The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-17
BASS FISHING ON LAKE ERIE.
Greatest Breeding Place on the Conti' nent-some of the Clubs.

Greatest Breeding Place on tne CollIl-
 nent-some of the Clubs. Nowhere on this continent is there such a breeding ground for bass as ex- ists on Lake Erie at "the Islands" as they are comprehensively called.
 This is an all important censidera- tion, for the reason that no method has been fund for artificially matching the spawn of this fish. The G0verl- ment hatcheries have devoted years of effort in this direction and finally, says the Ohio Mazazine, have had to aban- don it.
 Teh only way to raise bess Is the natural way. The supplies of young ] furnished by the hatcheries are caught with seines in the marshes in midsum- mer, when the Hopping of the parent l in the water indicates where haul may be had.
 It is different with the whitefsh which in the fall is nettel at the is- lands in such quantities as to supply | the whole country for the winter months.
 | Tn late autumn, after having during | the summer scattered in the deep wa ters of the eastern half of the lake, the whitefsh head for the west in great schools and about the first of the No yember, deposit their spawn upon the reefs of the islands.
 In anticipation of their coming gill | nets are placed the length of nearly every reef. The catches are enormous. The fishermen are erquired to draw the spawn from the fish and place it in i tanks, which are aken to the Gov ernment hatchery at Put-in-Bay.
 There the spawn is matched so suc- cessfully that much larger percent age Is developeI than if it had been naturally deposited by the fish in the lake. In this kay the supply of this great good fish is maintained.
 Teh most celebrated fishing clubs at teh islands are; At Pelee, the Lincoln | Clug, consisting of New York, Chicago and Cleveland millionaires; the Cincin- natl club which is famed for It's iinven- l tion of the Cincinnati bass hook, and the Mosquito Bay Club. whose mem bers are fostly from Huron and San l dusky; at Middlt Island the Roberts | Club of Cleveland at East Sister 1s- land, the Toledo club; It Middle Bass, the Chicago club, with it's elegant sur roundings. But the simon pure fishing club which "has it over them all'' Is ! the Quinnebog club at the Old Hen an1 ! Chickens islands. Its members come i from all parts of Ohio
 The name was derived from the term applied by former owner of the ls- land to the potatoes he grew there. i Whenever his appetite appealed to him he would remark: "Well, boys, I guess I II go up and boil some quinnebogs. :" Trolling Is the vogue at the Hen, as at all the islands It is done In sixteen foot rowboats pointed at both ends, to enable the oarsmen to back into the sea for the release of the snags that catch the sinkers and hooks so aggra- vatingly.
 The limestone bottom Is jagged and uneven and loves the leaden sinker so well that unless the troller is adapt he is liable to lose several pounds of lead in day In order to save the line the 1 Slnk6F IS IdSl6Heu to IL Mlhu dll olul nary cord, which tears at the slightest l jerk.
 Joe Cullen of Put-in-Bay appeared at the Hen last year with contrivance which caused much merriment, but which since then proved to be a con queror of the vicious snag, It is an eighteen inch brass rod with a four ounce sinker fastened to the middle. The lower point of the rod touches the bottom or strikes the rocks as the boat proceeds and merely gl!des over the crevices. Should it get caught the backing up of the boat righa the rod.
 Most of the anglers use three hooks on the leaders and many double and triple catches are made, while Fred Issleib of Marion almost had heart fail- ure when two years ago he landed four big bass on one line.