10 SAND LAKE AND SLOUGH LAKE. 



lakes together is, they can all be fished with but little 

 traveling, by making Smith Wright's house one's head- 

 quarters. 



For much of the information regarding the fishing 

 spots on these lakes I am indebted to the kindness 

 and courtesy of Mr. Smith Wright, than whom a more 

 genial fishing companion, right-down good fellow and 

 painstaking host never existed, and any angler visiting 

 these lakes who has the good fortune to make a fishing 

 trip with Smith Wright may mark it as a red-letter 

 day, for he'll surely catch fish, have a royal good time, 

 and obtain much valuable information regarding the 

 sport. 



Smith Wright is one of the oldest and most success- 

 ful bait-casters on the lakes. Fifty years ago his 

 father, George Wright, who died four years ago, pur- 

 chased from the government the hundred and sixty 

 acres which make part of the present holding, fronting 

 on Sand Lake. During the first twenty years he 

 farmed, but the steadily increasing influx of sports- 

 men from growing Chicago, who made the house their 

 headquarters when fishing the adjoining lakes, caused 

 the old gentleman to view his farming operations as 

 of secondary importance. He enlarged the house, 

 named it Sand Lake Hotel, and catered to the wants 

 of his city visitors. Within a few years of his death 

 he turned the house and its large patronage over to 

 his son, Smith, who with his estimable wife, the pres- 

 ent hostess, now runs the place. The terms are one 

 dollar a day, including boats, and live bait of every 

 description can always be had. 



Sand Lake contains as good bass and pickerel grounds 

 as any piece of water in the lake region, and it is as- 

 serted by many old settlers that the lake affords nearly 

 as good fishing as it did forty years ago. I am inclined 

 to believe this, for I think it is impossible to ever fish 

 out any body of water which contains so many weed 

 beds as do most of the lakes in this region. Sand Lake 

 has always been, known as an uncertain fishing water, 



