Baite

“ The trap is baited by rolling a handful of wet meal and cotton together until it becomes hard, and depositing it in the back part of the frame. A fish swimming through the upraised door towards the bait, necessarily strikes one of the small sticks turning the handle, which displacing the stick supporting the door, the latter falls, securing the fish within the frame. ”

“ Fish is recommended as bait for weasels, polecats, etc.., although I think the best way of trapping such animals is to form an enclosure of brushwood, etc.., in which peg down some live bird, leading two narrow pathways from it from each end and exactly opposite each other, in each of which place an ordinary steel trap, unbaited, concealed in as skilful a manner as possible. ”

“ Having baited the hook that the worm can move at bottom, cast it, and by drawing it gently to you, let the lead rest about the middle of the ground bait; a second rod should be a yard or two above, and a third a yard or two below it; retire from the water so far as just to perceive the top of the floats; when there is a bite the top of the float will sink suddenly ”

“ Construct a figure 4 (Fig. 9 A) out of sticks as thick as one’s finger, making the bait-stick eighteen or twenty inches long. Set the figure 4 under the platform at the very end of the stick, the bait-stick passing between the upright stakes. Bait with a carrot, a parsnip, apple, etc., and a rat should be there in the morning.
If the trap does not lie flat on the ground place sticks under it. This same trap, baited with a fowl’s head or a bird or meat, is also useful as a skunk-trap, being placed in the woods near their burrows. ”

“ Beyond the lead we have three or four yards of gimp or strong gut, at the end of which is a single hook fitted with a spinner, or baited with some attractive natural or artificial bait. Whatever be the bait used, there will certainly be more or less spinning caused by the resistance offered by the water, hence it will be necessary to have a swivel beyond the lead. ”

“ In nine cases out of ten, the animal will be around again in a night or two for another meal. Persevere and you will get your game sooner or later. Seeing that your traps are kept properly baited is an important item; also, keeping bait as fresh as possible. After the bait has been at a trap for a week if it has not been molested, it is best to replace with something fresh. Do not throw the old bait away, either hang it up, out of reach of animals or carry it away from the den. If you have plenty of fresh bait, it will pay to replace oftener than once a week. ”

“ A small sheepshead is a more adroit stealer of bait than the cunner. It has a way of deftly pinching the bait from the hook without much, if any, disturbance. When small clams or mussels are used in the cracked shells, it is thought best by some anglers to give the fish a little time to "shuck" the bait before jerking on the rod. But my advice is to yank him just as quickly as if crab bait were employed. To hesitate is to be defrauded of either the fish or the bait. ”

“ I may here remark that a live-bait can be put on the hook through the upper lip or back fin without causing the little creature any more pain than we ourselves suffer from cutting our nails. The only cruelty to the bait is in the moment of suspense and terror it endures when the jack flies open-mouthed towards it, and it finds itself unable to escape. As, however, the jack takes its prey by the head in most cases, death immediately ensues, and the little fish’s sufferings are soon ended. ”

“ Probably the best live-bait of all for thick or clouded water is a medium-sized dace, as its scales are peculiarly brilliant, and the fish itself by no means easily killed. In case of waters in which the pike are over-fed, I should recommend my readers to try them with live gold-fish.... If gold-fish are not forthcoming, small carp form a very killing and long-lived bait. The bait should not be left too long in one place, but be kept gently moving. ”

“ It seems to me that in spinning for pike the very reverse holds good to the ascertained facts of live-baiting. In the latter form of fishing you must have large baits to catch large fish. Mr. Jardine’s 37-pounder was caught with a 1⁄2-lb. roach. Some anglers—Mr. Pennell is one—use and recommend jack up to 2 lb. as lively bait for their big brothers and parents, but in spinning you must use a small bait. If it is a spoon, or an imitation fish, anything over three inches and a half is a waste of money and a menace to good results. Pickled dace or roach should never exceed five inches. ”

“ In fishing for the whiting the amateur should use a hand-line about twice as stout as very thick twine, and with two hooks (not over large these latter, as the whiting has not a very large mouth) . Bait one hook with a worm and the other with a “white” bait, to give the fish a choice, as they are fastidious, and it is curious that on some days you will find they will take the one persistently when they will not look at the other. By a white bait I mean a piece of sprat or herring. The white bait takes best when the sea is thick and disturbed, as its glitter is seen by the whiting far off. ”

“ Every boy knows what still fishing is. It is the common method of baiting our hook, casting it from the shore or from a boat and waiting for a bite. In still fishing it is customary to use a light sinker to keep the bait near the bottom and a float or “cork” which serves the double purpose of keeping the bait away from snags, stones, or weeds on the bottom and also of showing us when we have a bite. The more expert still fishermen never use a float, as they prefer to tell by the pull on the line when a fish has taken the bait. ”

“ By dead bait is meant bits of pork, fresh beef, or even other fish cut up into tempting morsels for "skittering"; that is, where you cast your line with a sinker, and then haul it in over the water, usually by lifting the pole, walking back, or reeling in; a dead frog or a dead fish is just as good as a live one.
Boys, as a rule, prefer to fish with bait, leaving artificial flies to the seniors. Any small live creature will answer for bait; even mice have been used with good effect, and cheese, if it can be kept on the hook, is eagerly swallowed, in bottom fishing, by carp and catfish. ”

“ At the proper instant, which is just as the point of the rod goes over your head, release the pressure of your thumb and the bait will go forward as the line runs out rapidly. When the bait lands, reel in slowly and with various motions try to give to the bait as life-like an appearance as possible. If you have a strike, allow the fish sufficient time to obtain a secure hold of the bait and by a sudden jerk fix the hook in his mouth. ”

“ To make the bait more attractive, sometimes two or three gentles are put on the hook, and the bait is cast into a greyling eddy, and worked up and down smartly until taken by a fish. The angler strikes at every suspicion of a bite. ”

“ After we had killed our shark, the dead of the tide came on, in which very few fish bite. The bait hangs quietly at the bottom, and, even if a fish touch it, hardly moves: so that at this time of the night it requires a very practised hand to recognise the gentle vibration caused by some large fish playing with the hook. Of course, unless one does make sure somehow, and without striking hard, the fish blows the bait out of his mouth when the hook pricks him, and comes no more. ”

“ In nearly all traps a bait of some kind is required, in order to attract the prey, and when we come from land to attract the dwellers in water to our hooks, it is needful that bait of some kind should be used, were it only to deceive the eye, though not the nostrils or palate, of the fish. ”

“ A light, stiff, ten-foot rod, with a small reel, and twenty-five or thirty yards of line, with a small cork float, and a proper sinker for bottom fishing, is the best implement; and the best baits for this method are the common ground-worm or the little scarlet brandling. The latter particularly in rapid channels and scours. Cheese pastes are also used, and at times successfully, but I do not advocate their use, but the most certainly deadly of all baits is the paste made from the preserved roe of any fish which frequents the waters you are to fish. ”

“ He exclaimed, and his face with excitement fierce burns,
"Ah, it now has stopt short! 'tis to pouch it," he thought;
"Look! 'tis running again, and the fellow is caught!"
But, alas! when he struck, to his grief and dismay
He discovered, the jack had his bait torn away.
"O how foolish," he said; "it was of me to throw
That fine gudgeon away! I might guess 'twould be so.
I detest using live bait, you're certain to lose them,
For it seems the fish think they're put to amuse them,
And away he will drag them, or into bits chews them—
Just avoiding the hook, which might stick in their teeth. ”

“ In fact, the only bait used by those people is in their opinion a composition of charms, inclosed within a bit of fish skin, so as in some measure to resemble a small fish. The things used by way of charm, are bits of beavers tails and fat, otter's vents and teeth, musk-rat's guts and tails, loon's vents, squirrel's testicles, the cruddled milk taken out of the stomach of sucking fawns and calves, human hair, and numberless other articles equally absurd. ”

“ If the fish are biting well he tears from one end to the other of his long rows of traps, playing a fish here, hauling one out there, setting a trap that has been sprung by the wind or the too eager wriggling of the bait, and on most fishing days, whether the fish bite well or ill, he has to constantly make the rounds of his holes, inspecting his hooks to see if the bait has escaped or been stolen, handling new ones in the icy water and skimming the young ice from the holes across his fishing. ”

“ Leave me alone, then, for a while. But that we may not be delayed, you shall be digging the bait meanwhile. Angle-worms are rarely to be met with in these parts, where the soil was never fattened with manure; the race is nearly extinct. The sport of digging the bait is nearly equal to that of catching the fish, when one’s appetite is not too keen; and this you may have all to yourself to-day. I would advise you to set in the spade down yonder among the ground-nuts, where you see the johnswort waving. ”

“ For instance, the cunner and sheepshead are expert bait stealers. With their incisor teeth their habit is to pinch off barnacles and other mollusks from their attachment to rocks and old timbers, and so they nip off the clam or crab bait from the hook with but little disturbance. A trout takes a fly or bait with a vigorous snap, without investigation as to its nature, and a black bass does much the same, giving immediate and unmistakable notice to the angler that there is "something doing." ”

“ If they were to groundbait one or two suitable places on both sides of the river, so as to be sure of getting a lee, for a day or two before they fish, they ought to get even more than they do now. Here is a boat-load trailing for jack. Ask how many they have caught.”
Wynne did so, and the reply was, “Fifteen, but all small: they run from two pounds up to seven.”
“People here either fish for pike with a live bait or trail with a spoon. You rarely see anybody spinning by casting, or even using a dead bait on a spinning flight. ”

“ He takes the fly, not because it looks like an edible insect, for nine times out of ten it doesn't, but because it's pretty and he wants to know what it is. When he has found out, you give him a fair run for his money and bring him to basket with nothing more than a pin-prick in his lip. But what does the bait-fisher do? He deceives the trout into thinking that a certain worm or grub or minnow is wholesome, nourishing, digestible, fit to be swallowed. ”

“ When the bait used is one that presents two flat surfaces to the water, as would be the case with a strip of mackerel, a strong current will set it spinning round and round, thus causing the hook link to kink if it has not been fitted with a swivel, and the same effect is often produced by the spinning of a fish on the hook.
The employment of a suitable ground bait will often make a wonderful difference in the angler’s haul. It frequently attracts large numbers, keeping them near at hand for some considerable time, and apparently sharpens their appetite. ”

“ Bait, whether bird, fish, chicken, beef offals or rabbit, should be fresh for most animals. When trapping at dens the bait should be stuck on a short stick, so as to keep it off the ground, and placed back in the den, beyond the trap some eighteen inches or two feet. Should the bait be gone morning after morning and the trap unsprung, your game is pretty sure to be still in the den and living off your bait. In this case it will be a good idea to change and place the bait on the outside. If the animal is getting the bait from within, you are pretty sure to make a catch within a few nights. ”

“ Thus, as a rule, fishes will not touch a bait that is not fresh, neither are they all caught by one and the same bait, but they are severally caught by baits suited to their several likings, and these baits they distinguish by their sense of smell; and, by the way, some fishes are attracted by malodorous baits, as the saupe, for instance, is attracted by excrement. Again, a number of fishes live in caves; and accordingly fishermen, when they want to entice them out, smear the mouth of a cave with strong-smelling pickles, and the fish are Soon attracted to the smell. ”

“ Bait may consist of any tough bit of meat, but rabbit is an excellent bait. Quail or almost any bird is good. Chicken also makes good bait. Squirrel is all right. For mink, fish is excellent. Mice, frogs and muskrat can all be used. Remember that the fresher and bloodier the bait the better — animals will scent it much quicker. They are also fonder of fresh bait than that which has been killed for days or weeks as the case may be. ”