May 34, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



327 



art! furnished with postal cards with printed questions as 



■ the i . ■" ■■ r to which they write out. These cards 



::i a rack provided for the purpose, so that mem- 

 bers can, at a glance*, gain authentic information in regard 

 to«nyw« Lb • maj contemplate visiting. 



[{ iftnlso proposed to establish a museum — literary and 

 general reading room in connection with the association — 

 nil of which will be kept open for members' use day and 

 evening. Aa this will require more money than we have at 

 present coxttraaud, n vigorous and what promises to be ri 

 i cessful effort, is- being made to increase the them- 

 liieh now numbers 160, to at least four times that 

 " 



Arrangements have also been made for monthly lectures 

 or addresses on subjects relevant to the object of the organi- 

 zation. The first was delivered by our president on Satur- 

 day evening hi. who took advantage oP the occasion tode- 

 feudthe angling fraternity generally against the frequent 

 iiM|jiilalious oast upon their veracity when narrating tish 

 1 ii i also to impress upon the members the import- 

 ance of increased efforts m behalf of fish propagation and 

 protection; the prosecution of offenders against the fishing 

 laws, and the forumtiou of a white aud black fist of boat- 

 men and landlords, therirst to contain the names of those 

 landlords who set good tables; provide good beds, and are 

 moderate in their Charges, and of boatmen who are compe- 

 tent and obliging; the second lo contain the names of land- 

 lords and boat a of opposite characteristics. The speech 



also took strong grou ucl against the too prevalent practice 

 pf anglers, as well as commercial fishermen, of fading to 

 return to the water when alive, tish too small for use, The 

 i i :n as will be delivered by Rev. WaylandHoyt, D.LI., 

 a thorough and very enthusiastic fisherman, who "proposes 

 i i ii occasion to an account of bis visit- to 

 Yellowstone Park, and the kind of sport he found there. 



From this you will perceive that we are doing what we 

 can lor legitimate angling, as well as for the promotion of 

 fishcultiire, ■ W. L. B. 



I'lULADFLPHr.!, May 14,1888, . 



MILTON THREE PONDS. 



FOR, the, first time, in your issue of May 3, under heading 

 of '-Black Bass in New Ilamphstre," I. sec mention 

 made of Milton Three Ponds. It is live years ago last Sep- 

 tember that 1 got the hint of good black bass fishing to be 

 had at Milton. 1 then lived at Dover, N. H., and at the in- 

 vitation of a friend who lived at .Milton, and win) knew the 

 spots in the ponds where the bass were likely to congregate. 

 I accented. On the cars going there 1 had the pleasure of 

 becoming acquainted with Fish Commissioner Luther Hayes, 

 who gave me some valuable hints on bass and bass fishing. 



I stayed four days, and had u never-to-be-forgotten time, 

 catching from ten to twenty-two bass each day, besides many 

 pickerel as well as B»me large yellow perch, and quite often 

 a horn or bullpout . and huge chubs, and never getting time 

 to weary for the want of a bite. 



The largest bass I ever got there was f^ pounds, average 

 weight about 1+ pounds', but as game as bulldogs. it 

 seemed uncertain at times whether it was a bird or a fish 

 thai bad been hooked, as they fly in the air so often, and 

 with a light rod you get, all the fun you want. Regarding 

 I be lust, bait for bass T am uncertain, as they arc the most 

 Changeable, for after two or three arc taken they seem to 

 find out the deception. 



My experience runs thus: I will have good luck with the 

 live minnow, sunk deeply; then, all at once, they stop, as if 

 they said. "Enough of minnows, bring along the next 

 course." and, putting on a small frog, either striped or green, 

 there ->, ould be a rusk to get, served first. Then they would 

 stop snort again, when I would try a large grasshopper or 

 locust; another rush, etc., and when all the more fancy 

 baits would fail to lure. I have put On the primitive and 

 most despised, yet most deadly of all baits, the worm, and 

 thus got a new lease of bass fishing. 



In rowing from one pond to another. I have had good luck 

 poon and ttoiling line; and when a tipple" is on the 

 w;iter tiny can be taken readily with the fly. 



Good boats can be hired at the railroad station for fifty 

 cants per day. and good board at the Phoenix Hotel, kept by 

 Horatio G. Wentworth, at one dollar per day. I would 

 recommend patties going there to take frogs with them, as 

 in all of my five annual visits there 1 found frog bait scarce. 

 Minnows arc plenty in the ponds, and a small seine will get 

 all that you want af once. People say at Milton that land- 

 locked salmon have been put into 'the ponds, but 1 never 

 heard of any being caught. About October is the best, time 

 to go tor a general good lime, if you arc fond of a shot, as 

 I here arc many ducks, and many shooters come along about 

 t ben. There arc shore birds called snipe at, Milton, but they 

 are, as L think, sandpipers or sandpeeps. Gray squirrels are 

 plenty in the immediate vicinity of the ponds, and rabbits 

 are unite plenty later in the season. Take it all iu Jill, it is a 

 good general place, easy to get to, with cheap boats and 

 board. STou can hire a man to row for one dollar and a half 

 per day, aud iee aud boxes to send your tish away to your 

 friends, ice costs nothing, boxes can be bought at the grocery 

 store. Any one who can't have a good time at Milton Three 

 Ponds will be hard to please, A. Mac. 



Kiveu Foist, It, I.. May 14. 



MUSKOKA LAKES. 



TNreply to iuquriesby ' 'J. D.." New York, and others, 

 and, as Mr. E. S. Kingsley said, "to add to the general 

 stock" of knowledge on the subject, of sport, I would men- 

 tion the Muskoka Lake- as the acknowledged best place in 

 Canada. 



The earliest fishiug is to be had through the iee iu March 

 and April Barrie, on Lake Simcoc. is the most convenicnl 

 place. Here lake herrings are o,utgat in gre.il quantities, 

 with the minnow as bait, and here, loo. the question as to the 



great wiiitefisb of ikes taking the bait was settled. 



Those caught in Barrie Bay average about three pounds, 

 In r the herrings are full sized". They run together and are 

 fished for through the ice ia fjlom eight to twelve feet of 

 water. The line is usually held in the hand the rod, for 

 obvious reasons, being i u ,iie wa y. So soon as 'the ice goes, 

 which is usually about I he seventh of May, begins the trolling 

 for bass, pickerel and maskinonge. The rod-fishing (if I 

 may use the term) for bass is simply magnificent in am pan, 

 , mskoka, Rosseau or Joseph, and in the smaller ad- 

 ■ lakes, The bass fishing in the rapids Of the Senem 



Bivei and at Sparrov, Lake is excellent. |,|, e , n0 „, s0 because 



a small spoon with hackle can be used. Here I 



saw Mr. Ed. Barton, of Pittsburgh, hind a black bass which 



tipped the beam at live pounds aud a quarter. It was 



twenty and a quarter inches long and seven inches wide. 

 Maskinonge are caught, weighingfrom three to forty pouuds. 



Trolling for salmon-trout " begins in the end of' May and 

 lasts about three weeks. The Indians begin when the' blos- 

 som comes on the plum tree. There is late in the fall another 

 interval of three weeks when they will take the spoon. The 

 Indians use for bass, pickerel "or maskinonge a spoon red 

 inside and bright brass or silver outside, bare hook some- 

 times, and at other times a hackle of red worsted. For 

 salmoutrouttheychoose a spoon silvered inside and dull 

 copper oulside, and for hackle use the white hair from the 

 root of a deer's tail. They always file a good quarter of an 

 inch from cap* side of the common spooirshapcd "spoon" to 

 give the swiftly-moving fish a chance of catching the book. 

 R is strange that, in lakes Muskoka and Joseph thelaketrout 

 lie in deep water close to the bottom. They must therefore 

 be trolled for with a line of over I wo hundred feet with about 

 two pounds of sinker; but your eight to fifteen pound salmon- 

 trout is a royal fish and worth all the trouble. Keep your 

 gaff sharp, and don't let him near the boat. 



Splendid brook-trout, fishing is to be had on the Maguere- 

 wau and Muskoka rivers, 



The lakes arc reached from Toronto or Hamilton by the 

 Northern & Northwestern Railway, of which Mr. Robert, 

 Keer is the general passenger agent. Muskoka Wharf is 

 about one hundred and fifteen miles north of Toronto, and is 

 the point at which the steamers are taken for the various 

 fishing points on the lakes. The return ticket from Toronto 

 to any point on the lakes is only six dollars. Hotel accom- 

 modation is to be had at all landings and towns, and costs 

 troiu one dollar to one dollar fifty per day. 



I am sure there is no better place for sport, and no one will 

 be disappointed. I will gladly give any information iu mv 

 power. M Macleod. ' 



Brockton-, Ont. 



PICKEREL IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 



I HATE been much interested in the pickerel discussion 

 that has been lately going on in vour paper. I do not 

 remember when or Where 1 firsl beheld the clipper-like lines 

 of this fish, but my memory recalls distinctly the first time 

 I ever heard of it. When a boy, i made the acquaintance 

 of a young Southerner who was traveling with a variety 

 troupe. He, finding me very willing to listen to hunting or 

 fishing yarns, delighted me with accounts of pickerel fish- 

 ing and told me how he had often shot, them with a rifle 

 when they were sunning themselves near the surface of the 

 water. He was surprised when I told him that the fish was 

 unknown in this country. 



Since then some enterprising person has stocked a tribu- 

 tary of the Upper St. John with them (on the Maine side), 

 and now we have pickerel and pickerel. In 187(1 a few were 

 caught at Eel River, a hundred miles from here, and iu 1878 

 they arrived in our waters in numbers, taking the fishermen 

 by surprise. Tons of them arc exported annually. Winter 

 does not interrupt the fishing, which is done with nets ex- 

 clusively. A series of holes, ten feet apart, arc cut in the 

 iee. and* the net. is anchored at one end. and then pulled 

 along beneath the ice by means of a. hook till extended its 

 full length. 



When the net is overhauled, a, long cord is attached to 

 one end, the fastening is slipped, and the net taken out on 

 the ice. By means of the cord, the net is reset with only 

 two holes in the ice. Last winter three Ions were caught in 

 this way in Foshay's Lake, a body of water about twenty 

 acres in extent, the " pickerel holes" have become such 

 a nuisance that the Government has enacted a law against 

 leaving them unmarked. 



No doubt, the person who planted pickerel iu the Aroos- 

 took (I think it was) did a good tutu for those who make a 

 living by catching them; but the Gaspcreaux fishermen and 

 trout anglers mutter against, him "curses not loud but deep." 

 The sharp-nosed brutes make havoc among the nets of the 

 former, easily cutting through the slender twine, and the 

 latter say that, they have invaded the spawning grounds of 

 the trout, devouring the spawn and small fry. 1 bear no 

 malice against their disseminator, for 1 believe 1 know of 

 plenty of good trout, waters that the}' will never reach; but 

 should this catch his eye, 1 will guarantee to furnish him", 

 free of charge, the addresses of a dozen people who would 

 like to sec him. After he made their acquaintance, I don't 

 believe he would feel like experimenting any more la Ly- 

 sander Hall. " The evil which men do lives after them; the 

 good is oft interred with their bones." The work of this 

 person. Whether good or evil, will "endure forever." As to 

 the value of pickerel as a food fish, there appears to be great 

 diversity of opinion, i take little stock in a tish diet! but 

 tis a pautish 1 consider it a success— as anything else a fail- 

 ure. Many people in this section will not eat them at all. 

 One thing is certain — when tons arc exported at five cents a 

 pound, someone must eat, them, and by this fact 1 consider 

 its value clearly established. 1 know but little of its game 

 qualities, but think it would he a great improvement oil the 

 eel, catty and chub— the fishes to which 1 was often com- 

 pelled to flee foi amusement when a boy. 1 feel that the 

 small boy of to-day, with piscatorial inclinations, has a 

 great advantage over his predecessor of fifteen years ago. 



No person likes to fish any better than I, aud'feyy have 

 less chance to indulge their taste? for this pastime. But 1 

 read in Forest a.nd Stream what others are doing, and 

 am content. My entire experience in flyfishing is covered 

 by a few clays on Pallet River— just enough to make me 

 wish for more. My casts would hardly have taken a prae- 

 tor accuracy, distance, grace or delicacy, yet 1 managed, in 

 some way, to land a few half-pounders, and a few more 

 about half as large. With an angle-worm I am "no slouch," 

 though 1 have seen people who could beat me even there. 

 1 have received an invitation to be one of a party of lour 

 Which will spend a month on Green River lakes, in Quebec, 

 commencing about the last week in August.. 



If the multifarious duties of this life, that so encompass 

 me round about, will loosen their grip for that, length of 

 time, i will go. Under the tuition of a lawyer, a druggi-l 

 and a quondam Rocky Mountain fur trader, 1 have no doubt 

 that I would acquire some knowledge of the "gentle art. " 

 Que of your correspondents advises bachelors who contem- 

 plate a visit to the woods, to get a wife, and take her along 

 to cook the fish. He also prescribes a courting ritual, un- 

 surpassed for beauty, but which 1 fear would not always 

 give satisfaction, for the suitor might liud that "you get'," 

 as well as "you bet," will rhyme with "my pet." 



I advi i be boys, .should they follov. the advice, to be 

 very careful in Hie matter of selection, 1 have often known 

 "Hie bonds of matchlock" to end a young man's career as a 

 sportsman, and frequently when another victim migrated 

 from our thinned ranks, have been led to exclaim with the 

 pod. "And now farewell, 'Its bard to give thee up," etc. 



Once or twice i have attempted to decoy my friends awav 

 on an excursion after "changing their condition." Perhaps 

 1 made a grievous mistake in not including the lady iu the 

 invitation; but when 1 saw the fairest of foreheads take 

 upon itself the appearance of the map of a track yard at a 

 shunting station. 1 felt little like repeating the experiment, 



"And the mother-in-law, what do,*s she say?" Sb-leh, 

 don't mention it; many of you have been there' yourselves, 

 and know all about it." L. L Fi.owkh. 



THE FISHERIES EXHIBITION. 



BEFORE leaving New York "Uncle Reub" was properly 

 labeled and consigned to friends in London. Among 

 other credentials he bore the following to the genial editor of 

 the Fishing Gazette: 



"Office Foiiest and Stream, i 

 "Mew York, April 4. 1883. f 

 ■■I?. Tl. mrston, Esq.: 



"Dear Sin— Permit me to introduce to you Mr. Reuben 

 Wood, who goes I o England in charge of the light fishiug 

 tackle of America. Mr. Wood is an accomplished fly caster 

 and has carried off many prizes. He wants lo try the trout, 

 and perhaps the salmon, of England and Scotland, and any 

 favors you may show him will be duly appreciated by both 

 himself and ' 3Tours very truly, 



"Fred Mather. " 



The editor of the PisMng Gazette publishes the above 

 letter, and says: "We have' bad a long, pleasant angling 

 chat with Mr. Wood, and hope before long to pilot him to 

 one of our best trout streams. He has kindly promised lo 

 be present al the Third 'Fishing Gazette' Tournament and 

 show the American split-cane rod as used by American 

 anglers." 



The tournament will lie held at Mr. Warner's Welsh 

 Haip, nendon, on the Midland Railway, June 11. 



Regulations — N. B. — Competitors can use their own rods, 

 reels and lines, but will have to use dies, weights, etc.. pro- 

 vided by the management, in order that all may use a sim- 

 ilar weight. Limit in length for salmon rods. 2U feet; limit 

 in length for double-handed trout rods, 14 feet U inches; 

 limit, in length for single-handed trout rod. 13 feet (i inches; 

 limit in length for Thames and Nottingham competitions, 14 

 feet. No allowance in points will be made for rods under 

 the above limits. All the competitions, except the lly-casting. 

 float-casting and cheese-bait casting, will take place over the 

 grass. 



First Competition — Amateur fly-casting competition with 

 single handed fly-rod. 



Second Competition. — Amateur competition, with single- 

 handed fly-rod, in throwing fly with greatest accuracy and 

 lightness under bushes. 



Third Competition. —Amateur fly-casting competition with 

 double-handed trout fly-tod. 



Fourth Competition'. — Amateur fly-casting with salmon 

 rod. 



Fifth Competition. — Amateur competition in casting in 

 the Thames style. 



Sixth Competition. — Amateur competition in casting 

 from reel in Nottingham style. 



Seventh Competition. — Amateur Competition (open to 

 Thames and Nottingham style) in casting toward a fixed 

 mark. The angler casting the bait nearest to the mark to 

 take first prize; the next best cast made by another angler 

 the second, and the third best east by another angler to get 

 the third prize. 



Eighth Competition.— Professional competition in casting 

 in the Thames style. 



Ninth Competition.— Professional competition in casting 

 from reel iu Nottingham Style. 



Tenth Competition,— Competition in throwing the bait 

 with forked stick in the Welsh lmrp style. Other competi- 

 tions may he arranged. 



Tut. Best Cast on Record.— A stout, portly looking 

 gentleman stood in the midst of an attentive group of friends 

 in a Cortland! street hotel yesterday afternoon. He was 

 evidently whipping the trout streams of his imagination. Ru- 

 be waved his cane "above his head with the rhythmic motion 

 of a leader of an orchestra. After making several superb 

 oasts he evidently hooked a spectre trout and lauded him 

 with great applause. Encouraged by his success he began 

 to tell of an unusual capture once made by him. the novelty 

 of which caused the most profound impression. "You 

 know, gentlemen," he said "that, the usual method of catch- 

 ing a trout is from the bank of a stream or out of a boat. 

 Gnce, however, 1 captured a very big trout while on a train 

 of cars. 1 was going up to Pike county, in Pennsylvania, 

 fishing, as was my custom for many years. The conductor 

 of the train was ;i brother angler and' 1 rode with him in the 

 baggage ear, chatting over the fish we had taken. The con- 

 versation turned to those we had not secured. My friend 

 said; "General, we will soon come to a narrow stream 

 which the road crosses, where resides tin ancient and re- 

 markably wary trout. For thirty-six years 1 have en- 

 deavored lo hook him without avail. Men have grown thin 

 digging worms to catch him. lie dwells under an old log, 

 just beneath the bridge, waiting for the fragments of lunch 

 Which fall from the cars. An idea at once occurred to me. 

 I took my rod from its enue and put it together, adjusted the 

 reel and' tied on a, favorite east, which, by the way, was 

 given to me by Sir Morion Pcto when he Visited me in this 

 country. Isaid: 'I'll try the old duffer. Don't stop Ihe 

 train, but slow up when you come to the stream,' In a few 

 minutes the, train went rumbling on the bridge. The bag- 

 gage master exclaimed, 'Here we are,' aud rolled back the 

 door nt the side of the ear. 1 made my cast, gentlemen, 

 aud had him, by jove! He weighed over four' and a half 

 pounds. It was a he one. "— A. Y.lhntlv, 



LeAthjsr-Stqckinq Club. — Oswego, N. Y., May 18. — 

 At a special meeting held at the secretary's cilice this 3 I'. M. 

 the club elected the following members delegates to the 

 State convention to take place, at Niagara Falls; .1. B. Me- 

 Merriek, II. O, Tanner, N. A. Wright, Dr. J. 1). McManus 

 and G. P. Matteson. The club also passed resolutions of 

 respect for Morgan L. Marshall, deceased, who was one of 

 the founders of'the club, in March. 1860. The club voted 

 to have the resolutions nicely engrossed and framed, and 

 send a copy lo the family of out departed brother. The 

 prospects for bass fishing- in this vicinity was never 

 better, if we could only have a game protector here to 

 guard against pirates who use nets, seines, and any other de- 

 vice they can think of by day or night to destroy our game 

 fish, We could then satisfy 'the most fastidious fly-Caster in 



America, I hope the Governor will think best to' give us it 



State game protector.- IUmei. Boone. 



