Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu3 1924003257569 hc Rew Pork State College of Agriculture At Cornell Aniversity Ithaca, N.. DB. Librarp IN THE ROCKIES THE BOY'S OWN GUIDE TO FISHING TACKLE-MAKING annv FISH-BREEDING BEING A PLAIN, PRECISE AND PRACTICAL EXPLANATION OF ALL THAT IS NECESSARY TO BE KNOWN BY THE YOUNG ANGLER BY JOHN HARRINGTON KEENE AUTHOR OF “ THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN ”’ ‘‘ FLY-FISHING AND FLY-MAKING”’ “FISHING-TACKLE ITS MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURE” ETC. Illustrated by 82 diagrams drawn under the direct supervision of the author by Lewis E. Shanks LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS IO MILK STREET BOSTON S COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY LEE AND SHEPARD All Rights Reserved Boy’s Own GUIDE TO FISHING ELXCTROTYPING By C. J. PETERS & SON, Boston, U.S.A. PRESS OF S, J. PABKIIILIL & Co, ‘PREFACE FISHING is a sport especially suited to boys. It is a cleanly, healthy, open-air recreation, de- void of feverish excitements, and yet not desti- tute of quict pleasures which are inexpressibly fascinating during the tender years of childhood, and, above all, entirely innocent in their ten- dencies. As youth succeeds childhood, the love of fishing deepens, and as maturity is attained, this love becomes a part of the man, never to be wholly cast aside. And as old age approaches, and gun and dog and saddle are regretfully re- tired, angling still remains the contemplative man’s pastime. Thus throughout life is angling a source of comfort and pleasure, leaving no bad taste in the mouth or sting in the conscience, and being indeed unequalled by any other sport whatsoever in its purity and guilelessness. For what does Annie Trumbull Slosson’s “ Fishin’ Jimmy” say in his quaint, homely fashion? «I 3 4 PREFACE allers loved fishin’, an’ know’d ’twas the best thing in the hull airth, I knows it larnt ye more about creeters an’ yarbs an’ stuns an’ water than books could tell ye. I know’d it made folks patienter and common-senser an’ weather-wiser an’ cuter gen’ally; gin ‘em more fac’lty than all the school Jarnin’ in creation. I knowed it was more fillin’ than vittles, more rousin’ than whiskey, more soothin’ than lodlum. I knowed it cooled ye off when ye was het, an’ het ye when ye was cold. I knowed all that, o’ course,—any fool knows it. But will ye bleve it? I was more’n twenty-one years old, a man growed, ‘fore I foun’ out why ‘twas that way.” The object of this little book is to explain to even the youngest reader what “ Fishin’ Jimmy” did not find out till he was “a man growed.” I have never had cause to regret that my own ancestors were professional fishermen, and that I have been one myself. My father, his father, and his father, and so on for several more generations, were watermen and fishermen on the English Thames. I cannot recollect, therefore, when I first became an angler; but like Topsy, “I specs I grow’d” to be one from the cradle. Self-help PREFACE 5 in all pertaining to fishing was, however, the lesson drilled into me from my earliest years, and at an infant’s age I first began to handle tackle and tackle-making implements. From er- perience, therefore, I am satisfied that the boy who learns to prepare everything he uses will (as I have done) derive tenfold the pleasure from fishing, that is gotten by the angler who only buys his tackle all ready to his hand. The things that cost pains to procure are the most valued. In the following pages I shall explain the why and wherefore of everything likely to perplex the tyro, as well as the making of each piece of tackling, giving the methods I have myself made use of, with suitable diagrams. Moreover, I shall be pleased at any time to aid my boy-readers by letter, if they write me to my address below. J. Harrincton KEENE. GREENWICH, Washington County, N.Y. CONTENTS PART I.—SPRING. CHAPTER I. PAGE SUCKER FISHING 1 we ew ee ee UCT CHAPTER II. PICKEREL TROLLING IN SPRING 1... 36 CHAPTER III. BAIT-FISHING FOR TROUT «se 50 PART I.— SUMMER. CHAPTER IV. FISHING FOR THE SUN-FISH AND OTHER “ Boys’ FISHES,’’ 71 CHAPTER V. FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT, AND FLY-MAKING 79 CHAPTER VI. FLY-FISHING FOR BASs, PERCH, SUN-FISH, ETC. 120 PART [ll.— AUTUMN. CHAPTER VII. MINNOW-FISHING FOR TROUT. ~ « - + « ss 139 CHAPTER VIII. Bass FISHING WITH THE MINNOW, ETC. eh Ge al ee ORAC 7 8 CONTENTS PART IV.— WINTER. CHAPTER IX. + PAGE FISHING THROUGH THE ICE. «© »« « « « » &» w «4 « OF CHAPTER X. BREEDING TROUT, ETC., IN WINTER 2. + » « ~ 170 PART | SPRING ANGLING THE BOY’S OWN GUIDE TO FISHING CHAPTER I SUCKER FISHING Tue earliest fish in the spring of the year to take the bait of the angler, are the trout and the common brook sucker (Catostomus commersonz), and the whole family, indeed, of this latter fish; for there are a dozen or more different kinds of suck- ers. If I were writing for the advanced fisherman, I should begin with the trout ; for, with the excep- tion of the head of the family of fishes to which the trout belongs, namely, the salmon, there is no fish pursued by the angler requiring so much care and prudent method for catching. As, however, this is a book for boys, and as the sucker is, above all, a boy’s fish, and does not require great refine- ment in tackle to catch, I shall speak at length on it, with the intent that what I shall say will be use- ful also in the capture of other. more difficult fish. Il 12 SPRING ANGLING There are, as I have hinted, a dozen or more species of the sucker in American waters; but the brook sucker is the one most generally known to boys, and the ways of zfs capture are suitable for all the others. Now, the sucker is an early spring spawner ; that is, it begins to seek the brooks and shallow inlets of a river or lake to deposit its eggs just as soon as the ice begins to go out. It gener- ally also herds or goes in shoals; and it is at this time, whilst the water is still very cold, that the sucker takes the baited hook most freely, though it can be caught all the year till the winter ice and snow shut up the water. Ordinarily the fish is snared with a wire or horsehair collar, or speared, or even netted, being thought of little worth as a food or sport fish ; but I do not approve of the slaying of any fish thus unfairly when it is capable of giving pleasure in its pursuit and capture ; and, therefore, the way to fish for sucker with hook and line is the only method that I shall describe in these pages. It is seasonable to fish for suckers before the legal season in some States opens for trout, and even before the leaves begin to appear on the trees. It is not necessary to use fine tackle; but, of course, if you happen to have a nice rod