Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-01-30
'CHUGGING" FOR SUCKERS
A UNIQUEPIsCAToR DIVERSION
IN THE BACKWOODS.

A Dingman's Ferry, Penn, correspond
ent writes: A winter sport which seems
to be peculiar to some parts of the Pike.
county backwoods has been occupying
the time of such of the jewellers in the
region as find pleasure in it. In the Ian
guage of the backwoods, the recreation is
called "chugging," and as no one can
'chug" until the ponds are solidly frozen
over the sport is entirely winter one.
1t is companion to the more universal
and higher sport Of pickerel fishing with
tip-ups and live bait through the ice, and
although the chugger occasionally cap
lures pickerel or perch as prize they
are not the game he seeks. His energy
and skill are utilized in impaling the pie
bean sucker, species of which, reach
ing an unusually large size, abounds in
some of the mountain lakes that are
numerous in this region.
To the person who sees for the first
time "chugging" party at the height of
q days sport on the lake the sight will be
a novel and an amusing one. The water
is so pure and transparent and their sur
face so generally unruffled that the ice
that forms on them becomes like vast
expansc of glass, so slippery that without
ice creepcrs one cannot keep his feet upon
it, and so clear that objects in the water
are plainly visible through a foot's
thickness of ice. The number In q
party of chuggers may be without limit.
No less than five or six should be in a
group, however, to make it lively and
exciting. Holes foot or so in diameter
are cut through the ice in line with one
another and five or six feet apart. One
or more immense fires are built about on
the ice to give an impression of warmth
and cheerfulness to the surroundings. All
but one of the chuggers take position
at hole in the ice They either have
sharp creepers on their boots or a pair of
skates of the fashion of thirty or forty
years ago. Each plyer at the holes has a
stiff pole about four feet in length. On
one end of this three or four good-sizcd
fish-hooks are tied, with their backs to
one another on the stick, making a
formidable many-barbed gaff. One of
the party stands few feet away from
the hole nearest the shore-the hole being
cut close to the edge of the pond, where
the suckers collect in great numbers.
This person has either an axe or an iron
bound maui, such as are used for driving
wedges. When all are ready the man
with the axe or maui strikes the ice three
or four times. The sharp "chug,' startles
the fish beneath the ice, and they shoot
out in all directions, hundreds of them
crowding together in schools, to escape
from what they instinctively regard as
impending disaster. They swim close
to the ice, as they pass by the holes
over which the fishermen stand
the hooks are thrust down and as
quickly drawn out, every time with a
squirming sucker or two impaled on the
hooks. The fish are thrown out on the
ice, and the quick movements of the men
along the line of holes and the immense
numbers of fish that crowd along beneath
them are sufficient to keep the air filled
with suckers as they are cast from the
the time the school has passed the ice will
be covered with bushels of the fish.
They will average over foot in length,
and their meat is white, sweet and solid,
but filled with bones as fine as hairs.
The fish, after their fright is over, grad
ually work back again to the shore. The
captured suckers are piled in one big
heap on the ice after each mans catch is
counted and commented on. Some of
the chuggers are so skillful in handling
the hooks that their movement with the
pole up and down over their hole is as
regular as clockwork, never missing a
fish, and never touching their hands to
one on removing it from the gatf, but de-
forh Inv, In rl- e
the pole as it is drawn from the water.
Pickerel, perch and other game fish are
always in the rush of frightened suckers,
but their movements are much more
quicker and their intelligence so much
greater than the sucker that it is seldom
one of them is brought up on the gatf.
Nevertheless, the largest pickerel ever
caught IN any of these mountain ponds
was caught on the hook of an expert
chugger named Shafer, a year or so ago.
1t weighed nearly eight pounds.
This simple but evidently exciting
sport had its origin with one of the early
settlers of this region, a pioneer named
Drake. He settled in the Porter pond
neighborhood, and one winter he was
snow-bound with his family in his cabin,
and was unable to get to the settlements
in the Delaware valley to obtain needed
supplies. The blockade remained un-
broken so long that all that his larder
contained was small quantity of picked
pork. The ponds had not been stocked
with pickerel in those days, but they con-
tanned trout. Drake fitted up two or
three hooks and lines, scraped the snow
off of the ice for several yards around, cut
the necessary holes, and, batting his
hooks with the only bate he could OBJ
tain, bits of fat pork, he began fishing in
hope of capturing trout enough to keep
the household going until the settlements
could be reached The salt pork did not
seem to be a bait that tempted the par
ticular appetites of the trout, and Drake
fished from morning until late in the
afternoon without getting bite. lie
was about taking out his hook and going
back to his house in despair when his
son, a boy about Is years old, came drag
ging into the cleared spot on the ice Il
pine knot, which he began to split up
with his AK. Drake was STOPPING
down over one of his holes in the ice and
beginning to draw up his line when the
boy began to chop. Immediately follow
ing the first stroke of the AK fish by the
hundred went rushing past the hole in
the ice. Drake was startled at first but
necessity quickened his wits, and draw,
ing his line out he jerked the pork from
the hook, dropped the bare hook down
in the midst of the rushing fish, and
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