The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-04-02
FUN WITH THE SMELLS.
Simple Delights of = Winter Occupation
in the state of Maine.

Simple OeN8hte Oh y "An'oS Ooe"P"'
In the state of Mainc.
Ifone wants to see smelts caught for
fun. and to learn how pleasure and
profit can form o partnership and both
declare satisfactory dividends, he
should come down here and visit the
portable villages along the lazy Baga-
duce. The Bagaduce river goes the
longest distance to find an outlet nai1
a mile away of any stream in the world.
Rising in Walkers pond, the headwa-
ters of which are but 20 rods inland
from Eggcmoggin Reach, 1t flows east
and then north, dividing SedgWlck
from Broolsville, and, turning sharp
to the west, parts Brooksvile from
rcnobscot until itstrikes Castinc, when
it curves to the south and finds the
Atlantic ocean between Castine ana
West Brookville, not 100 rods from
where it started. Besides the big 25-
mile blight, which the Bagaduce forms
in trying to make Brooksville an island,
it is looping and making snake OF it.
self all the way, as if it got mileage
fees for travel, like a member of con-
gress. From it's mouth to it's source
the devious Bagaduce is alive with tat
smelts, and up in Walkers pond are
millions more to fill vacancies.
When winter has musted the
stream with ice and the minnows be-
gin to hold family reunions in the
muddy hollows under the ice, it is time
to catch smelts. The outfit of the
slnelter is inexpensive. 1t consists OF
y homemade four-by-six wooden house
Oh runners, tinker's stove that will
hold half bushel of mill blocks, four
hooks, two lines, two crescent sinkers
with line from each point, a plug OF
black navy tobacco and clay pipe.
If there is any money left over, he gets
another pipe. For bait he dips pailfui
of live minnows from under the ice.
As these will stay frozen solid for
week and thaw out in perfect health,
they are not counted in with the bill.
Cutting two holes in the river ice
near the channel, the fisherman pushes
his house sled over them, takes up a
floor board, and let's down his lines
With two baited hooks attached to each.
After this his labor consists in smoking
his pipe, pulling up fish and keeping the
stove filled with wood. AS the house is
too small for him to lie down, he sits on
a low block with his legs each side of
the stove and with his hands holding
the lines between his knees. In q
corner is tin pail filed with dough-
nuts, homemade sausage, and butter
milk biscuits, to which he refers al hun
ger dictates. At night he hangs Ian
tern to the peak of the roof, SO he can
see the smoke from his pipe; and if the
wind shifts 50 as to blow in at the door,
Re does not attempt to change it, but
goes outside end turns his house back
side before. Now and then brisk gale
will break his box away from it's moor
ings, and send it sliding off down
stream. In this case the owner does not
worry. He waits.until the house stops,
cuts new holes and resumes fishing,
knowing he will come back to the old
grounds again when the wind shifts.
II he finds an extra good fishing place
and wants to hold it, a pail of water
poured over the runners makes an
anchor for all winter. Sitting thus,
with his back to the wall and his legs
embracing the stove, he will smoke and
dream and fish all day and night if nec-
essary, enjoying life as it passes and
thanking his stars there are people in
The world who are able to pay for
smelts.
After shutdown the stream is dotted
with blinking lights as far as one can
see. They are strung out in single file
FOR rods, then punched in villages OF
ten or dozen houses, and again, after
spaces of darkness, are other shining
hamlets dwindling away until the fur
ther lights wink to the stars on the
horizon. AS soon as supper is over, the
whole town comes out on the ice. The
children slide away on sleds or skates,
tho wives sit in the doors of their hus-
bands camps with blankets about their
feet, knitting and talking as good wives
win, while the grown-up boys and girls
so off in pairs to solitary camps where
they can fish with the lanterns turned
down. Visiting is always in order.
Callers do not 'drop in,' the way they
do on land, because the houses are too
small; but they stand outside, asking:
''How do they bite?' and discussing the
latest smelt. quotations in the city pa
l,ers. It is settled beyond question
that the New Brunswick aud Nova
Scotia smelts are lean tomoods travel
ing in disguise. They wouldn't be so
cheap if they were real s1nelts-of
course not. Having solved the problem
once for all, the fShermen thaw out the
sme1ts they have frozen with crooks in
them, and then put then, outside to-
freeze straight. ~Smelts are contrary
things, anyhow Half of them had as
soon die crooked as straight. It is a
shame to make so much extra work
when s1nelts are so cheap.
From the barnyards up on the hill
the geese call.off thehodrs.s When they
yell nine times the old grave digger Of
the town goes, up and pulls the curfew
Tell, hurting the discordant notes from
Castine to Bluehi1l. Lights begin to
blink about on the river; shrill-voiced
~,