The Frog as a Bait.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 226, 27 December 1880, Page 2

The Frog as a Bait.

(Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.) Fishermen will keenly appreciate the sorrows of Henry Strader, who lately went fishing in the Delaware river. The weather had been cruelly hot, and Strader, though an ardent enthusiast, did not feel equal to whipping the stream. Why not try bottom-fishing with a float, and bait with some of the merry little green frogs, which the fish love so well, someone suggested, and Strader determined that he would. He bought a big green float: —a dobber, to use the local—two dozen green frogs, found as shady a place as he could light upon, threw in his float, and waited for the five-pounder. At first it did not come, nor, for the matter of that, did it come afterwards. There was a boy a little way off who pulled up big fish every few minutes, and this did not console Strader. “What do you bait with ? ” he shouted. “ Frogs!” the boy yelled back as he dragged up another fish.. Strader waited and kept on waiting, hour passed after hour and nothing happened, till at last the sun began to set —the little boy had gone home laden with fish some hours before—and Strader arose in wrath, determined to try no more. He pulled up his line. When the dobber was lifted from the water he was amazed to see no line hanging below it. The next instant he wanted to swear. Cosily perched on the big green dobber sat the little green frog. He had become tired of waiting for a bite too, and had left the watery depths and boarded the dobber. There the little reptile sat, placidly gazing at Strader, a little inconvenienced by the hook in his body, but on the whole passing a quiet and not unenjoyable afternoon.