CHAIN PICKEREL SEPTEMBER, 1942 TEN CENTS OFFICIAL STATE VOL Xl-No. 9 PUBLICATION ' ANGLER/ SEPTEMBER, 1942 PUBLISHED MONTHLY ARTHUR H. JAMES by the lOvernor PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS Publication Office : J. Horace McFarland Co., Crescent and Mulberry Streets, Harrisburg, Pa. Executive and Editorial Offices: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Board of Fish Com­ missioners, Harrisburg, Pa. CHARLES A FRENCH 10 cents a copy — 50 cents a year Commissioner of Fisheries MEMBERS OF BOARD ALEX P. SWEIGART. Editor CHARLES A. FRENCH, Chairman CHARLES K. FOX, Acting Editor Ellwood City South Office Bldg., Harrisburg, Pa. JOIIN L. NEIGER Scranton JOSEPH M. CRITCHFIELD NOTE Confluence Subscriptions to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER CLIFFORD J. WELSH should be addressed to the Editor. Submit fee cither Erie by check or money order payable to the Common­ wealth of Pennsylvania. Stamps not acceptable. J. FRED MeKEAN Individuals sending cash do so at their own risk. New Kensington MILTON L. PEEK Radnor CHARLES A. MENSCH PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contribu­ Bellcfon te tions anil photos of catches from its readers. Proper credit will be given to contributors. EDGAR W. NICHOLSON Philadelphia H. R. STACKHOUSE Secretary to Board All contributions returned if accompanied by first class postage. Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office C. R. BULLER of Harrisburg, Pa., under act of March 3, 1873. Chief Fish Culturist, Bellefonte IMPORTANT—The Editor should be notified immediately of change in subscriber's address. Please give old and new addresses. Permission to reprint will be granted provided proper credit notice is given. VOL. XI. No. 9 ^ANGLER/ SEPTEMBER, 1942 OLD FRIEND By SPARSE GRAY HACKLE NTO me came the Rodmaker, weeping. He had I'm not that good. Rut I think a good man could get just spoiled a fifty dollar rod. As he explained it, 90 or 100 feet with him. And not only that, but he U no two pieces of bamboo are exactly alike and makes each cast a sweet, clean job, throwing a high much of the fine art of rodmaking consists of adjusting back-line and, on the forward cast, lifting the whole the tapers to suit each particular piece of wood. This extended line for extra distance with the final upward time he hadn't. flip of the tip. He picks up bass bugs and spinners so "It was the hardest stick I ever found," he wailed. positively that they never dive and then jump out "The middle joint turned out so powerful that the tips into my face. couldn't keep up with it. I had to cut five inches off As to handling fish, he doesn't play them—he fights the top ends to balance the action, and of course that them. He goes after them with both hands, yet he destroyed the fly-casting delicacy." rolls with their punches so that he never gets hurt. I thought fast. This was not a cut-down rod in the Once, he made short work of a seven pound bluefish, usual sense; the action was balanced. Strong wood, a and if he had a detachable butt I wouldn't hesitate to powerful middle joint, heavy ends on the tips; a little put him up against a 25-pound salmon. short, to be sure—a 9-foot, three piece rod of five Old Friend is scrappy. Once, when a young pup ounces with metal reel seat, cut down to 8 feet, 7 inches. persisted in paddling across my line after several Rut it just might be that rare rod, a really good bass warnings, Old Friend threw a narrow loop which hit bug fly rod. the young pup in the neck and almost knocked him "I will buy your short-horned beauty if you will make out of the canoe. Rut he is a born ladies' man; they an extra, full length tip from another stick, matching fall for him at the first cast. In fact, my wife has been the action the best you can," I said, flashing three five- known to shed tears of fury, and jump up and down, dollar bills. At this generosity, the Rodmaker fainted. when denied his companionship. He's a great friend of Rut when he revived, he accepted the deal. Ready cash kids, too; when rigged with his full length tip, he catches is a rodmaker's weakness. bluegills and perch for them by the hatful. When the rod came, I put a C level line on it and He has taught more people to cast than I can re­ took it out in the tail of the Wagon Tracks Pool to try. member. He has a way of taking a beginner's downward I gave a little switch to get out some line for a cast, back cast and lifting it up safely over the stones, and and the line ran out through the guides as if someone he not only carries their dribbling forward casts out were pulling it. It was a marvelous roll-caster. I straight, but puts a stylish "grasshopper" hump on the started casting. There seemed to be no limit to the end to show them how it should be done. He's easy and length of its reach. And every time it picked up the confident, always on time but never hurrying them; cork bug with decision and turned it over on the for­ and that heavy line he uses just pulls itself out of their ward cast to drop accurately where I aimed. Finally, hands and makes them shoot line in spite of themselves. I let the line run downstream and just stood there, Old Friend has caught bluefish on 6-thread cutty- shaking hands with myself. It was the rod of my dreams. hunk, and panfish in shoals; he has roll-cast night- Since then it has become my Old Friend, and we crawlers across the creek without snapping them off; have gone through the wars together. He is a fast, he has cast all kinds of bugs except the heaviest, aggressive welterweight—a hard hitter, a crafty ring streamers and spinners all day long without tiring my general, a stark infighter and a battler who can take arm. With his long tip he's a pretty good wet fly rod it as well as hand it out. He can roll out 75 feet of C and he can cast a dry fly if necessary. level line, with a leader and spinner besides, on a switch Like me, Old Friend shows scars from the battering cast and with a succession of such casts I have fished that life has given him, and sometimes I think that his along the shore of a lake for half an hour at a time back, like mine, isn't quite what it used to be. Rut without taking my line out of the water. there's a lot of life in him yet, and I expect that he and I Just how far he can cast a bass bug I don't know— will go down the hill toward the shadows together. PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER SEPTEMBER 1«42 PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER SEPTEMBER AND PICKEREL 'A Stream and Pond, This Streamlined Battler Is a Worthy Target for Both Fly and Casting Rod By DICK FORTNEY {TOR a whole month, in a long, deep pool in of the state the bass have begun moving into combination I had tied for myself. He asked me i. Wyalusing Creek, a fine and vicious pickerel deeper water and are more difficult to catch with to toss the lure into the water nearby so he could ued his time in keeping a date with me last artificial lures. Rut the good old pickerel still see it in action. r'limer. He made a monkey out of me the first is on the job, as vicious and mean and as full I did—and from behind a rotten old stump • pte we clashed, but the second encounter ended of fight as ever. streaked a pickerel that took the spinner so Ij8 swaggering career and converted me to the You can go pickerel fishing no matter whether savagely it was imbedded in his gills and bent °<; sport of late summer pickerel fishing. it is raining or the sun is shining, whether the entirely out of shape. The fish was 20 inches 0f y what you will about his place in the roster weather is clear or cloudy, or hot or cold, and long. Same fish, the pickerel is a worthy antagonist, regardless of the stage of the water. Ever since, I've not passed up water like that. Sood fighter, and a trickster. He should be on Rut although he is ready to give the angler ^"favorite" list of every Pennsylvania angler. battle at every opportunity, the pickerel has Good Pickerel Lures 1 he pickerel feeds when he is hungry, and he some bad habits—just bad enough, one might Pickerel are caught with both live and artificial ,.*Ys no attention to fly hatches, weather condi- say, to make him interesting game. lures. *>s, and water temperatures. He has an irritating habit of following the lure Frogs picked up along the shore line (but not , And when he is not hungry he slashes with without striking, it seems almost purposely al­ the green ones which are edible when they be­ j^'ous abandon at anything within reach of his lowing himself to be seen by the angler in the come adults) are excellent. A frog about the j ^P-toothed jaws that might turn out to be an process.