Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

LIVING OFF THE COUNTRY 409the ledges, and scare the fish out to where theywill be stranded, so you may catch them with yournaked hands. Some spring-holes can be made intotraps themselves by digging a deeper outlet andrunning the water off.Bait.—The commonest of all baits, earthworms,are not common in a wilderness. Generally theyare creatures of the barnyard and garden. Out inthe big woods they are too scarce to consider, exceptas accidental findings. If you chance uponan old lumber camp or saw-mill site, you may findworms in abundance by digging under piles ofchips and sawdust. Sometimes, in a damp placein the forest, you can get active little red fellows(fine bait) under overturned rocks or logs, or underthe moss on the banks of brooks. The largestworms I ever saw are found, after a warm shower,or just before nightfall, on the grassy summits of*'balds" in the Great Smoky Mountains, nearly6,000 feet above sea-level; some of them are fulltwo feet long.The best all-round bait is a lively minnow. Youmay catch minnows on a very small hook withmost of the barb filed off, or even on a bent pin,baited with a tiny bit of meat, a maggot, a grub,or a small insect. In winter, try a spring-hole,or cut through the ice close to shore.Three men working together can capture plentyof minnows in a few minutes, wherever there is asmall stream, by using what we called in the Ozarksa "brush seine." Simply get a lot of willows orother pliable brush, lay the stuff overlapping tolength desired, and twist a little until the branchletsinterlock (like a farmer twisting a hay rope).Then, with a man at each end to haul, and anotherat the middle to hold the "seine" down in thewater, drag the shallows and run the minnowsashore.On dark days, or in rough or turbid water, thebest baits are shiners, silversides (redfins), andother bright colored minnows; but they do not live