The sun., 1919-09-07
AUTUMN Is BEST
TIME FOR FISHING
After First FrOsts Big Fish
Found in Shadows; Min
nows Hugging Shore.
CAUTION ESSENTIAL NOW
Bass, Pickerel, Pike and Mus
callonge Take on Renewed
Life This Week.
CAUTION ESSENTIAL NOW
~ ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN.

THE bars are down on fishing June
IT," the newspaper writer inevitably
comments what time the fishing season,
especially for bass, legally opens, thus
conveying the impression that fishermen
are held in a large internment camp
gazing wistfilly through the fence. the
bars finally being pulled or dropped
to let them out to clover on the sixteenth
day of June.
The newspaper writer does not tell
when the bars are again showed into
place, but about the time that the last
August days come to an end. when the
Palm Beach suits vanish. when the lady
like canoes melt into forgetfulness and
those who have whispered sweet moth
ings are finally installed in their two
by four fiat, 1t is then the summer fish
erman adjusts his wilted collar and re-
turns to his tasks till the coming sea-
son.
He puts up his rod. arranges his
lures in his tackle box, locks them down
and SO doing leaves behind him the
choicest fishing, of the year. Autumnal
fishing on all counts is the finest fishing
in all the year.
New vigor with Autumn.
The first frosts are liable to come
during the early part of September. AS
soon as they do come they mark the
end Of the days of inertia in all life A
new vigor steals through the body. The
eyes clear out. One is spurred on by
the wine in the air to a deeper and
greater appreciation of all nature.
The fishes that have tarried In the
: teeps OF the lake, doing most of their
feeding at night, now spend less and
lees of their time in the deeps and more
and more of their hours in the COM
paratively shallow water.
Some September day you will witness
a strange sight. right after the first
frosts There will be fish everywhere
in the shadows. The minnow schools,
for their own safety, will again be
hugging the shores and the preying
fishes will be after them with greater
ayidity than ever. The pickerel. pike
and muscallonge are now active; their
new teeth have come into place. Their
flesh may have shown softness. fiabbi-
ness, during the late summer. Now
their muscles harden and they pierce
the water like an arrow.
Caution Brings Success.
AS the days of stiffness come on
great caution is born in the fishes Just
as sounds carry far on Land, so sounds
carry in the water. splash along the
shore Will be heard for great distance.
Caution the fisherman must use, and the
more caution the better.
This may account for the still fisher
mans success during the autumn days.
HIS boat floats the lake soundlessly. like
an autumn leaf on a stream. He makes
no move that is i'll timed He drifts into
a bay and fishes quietly-a quiet posi-
lively in keeping with the stiffness of
the day.
The true angler matches his skill with
the fish in the autumn. He catches no
fish whose sides are bulgtng with I'M
cast spawn eggs. Save very few spe-
cies. all the fish have gone through the
acts of procreation., Not so in the early
part of the season.
Most of the fishes Especially the
bass) will not cast their eggs till the
water has reached a suitable tempera-
ture, and IL the warm weather is back
ward their eggs are held while they wait
for the right temperature to come along.
The peening of the bass. season may
therefore find the bass unspawned, or the
10th of June may find them on the spawn
nests doing their duty by the f1nny gen.
erations. It all accounts for the large
catches made in the early part OF the
season, where the open time begins on
June l.
The south shore Of a lake is always
pointed out by fishermen as being the
best place to 81 for them. The reason Is
simple Here the bass and other fish are
spawning. The fisherman casts his arti-
fetal (say a wobbler) here and there.
Sooner or later 1t crosses spawn nest,
where a male and female are doing
time.
In anger the male will hit the lure to
rid the waters of 1t and so protect his