The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-04-18
Two Pickerel
Stories

NENE CABLE had sent word down
II from his place at Glenmere that he
would be willing to bet quite little
that nobody had ever known or heard
of such pickerel fishing through the ice
as his lake was just then turning out;
and Mike Pendy, tintinnabulator of
the bell on the Rowland house cash
register, took day off and went up to
Glenmere to see whether it would be
safe to take Genes bet.
He found that it would not, and when
he came back he had such mess of big
pickerel that if old Izaak Walton could
have seen it he would forthwith have
added chapter to his book that would
have seemed exceedingly like a fish
story.
Farmer Bill Leonard, who lives op-
posite Goose Pond mountain, and
knows when to swop horses and when
not to, counted the pickerel. Sixty
three. Pound and half up to three
pounds they weighed out.
"Nice lot" said Farmer Leonard.
Real nice lot. Fact is, if there was only
about dozen more of 'em, and they
ran from two pounds and quarter to
five pounds and six ounces, they'd come
in pretty close second to mess I
caught once in Niger pond"
Mike Pendy put his fish in the icebox
and slammed the door.
ct don't see what was to hinder you
going up to Glenmere yourself and
taking Gene Cables bet!" said he.
"Didn't want his money" said Farm
er Leonard "That -pound-and-a-
half Niger pond pickerel of mine had
an appetite on him worse than hired
mans.
"It was cold day, and I was stamp
ing around on the ice to keep my feet
warm, when, dip! down went one of
my tip-ups with so much vim that
knew we'd have to use the biggest drip
ping pan we had at home when we
baked the pickerel that was monkeying
with that line, and I wasn't more than
the smallest space of a stop-watch get
ting to that hole in the ice.
"But before I got to it, zip! another
tip-up, not far from the first one, left
its feet, and right after it third one
went up in the air.
'Ringbones a-humpin'!' said I. IF
I land all three o. them pickerel I'll
have enough fish meat to last till
spring.
81 grabbed the first line, and had
fight, l tell you, to land the pickerel
that tugged at the other end of it, but I
hauled him up through the hole after
awhile, and he came up fierce as an alli-
gator, and so big he actually scared me.
didn't stop to size him up, though, but
chucked him on the ice and scooted for
the second hole.
81 had longer fish fight at that
hole to land my fish than had at the
first one, but he wasn't an inch bigger
than the other pickerel, so far as I
could see, in my haste to get to the
blind tip-up and save that pickerel, too.
I had a harder fight yet at that hole
than at either of the others, and by
the time had landed the pickerel and
thrown him on the ice, I had to stop
and gasp for breath, for there wasn't
any breath left in me.
81 hadn't gasped great deal of wind
into me. though, before it was all
knocked out of me again, for as I
looked back at the other two holes in
the ice where l had left two slamming
big pickerel Topping, not having even
waited to take the hooks out of their
mouths, not pickerel was to be seen.
Both tip-ups were down, though.
"I'l be everlastingly spawned said
I, if them pickerel hain't gone and
Topped back into the pond again
through them holes!'
"But the tip-ups showed that they
were on the lines yet, and got there
at 300 clip. yanked the first pick
erel out again, dropped him on the ice,
tore to t'other hole, yanked the pick
erel out of that one, and was just stoop-.
ing down to take him off the hook
when glanced at the third hole.
"Sayl most fell dead. There wasn't
any pickerel at the third hole. But the
tip-up had its butt end in the air.
81 didn't wait, I hurried to the third
hole. l yanked the pickerel out again
and reached down to unlock him and
chuck him back so far that he couldn't
flop in the pond again, when I saw
something queer. glanced at the 9TH
er two holes. No pickerel there. I
didn't expect there would be.
"The hooks of all three of those
tip-ups of mine were in the jaw of that
one big pickerel. He had come along
with his $15-a-month-and-fo appe-
tite, the way I figured it out, grabbed
the bait on the first tip-up, hooked him
self, sailed right on and took in the
second tip-up bait, hooked himself, and
then plunged ahead and gobbled the
bait on the third one, and I had been
yanking him out and in and in and out
o. them holes like game o. see-saw,
thinking was landing three pickerel."
The tintinnabulator rang up sale
with a thump that woke Terry, the
Scotch-lrish terrier. Badly, the land
lord, walked the floor for awhile and
then sat down in the big armchair.
"The biggest piekerel that ever got
fast on tip-up of mine weighed nine
pounds and three-quarters," said he.
shying his cigar at the dog.
''Did you land him?" asked Farmer
Leonard.
"He was landed, all right" replied
Badly, the landlord, "but lost him"
Farmer Leonard acted as If he was