The mirror., 1919-03-13
Sport of Winter Fishing
Continued from page u

tContinued from page il
As your decoy is worked with circular
motion its tail must of necessity act as
rudder, and should be carved with decided
swing to one side. This calls for rather ex-
pert carving and some fishermen insert a
metal tail in slit in the body and by bend
ing it get the desired result. Fins are also
inserted in Sits in the body and are cut
from sheet of bright nickeled metal or
fashioned from the spoons of discarded
spoon hooks. By bending the forward
pair of fins slightly upward and the back
pair slightly downward you can impart to
your decoy an extremely natural darting
motion. You can add ballast by carving
long cavity in the belly and filling it with
molten lead. On the top and slightly for
ward of center, insert screw eye to at
tach your cord to. Eyes are made of beads
or buttons securely fastened in little hol-
lows in the head. Give the surface of your
decoy coat of ground color. When this
is dry the markings are painted on with
good enamel paint. Judging from decoys
have seen this is where Imagination runs
riot. They are generally bedecked with
efforts of the gold fish breeders of the orient
achromatic in COMPARISON. And the queer
part of it all is that every fisherman swears
by his own pet decoys and not without
reason for if he but have the knack of
driving his spear swiftly and surely to its
mark, he attracts fish and gets them,
aplenty.
know not what prompts big, wary
pickerel to swirl and rush viciously at such
a me- lange of color, but he does it. 1t
may be the tiger in him or it may be that
bright colors simmer in the depths in a
perfectly natural and appetizing way.
Upon arriving at the lake with your out
fit, move your house over the ishing hole
carefully bank up the sides with snow to
exclude all light from beneath and keep the
floor of your shack free from draughts.
If this is your initial trip you had better
place your house near the colony of houses
usually found on the lakes, or in the alb
sence Of these, try and find the bars and
shallow, sandy bottoms in five or ten feet
of water, which the pickerel love SO we'll,
and locate thereon. The fish in early win
ter are more or less inactive but, neverthe-
less, are often found aimlessly meandering
in the shadows. Later on hunger forces
them into rapacious mood and then they
strike savagely at your decoy exasperated
no doubt by the wiry' little minuows which
elude the big, sluggish fellow so easily.
When you are snugly ensconced in your
little shack and ready to work your decoy,
drop small handful of shelled corn into
the hole. While some fishermen consider
the corn as a necessary part of the bait,
have found its greatest usefulness in fur
nishing bright background on the dull
colored bottom against which fish lazily
drifting into the hole will be instantly sill
houetted.
Remember that cit is not all of fishing
to fish,; that the beauty of the winter lakes
and woods, the friendly advances of the
CHEEKY, little winter birds and the stimulat-
ing activity in the pure winter air are as es-
sential to your complete enjoyment of the
sport as the mere procuring of fish. The
sport of winter fishing has all the attractive
ness of any angling and will make you
healthy in body, wealthy in memories and
wise in new and interesting ways of enjoy
ing our sparkling northern winters