brid fish, now called Otsego bass, but
really a cross between that variety and the whitefish with which Otsego
has been stocked from the Great Lakes.

As many as five thousand Otsego bass have been taken with one draught of
the seine, but in view of the great difficulty of catching any with hook
and line, the following suggestion from an old authority, Seth Green, is
still of interest: "The Otsego bass can be taken with small minnows or
red angle worms. I think if your tackle is very fine, and you do not
twitch when they bite, they will swallow the bait. Put five or ten hooks
(O'Shaunessy 8's, forged) on a fine snell, and loop them five feet
apart; with a small sinker at the end. Bait some with small minnows (an
inch or so in length) and some with worms. Cast out as far as you can
from the boat, and let it lie half or three quarters of an hour on the
bottom, feeling now and then to see if you have one on. The best way is
to let them hook themselves. The angle worms, if used for bait, should
be strung on to the hook with both ends left dangling. A light stroke
must be made and the fish handled very carefully."

[Illustration: FISHERMEN'S SHANTIES ON THE FROZEN LAKE]

Many fishermen are successful in taking Otsego bass with hook and line
in winter, by fishing through the ice. No sooner has the lake become
frozen from shore to shore, usually after Christmas, than the whole
surface becomes dotted with the shanties of fishermen, which remain
until the ice begins to weaken in the spring. The typical fisherman's
shanty on the ice-bound lake is about five by six feet in floor space,
and six feet high. It has a window, and the floor is so arranged that it
can be raised to keep the fisherman above the water that sometimes
floods the surface of the ice. Holes are cut through the floor, and
through the ice beneath, for the admission of the fishing lines. The
shanty is warmed by a small stove, with its stove-pipe sticking out
through the roof. A chair and a coal box complete the furniture.

Two methods of fishing through the ice for Otsego bass are used by the
occupants of the shanties. According to one method the hook is dropped
to the bottom of the lake, and the fish are attracted to its vicinity by
bait strewn on the bottom. The other method is used nearer shore, where
the baited hook is let down part way toward the bottom, to tempt the
fish that move amid the grass and weeds.

There are others besides fishermen to whom the f