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CONTENT IN STILL-FISHING The Qiiarry Doesnt Matter MucK if Mentality Aids the Angler. Hits of Irregularity anil Slipsliort 3Iethoils ami Tools All la the Game. Still -fishers come in two classes, namely, the still-fisher possessed of the belief that it is in him to catch" eVery fish that a stream- may hold, all the way front :ne inch in ieugtl to ten feet, and if .he could do this he would, avariciously take them all home. cUisuiiie two or three of them and dig the rest down in the good old Mother Kartli. The next class of still-fishers takes in the- dreamer. The dreamer still-fisher is molded truly of . the clay of Walton. He comes as close to being the shade of Waltoii as any shade could be, and although I know that the great scientific host of anglers arc willing to argue this at length, nevertheless I feel that I have struck uihjii the correct comparison. It is said by some that to be a good still-fisher it is not necessary to know a great deal abont fish or fishing, so far as that goes.. Walton did not know one fish from another, it is said, but. then this does not matter. If a man knows a bullhead from a sunfish lie .will be crowned with success. If he does not he will have to find out by sitting, first on the one fish and then on the other. This has proved an unfailing means of telling the differential I mean the difference between one fish and the other. When a man decides that he will like ever thereafter to be a contemplative still-fisher he is first forced to lay aside his pleasant worries, grouches, bitterness and sour stomach. Kach of these ailments Is cured as one ascends in still-fishing. While he hates to see his worries go, still he feels it must be done. Mentally he says: ".Yes. Ill du.it. The time has come. Ill become a still-fisher," The first thing that ah aspiring still-fisher needs is a pole. There are two kinds. 1 the long pole, and 2 the short pole. The only difference is that one is long and the other one is short. When "vnii see a contemplative still-fisher wending his way to the lake with a pole so long that it gets jammed into the bend of the road have patience with the ierson carrying it. Remember hls-hVitfrMs rn-the-rlght-piaee.- ThemirHl-lstherer THE UNSCIENTIFIC "FEEL" OF FISHING. If one lias some time at his command he can make his own pole out of any self-respecting bass-wood tree In fact, a basswood is par excellence. With it von can catch both pickerel and sardines with agilitv. It is riot necessary to silk-Wind your basswood pole. It has ij delightful, though unconscious, "jrive" to it and when it dries a little it will "set" to any curve that is desired. A few-fancy knots on it only enhancies its value. And now we come to the lntat. I doubt if a man ever was a successful still-fisher who ever went stiil-fisher square. You simply cant fish . in a thing obnoxious about a new bout, especially when it is painted and smelly and all that. You know the kind I mean. You can get down , and mirror vourself On the side of the- craft and -shave if you "want to. Now a boat like that aint treating a still-fisher square. Yo.u simply cant fish in, a new boat. Oh, I know, some try it, but as I say thev are not successful. No man ever was a successful still-fisher who did not go still-fishing in a boat that leaked. If the boat is old and it leaks there is hope. -.But tlif successful boat for the successful stillfisher must not leak to such an extent that one is forced to bail water all the time, because this cause: t6o much use of the mental capacities, besides what physical strain is thrown in for good or bad measure. It should leak just enough so that every fifteen minutes one says to himself: "Whew! aint that Water comin in though. Ill have to get after it or Ill sink." The successful bailing appliance or can for hailing out water from a still-fishers boat is a simple utensil. It formerly was the home of tomatoes, like as not. or Sunny Valley pe:is; This can should never be new. There is not a still-fisher still-fishing in this world who has not a marked aversion for a new can. As a rule this can has been opened, bv a newly married woman who did the awful deed with a monkey wrench and a section of a sword that has been beaten into a plow share. She did it cross-ways, eacii quarter section being turned up and the peas or tomatoes rolled or forked out as the case may be. Thus, when the stilL fisher wants to use this pea or tomato can for bailing purposes he takes hold of one of the quarters, and dipping it half-heartedly into the water he gets a sioonful inside of the can each time and throws it overboard with alacrity. With a can .of this sort in his IHissession a man soon bails out a quart of water with comparative ease; furthermore, the can has other uses. No still-fisher ever carries a kuife with him, so he uses the sharp edges of the can on which to saw off his line when he wishes to change from a sunfish hook to a pickerel hock. LOOSE TOOLS AND LOOSER METHODS. One of the most delightful and primitive things to be seen on board the boat of a still-fisher is the still-fishing anchor. An abandoned poy rope not onlv makes an ingenious anchor rope, but one that will break at the moment you least expect it to. To be successful at still-fishing the anchor rope must break now and then so that you -will drift halfwav across the lake before you know where you are. But if the rope should be strong, and "will hold firmly in place once yoit are, anchored, do not despair. The anchor usually works loose and you art; given the opportunity of drifting across the lake without your knowing what has transpired. The anchor is usually composed entirely of a rock wound around with a rebellious haywire. Not 1m-ing wound according to Hoyle it works loose- with telling effect. The trite still-fisher barf nothing in common with the modem sttll-ftshef who" uses anchors made out of concrete poured into a large can, same having an iron ring in it. The trouble witli an anchor like that is that it is too eflicient. It approaches perfection, therefore leaves nothing to be asked for. If the still-tishers boat leaks, if the, anchor rope is pleasingly dilapidated, ami if the oar-locks are not what they should be, then yon sire on the way to joy. Now then for the fishing. Statistics prove that two-thirds of the still-tlshers of the. country anchor in from four to live feet of water, thirty to sixty feet from shore. Ybii course through, the clinging mosses ami pads and like as hot you are marooned in the center of them and so you are forced to stand up and paddle out.. You soon get outside of the weeds. All right; you pull in the oi.vs. you sit awhile viewing the immediate sur-rouudugs. then you get up and you throw the anchor out of the boat with a whang. It goes to the bottom; bubbles come up; then a clinid of mud. An this done in such a devilishly reckless manner, too. The cautious iisherman would scold you for throwing your anchor over in such a manner, with the double distilled wisdom kindly given you that it scares all the tisli out of the lake. But the still-Usher kuows better. There isnt a UsU that does not want to come over and see who fell in and got drowned.. Having dropped in- the anchor according to Section r.; Clause 2. tin; still-fisher returns to the middle scat, cautiously moving, along bent over, testing his wiry for fear of falling in and so injuring the water. If he is, tlje .fortunate owner of a corn-cob pipe he lights that jiitid tlien is ready for work. The pole is set .upright in: the boat, being careful, hotvover. not to get it caught between the clouds. The pole is held in. this position while the hook is completely surrounded by a worm threaded on in spite xif its feeble protestations. ANYTHING MAY HAPPEN IN STILL-FISHING. When it js perfectly lifeless anpearing on the hOlM it, jsjready -to Jw cast out. If any sign of life- appears the still-fisher does not despair, but continue menacitigMtbyiworkirrg it back and forth on the hook. After , little of this rocess the angleworm gives up, its ghost and is ready for work. But lie.fori: .it is yast to the eager flnnv ones it Is customary to. spit, on it. It is ridiculous, vet nevertheless true, that one has little luck at still-fishing unless he spits on his" hook. Imagine a still-Jisher lishiiig with a bobber on .his line purchased in a. shifting goods store for the sum of ten cents, painted red and green. No! ,wnv with such fancies,. It!. must be the usual whiskv bottle cork or vinegar jar cork or it wont be stilf-- fishing. You throw your pole back and then forward; the bobber, hits, tin: water; the hook sinks iand then you begin to ruminate. Tor an hour the perch are bnring the hook for you and then all you have to do is to pull up every now and then and "re-bait. A jflock of bass" may swim by in plain sight. ;biit it does riot encourage the still-fisher to tri arid lling his hook and bobber "far and fine" at them, knowing full well, through experience, that it is of no use But sometime the still-lisher figures, sometime Ill get a mess of them big fellows." fcspecial Note: There, is the incentive; dont you see Anything may happen while you are still-fishing. tde and glorious vistas open to the view. It may be while .you are sitting there a large pickerel will mistake your angleworm for tin artificial minnow and will swim up and down in front and around it, kind of treating it in a flirting war that the pickerel have about tlietn. Then he will back up aho.ut ,teu .and n half feet; get a foothold an.l will leap for the angleworm. -You have, just before this singular event, been, thinking about something but could not nialce; up your, mind what, thak something wmld be. A still-Hshcr is, always in. peril of thinking too seriously On some interesting subject. Wheii the piekerel hits your aiigleworin. what follows after tIiat";!iandconies progifssive-history. You may lose yoiir fish, but if you do you are not wholly sail. si. bright thought illuminating; -y""r nientnl r.jacitie.stliar f you lisur.orily. vauiht, that fish and if 3011 had two mofe" tlratvqidliitake three to your credit. I ifcnroht whether siiiV Active . still-fisher would even like to catch a large fish I Most generally, you eateJi u .-nmsill fish smd hcoiues ; 111 making :m, jiwful .commotion, for his slze.t You gently nick hint 01T tn hook arid toss him in yon are not overly surprised to catch hint hgalu ! three minutes after.. After.you Iriive again thrown mm in and you csttch htm once mote, while voir are ready to quit, you disgustedly cast over on the other side of the .boat and are. startled to hook it weed n moment thereafter which "pulled just like a tisli " All these little tilings, go to make still-fishing "so besiutifully simple; so enriching. to the prospect.- It. P. ..Lincoln, ;in IfodfisyuVfluu in. Canada.
