Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1902-05-08
Two Pickerel
Stories

F$T*SFTT
TENE CABLE had sent word down
VI 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 npto
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 thatwould
have seemed exceedingly like fish
story.
Farmer Bill Leonard, who lives OPP
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.
mice lot,' said Farmer Leonard.
Real nice lot. Fact is, if there was only
about a dozen more of 'em, and they
ran from two pounds and a quarter to
five pounds and six ounces, they'd come
in pretty close second to mess !
caught once in Niger pond"
Mike Pendy put his fish in the icebox
and slammed the door.
II 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 five-pound-and-a
half Niger pond pickerel of mine had
an appetite on him worse than hired
mans.
IN was a cold day, and 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 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 ]. IF
/ land all three o them pickerel I'll
have enough fish meat to last till
spring. 49,.
II grabbed the first line. and had
fight, 1 tell you. to land the pickerel
that tugged at the other end of it, but
hauled him up through the hole after
awhile, and he came up fierce as an ALI
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. e
II had. q 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 picl1erel, too.
had 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.
Il hadn't gasped a great deal Of wind
into me, though, before it was all
Knocked out of me again, for as
looked back at the other two holes in
the ice where 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.
"'1'll be everlastingly spawned said
]. il 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 2:o2 clip. Iyanked 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 I glanced at the third hole.
"Say! I'most fell dead. There wasn't
any pickerel at the third hole. But the
tip-up had it's butt end in the air.
81 didn't wait. 1 hurried to the third
hole. I 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. Iglanced at the 9TH
err 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 decentralization appe-
tite, the way 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 gobb1ed 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 I was landing three pickerel.' y
The tsntinnabulator rang up a sale
with = hump that woke Terry, the
Scotch-Irish terrier. Badly, the land
lordrWxked the floor for awhile and
theG sat doxn in the big armchair.
be big erergot
= - on
poI Inds and tirsI xupys,
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