ime en (GaN ANGLER. 
JULY, 1895. No. 
“I 
LAKE HURON. 
VOL. 25 
BAY PORE VON WILD FOWA BAY, 
BY WILLIAM C. HARRIS. 
Our many and sometimes erratic 
wanderings with rod and reel, during 
the past third of a century, have never 
landed usin a more restful or seduc- 
tive spot than Bay Port on Lake Huron. 
It is situated on Wild Fowl bay, which 
is an inshoot of Saginaw bay, both 
names seeming to us like arbitrary geo- 
graphical subdivisions of the waters of 
the great lake of Huron, for, if you 
stand on the shore at Bay Port, and 
look outward and also to the left, you 
see nothing but a waste of waters with 
two tiny dots of islands, which appear 
to add to the immensity of the view 
by their insignificance, particularly 
when a tempest comes and the wild 
tumult of the waters rushes alike over 
both these so-called bays, and seems to 
overwhelm the distant islets in the 
shoreward charge of foam and wave. 
To us the division marks of these two 
lesser bays were obliterated by the 
great waters of the big inland sea that 
roll into them. But be this as it may, 
the name of Wild Fowl bay carries 
with it more of phonetic force than 
most of the geographical names in use, 
for its waters in season swarm with 
wild fowl of nearly every species which 
are sought for by the Nimrods of all the 
adjacent states. : 
We went to Bay Port, accompanied 
by Mr. John L. Petrie, the artist, on in- 
vitation of Mr. W. L. Webber, of Sag- 
inaw, Mich., for the purpose of getting 
oil portraits of the pike-perch and the 
small-mouthed black bass of western 
waters. The fishes of the West vary 
in coloration from their Eastern con- 
geners so greatly, that to complete our 
collections of oils of ‘‘The Fishes of 
North America,” we are compelled to 
duplicate the portraits of such species 
as are found in both sections, and in no 
part of the West can be seen more 
symmetrical and beautifully colored 
specimens of the fishes named than in 
the waters of Wild Fowl bay, and it is 
to talk about these fish, and the condi- 
tions under which portraits of them 
were painted, that leads us to inflict 
upon you this desultory description of 
our visit to Bay Port. . We found there 
two extensive commercial fisheries, 
both of which, however, were about 
taking up their ‘‘twine” (vernacular 
for ‘‘nets”) when we arrived. From 
July to September the work of fisheries 
is suspended, but we neglected to in- 
quire whether from legal enactment or 
not, yet from the unsatisfactory results 
OF the ‘lift ’ of thé nets; it: appeared 
an entirely voluntary act on the part 
of the fisheries owners. The result of 
each ‘‘ lift,” even at the tail and un- 
productive end of the season, seemed 
to our angling eye enormous. Great 
