water out 
 of them, and lifted the great fish up. With astonish- 
 ment and gratification I gazed upon the marker — 
 zg}4 pounds. It must be written out in capital let- 
 ters — TWENTY-NINE AND ONE-HALF POUNDS ! That, tOO, 
 
 after I had written "The Book of the Pike." Do you 
 wonder, reader, that this story finds a place in the 
 appendix ? Surely you will agree with me that without 
 the story of the undoing of my largest great pike, this 
 volume would be incomplete. J 
 
 196 
 
ADDENDUM 
 
 My self-appointed task is done. Another volume of 
 the series of fishing books I have in mind is about to 
 leave my study to journey to the publisher and the 
 public. It is my book no longer. And I strangely 
 find myself loath to let it go, so much of myself is 
 written into it, bound up in it. I think it is something 
 like the experience that comes to us when our girls 
 grow up, marry, and go away into the world. Some- 
 thing has gone out of our lives, ours yet, but ours no 
 longer. This book is yours, reader, and when you 
 reach this page I hope and trust you will have en- 
 joyed your journey one-half as much as I did mine, 
 blazing the trail. You have found things to criticize 
 and you have found things to praise. Be kindly in the 
 first and moderate in the latter, and I shall be satis- 
 fied. Little book, good-bye. It does not seem to- 
 night that I can love the book I shall begin upon to- 
 morrow as much as I do you. But be that as it may, 
 I shall always have a warm place in my heart for you. 
 Again, little book, good-bye. 
 
 The Author. 
 
 197 
 
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