[Rattlesnake Gal]

Lake trout are taken, but not so plentiful or so large as formerly; still an occasional laker of gratifying dimensions is hooked, varying ii size from three to thirty pounds. In June, 1868, one was taken out weighing seventeen and a half pounds. The sportsman is always liable to procure a coveted contest with at least one of these stout and powerful fellows. Deep fishing, is the only mode of taking them: and, proceeding to the approved fishing-grounds in a skiff, with an oarsman to assist the sportsman takes the soundings, which vary from sixty to eighty feet, then lowers the hook, attached to a strong line, sufficiently near the bottom, and nervously awaits the issue. Unmistakable demonstrations from the deep, warning him that the prize is hooked, the sportsman now turns his attention and skill to the work of securing the trout. Practice and prudence are now required for a safe and successful issue of the contest. The fish, discovering his condition, makes tremendous efforts to free himself, and requires to be reeled in and run out with a firm hand and a taut line until exhausted, or, as it is termed, "drowned," before he can safely be secured.

But the pickerel is the most plentiful and the most valuable of the lake fisheries. Summer and winter alike the business of catching pickerel is prosecuted with great success. In winter, it is estimated that five thousand lines are the average of the daily set, whenever the weather will permit. Ice fishing may be described thus: A party of two proceed with axe and chisel and cut from thirty to fifty holes in the ice, this being the number they can properly attend to. They then proceed to sound the depth of water in each hole successively, and set the hook. The depth of water is usually from three to five yards, and the line is gauged a little short of the depth required; a movable signal of colored cloth is attached to the line; a live, red-finned shiner hooked directly under the dorsal fin and lowered through the hole; the other end of the line is secured firmly to some object, and the slack of the line near the signal is attached to a slender twig a foot or more above the ice. All the lines being set, the fishermen carefully watch the going down of the signals, which occur when the pickerel takes the bait. In this manner they often secure large fares, and have lively work to care for all the lines properly. Many of the inhabitants about the lake have shanties constructed on a sort of sled, provided with comforts and accommodations for sleeping and cooking, and, when the ice is sufficiently strong, oxen and horses are attached, and they are hauled upon the lake to the fishing-grounds, and rented to parties, affording a considerable revenue to the enterprising proprietors.

Summer fishing is, however, if not more profitable, much more comfortable and exciting. At this season the numerous and extensive estuaries and coves which indent the shore are all alive with pickerel, prowling in quest of prey among the reeds and rushes along the marshes, or watching for the little blue fly securely hidden under the lily-pads, nuphar advena, that cover the surface with their broad leaves to the very brink of deep water. Seated in the bow of a boat, with a careful sculler in the stern, armed with a twenty-two foot rod and line to match, the boat pushes carefully along fifteen or twenty yards outside the line of water-grass; the hook, baited with a frog�s leg peeled, is handled out and made to ricochet along the surface. The pickerel whirls out from his hiding-place, and, with a powerful muscular movement, rushes upon the prey; at this time, apparently, in a completely inverted attitude. Experts differ as to the best mode of proceeding from this point,- some contending that, as he instinctively strikes his jaws together with great force to despatch his prey before swallowing it, it is impossible to pull the hook away from him; consequently he is sure to be fastened.. Others endorse the theory that he never swallows the bait until satisfied that it is both killed and palatable. Convinced that the frog's leg possesses the latter quality, he is allowed to proceed with it in his own way. Having got it in his mouth, he invariably retires to the vicinity of the bottom, but a short distance, to test its quality. It is necessary to keep a tolerably straight line on him during this time, as he always moves the moment he swallows the bait, and this movement is a signal to take him in. It is believed that the latter mode is much the surest and safest, as it hooks him stronger and more certain, although practice is required to land him safely in the boat. The pickerel is an excellent pan-fish, second only in value and quality to the trout, and is, like the latter, a most important item of New Hampshire inland fishing; and, although he is not found in brooks, or in the cold waters of the mountains, like the trout, he is indigenous to all the other waters of the State, rivers as well as lakes and ponds.