The sun., 1919-09-14
AUTUMN BEST TIME
TO CATCH PICKEREL
Once the Waters Chill New
Life Gets Into Them and
They Fight.
RISE TO SHAKE OUT HOOK
Light Tackle Affords Sport
When Angling for Good
Old Home Fish.
RISE TO SHAKE OUT HOOK
by ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN.


articles in Forest aud Stream, heading
them: MY Friend, the Pickerel"
Writers wrote to the magazine sar-
castically to the effect that any one who
could get any pleasure out of pickerel
fishing and who was allowed so much
space in which to tell about Snake
fishing must either be the editors pet,
or had a share in the mazagine.
The dear, good writer Of those artl-
Giles may just as well have written a
heading to those articles: my Friend.
Judas" The very thought was repu-
sive to the men of lofty brows 1t was
a bombshell in the sanctum sanctorum
Of the mighty. The writer of my
Friend, the Pickerel" died a year or
six months after the last article had
appeared, unablA perhaps. to bear the
cautic criticism levelled at him. But,
as have said. those were the days be-
fore we went out for carp with the
fly.
PickereI Good Old Home Fish.
/ once wrote in a magazine lit was
Rod and Gun IN Conddd, believe) that
men like to write about trout fishing and
fly casting, and in reality do their real
fishing for the good old home fish, the
pickerel. the bass and the sunfshes.
Trout often are the far from home
fish, pickerel, never. You can count on
the pickerel being close enough to home
to afford you many an hour of pleasure,
and incidentally enough flesh for the
table to Change the daily fare. The
pickerel has not the ear marks of the
mighty. He is humble. He is pleased
to take his place as the unknown guam
tity of the tribe of Esor.
The true pickerel never goes over
seven pounds in weight; five FOUNDER
may be considered extraordinarily large,
and l do not know of any such being
caught The true pickerel occurs in the
Eastern States. There are two of them
in the East % The banded pickerel,
which is found only east of the AL
leghanies, from Massachusetts to Flor
ida. 1t is a small fish. rarely exceeding
foot in length. CD The common east
ern pickerel is found from Maine to
Florida, Louisiana Arkansas and Ten
nessee. 1t is a common anglers fish In
New England, where 1t attains a weight
of several pounds.
This same eastern pickerel (Which is
also >known as the chain pickereD is
| not found in the middle West or the
North. Many fishermen are in the habit
Of calling Eson moins (the common
pike) chain pickerel, which is not
calling iuoius a plckerel. Common pike
up to twenty-five pounds are called pick
erel in the North. In Ontario these same
large pike are called jack. an eastern
| term for the common eastern piclxerel,
the two fishes differing in a number of
respects.
, On the banded ,pickerel the cheeks
and opercles (gill covers) are entirely
scaled. The branchlos tegals (the bony
| rays under or behind the lower jaw,
| supporting the thin membrane) are usu-
/ ally twelve in number, The color of
| the banded pickerel is dark greenish,
with about twenty distinct curved black
| ish bars on the side.
| On the common eastern pickerel (the
chain pickereD the branchios tegals
| number from fourteen to sixteen.
| Autumn PickereI Best.
Pickerel fishing rarely, amounts to
| anything until the days of autumn come
| on. and then there is a different story
to tell. During the summer your hand
| liner has dragged them head over heels
out from the weed beds. or your man
with the long cane pole has thrown
them out to land over his head.
Or the man with the ocean reel end
the tarpon rod has been trying to prove
| that grass snakes" are near to useless
| as fighters.
| 1t may be that the pickerel have been
| permeated with inertia during the torrd
| summer days. 1 will not deny 1t. But
| once the waters chill A new life gets
| into them. Again they are moving about
| In search of food, and when they take
| your spoon on an autumn day you know
about it.
That same SNAKE" you cursed in the
summer will now rise three or four
times off the water. endeavoring to
| shake the hook loose from his jaw. 1t
| is at such times one changes his opinion
( about the pickerel. They have now
come into their own.
Light Tackle Gives Pleasure.
The tackle for the true pickerel (Which
are mostly not much over a foots
length and a few pounds) should be in
proportion to the fish. Never select
heavy tackle for these pickerel. Never
beuauilty of using a hand line for these
| small fellows and try to get any sport
out of II.
A three ounce rod, a fine line, a No 3
spoon with a brilliant No. l bass fly at
tached instead OF the gang and feathers
is what l call tackle for these sprightly
autumnal fish. When you have taken
five or six of these fine fellows on such
tackle you will forever thereafter have
a changed viewpoint
The fact of the matter is that most OF
the fishing for these fish tand the ar
ranging of opinions of such fish, has
been during the hot summer, never
during the chillier days OF autumn when
all the fish are at their best. Then too
heavy tackle is used such tackle as you
would use in going up against the large
pike and muskies.
l am not stating an eXaggeration here
for | have seen 1t done hundreds OF
times, Take a neat little rod, fine line
a light spoon and a No. / fly thereto and
you have the right tackle for this Ash
The pickerel, like the rest of the pixies
does like his red. Tie on a couple
wavering red yarns OF about three inches
length to the bend OF the bass hook oil
a bit OF serrated, arrowlke red flannel
1t will also prove an enticer.
But the bass fly to the spoon alone 1:
quite sufficient. and II you pay attention
N your casting and spot the right place,
and the right hours you should hav,
luck. From to 10 in the morning anC
from o'clock to nightfall prove to b,
the best hours in fact as the coolel
days come on the pickerel seem to strik,
at any hour of the day. They are feed
ing voraciously TO make up for los
time.
where to Find the Fish.