Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-31

| Northern Pennsylvania-The Simple
Apparatus Notwithstanding for ..Tip-
UPs'On a Good Day-Landfng the Vora-
cf0us Fish.
from the New York Times.]
HoNEsDALE, Penn.-Within distance of
from one to twenty miles of this village there
| are 140 mountain lakes. They are all stocked
| with black bass, pickerel, and other game
fish. At this season of the year pickerel fish
| ing through the ice is a favorite sport. There
| is degree of excitement and fascination
about this kind of fishing, when the pickerel
bite freely, that render the fishermen imper-
vious to the weather, SO to speak, although
| the mercury may be dallying with Zero the
wind sweeping the surface of the lake with
| railroad speed, or snow falling so thick and
| fast that the line of vision is brought within
| few yards of the sportsmen. These lakes
are all high among the hills Some of them
are l, 500 feet above the tide in the midst of
sombre forests of hemlock and pine. In the
| summer they covered with the fragrant
| and luxurious growth of white water lilies,
| and their surroundings are picturesque and
| even grand. Though occupying elevated po-
sitions themselves, all about them the wooded
| hills rise still hundreds of feet higher. The
| lakes are many of them without visible out
let's or inlets, their transparent water and bot
| toms of snowy sand indicating that they are
literally vast living springs.
In the winter these lakes are covered with
| soon as the ice will ''bear' the pickereI fish
ermen flock to them. Ice formed to the
depth of five inches on these sheets of water
| during the three or four cold days of early
| November, and the pickerel fishing for the
| season commenced much earlier this year
than usual. The most favorable days, fer
catching pickerel through the ice are the days
OF alternate cloud and sunshine, when thaw-
| ing may be more profitable than freezing.
Yet there are fishermen who hold that they
are more successful when the weather is so
cold that the holes through which the lines
are lowered are continually freezing up and
render frequent chopping out necessary.
The tackle used for this sport is simple.
Stout lines, from four to eight feet in length
+ ending in smell of copper wire to which the
hook is attached, and a tip -up''for each line,
constitutes the outfit. The tip-up is piece
of wood three inches or SO in width and a
foot and half in length. Shingles are fire.
quently utilized for manufacturing the tip
ups. A hole is bored through the tip-ups
two or three inches from the center, SO that
one end will be heavier than the other, when
stick a foot or SO long is run through the
hole. To the light end of the tip-up the line
is fastened. A round hole, in diameter from
| foot to two feet, according to the fancy of
the fisherman, is chopped through the ice.
The hook is baited with live minnow. The
minnows caught in wire nets in the
streams, the capturing of them furnishing re-
being worth 81 per hundred. After being
baited the hook is dropped through the hole
in the ice The stick running through the
tip-up rests on either side of the hole. The
heavy end of the shingle lies on the ice, be-
ing of sufficient weight to prevent the min
now from pulling the other end down.
The tackle is then in readiness for the ex-
pected capture of pickerel. A fisherman will
have dozen or two of these tip-ups set about
in space on the ice upon which he can con-
veniently keep his eye. Some sportsmen at
tach pennant of red flannel or cloth to the
heavy end of the tip-up, in order that they
may be more readily attracted when picker
ell seizes the bait and elevates the end of
tip-up in the air. If the pickerel is hooked,
which he will be in great majority of cases,
his efforts to escape will keep the shingle fly
ing up and down like the walking beam of
steamboat. The fisherman watches his traps
from the side of a big fire on the ice or on
the shore, if the latter is near enough the
fishing ground or while he skates about
among them. If there is no snow on the ice,
it is the common custom to wear skates, and
combine the two sports on the ice. If it is
good day and the fish are biting readily,
there is a constant excitement attending the
fishing The sportsman sees one of his tip
ups see=sawing up and down over a hole prob
ably over a hundred yards away. He hastens
to the spot to pull up his line and the pickerel
that he hopes is securely fastened to the end
perhaps on his way to it, up goes another
shingle in another remote part of the ground.
Before he gets to one of the tip-ups it fre-
quently happens that there will be half doz-
en- in the air, indicating the frantic struggles
the pckerel on each is making to release him
self from the hook. It is in critical times
such as these that the skill of the fisherman
is put to the test. The novice in the sport
will in nine cases out of ten lose all the fish
thus simultaneously hooked. In his excite
ment and hurry he loses his head, and in
stead of using the necessary care IN taking in
the lines he pulls them up in such a way that
the pickerel is enabled to give the fatal 'fop'
peculiar to it and tears away from the hook.
The expert fisherman keeps cool, but loses
no time He takes up his line as carefully
and steadily if dozen tip-ups are beating
tattoo on the ice as he would do if he had
only single bite. Slowly and steadily he
leads the pickerel toward the surface. When
the fish's huge, spiked jaws are first visible
the critical moment has arrived. Then, by
swift but steady movement, the fish is drawn
up through the hole, and he is making on ice
the 'shop' that would have freed him if he had
been permitted to make it underneath A
three-pound pickerel is considered a good
catch but a six FOUNDER is not uncommon.
There may be half dozen different parties
fishing on one pond at the same time, and a.
popularity about the sport is that one set of
traps may be kept in constant commotion by
the D1IlQg OF p1ck0E01, Willie uOG OAo III d oCI
adjoining will be disturbed during the day.
A catch O. 16O pounds has been known to be
made by set of twelve traps in a few hours,
while arother of 30, the furthest hook IN
which was not more than 300 yards away
from the smaller set, captured only four pick
erel There is no accounting for this capri
..iousness on the part of these ravenous fish.
The favorite lakes for fishing for pickerel
through the ice in the vicinity of this place
are Elk, Stanton, Upper Woods, Keenes and
Lebanon. The bass that are in the lakes are
true black bass, and as they hibernate in the
winter are seldom taken through the ice.
Besides the large number of these waters in
Wayne county, there are 70 similar lakes In
in the adjacent county of Sullivan, New York,
and about fifty in Pike county. But for these
lakes the beautiful and wealthy village of
Honesdale and scores of other places in this
vicinity would never have been called into
existence They made the construction of the
Delaware and Hudson canal possible, as 1t Is
from them the canal draws its supply of wa
ter, and the canal alone raised Honesdale and
other villages from the wilderness that GOV,
cred this entire vicinity little more than %
years ago.