Majmh 8,1881.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



91 



possibility for them to procure a decent rod at any price 

 which they car' afford to pay. There are makers who make 

 as good a rod for service, brass mounted, and in every way as 

 strong as the best for from 55 to |fi, which is as low as good 

 work can be furnished. 



THE OAIOC OF FTftTllNa BOBS. 



More rods are ruined by the want of proper care than in 

 any other way. In jointing up a rod for use it is a good plan 

 to first put together the second joint and tip, as you will not 

 be so liable, to strain the lighter joints as when first (as is 

 usual) putting the butt and second joints together; before 

 putting on the reel see that the joints are firmly together, and 

 never under any circumstances allowa rod to be handled when 

 showing or using it without it is firmly put together. When 

 through using your rod, first wipe it to remove all moisture, 

 then tmjoint it and see that each joint is straight, and if not, 

 straighten it at once. Don't fail' to keep and use the plugs 

 which belong in the joint ferrules; they keep out moisture 

 from the mosl exposed parts of the rod (the dowell sockets), 

 also the dust and dirt. A. single grain of sand will ruin the 

 fitting of the best rod. Ncvefpu l a rod away m a damp case, 

 tie it loosely in the case ; tight tying will bend the tips and 

 second joints. When laying away at the end of the season's 

 fishing, place it Where it wdl be as nearly as possible in a uni- 

 formly cool temperature. N evei stand it in a leaning position, 

 but lay it down. 



The best, of all varnishes for rods is simply shellac dissolved 

 in alcohol. It is perfectly waterproof, dries immediately, and 

 is easily applied with a bit of soft sponge. A coat of this ap- 

 plied once or twice during a season will add greatly to the 

 appearance and durability of your rod. It should be used 

 quite thin. By following these directions you will always 

 find your rod in a serviceable condition. 



Any one who now follows Cascade Brook to its source can 

 find where I had that adventure and got the seven pronged 

 horns which for years adorned the sanctum of a Sunday 

 newspaper in Gotham. But I would advise the seeker to 

 look for the lake in the summer time, with a good rod and 

 hook of flies in bis possession, for he will find if well stocked 

 with speckled beauty, or it was, the last time I was there. 

 Ned Bfntunk. 



HOW I FOUND A NEW LAKE. 



BEADING in a late number of the Fobbst and Stream 

 about the supposed discovery of a lake never seen be- 

 fore by a white man, in the Adirondack Region, put me in 

 mind of a discovery I made one bright October day when 

 that cram try was new to me. It was late in the month, there 

 was about sis inches of new snow on the ground and I was 

 out on a still-hunt. I had struck a monster deer track near 

 the mouth of ( ascade Brook, which empties into the upper 

 part of Lake Utowana, and followed it up far in the moun- 

 tain to the east, wmere it joined a couple more smaller tracks. 

 I wanted that buck. I had promised a big pair of horns to a 

 friend in New York and believed I would find them if ever I 

 drew sight over my Lewis rifle on the animal that made the 

 track. The day was fearfully cold, but I kept in motion and 

 hardly felt it. 



Reaching the crest of a steep ridge, along which the tracks 

 led, I looked down over what seemed to be a small beaver 

 meadow, covered with snow. There, about two hundred 

 yards away, on an opposite ridge, nearly on a level with me, 

 was my buck and two does, alfpicking away at some moss 

 in a rocky ledge under which they stood. 



They had not seen or heard me and I took a good look at 

 them while resting to steady my nerves for a sure shot. 



The buck was the largest I 'had ever seen in the North 

 Woods. His horns spread out. like a brush-heap. I knew 

 that if not hit exactly in the right spot he would cany off all 

 the lead I could put into him. So I made up my mind to 

 take a dead rest and to shoot as fine as I would in a rifle 

 match. And we had some sharp shooting up there in those 

 days— 1837 and 1858. 



My rifle, made by Lewis, of Troy, was a muzzle-loader, 

 double-barreled. One barrel was smooth-bore, carrying nine 

 No. 1 buckshot, or, as it was then loaded, an ounce, round 

 bullet. The other barrel carried a half-ounce spherical ball 

 and was good for five hundred yards range when held well 

 up. I never raised a surer-sighted gun to shoulder. It 

 weighed fourteen pounds, having the. metal for a good charge 

 of powder with slight recoil. 



Watching a chance when the buck stood about half front, 

 with both barrels cocked, I aimed high for his shoulder with 

 the smooth-barrel and let drive Without meaning it, some 

 way I touched the other trigger too and off went both bar- 

 rels at nearly the same time. 



The buck gave a tremendous leap and, fairly turning a 

 soniinersault, came plunging and rolling down the side of the 

 ridge toward the level below, while the frightened does 

 scudded off with white flags flying beyond the ridge. 



Seeing the buck yet struggling and plunging to regain its 

 feet, I hurried a load into one barrel of my rifle and started 

 down the steep ridge to get one where be was. Seeing a 

 place clear of underbrush (I expect it had been an otter slide 

 in summer), I sat down, leaned back and, holding my litie 

 well up, slipped down the soft snow just as easy as "sliding 

 on a cellar door " in boyhood's days. A little easier in fact, 

 for I went down that thirty or forty yards like au arrow shot 

 from a well-strung bow— went do wn quick as thought, and 

 brought up at the bottom of a " new T -fouud lake!" Yes, up 

 to my neck in ice-cold water, for the thin ice softened by 

 snow'broke easier than pie-crust under one hundred and six- 

 ty pounds' weight of sorrowful humanity. 



I have takeucold baths by choice, but never one quite as 

 cold as that. Luckily I was within reach of some overhang- 

 ing birch limbs, and I pulled myself out of that icy surround- 

 ing as quickly as I could, hanging to my rifle all the while. 

 Then, with the thermometer at zero or thereabouts, every 

 thread on me wet and freezing as I came into the air, I was 

 anything but comfortable. Fortunately I saw dry ground 

 under a huge ledge of rocks near by, and I got to that as 

 soon as I could. I stripped some birch bark from trees close 

 by, got some twigs, and with matches from a waterproof box 

 that I always carried with me, got fire. Not until I had 

 every dry liinb within reach of me piled on a huge pile did I 

 think of' looking for my buck. But he was safe. He lay 

 stark and stiff on the further edge of the little lake which I 

 had supposed to be an old beaver meadow. 



I did not trouble him, be* ever, for the next two or three 

 hours. It took all that time to dry out my soaked clothes, 

 get my gun fit for use and fix for the night, foT Eagle's Nest 

 was three or four miles off, and I knew I could never get 

 home that night if 1 started. And I was bound to carry 

 those horns with me when I went. 



After I had dried out, collected a good lot of dry wood and 

 made all snug for camping, I went around the little lake, cut 

 a good lot of steak from the buck, got the horns and came 

 back just in time to see the light fade away into darkness 

 when I sat down to broil my supper- 



That night a gang of wolves took care of the rest of the 

 venison, making such noisy work oyer that I could not have 

 slept had I tried, I had to keep my fire up any way or 

 freeze. 



THE GREAT FISH EXTERMINATOR. 



WITHIN six miles of this city (New Bedford, Mass.) 

 there must be at least fifteen pounds, traps, wiers— 

 nets running out from the shore to a pound or pocket at a 

 distance of six hundred feet to twelve hundred fathoms. 

 These are put into the water in the early spring and kept in 

 until fall, catching everything except the very smallest fish, 

 waging a continual, uninterrupted warfare on everything 

 that swims — fish that are good for food and fish that are not. 

 , The rule is to keep the food fish and let the others go — 

 hence the fi3h of prey are protected to continue war on the 

 food fish that escape the traps. Each year sees a, great dimi- 

 nution or the best food fish along the whole Atlantic board, 

 where nature had been so prolific — more so than in most any 

 part of the civilized world. This great enlightened govern- 

 ment, when wise legislation is boasted of all over the world, 

 allows a constant war of extermination to continue without 

 an effort, to check it. 



In Forest and Stheam of December 2 is an article on " A 

 Gigantic Fish Trap," where fish are to be kept yarded to sup- 

 ply and control the fish market. When the price is too low 

 for profit they propose to hold back the supply until the 

 price rises, then draw from their large yard— a rich harvest, 

 no doubt, if it works well. Having seen a good deal of this 

 sort of thing— keeping fish in weirs alive — I will give. you a 

 faint idea of one where fish have been kept a few days. On 

 first going alongside, you are surprised at the dense mass of 

 fish moving round and round, huddling together at times, so 

 that you cannot see the bottom. You will notice light spots 

 on them— some well covered — and wonder what they are, 

 having never seen them on fish caught with book. As you 

 watch more closely you will notice some that move more 

 lazily than others and will discover the spots around or near 

 the gills, the eyes are discolored and that the. fish are blind- 

 Occasionally catching a sight of the bottom, you discover 

 dead and dying ones, and about this time a disagreeable odor 

 arising from the water ; your presence has frightened them, 

 and in trying to escape they have stirred up the vile, decayed 

 and decaying mass on the bottom. Take one of these and 

 examine the spots and you discover them to be a fungus 

 growth similar to what the physicians describe as a sure sign 

 of diphtheria in the human being, only much larger. These 

 live fish (be weir owners propose to send to market for fish- 

 eaters, providing they will pay a price high enough." Take 

 these fish, clean off the fungus, pack them in ice and who 

 will ever know the difference, for whoever examined to see 

 if the fish was in a healthy condition or would know after the 

 fish was dressed. 



Again, if the fish have just got into the trap and arc taken 

 out to send to market, the rushing and dashing about, trying 

 to escape, cutting and piercing each other with their sharp 

 spears, then piled together and taken away in this manner, 

 dying in their slime, which works into the fish, they become 

 heated and diseased in dying and arc delivered to market in 

 this shape and disposed of to the consumer. If carried alive 

 in wells or cars, of course they are much better off until kept 

 in the dirty, filthy water about the piers of a city to sicken 

 in the sewer-poisoned water. The largest catches are in the 

 spawning season, when, moving along the shores for places 

 to shoot their spawn, they are caught in incredible numbers. 

 Whoever has seen the herring run up shallow streams to 

 spawning beds can form some idea of the. spawning fish along 

 our sea shores. Millions of fish loaded with spawn are killed 

 every spring that never find the way to market, but are 

 turned out to die along there. Such is a faint idea of the de- 

 struction going on around us that is surely exterminating the 

 food fish of our coast. 



Is it not time to awaken the public to this question, that 

 there may be some wiser legislation in the matter ? For one 

 State to move will not amount to anything— there must be a 

 national law, applicable to the whole coast, either to prohibit 

 trapping altogether or have the traps taken up, say from 

 Thursday to the following Monday of each week. In locali- 

 ties where the traps have been set for several years the fish 

 have been so generally exterminated that it only pays to set 

 them when they are sure the fish are migrating along there — 

 this in localities where, before traps were used, a boat could 

 load any day during the season with nice, large fish. They 

 were sent to market fresh and only caught in such quantities 

 as to keep the stock on hand fresh all the time. 



I hope gentlemen interested will take this matter up, and 

 that the papers— the principal dailies— will take hold, for 

 surety it is high time a move was made, or our fish supply 

 will be cut off; and I beg the Forest and Stream to use its 

 utmost efforts in this matter, and also all gentlemen, whether 

 fond of angling or not, for it is a matter of political economy. 

 Where fish are caught in largo quantities with nets, weirs, 

 etc., they are never, nor can they be, cared for so that they 

 can come to market in prime first-rate condition— they are 

 sure to become heated and injured. I have the word of some 

 of some of the most experienced of mackerel fisher- 

 men and successful owners of the craft used for that fishing, 

 and the v tell me they only have No. 1 mackerel wmen they 

 are caught with hook, and that the catching of them with 

 seines has ruined the business, for their former customers 

 cannot be furnished with the real No. 1 fish, because the fish 

 are all caught in such quantities with seines that they become 

 more or less heated before they can be taken care of. If 

 this is so with mackerel when the crew of the fishing craft 

 are right on hand to care for the catch, how much more so 

 will it be with fish caught in pounds, when there are only 

 two or three men to take care of the fish, which have first to 

 be taken from the pound, then packed into vessels or boats, 

 then taken to the nearest point for ice, repacked and shipped 

 to market? 



I wish no injury to any one, but much benefit to many, to 

 the whole fish-eating community in fact; and 1 believe the 

 abolishing of pound-nets will in the end be of most pecuniary 

 benefit to the trade also. J- E. Jr. 



New Bedford, Jan. 8. 



Ft.v Fishing-.— A small volume entitled "Fly Fishing in 

 Maine; or, Camp Life in the Wilderness," by Charles W. 

 Stevens, ia before us. It is not in the least technical, but 

 is filled with anecdotes of fishing trips, camp experiences 

 and stories of trout. A pleasant, readable book for a leisure 

 homr.^ Published by Rand, Avery & Co., Boston. Price, $1. 



STRONG BAIT FOR CATFISH. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



THE hunting season closed here on the 1st inst. The last 

 two or three days of the season were, too cold and 

 disagreeable for a hunt, and now we have to sit around the 

 fire and, toasting our shins, dream of days gone by and 

 patiently await the return of better days. The Forest and 

 Stream reaches us regularly every Saturday, and is read 

 with pleasure for the information it ahvay contains, and we 

 always rejoice in the experience, of brother sportsmen 

 chronicled therein. Perhaps you will be willing for us to 

 add our mite. 

 The catfish has been attracting considerable attention of 



"i prepared to 

 However, 

 iy good for- 

 great many 

 ,u the hanks 

 ns which at 

 tut" in that 

 ration of an 

 ric to furnish 



iy at gn 



late. Whether he will rise to a fly, I am nc 



say, but know he will bitefra' 



that, has nothing to do with m 



tune to be living in San Auto 



years ago, and 1 whiled away 



of the Leona and the banks o 



that time were noted for Wad 



section of the country. Once 



old fisherman to go with hi 



the bait, 



we journ 

 until we 

 from tht 

 lay's 



r the old 



m the ron 



e old : 



Leavi 



,yed d0Wl 



reached tl 



starting pc 



rt, gupjf 

 silk line, I approae 

 a bait, He gave me 

 Ye gods! what stuff! 

 or imagined anything ni 

 burger cheese and flour ! 

 it-"" "How do you piit.il 

 man gave rue the needed ii 

 the stream in swift water 

 Hardly had it sank below tb 

 hard one informed in 



itj ■■ 



ied will 

 icd that 



Hi 



San Antonio River 

 Ittla Bome ten miles 



pped ami began the 

 lamboo rod, reel and 

 IP and asked him for 

 fact to last all day. 

 »w it did stink ! I had never seen 

 e it before. What is it ? Lim- 

 " Will the tish bite that ? " "Try 

 on the hook. ? " The old fisher- 

 struction, and I cast the bait into 

 r at the heart of a deep pool, 

 surface before a long pull and 

 ;tldug had the cheese ; a smart 

 atroke with the rod fastened the hook, and in a short time I 

 landed the first cattish with cheese bait, and it weighed some- 

 thing over five pounds. I continued the sport or rather 

 slaughter for two or three hours, and then had to quit from 

 exhaution. I never saw any fishing like it before or since. 

 I enjoyed it hugely at the time, and write this hoping some 

 oi my friends may some day have a like experience, but de- 

 sire to warn Ibeni in time, to lie sure to take along some one 

 to handle the cheese, and bait the hook. My wife would not 

 let me come into the house for a week after that excursion. 



It is an actual fact that in less than four hours that old fish- 

 erman and myself caught over one hundred pounds Of cat- 

 tish; they were nearly all large fisb, scarcely any weighing 

 leas than three pounds, the, largest between five and six 

 pounds. The paste was made thusly : One pound Limburger 

 cheese and two pounds flour, mixed and worked over until 

 of the consistency of putty. For we break off a piece as 

 large as a piece of chalk, flatten it between the thumb and 

 Eareftnger, and fold it around the hook- The larger the bait 

 the larger the fish : no gammon 



Now don't despise the catfish. In Texas they are better 

 than the black bass. When you get one clean it carefully, 

 boil in water with a little vinegar added, just enough vinegar 

 to bleach the flesh and not flavin- it. When cooked, put on a 

 strainer; after all the wafer has drained off put the fish on 

 the ice, and when it is thoroughly cooled and hardened cover 

 it with a mayonaise dressing greenish with pickles and chow- 

 chow, and he is worth eating. Gringo. 



GRAYLING IN TROUT STREAMS. 



npHE fact that the grayling and trout are not found in the 

 I same stream in Michigan Where the grayling streams 

 contain no trout and vie-e versa, has been used as an argument 

 against grayling being placed in trout streams. On this sub- 

 ject it is well to listen to what Mr. Francis fiane.is, the vet- 

 eran fishery editor of the London FHelA, says of streams 

 which have contained both fishes for generations. 



One of his correspondents writes : " My experience of the 

 Itchen has led to the observation tl at it is useless to try much 

 for grayling, except about a particular date in the autumn, 

 viz., Sept, 15. Others say after a frost, but their luck may 

 have been different, as in a sport which requires so much of 

 skill and observation is often the case. Is there any reason 

 for this date? I think that, next to the trout, we have no 



thel 

 nauthe 



mnt, as some 

 act of its spawn- 

 September any- 

 ttticated fact that 

 lacli other." 

 note as follow r s : 

 that of our cor- 

 Itchen with the 

 and have beard of fair 

 parts of the Itchen the 



finer fish. It is a pity to see it despt 

 affirm, of destroying their spawn. Ha 

 ing at a different time and leaving it ft 

 thing to do with the matter, ox is it a 

 any of the Saluionidic prey on the spa 

 To this Mr. Francis replies in an ediloria 

 " Our experience does not coincide witl 

 respondent, We have had good sport on tl 

 grayling quite in the end of Octol 

 baskets in mid-winter. In I he be_ , 



grayling run often very large, and the large fish arc not good 

 risers at the fly, particularly the small winter duns. That 

 grayling do devour a good deal of trout spawn we fear is 

 true. They are in the height of condition and season when 

 the trout are spawning, and naturally, being a ground-root- 

 ing fish, they would pick up all the spawn they could; but, 

 doubtless, When the grayling have their turn on the redds, 

 the trout retaliate. We have always held that, for the sake 

 of lengthening the season of fly fishing, and even for the sake 

 of the" grayling itself, which is an unquestioned delicacy, it is 

 waters, and if it is 

 iicapped with the 

 rid to start a little 

 tand of fry, so as to 

 Indeed every trout 



,\lii 



worth while to have 



found that the trout are too heavily lue 



grayling, it is the easiest thing in the w 



hatching apparatus and to rear a few thoi 



put them past the notice of the grayling. 



stream of any note or value should have sucti au apparatus 



attached. If. by any chance, you get too many stores in the 



stream, they are an exceedingly valuable and marketable 



commodity." 



This appears to us to hit the mark and we especially com- 

 mend the two last paragraphs toall who own trout streams. 



Ykbmoht Trout Law— Grafton, Vt— We have lots of 

 trout here (S<i1m<> fbnMnaMs) winch come from Canada, the 

 depot for the sale of them is said to be at St. John, just over 

 the line, and as we have no law to prevent the sale of them 

 in this State, the dealers keep at it all Hie time. One dealer 

 at Bellows Falls receives about 15,0 pounds per week, and 

 they are hawked about in wagons all over the country. 



They come from the lakes on the north side of the St, 

 Lawrence, which are now accessible by railroad from Mon- 

 treal to Quebec. I have fished one of those lakes in the St. 

 Leon district for several years, and until last June with great 

 success, In the full of 1878 it was netted, and apparently 



