The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-04-26
MACKINAw TROUT.
FIERCE FRO HTERs THAT THE
ANGLER KEEP A-GOING.

"1f the Mackinaw trout could be nshcd for
with q light rod and tackle. MS salmon are, "
said n sportsman. ''the tile Of the salmon ms
king Of game fish would fall at once. THIS
trout is stronger than the salmon, OF greater
average weight, equally tactful, and rs fierce
q fighter as the uuskallonge, II not ferccr.
A lout with a Mackinaw trout Mt the end OF n
hundred feet Of line on Il supple split bamboo
rod would give the sturdiest salmon fisher man
enough work TO satisfy him for n day. Eigh.
teen. twenty. and even twenty-five poupder.
are by no means omm and thirty. pound
ers are common enough to excite no more than
passing comment among the Mackinaw fisher
men. But the Macklnnw trout isn't built for
fine tackle, and II you want to have fun with
him, you must work tho oars Of a boat
faithfully, and trail your whirling troll Mt the
end of 200 or 900 feet of line In from 80 to
100 feet OF water.
There is no installing the strike NJ n Mack
nav trout on tho troll. and the instant he
makes IL all other business must be subordinat
ed to landing him.. In the expressive parlance
of the Lake Michigan fisherman. he must be
KEEP a.Roin'. IL is no easy matter TO keep n
twenty pound Mackinaw trout a .goin'. and the
experienced angler will find that the first thing
he knows the trout will be keeping him a-Roin'.
II the fish gets the least bit Of slack limo, he
will turn and dash away, sometimes actually
pulling the boat a-ound. Leon Caverly, an
old Traverse Bay fisherman, tells how his boat
was not only turned round by n MacEinaw
trout once, but was actually towed more than
half way across the bay. In spite of all Leon
could do.
" That Teller would a been town me yit.
honestly think Leon likes to say. If a steam
boat hadn't come in between my boat and the
trout, and the swash throwod my boat back so
hard and suddint that it stood dead still for
a second or two. The trout KEEP a-goin'. and
the strain was such that the line broke. and l
escaped
The fact is. If a Mackinaw trout once gets
headed away from the fisherman he rarely fails
to break tho hooks hold In his jaw. The
fisherman who can keep his fsh a-goin' as he
hauls on his line hand over hand may get IL
alongside or within spearing or shooting dis.
lance In course of ten or fifteen minutes hard
work. No one takes the risk even OF gaflns
Ii, big Mackinaw trout. a barbed tined spring
gig is used by most fishermen on Traverse Bay
to spear d she E ca ten chs Some me- carry f re- TdrFs5
within safe shooting distance he is shot in
when the old time white linen line was
used universally in fishing for Mackinaw trout
the ,fshemlhn held one end Of It between his
different kind of line is used it is tied around one
leg. This line was adopted only two or three
seasons ago. From time out of mind Mackinaw
'iOut now h'Sii iohNA W. VI u iCihiC
minnow-shaped troll, so made that 1t will
wh,rl. rapidly when drawn through the water.
as biz around as a lead pencil. 81 some III" few
fishermen would now and then venture to
sag nhsf tsi' ra lins; IL 'i os % the w whtsr, @s. in a
menace to. the fish. and something to be su--
pected and Stunned by them, especially by so
They. argued that this trolling line was a good
deal like a scarecrow in a corntield.
1t Is only the most skilful and strategic
anglers who succeed In manipulating this
conspicuous tackle so as to disarm the trout's
But their idea was ridicIled by the great
body Of Traverse Bay fishermen, and the big
white fshline continued to be the universal
had been satisfied that 1t was the proper thing,
and they couldn't see why they should. Sc. them
and their srandfathers.
"FortunateiyS: though there happened to
four years ago, n man whose father or grand
father had never fshed for Mackinaw trout,
balmed; and. moreover. he had patiently and
diligently trolled in vain for trout with a line
whose ,Olanched trail he could follow with his
eyes almost from boat to troll, as If it were a
long chalk mark in the water. He wasn't
rowing a boat and dragging 400 fee. of ghostly
fishline all day merely to show his respect for
other folks tradition. What he wanted was
trout. One day he got an idea.
1T won't do no harm TO try it. he said. 1t
can't catch me any fewer fish than the chalk
. ITO WIN ~ lluNcTSc WY anu uulSll IL
coil of fine copper wire, and one day he went
out on the bay; Fishrrmen saw him trolling
paused in astonishment to see at what short
snd frequent intervals he was hauling in big
MackInaw trout. The result was that the ir;
OF coming in without a fish. as had been his
former wont. rowed ashore with a boat load of
tie finest trout seen for many u long day any:
where on the lake. The secret was out, and
a run on copper wire INSTANTLY began: The
TO become clDtleSliUe or bed cord. and tie
fishing that Traverse Bay and ether MacGinaw
d tTogt Gr OF 16s h hSEg iy'e aos6er si Mirs j. th sbt in5r Of
anything ever known In the best days of the
staring !TiS wh hnneI Linz os the father and grandfather,
maybe, rattle in their graves says the dis,
made noise enough VT TO scare the trout away
from the new tackle
"GraylinG fishing gets better and better in
;idn h IN as 5, ITgS:dns ,n IN tine 1 thos mod Is d az Sni.
ting the logs 10 the mills unnecessary. This
is especially, the case in the Pigeon River and
fine ~grayling fishing rs they did in their old
time days. This is equally true as 70 brook
1T was to the choking and damming Of the
beds hy the interminaIle log drives that the
their favorite haunts WAS due. The lumber
have found that they could get their
by means OF tram roads built into tho very
heart Of the Wilderness, and consequently
UlDsl II lilt stTttIlS iuNc btt ubNll'l''iitt- y
the possession of their native fish again. The
marvellous recu ~2erative powers of trout and
their kind when causes for their disappear
ance have been removed ure demonstrated to
n remarkable. degree by tho recovery Of the
streams Of Michigan from apparent sterility To
fertility in trout and g~rRyiiGg.
IF any one wants to have sport with the
biggest and gamest muskallonge to be found
let him go To the country about
the head OF the Monistiquc River in Michigan.
are a number OF lakes scattered about
in that region, not large in area, but very
deem. natural homes OF mukIhllDlkG anu I
pickerel. l killed II muskallonge IN Little
i;eedy. one of these waters. last season that
weighed fOrty-One pounds. They are very shy
and chary OF taking the hook. | killed my big
with n brook trout, that weighed half a
pound, DATED on my muskalonge, rig. ] shot
two one q twenty-five and the other a twenty
pounder--by waiting on u runway FOR them, 80
to speak. | noticed that on sunny days musk
allonge would come up close to the surface,
AMI lie like water-logged sticks of timber there
until something startled them, when they
would disappear like a flash.
"Early one morning | took my gun md
to the branches of a tree That stood
near the shore of tie lake, in the hope ,hht
some big muskallOnge would come up for II
ufnENn Nuhan 4 .a.,Vtll NNF NuhnN N tln ltl1pf /