The daily gazette., 1877-07-14
PAN-FISH ANGLING.


from his business, and expend all amount
Of money not only greatly disproportlon
ate to the sport, but quite beyond the
means OF many ardent anglers, before lie
can think Of indulging in fishing for
salmon, trout, pOmpano, or any other of
the more famous game fish of America.
But it las became quite "iashionable'
TO affect knowledge of angling as prac-
tic,.d in takiug these larger fishes, while
the charming sport OF angling for the
s.smaller frl,' or pan fishes, has been
ignored or pooh-poohed as chlld's
play.
1t is a part of the sad experience Of
every man VINO has been i'll the habit oil
breaking away from business in the trout
ing or salnon-fshipg season for a few
weeks sport with these fishes, that much
Of the recorded pleasure of such recrea-
ton is more tie result of mere after
thought than of fulfilled anticipations OF
rare sport. Tired limbs, drenched clothes
sullen fish that would not rise, long
tramps to uninhabited pools, veXatiOns OF
thousand shades, fill up large parc OF
the true history of the summer eXcur-
SONS of the amateur anglers to our
many noted fishing regions. l have
known not few cases where an expert
enced sportsman has returr ed from a
months stay in one or another If those
regions without having killed as many
fish as himself could have eaten in the
time. OF course each angler, under su, b
circumstances, has many excuses to offer
for his i'll luck not one of which tends 10
IL l..t ha it,V a Itt
| indutIabe, viz, that these excursions
| never pay, i'll ANY sense of the word. But
| it is not my purpose to dacry angling FOL
heavy fish, Or to deny that right roNal
sport can be had with salmon on the
Canada rivers, with blue-iish along the
atlantic coast, and with trout in The
Northern brooks. On the contrary,
can bear testimony to the exciting and
fascinating nature of a strong battle with
"a twenty or thirty pound fish of any SOFT:
and as for brook trout, when they are tC
be found, they are full Of sport. " hal
| do maintain is that the commoner and
generally overlooked fishes of our little
inland brooks, or "creeks," as our peo.
pie call them, are capable of aifording
excellent pastime, without any of the IN
convenience and with very little of the
toll and expense, attendant Oh trout, sal
mon, or coast fishing.
Take, for instance, stream not over
four or five yards wide, and Of an average
depth of three feet, with here and there
still pools of double that depth Of blue,
pure, but Opaque water, in which you
find small bass (say, a pound and a hall
for the heaviest fsh), shoals of google
eyed perch, sun perch, yellow perch
, sinners, and red club. Here you may
| depend Oh week or two Of quiet sporI
at any time during the month Of May
June, and July, if you but know how tC
get al your business There are hun
dreds of such streams in the United
States into which a genuine angler ha!
never cast hook, and that, too, in ou
most thckly settled regions, within al
hours travel Of large cities. Find sucl
a stream, and at almost every pool, il
season and out of season, you will see
man or boy, mayhap woman, tishin,
with the conventional rod, line, am
anglewOrm snatching out the spot-tai
minnows ard an occasional sun-percl
but such people do not dream of ''goggl
eyes" and bass, or, if they do they impal
live minnow on great big hook, ali
patiently await impossibihtes. hopin
against hope that half pound bass vii
attempt to swallow a siX-inch fish. 1t
a very interesting surprise to these sylvia
conservative fishermen when you appea
among them armed with your fragile
looking bamboo rod, with its hundre
, foot silk line and nickel plated stop rec
, your flies, your spoons, your artitcii
grasshoppers and counterfeit worms
surprise, l say, and an interesting one.
them, because they soon discover TIL
their streams are really well stocked vii
fine game fish.
remember an old fellow who said !
had been for forty years fishing in lit
stream of Middle Indiana, who was L
terly taken aback, when he saw me Il
sixteen fine gogele-eyes out OF pool
sight of his home He had alwa
i caught few with worms early in Il
n spring, but they weresinvariably sma
+ He had never seen as large ones as tho
d killed; but no one had ever before c;
spoon and fly in that water. .-MAURI
Thompson, i'll Harper'S Mdgazine ]
august.