The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1910-05-18

| Wnen the next IueSday morning
came, again they were out. The boat
was kept as great distance from
shore as Lee could cover with his
longest casts, and just as the casting
minnow fell straight out from the
middle treetop, there was a great
swirl in the water. Lee struck and
the reel began to sing as the great
fish started a tremendous run; but
in an instant the line came back
slack. The saber-like teeth of the
maskinonge had cut it off like a
knife.
"And what can we do about that?"
said Carl, as Lee sadly reeled in the
useless line.
II don't know yet, but I have an
idea" said Lee.
The next Tuesday morning Lee was
not ready to try for the big fish again,
although it was almost torture to
stay away from the old treetops. He
promised to be ready the next week,
and he was. What he had done had
surprised his mother, who knew that
he had been saving every cent in the
hope of going to college. He had
sent away to a fishing-tackle house
for their largest first-class silk line,
and received one hundred yards of
line that was tested to fifty pounds.
He had sent to an electrical supply
house for their smallest unwound
copper wire, and had received spool
of it, almost hairlike in its fineness.
Both purchases had been expensive
for him.
From "Old Injun Jake" Lee had
learned the are of doing fine splicing
and of braiding many strands. He
unbraided the silk line for a consid-
cradle length, and weaving in one
by one the copper wire lengths that
he had cut from the spool, he Joined
the wire to the silk with a joint that
would readily pass through a line
guide, and continued to braid till he
had six-foot, flexible copper leader
that would sustain his own weight,
united to his one hundred yards of
| iihS WIFI q Joihl do sIIoh5 do lhe
line itself. Thus did he provide
against the teeth of Old Muskie.
Tuesday morning the boys were
again fishing in Forest Lodge Cove
at daybreak. Again Old Muskie
struck, and unable to cut the line,
rushed into the interlacing boughs
of the submerged treetops.
For a while the strain on the rod
indicated that he was surging back
and forth among the treetops, but
soon the dead pull showed that the
old warrior was no longer making a
fight.
Rowing in, the boys found the
casting-bait fast on one of the limbs.
When. they got it loose and pulled it
in, they found that one of the treble
hooks was gone. Old Muskie in his
rush had caught one Of the hooks
upon branch and it had held, while
the one that was in his mouth had
pulled from the minnow, and the big
savage of the lake was again at lib
erty.
Lee made a change in his minnow
before the next Tuesday morning.
Instead of using the treble hooks
that were fastened with screws into
the sides of the minnow, he bored a
hole in the body of the wooden bait,
and using again the copper wire,
passed it back and forth through the
body of the minnow and through the
eye of the treble hook On each side.
He knew that no fish would break all
these strands of copper wire, al
though he felt that Old Muskie might
break the hooks.
The next Tuesday morning Lee
again hooked Old Muskie. Again
the big fish got to the treetops, and
again Lee felt the dead pull that
meant that he had no longer fight
ing fish to deal with. Keeling up as
Carl padded the boat toward shore,
Lee found that Old Muskie had en-
tangled the line among the branches,
and getting chance to use his great
strength, had broken the heavy silk
line. Lee was delighted to see that
it had been broken above the point
where he had spliced it to the copper
leader.
"What can you do about that?"
asked Carl.
I'm not sure" said Lee, 'but
every time thus far the old fellow
has run straight away from the direc-
tion in which l was reeling my min
now. ! believe that If we come at
him from near the shore he will take
a run toward the open lake, and we'll
have chance at him"
During the week that followed,
Lee again spliced copper leader to
his line. Again he made over" a
big casting-minnow, and when Tues
day morning brought its opportunity
Carl put the canoe along the shore,
but as far out as the end of the sub
merged treetops. Three casts were
made, each farther and farther for
ward, without results. The fourth,
however, perfect cast of over one
hundred feet, which fell just beyond
the farthest treetop, was rewarded ;
the uofar brnEa in n great addv ae