Arizona republican., 1911-08-27
THE HOPELESS MUskALLoNoE,
A Season When the Ravenous Fish
 Goes to Fasting.

Out in the Musgallenge waters of
 Minnesota" an expert in the ways and
 moods of that big game was moved to
 remark, they insist on assuring you that the reason that muskallonge do
 not bite during July and August is that | the lakes are working or are in the bloom, as they call it. They mean that
 the pollen or waste that certain aque-
 ous vegetation sheds and scatters on
 the water in those months spells the appetite of even so vorocious a feeder
 as the muskallonge and that he re- fuses all lures as long as that condf- tiOn prevails.
 The fact that Eastern waters where | there are muskallonge do not have this working or blooming habit and yet the | muskallonge show the same indisposi- | ton to bite during those months fails
 to induce the Minnesota native fisher men-the old timers at Ieast-to change their belief in the late working theory.
 The real explanation is that the big and assuredly hungry fish do not bite because they haven't any teeth to bite with during those months.
 Along toward the middle of July the teeth of the muskallonge begin to fall out. A sort of piscatOrial Riggs dis ease seems to become epidemic with them. and while it is more disastrous to the dental outfit of some muskal- longe than it is to others none es- cape its effects entirely
 Nor is the Minnesota theory correct in asserting that the appetite of the mukallonge is spoiled while his fast ing season is on. Some one has call ed the muskallonge the incarnate ap- petite of the lakes and his voracity Is never greater than when this fish is unable to cater to 1t because he hasn't any teeth. Naturally he loses flesh in that toothless season, but has inabil- ity to enjoy any of the good things that swim about him, increases the savagry of his temper. which is never mild at best. and his constantly raging but futile fury reduces him still more in physical proportions. To see him make murderOus rushes from the am bush of water weeds upon coveted prey only to stop short of it when the hope lessness of the attack becomes obvious to him, is enough to make a fellow feel sorry for him.
 While the toothless muskallonge is thin and evidently weak physically. he doesn't come to such a state that he is at the mercy of the fish he terror izes when he is in normal trim, as the Minnesota belief is. Consequently never took much stock in the tales, based on that belief. some of which are classics in the Woman Lake chain of waters: particularly the one for which Fresh water Ike Jeffreys is the authority, and which records how he saw a two-pound perch chase a thirty pound muskallonge four miles one July run him into shallow water and keep the toothless monster stranded on the sand until he died
 But along in September the musky comes agoin into his own. fitted with a new set of teeth that have a rip. cross cut and sircular saw action and with the memory of weeks of pentup fury and unappeased appetite to avenge. There will not be a minute from that time on that he won't be busy in an aggressive. vOracious. re- lentless campaign against everything that looks good to him as victuals or that serves his malice, for he is mak- ing up for loss time.
 Then comes your opportunity for fun with the muckallonge for then as nev- CT before he will accept challenges of possesses him"