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GOING AFTER SUCKERS Plebeian Fish of American Rivers Is Early and Eatable EatableRomance I Romance of the Quest LeailN Willy to toHigher Higher Fishing Flight Hooks Hooksor or Snares His Tools The sucker is a decidedly plebeian fish accord j ins to the Tank given him by the people as a whole j ypt nevertheless he has many stanch friends T writes K W Brockway in Field and Stream Coming up 1 the brooks in the early springtime from the c coves and rivers he is the first freshwater fish 0 of the season and carries with him a sort of r omance dear to the heart of the youngster in knee t rousers and to many old Iwys as well Tliere is h lardly a brook in New England especially but t lint has its enviable sucker hole Here in the j early morning before the dihgdong summons to s gather in the little district schoolhouse many a c iliubby freckledface Willy or Johnny or Sammy j s seen bearing a long cut ppple with a trio of j looks bound snugly together dangling a few Inches J from its tip or else in place of the hooks a shining r piece of copper wire formed into a snare Little Willy knows the game yes sree Watch him as he s scampers along the road and draws in at the big i boulder just above Benton9 Bridge The current if the brook as it winds about the big boulder during its ages of activity has worn away the bot j om soil of the stream and formed the deop hole where the big follows love to lie in their lethargic way and where little AVilly with his unbounded en husiasm and alertness likes to worry them Carefully themCarefully Willy thrusts the tip of his pole to the depths of the hole and guides it along until the jooks or the snare come in contact with Mr Suckers head then Willy gives a smart twitch and i Mr Sucker is pretty likely to be a squirming flopping captive He throws him out on the bank J and repeats his efforts time and time again lle nakcs many misses to be sure for Mr Sucker i is not always so sleepy as he would seem to lie Most generally some of the townspeople are driving by during Willys capturing period and a nickel or a dime is tossed to him for a mess messDELIGHT DELIGHT OF TOTTNG AND OLD BOYS BOYSWilly Willy doesnt generally have a set or standardized price for his offerings and he is likely to fall t a willing prey to certain crafty bargain seekers But when lie sees old Judge Bennet coming along 1 his face takes on an added smile for the fatherly i spirited old lawgiver has slipped him many a quarter for a mess And that isnt all1 almost j always he stops for a moiherit and tells Willy how 1 that Avlien he was a youngster he used to catch the old fellows in the same way and in the same old hole and that he wished those good old days askeili i were back again And one day he even askeil Willy if he could go suckering with him and Willy felt pretty fine to have such a smart man i as the judge beg an invitation from him Tes goln suckerin is a sport that comes around every springotiieyear with the same in i viting allurements I stated that it carried with j it a sort of romance and this I emphatically repeat It omes at just that time when the air is begin ¬ ning to show some stability of warmth and the gentle breezes which accompany 1t are not only a j physical tonic but a mental one as well after the long cold months of winter Along the banks of the brook the pusspwillows are beginning to unfold their fat downy little bodies under ithe warmth of the springtime Surtaud the songbirds are twittering and Tvarbling and caroling as they flit from tree to tree selecting their mutes and places for their future homes There are pro ¬ tected places along the banks of the brook where the grass roots are beginning to send out their tiiiy wholesome blades and there is a subtle fragrance in the air a flourishing bed of trailing arbutus lying close by the old stone wall up the brook only a little way has caught the spirit of the season as the soft invigorating breezes bearing the wholesome freshness of the whole countryside has fanned its bosom of pinkywhite And so when little Willy goes suckerin there is born within him a whole some spirit of a great and wonderful romance the like of which can be bestowed only by the all encompassing touch of Nature Perhaps little Wil ly doesnt catch the spirit of the thing while he is intent on landing a bouncing sucker but it has been implanted there just the same and if he has the right stuff in him It will live with him and come back each returning spring whatever may be his life work or however far from home he may roam The venerable old judge caught the romance of the thing away back in his youngster days and longed for a recurrence of those days And so it will be with every rlghtminded lad who goes asuckerin But it isnt only the romance of the thing which will linger There will be another thing which will appeal to the most practicalminded matter offact people not all of them as I have stated at the opening of my article but to a great many that thing is the eating of the sucker Taken in the early springtime before the torridity of the heat has softened his flesh he furnishes a delicious dish It has been my lot for two or three years to be obliged to dine at hotels and restau ¬ rants and when I order up certain kinds of fish which for relishable qualities have the sanction of the masses I would like nothing better than to order in their stead a generous serving bf fried or broiled or baked sucker which had been caught early and served early after being taken from the brook I would offer no apology in placing such a dish before the President Like nearly everything else human attitudes change and for aught I know the sucker may one day rise from the ple beian class as a food fish to an exalted station Anyway I would do all that I could to lift the unwarranted ban of censure placed upon him Other fish of lesser worth have made this ascendancy and so I shall live in hope to see the sucker come into his own ownJJ As a sporting fish he cannot be ardently sup ported I admit when the term is used in all the bareness of its meaning But to one possessed with the mind and soul of the old judge he is eligible for tills characterization For when such a one sits by the fireside and whiffs the odors emanating from the frying pan when the good old sucker is being crisped there is mingled with the odors the subtle fragrance from the bed of trailing arbutus lying close by the old stone wall and the twitterings and warblings of songbirds join in the music from the frying pan as the water of the sparkling brook curls majestically about the big boulder replete with joy because it has shaken from its bosom the icy fetters of the winter If ones mind and soul are properly attuned and if ones stomach is open to conviction one gets all of this by going asuckeriii early in the1 spring springotheyear otheyear when the world is glad and joy comes into things
