The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-02-02
SPEARING FISH THROUGH ICE
SPORT THAT REQUIRES ExHA USY-
LESS PATIENCE,
TireIess Physique and Quickness of
Eye and Hand 10 Fit Out Jug


Eye and Hand TO Fit Out jug
gIer.
Spearing for fish in the winter is al.
lowable in some states all during the
season. In other states it Is prohibited
during certain months. Some big fish
are captured and for those who are
willing to endure the loneliness of the
sport there are some exciting expert
ences. The best fishing is usually hat
on the lakes, although there are al
ways a few people along the rivers fol-
lowing the same sport. Some of the
small lakes, set deep among the hills
afford good places to spear bass and
pickerel, and, while a greenhorn at the
sport will sit for hours without getting
any fish, the experts will generally
land some good ones. 1t requires a
great deal of skill to WELD fish spear
with the quickness and skill necessary
to impale the agile pickerel or the dart
ing bass, and the "tenderfoot's' wild
jabs are amusing to the willy and scaly
denizens of the fresh waters
The fish caught are usually bass and
pickerel, and often fish of from four to
eight pounds are pierced and hauled up
on the ice. The first thing the ice fish,
erman who is going to spear fish does
is to provide his spear and his lure.
The spear is one with from three to five
or six prongs, fixed to a shaft of pine
or other light wood and the barbs on
the spear or spear head often arrow
l. 1T - ILL., two oy
barb, cut in so as to keep a fish from
slipping and sometimes made with only
one side of the barb cut in. The spear
heads vary in weight and thickness. 1t
takes a good strong one to hold big
fish, and occasionally a large pickerel
will wrench loose even after he has
been pierced through and break tine
and get away. But with a heavy spear
he can only thrash around for little,
and if the spear Is held firmly he can
be drawn out on the Ice.
The house or tent for the sportsman
is sometimes Of wood and sometimes of
canvas. When a wooden house is made
it Is a small affair, just big enough to
hold one man comfortably, although
have seen them big enough to hold
eral, the same as tent on land. When
we speared fish through the Ice in
northern Illinois and Minnesota we
used to take charcoal furnace into the
house to keep warm by. The house or
tent Is placed over a hole cut into the
ice and the sportsman sits on box or
seat of some kind ready for business.
The shaft of the spear is shorter than
the shaft used in spearing in summer
and is held in the right hand. In the
left hand the fisher holds a wire on the
end of which wooden minnow is fixed,
the wooden minnow resting in the wa
ter a little ways below the surface.
1t is work requiring the patience of
the Eskimo, the endurance of rhi-
noceros, and quickness of hand and eye
possible only to the experienced.
Your senses must always be on the
alert, your eye fixed on the aperture in
the ice, and If bass or pickerel sails
into the opening you must be ready to
instantly launch the spear at him.
The spear is not thrown down into the
water, but the movement is jab. The
spear is held close to the water and the
motion must be quick as lightning to
effect it's object. Any clumsy prepara-
tory move will be taken advantage of
by the fish and he will be away like a
flash, leaving you with an empty space
to gaze into and a regretful feeling in
your mind.
Some times it is well to move the
phantom minow around a trifie to give
him a speciouS appearance of being |
lively, and sometimes this can be varied
by holding him perfectly immovable.
Pickerel and bass will rush for sthi
lure, and the expert fisherman will
strike them either as they dart or as
they poise in the water and watch it.
You must be careful and not let the
spear shaft slip from your hand and |
under the ice, and 1t is a well to have a
hole bored in the head of the shaft and |
a string run through it and over your
wrist. This may save a weary walk to !
the house for fresh javelin. The |
spear should be held at "ready" for
the shifting or turning of the shaft,
even if almost imperceptible, is liable
to alarm the prey. The jab should be
fierce one, and one of the difficulties of
making it tell is in judging distance. |
Sometimes a big fish looks as though
he was right up at the top of the hole,
when in fact he is quite a little ways
down. Sometimes fish may seem
quite a ways down and yet may at the
same time be rising and thus throw the
fisherman off his aim. Like many 9TH
ar things, practice makes perfection,
and my first experience merely brought
ne pair of frost-bitten toes and not a
scale of any kind of fish The tines or
oarbs ought to hit the fish squarely.
Many fish escapes by being hit by a
Elancine blow. If the tines do not sink
leep and solidly the big fish will tear
away. Pickerel and bass caught in the
summer have borne spear marks from
heir adventures in winter flirting with
he timber minnows. When a fish sails
INTO a mans ken in this way, especial
y if he has been waiting like craven !
mage for half-hour or So 1t sets the
ingle of excitement stirring along in
his veins. He must be as wary as a !
panther If he wishes to reap success.
1t is lonesome sitting in a little cub {
,y-hoe out on the ice in this way for
lours. If you have companion you
annot talk for fear of frightening the s
ish, and If you are alone you must not ]
whistle nor sing. All must be conduct
d on the same basis as the blubber !
unter of the far north, who perches by s
he hole in the ice whence the seal is ex-
ected to emerge.
The scenery around one of those little