132 



The American Angler 



Another Rod Crank— The Salmon Rod. 



Give me a chance, friend Harris, to venti- 

 late my crank ideas on a salmon rod. The 

 ferruled bamboo rod, unless in the hands of a 

 regular professional, is an abomination, even 

 if it should cost one hundred dollars. It has 

 neither the strength nor elasticity of the lance- 

 wood. I must confess I never owned one, but 

 I have tried them and must say they will cast 

 a longer line than a wood rod. Question : 



Is an extra long cast beneficial in salmon 

 fishing? 



I have always found an extremely long cast 

 unprofitable. The fish generally misses, or, if 

 hooked, he is only slightly so, and the least 

 wind is apt to foul the line ; if the water is 

 sluggish or dead, you are compelled to recover 

 quickly, and under such a condition, if even a 

 smolt strikes, your tip goes. I say nothing as 

 to the liability of cracking off at the ferrule 

 and leaving the angler " non est." 



My idea of a salmon rod is one of Greenhart 

 butt, lancewood middle and tip ; two spliced 

 joints (good length), the rod from 14 to 15 feet 

 in length. You should wind a strip of tape 

 around the splice before winding twine, and 

 then you will have a rod that will have an 

 equal spring from hand to tip, and you can butt 

 your fish until your tip touches the water, and 

 no rod ever made will kill a fish so quickly. If 

 there is, I never yet saw it. True, you can't 

 take it apart so easily as a ferruled rod, but, at 

 all events, you have no heating to do or mend- 

 ing either, and if the wood is perfect and the 

 grain is straight you can stand it up or throw 

 it anywhere without much danger until the 

 time to take it apart, when a rub of sandpaper 

 and a few drops of varnish will make it as 

 good as ever. Perhaps if I were a millionaire 

 I might buy a bamboo to look at, not to fish 

 with. 



I never owned but two rods ; the first one 

 was presented by Mr. Killaly, of Toronto, in 

 1864. It was an Irish Kilkenny, 22 feet long, 

 butt and middle nearly same diameter, tip 

 heavy, spliced and of lancewood. I never 

 weighed it, but think it must have been six 

 pounds, yet it would kill a fish. In the 70's, 

 Mr. Habersham, of Savannah, presented me 

 with a 15-footer of Dengee Sribner's best 

 lancewood, six pieces, spliced, which I prized 

 highly. As I often had gentlemen come to me 

 for a day's fishing, previous to the selling and 

 closing of the old Restigouche, and often with- 

 out a bit of gearing, and who never had a sal- 



mon on a line. I would quietly place the 22- 

 footer in their hands. I remember a Mr. 

 Hixon, running some railway in Maine, who 

 was introduced to me through a friend. He 

 wanted badly to see a salmon caught, as well 

 as kill one himself. I took him up a few miles 

 with "old Kilkenny," and, hooking a fish, 

 handed him the rod. The fish soon left with 

 fly and cast. I tried again, and the next fish 

 was a fine 25-pounder. I said, " Now, sir, I 

 am going to land this fish. I want you to 

 closely observe how it is done." I did it. He 

 said, "Well, it don't seem difficult; I am 

 sure I can doit." So out we went again. He 

 was a very tall gentleman and just suited the 

 rod, but somehow he could not get the 

 line out. He worked too hard. I coached him 

 all I could, and in doing so I hooked another 

 fish, and handed him the rod. The fish made 

 a run and never stopped — leader and hook 

 both gone. As I had to leave him for duty, I 

 put on a treble gut for him, and he would 

 thrash for an hour with " old Kilkenny," rest 

 a spell, and go at it again, until night. The 

 second day after I found my friend in bed at 

 Dee Side unable to get out. "Oh," he said, 

 " my back is broken !" I have " old Kilkenny " 

 whittled down to a 14-footer, and it is now my 

 fancy rod to kill a salmon. J. Mowat. 



The Menhaden Fishery and Food-fishes. 



In 1894 the U. S. Fish Commission made an 

 investigation of the Menhaden fishery for the 

 purpose of determining what food-fishes are 

 taken in that fishery. A report upon this in- 

 vestigation, prepared by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, 

 has just been published by the Commission. 



The taking of menhaden {Brevoortia tyr an- 

 nus) for the purpose of converting them into 

 oil and guano, is one of the most important 

 fisheries prosecuted with vessels on the eastern 

 coast of the United States. 



The fishery is most extensive on the coasts 

 of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New 

 Jersey and Virginia. Purse seines, operated 

 from steam and sail vessels are used. There 

 are at present fifty to fifty-five menhaden fac- 

 tories with an investment of $2,580,000, and 

 giving employment to about 1,800 fishermen. 



Some years over 700,000,000 menhaden are 

 handled by these factories, giving over $1,000, - 

 000 of manufactured products annually. 



The menhaden fishery has met with much 

 opposition on account of the supposed injuri- 

 ous influence upon the abundance of certain 



