The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-23
HE DID CATCH PICKEREL.
Twenty-nine Of Them; but Col. Mccain
went Home With No Fish.

Went Home Win NO FIN,
II ought to have known better than to
try 1t again. said Col. Joe Mccain, the
tourist ticket man, but l had gone Gus
after pickerel and Of course wanted to get
some. Up in Pennsylvania II was.
THE pond wasn't a very big one where
I tried for 'em first, but they told me I'd
surely ger some pickerel there.
Take q pretty big sized live bait and
you'll get 'em sure they told me.
$50 l hooked on a sinner maybe five
inches long. ! hshed with that bait an
hour. Every little while I'd get what acted
like a bite. I'd yank up my line, but there
wouldn't be anything on my hook but the
sinner, good and lively. Then by and by
I noticed that the sinner was swelling up
like everything.
IN bet something or otser.' said J.,
that my hook has just as like as not given
that bait fish a case OF blood poisoning
so when I pulled 1t out Of the water
again I took the hook out Of 1t and dropped
1t In the boat. 1t died In a little while.
Then I thought I'd just open II and zee
what allied IL anyhow. I found nine pick
erel in 1t. The pickerel In that pond were
so blame small that the bait fish had caught
and swallowed nine Of EN-.
what I'd ought to AVE done was to
come right home then, but ! had gone
there to get pickerel and I hated to give
up that way. / heard Of another pond. a
private one, that had pickerel in 1t that
weighed not less than three pounds. That
was big enough for me and I said / would
60 and try that pond.
4The man that owned it charged a dollar
-. 49, n.ltx- ,-ix,;ln-a and ten ranta anioCA
for all the pickerel you caught. That was
all right, for I didn't care to catch more
than Q dozen or 30 and 1t would be cheap
enough. So I went to hat mans pond.
paid him his dollar and went to fishing.
"'As you ketch en- says he, turn 'em
into this Slated box ] keep u at the
edge o. the pond here. That lets EN- keep
alive and fresh, said he.
Il said all right. One end Of the Slated
box stuck up a little on the shore with an
opening in it to put the fish in. I hadn't
fshed long before I landed a dandy-a
three FOUNDER, good.
AHA" said the owner OF the pond.
Them's the kind! Put him in the box!'
Il put him in the box and fshed some
more, and in a little while landed another
pickerel, q match for the frst In size.
l put him in the box to keep alive and fresh
along with the other, and in less than half
an hour l had made three more catches and
dumped EN- in the box.
~ soxi' said the owner OF the pond.
That's the way to do 1t. Why, you're a
reg'lar old boss at pioker'l fishin'.' said he.
Il grinned as much as to say that J wa 8
aware Of it. and fished on. Seems to me I
never had such sport, 49,.
"The pickerel I landed were remarkably
| uniform in size, and / was so tickled that l
had yanked out eighteen before / began to
think that maybe | had enough. At the
eighteenth the pond owner said:
II got to 50 do the milkin' row. and the
eighteen II be $i.so. II you ketch any more
fore you 60 an IN git IL tomorrow
Il paid over the dollar eighty and the
man vent away. In the course Of half an
hour I had made two more catches.
Twenty said L. 4. guess that'l be
about all I want to lug in Of pickerel the
l went over to the box to haul it out and
| string my fish. 90
AThe box came out 80 easily that l was
surprised. and the reason it came out easy
was in it. There was a slat OF the sunken
end Of the box. and out OF the hole 1t left
the pickerel had gone back into the pond
as fast as 1 put 'em in theb box. =.
Can o imagine me about thenp. II
you can don't speak 1t out loud. And on
my way in l began to think. / told my
tale of woe to the landlord.
"'Ketched twenty. eh?' said he. Why.
Bill Legg must have added q couple g
new ones to his pond. then. He only cal
| c'lated on eighteen last year. That box
fer keepin' EN- alive an fresh in is q great
idee o. Bills. Better a ding sight than
any game law fer protectin' the pond from
bein' fshed out
aBut the more I've thought it over the
more I'm convinced that the landlord lied
like Sam Hill about the owner OF that pond.
He never had more than n pickerel in
his pond, and nobody can make me believe
he had. One big pickerel. trained and on
to his job. and I had Just stood there and
landed him twenty times Mt 10 cents per-"