The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-08-31
Landing Pickerel.

Burdette, of the Burlington Haa0keye,
has been fishing in Lake Minnetonka
He tells the story thus;
I landed my first pickerei the first
evening we were on the lake. l am
not skillful fisherman. / told the
boys that | could do a little plain
fishing, but didn't want to be set down
for anything with any kind of futing,
embroidery, knife-pleating, or anything
of that kind about it. l fished from
the shore, by the sile of a veteran
fisher, Mr.. A. K. Dunlap, of Titusville
He knows every fish in the lake by
name. He can tell by the movement
of the line what kind of fish is at
your hook. Something ran away with
my line.
cts pickerelp' shouted Mr.. Dun
lap, in intense excitement. "a big
fellow. Take out your lines," he yelled
to the rest of them. "Give him plenty
of rooml Play himp' he shrieked at
me. /" Let him runl Keep your line
tautl Don't give him an inch of slack |!
Look out! Don't let him do that
again! Let him run! Now bring him
in this Look out! Don't let him do
that againP'
BY this time | was so excited l was
on the point of throwing down the
pole and rushing out in the lake, in
tending to run the fish down and kick
it to death. l screamed to Mr.. Dunlap
"You take the pole and land him. /
never can"
He refused. He turned and hurled
his own pole lance-fashion into the
woods.
"Herep he shouted, rushing down
the bank about twenty feet, below me-
stopping down and spreading out his
arms, Here Now! Bring him in
here throu h the shoal waterI I'll get
him! Careful, now! CAREFUL Steady
All"
And flip, flap, 1 had him on the shore
He was a beauty. A little sunfish,
about three and half inches long.
1t was long time before we said any,
thing. Mr.. Dunlap climbed birch
tree, in the top of which his pole had
lodged, and we resumed our fishing.
Presently Charley Armknecht coughed,
and said:
Chow funny the frogs sound over in
the marsh"
And then we laughed long time at
the frogs. A long, long time, and very
heartily. They were very funny frogs.
But Mr.. Dunlap fished on very silent
ly, and by and by be said the fish
wouldn't bite when there was very
much noise. So we held our hush and
the fish bit. But they didn't bite any
of us very badly.
The fishing is excellent almost any,
where in the lake. That evening on
the upper lake one of the boys caught
nine large pickerel. When we came
to court the fish, how over, it appeared
that he had caught one pickerel nine
times. 1t was very large fish, and
thew are going to have its skin dried
whole for a spectacle case. l caught
more fish than any one else in the party,
but they were all, with one exception,
catfish, and learned, to my amazement,
that / had disgraced myself and the
lake. Why isn't fish fish, I'd like
to know.
The next day, however, the Burling-
ton party redeemed itself. And when
we went down to Excelsior, and fished
with Armknecht and Foster, we lust
covered ourselves with glory. Whit
more caught twenty-one croppies, nine
big black bass, none of them weighing
over six pounds, and four pickerei.
Foster caught sixteen croppies, thirty
two sunfsh, pickerel as big as
bologna sausage, six large bass, one
of them weighing four pounds. Arm
knecht caught thirteen big bass, none
weighing less than two pounds, six
pickerel end twenty-six croppies. l
caught smoked halibut, box of sar-
dimes and some canned salmon.
Come up to Lake Minnetonka if you
want to fish. Why, the fish here will
come to the hook of stranger ever so
much more readily than they will to
that of native. Come up here and
try them. Drop them a line. If you
haven't time to do that, drop them
postal card.