When you have thus baited and set your tilt-ups,--twenty or thirty
of them,--you may put on your skates and amuse yourself by gliding
to and fro on the smooth surface of the ice, cutting figures of
eight and grapevines and diamond twists, while you wait for the
pickerel to begin their part of the performance. They will let you
know when they are ready.
A fish, swimming around in the dim depths under the ice, sees one of
your baits, fancies it, and takes it in. The moment he tries to run
away with it he tilts the little red flag into the air and waves it
backward and forward. "Be quick!" he signals all unconsciously;
"here I am; come and pull me up!"
When two or three flags are fluttering at the same moment, far apart
on the pond, you must skate with speed and haul in your lines
promptly.
How hard it is, sometimes, to decide which one you will take first!
That flag in the middle of the pond has been waving for at least a
minute; but the other, in the corner of the bay, is tilting up and
down more violently: it must be a larger fish. Great Dagon! There's
another red signal flying, away over by the point! You hesitate,
you make a few strokes in one direction, then you whirl around and
dart the other way. Meantime one of the tilt-ups, constructed with
too short a cross-stick, has been pulled to one side, and disappears
in the hole.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123