BY A. W. ROBERTS.
How often has it happened that on reaching a camping ground, hotel, or boarding-house near river or lake, where pickerel, bass, and large perch abounded, I have found no provision for the angler's sport but a boat; no lines, sinkers, or floats; no nets for catching live bait, and no bait but worms! For sunfish, cat-fish, and small perch, worms are very fair bait; but for pickerel, bass, and large perch, live bait is best. Under such trying circumstances, I have learned to get up at short notice and at small expense many make-shifts and aids that may be of great assistance and consolation to other young anglers when placed in a similar position.
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 is an end section of a mosquito-net seine for taking live bait. The length of the seine is thirty-eight feet; depth, five feet. The "cork line" (A A) consists of a small-sized clothes-line. Corks not always being obtainable, I have used pieces of thoroughly seasoned white pine three inches in length and one inch in diameter (C C C). Through these rounded pieces of wood holes are bored, through which the clothes-line passes. These floats are placed eight inches apart, and are kept in position by the clothes-line fitting tightly in the holes. At the bottom of the seine another clothes-line is sewed to the netting; (B B). This is called the "lead line," and is for the purpose of keeping the lower part of the seine close to the bottom of the water. On the "lead line" pieces of sheet-lead one inch in length are fastened (H H H) twenty-eight inches apart. The "staff" (D) is a well-seasoned piece of hickory six feet long, to the lower end of which sheet-lead is also fastened (at E) to keep it down. To the staff is attached the staff line (F F F), thirty feet long, which is for the purpose of drawing in the seine after it has been cast.
Fig. 2.
A seine of this size is generally worked by two persons and two boats. Each person takes one of the staff lines in his boat, and rowing toward the shore with the extended seine, describes a semicircle between the boats. As the shore is approached, each boat closes in, thereby causing the two staffs to meet, and imprison, all the fish that have come within the bounds of the seine. When one person works the seine, one of the staff lines is tied to a rock or stake on the shore, and the other line is taken into a boat, or the operator wades out, and causes his end of the seine to describe a circle until the two staffs meet. Great care must be taken to keep the lead line close to the bottom, otherwise the fish will escape. In the selection of the seining ground always avoid stony bottoms, snags, and brush, which will cause the seine to "roll up" and tear.
The cost of the above-described seine ranges from three to four dollars, and is capable of lasting two seasons if carefully handled and spread out on the grass to dry after using it. A much superior article to mosquito net is bobinet, which will last several seasons.
