Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-01-09
NO. 3.


Smelt fishing is now at its best up on
the coast of Maine, but the weather is
about at its worst. At least in the es-
timation OF the visiting sportsmen it is;
but those native and to the manner
born think it couldn't be better. They
don't seem to mind little matter such
as the mercury registering 15o below,
and to see their tents lifted from the
ice by the wind and carried upward
like balloon is regarded by them as
only an episode that adds Zest and hu-
NOR to their enjoyment.
A visitor says: When / left there it
was so cold that the holes in the ice
froze over nearly as fast as they were
cut, even with fires in the tents, and to
keep them open required little more
labor than even my enthusiasm in the
sport could well oYerbalance. But
there were scores of fishermen on the
ice when left, for the snelt seem to
bite better the colder it is, and after
December the fishing gets poorer, the
fish moving gradually 70 other quar-
ters.
''Smelt-fshing through the ice, j." con-
tinued. the speaker, does not differ
much from the same mode of angling
for pickerel, but the element of uncer-
tainty is unknewn III the former sport.
You may fish all day sometimes for
pickerel and then be obliged to buy
enough to save yourself from going
home '5kunked,' but when you cut
your holes in the ice and put in your
lines for smelt you are just as certain of
being kept busy pulling out isa as you
are that you bait your hook. A smelt
isn't as big fish as pickerel, but he's
a game fighter, and there is an excite
ment about tending the lines that
pick erel fishing does not create. The
people up in Maine look upon smelt-
fishing as the sport of the year, and
they come from miles about tbe country
TO enjoy il. Even the IndianS from the
far-Dack country tramp into the coast
during the season to exercise their skill
In Turing Smelt. The tackle for smelt-
fishing IS very simple. The line Is an
ordinary stout linen cord, about four
feet long and the size and shape of a
three-cornered tile. This IS called Tile
siDker. Toa swivel i'll the other end of
the sinker Is tied q pink-cOlOred smell,
made of common tish-line, TO which is
attached hook such as Is used in fish
ing for catfish The smell Is two feet
long. the water acting on the trian-
gular sInker, hung on its swivels, keeps
II constantly twlrling about, and the
bait, whIcn Is an ugly-looking insect,
called d clam worm, is always in mo-
ton. Each fisherman will have out an
average of four lines, in as many dif-
ferent holes, if he seeks the enjoyment
of the sport under the protection and
shelter OF \ tent or house, as the na-
tiveS call them. If he, Ike many of
the local anglers, is Drawing the ele-
ments with the sole intention of ex-
tracing profit from tie catch, and
dances and trots about on the ice re-
gardleSS of extraneouS aids to combat
the wind and frost, he is likely to have
ten or a dozen lines TO care for, spread
over q hundred feet around; and If
the fish are biting good he will have
but little time TO think of the cold, as
he Will be kept busy hauling up his
lines and keeping the holes open. 1t
has only beeL within few Years that
such a thing Us smelt-hshing under
shelter was known"