Litchfield enquirer., 1881-04-07
[Regular Correspondence of the Even. Post.

L1ToHFIELD Conn, March .16, 1881.
 The old town of Litchfeld beside it's beau. ties of scenery and it's local annals of men eminent in the early struggles and councils of our nation, boasts the largest lake in the state of Connecticut. A pretty sheet of wafer four miles long and half mile wide. in the sum- mer, it cuts the landscape with long ripplipg gleam of light, and is thena famous resort of pleasure seekers, who come from far and near to sport along it's shores and on it's waters. Winter in this region of high latitude and low temperature covers the lake with a sheet of ice often thirty inches thick After driving snowstorm the endless continuity of wave-llke drifts losing themselves in the distance make the surface like a frozen sea. The boats are drawn on land, the little wharfs are deserted but the single hotel and three or four board ing-houses still keep open to entertain the fishermen who for sport or profit drop their lines through the ice. This winter fishing, withsits arduous effort, it's endurance of piping blast or cutting stiffness of cold, and it's pro- saic surroundings of bleak nature, may seem dreary theme for the pen; but it has, after sll it's flavor of genuine sport and it's points of interest for devotees of rod and reel who know of it only by hearsay. s~
 As early as in mid October the fisherman begins preparations for his winter campaign. First his stock of small fish for bait must be secured. For this purpose he seeks running spring certain not to freeze during the bitterest weather. The spring he usually digs larger and then sinking box securely covered and padlocked he has a safe reservoir for his min- nows. This matter of securing his winter supply of bait is the fisherman's chief care Without that supply he has lost his working capital in winter trade. With it he not only has Capital for his own industry but often rich possession in itself, for with bait, as often happens in hard winters, selling to amateur fishermen at seventy five cents a hundred, 8 we'll filled spring is veritable bonanza. The species of bait are various. Beside the in fant club and plebeian sucker there are the brook sinner. with his red fins and two golden lines upon the back, it to adorn the most aristocratic aquarium. Still another little fish. the mummy chub," or nibbler. the pest of salt water anglers is 8 marvel of his kind. He lives equally we'll in salt and fresh water, is tough as leather, and so full of vitality that in cool weather he can be poured by the half bushel into a basket or bag and carried alive for hours up-country from the seaslore. Last to be named but first in rank as bait is the pond sinner, & shad in miniature, which after the first frost appear sometimes So thickly in our coves that few dips of . net will supply the largest spring.
 His winter stock of bait lad in, the winter fisherman attends to his lines, usually forty or fifty in number. These from twenty to forty feet in length. about the size of the ordinary brown packing cord, and fitted with hook and sinker, are stretched out, waxed, the knots uDtied, and then are wound upon corn cobs the pith in the centre of which the fisherman stoutly ayers is specially designed by Provi- dence for holding the hook
 A nice invention for holding the lines is the 'tlp-up"-so clever and characteristically Yankee device that it will bear description A pine stick about two feet long and like a section of an ordinary lath is notched deeply at ope end. Upon a pivot in the notch is hung stiff wire two feet long. and so adjust ed that some five inches project from the notch in one direction while the other end of the wire rests near the bottom of the stick Upon the longer shaft of the line is hung red rag upon the shorter, 8 piece of sliding lead is placed, which, when slipped down to the notch upon the wire, holds it poised upon it's pivot. Finally. the end of the shorter shaft of the wire is bent in the form of a half hook. Around the whole contrivance is wound a fish line, and in this shape it is carried to the lake for use. An axe, heavy ice chisel, with iron handle, fitted into a keen blade bait pails, wire skinner and fish baskets complete the fisherman's outfit. .s.
 Let us go now with Piscator to his happy fishing grounds. Trudging on through the bitter winter air to the lake, he selects the area over which his lines are to be spread. In the thick ice he cuts with his axe long ob long hole, finishing off smoothly the bottom with his chisel. Skimming off the ice chips he next cuts by the side of the hole deep slit in which he fastens the bottom of the tip. up. Then the line is unwound. the depth of water sounded and loop made in the line a; the surface of the water while the lead sOunder rests upon the bOttOm, Thus when the loop of the fish line is hung upon the wire above, the bait IS held about foot from the bottcm of the Jake, just the distance at which to in tercept the fnnY spoil below. The minnow is next hooked through the feshy part of the back, let down, the loop hung upon the ben, end of the wire, and the fishing begins The tip-up works to nicety and signals bite in most dramatic fashion. AS the fish below takes the bait he pu Ills down the short end of the wire. The lead weight which held the wire in equipoise slips down, the red rag leaps into the air, where it is held by the lead at the lower end of the wire, the line falls of and IS run out from it's coil by the side of the hole, and the fisherman. now perhaps quar- ter of a mile away sinking new holes, sees the fiery signal from afar and hies him to his prey When several fisherman have chosen adjoining areas of ice and spread their hun dred lines oyer several acres of surface, it is hard to conceive of a more animating scene than when the fish are in biting humor. The dashing forms of the men, the leaping tin. ups, the hsh humping out their life upon the ice or hardened snow, and the whole suffused with the clear light of a winter sun, make a spectacle of which the sportsman's eye never tires.
 Thus day after day, save when uncommon bitterness of cold or driving snow forces him within doors, the fisherman watches his lines His life of exposure gives him rough and uncanny aspect. His face becomes corrugated and red, his hands are chapped and swollen with the cold, and his whole outward appearance often suggests bloated i'll health But is is outward and apparent only. Within he has bounding spirits rugged strength and an en durance of body little short of miraculous. At night, after his days catch is disposed of, he loves to gather amid his amateur brethren around the fire unreeling his piscatorial yarns and drawing tremendous long bows. His luck at winter fishing en our lake, as we'll as some catches of amateurs, is amazing. During the last winter there have been caught in single day by one man sixty pounds of pickerel anC the same weight Of handsome yellow perch and when the fish are hungry it is often i'm possible to keep the lines baited The de structive character of this wholesale winter fishing is beginning to be recognised by. oul legislators, and there are already prohibit tions against it in the case of a good many lakes and ponds in our state.
 Apropos of winter fishing they tell up here a good story of Major K, once we'll known Philadelphian now gone to rest The Major one day went out on the ice to try his luck af ter bracing almost too well the inner mau against the cold. In difference to his station he was given post in a fsherman's hut, rais ed foot or so from the ice. In one corner ol the floor hole was cut and fish-line reach ed from above inte the waters below. Of thi. line the Major was given charge. Meantime two waggish companions planned trick upor the old gentleman. One of them secured $ lusty pickerel hooked it on the line from out side, and let the fish down. The Majors at tsntion was called to humping bite, and h, pulled up the fish with gusto. A confederat, within passed the pickerel outside, and tn, joke was repeated twenty-one times until tn,