considered a reasonable bag, he had often, from a four or
five hours' outing, returned with a dozen and a half of 'lunge or bass,
the former averaging 9 lb. or 12 lb., the latter 2 lb. or 3 lb. The
opening day was June 15, and at daylight the lake, so he said, was
alive with boats, each containing its fisherman. He had known a ton of
'lunge and bass landed every day for the first week. I am not to be
held responsible for these statements, but everything I subsequently
heard from gentlemen who weigh their words and know what they are
talking about, confirmed the assertions of the Port Perry professional.
'Lunge of 40 lb. had been taken moreover, but not often. These were
the encouragements which dropped like the dew of Hermon; refreshing us
into temporary forgetfulness of the undoubted fact that the visitors
who had been angling on the lake had met, even on the previous day,
with bitter disappointment. The boats had not been able to account for
more than perhaps a brace each of four or five pound fish.

Skipper Ben stared in amaze at the preposterous tackle with which I
proposed to try and catch my first 'lunge. I had much better take the
rig-out provided with the boat. If, however, he disapproved of my
equipment, how shall I describe my feelings with regard to the vessel
for which (man and tackle included) we were to pay two dollars per
diem. It was a canoe of the smallest, built to hold one person besides
the man at the small oars. It was impossible to stand up in such a
cranky craft, and your seat was about 6 in. from the bottom boards. No
wonder all the fishing was done by hand-lines. The local method was
simplicity itself. To fifty yards of line of the thickness of
sash-cord was attached a large Colorado spoon, armed with one big
triangle, and mounted on an eighth of an inch brass wire. The canoe
was slowly rowed about, up and down and across the lake, the spoon
revolving behind at the end of from ten to fifteen yards of line. All
that the angler had to do was to sit tight on his tiny seat in the
stern of the cockle-shell, holding the line in his hand, and dodging
the inevitable cramp as best he could by uneasily shifting his position
from time to time.

This, of course, is trailing in its most primitive form, and it is the
method adopted by the majority of fishing folks on Canadian inland
waters. Even the grand lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush really) are
taken in this way in the spring and fall wh