The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-07

while the laker is a voracious fell
low, when he gets a chance at anything
to eat, l have an idea that he gets along
with less food, according to his size,
than either the square-tail or the land
locked salmon, whose bellies the fisher
man often finds filled with minnows or
smelts, packed in like sardines in box
yet they We're ready for one more and
so took the bait. The lallers stomach
have often found empty, with some
times a little bunch of moss in it which
perhaps he swallowed in taking down
some sort of submarine reptile or insect
attached to the moss. AS an exception
to this experience, however, I have sew
eral times caught lakers in whose stom-
achs We're clubs or speckeled trout
Weighing from one to two pounds, yet
they bit at my minnoW. The laker new
er takes a troll or rises to a fly. He is
almost always flshed for with hand
lines; If hooked from a light rod he
fights strongly and heavily, never
jumping, and he has to be fairly lifted
from the bottom.
AS in the case of the square-tails in
the cove 1 have just told of. the laker
often leaves the deep places where he
turks through the day to cruise along
the shore for prey, usually selecting
places where lodges drop abruptly into
deep water and the mouths of streams.
But once started in pursuit of prey, he
will follow it anywhere, and sometimes
runs aground. Early evening and early
morning are his favorite hunting times.
Seven years ago 1 saw an interesting
instance of the persistency with which
the laker will pursue his prey. By the
shore of Moosehead, near my camp
was sort of reef or ledge, and, as the
lake got low in August, it stood clear
above the surface, closing from the
main lake little pond about forty feet
long by ten feet wide. There had been
narrow connecting channel about a
foot wide, but a little bar of sand had
formed across it just flush with the
water surface. One morning I saw a
/ f1uttering and splashing in this little
pool, and then a fish-haWk rose and
flew to the top of a dead tree overlook
ing the place and sat there shaking his
feathers and looking very sulky. 1
went over to see what was the matter,
and there in the little pond was a three
foot laker, looking in his narrow sur
roundings as big as whale. His back
was torn, and l could see by that that
the fish-hawk had had a shy at him,
but had found him too much to handle.
Looking more closely I saw protruding
from one corner of his mouth the
square-tail of a speckled trout that
must have been at least fifteen inches
long. | had been to the pool the day
before, and was positive there had been
| no fish in it then but minnows, and an
examination of the little sand bar
| across the connecting channel showed
that the laker. probably in pursuit of
the square tall had come straight over
the bar. He had secured his prey and
| swallowed it, but could not get back
Here was a chance to secure a fine
| fish with little trouble; but | had plen-
| ty OF trout in camp, and when ! should
need more would rather catch them
| fairly. | determined to give the old fell
| low his freedom. l dug away the little
sand bar so that there was eight inches
| of water in the connecting channel-I
could not get deeper owing to the ledge.
Then I started in to drive him through
the channel He didn't understand my
| intentions. and preferred to stay in the
deeper part of the pool; and every time
| shooed him near the exit he doubled
back on me. At last I got a good sized
| pole-a small log, in fact, it was-that
| would reach across the pool, and, hold
| ing it crosswise, went into the water
behind him. / got thoroughly wet in
| the transaction, but he could not get
| back past the log, and at last he made
| his dart through the channel into the
| lake, and away to deep water" New
| York Sun.