National Baptist world., 1894-11-02
a REGULAR FIGHTER.
The Mackinaw Trout Tests the Fisher
mans Line and Skill.

The Mackinaw Trout Tests the Fisher
mans Line and Skill.
If the Mackinaw trout could be
fished for with a light rod and tackle,
as salmon are, said a New Yorker who
has been trying those game Lake
Michigan fish, the title of the salmon
as king of game fish would fall at
once The Mackinaw trout is stronger
than the salmon, of greater average
weight, equally as tactful, and as fierce
a fighter as that Goliath of fresh
water fish the muslkallonge. A bout
with one of these trout at the end of
hundred feet of line on supple split
bamboo rod would give the sturdiest
salmon fisherman enough of hard and
exciting work to satisfy him for the
day. Eighteen, twenty, and even
twenty-five Founders are by no means
uncommon, and thirty Founders excite
no more than ordinary comment.
But the Mackinaw trout, like the
salmon trout of the New York lakes,
isn't built for fine tackle, and if you
want him you must work the oars Of a
boat faithfully and trail your whirling
troll at the end of two or three hundred
feet of heavy line in from fifty to one
hundred feet of water. Sometimes the
fishermen ties his line to his leg as he
rows his boat, but the usual style is to
hold it in his mouth-that is, if he is
fishing for trout anywhere on the lake
but Traverse bay.
From time out OF mind Mackinaw
trout have been fished for in Lake
| Michigan with slender, minnCw'
.haped troll. so made that it will whi-l
rapidly when drawn through the wa
Ter, and fastened to a staring white
line as big around as a lead pencil.
| 4 good many fishermen had held for
years that this trolling line was q
detriment to fishing, as it acted as a
! menace to the trout, which are shy and
wary, and that with line less in evl-
dcnce in the clear waters of the lake
greater success would attend the sue
cess of Mackinaw trout fishing. But
no one seemed courageous enough tc
try any other kind of a line until two
years ago, when a citizen of Traverse
| Citv. who was not fisherman, made
up his mind that he knew how more
and bigger trout could be caught, and
he went fishing one day with q
fine copper wire for his line in
stead of the staring white twine
of the fathers. This wire was
absolutely invisible in the water
and when let out with the troll carried
no suspicion to the Maclinaw trout:
watchful eye The result was that this
citizen came ashore with a bOat-lOad o.
the biggest MackinaW trout anyone
had ever seen in one lot from TraverSt
bay. Since then the fishermen in tha
part have adopted the copper wire TO
lake the hide-bOund old sportsmen stlcl
to tradition and white twine.
'There is no mistaking the strike o
a Mackinaw trout on the troll, and tn
|, instant he makes it all othe
! business must be subordinated t.
, that of getting him safe into tn
boat In the expressive and cOmpre
hensive parlance of the Lake Michigan
! fisherman, you've got to keep a Mack
, inaw trout agoin. It's no easy matte
| to keep a fifteen or twenty-poun'
: MdCk1QdW UTOuU tiyS OII dL't CAlC AhS~A
. perienced angler will find that the frs
thing he knows the trout will b
'keepin' him a-goin'.' If the big fis
! gets the least bit Of slack line, he vii
turn and dash away, sometimes actual
ly pulling the boat around, if not tow
:, ing it. Once headed away from tn
:. fisherman, this game and lusty fis
, rarely fails to break the hold of tn
hook. The angler who can keep hi
trout a-goin' as he hauls in the lin
' hand over hand, may get his priz
!, alongside or within spearing or shoe
ing distance in the course of fifteen o
: twenty minutes.
''The Mackinaw trout fisherme
never take the risk even of gatfing
; big trout. Indeed, some carry revo
vers of large caliber, and when tn
!, trout is hauled alongside the boat {
: within safe range they shoot it in tt
head, and put the fight beyond a
question. Others spear their catch'
, with long-handled, sharp-tined gigs
IL n V S,7n