FOREST AND STREAM. 



267 



\m 



und 



liver 



FISH IN SEASON IN DECEMBER. 



Pompano. 

 Snapper. 

 Grouper. 

 Rockfish. 



SOUTHERN WATERS. 



Trout, (Black Bass.) 

 Drum, (two species.) 

 Kingfisfi . 

 Striped Bass. Rockfish. 



Sheepshead. 

 Tailorfish. 

 Sea Bass. 



—We attach much value to the information printed on 

 the first page of this day's issue, and trust it will he appre- 

 ciated by ail our readers and prove of essential service to 

 anglers who contemplate a journey to Florida this winter. 

 We think, with the writer, that the edible and gajne 

 qualities of our southern coast fish are not sufficiently es- 

 teemed, doubtless because they are so little known. 

 Printed information on this subject is most meagre, and the 

 investigations made by naturalists in this department and 

 locality are very limited. We have always been surprised 

 to discover, from personal inquiry of southern gentlemen 

 who are considered proficient anglers, their ignorance of 

 the habits and modes of capture of the numerous varieties 

 of fish within their own waters. The pastime or business 

 of fish-catching seems to be abandoned to the negroes; yet 

 there is a spacious field for the enjoyment of scientific ex- 

 perts, and we shall very much wonder if those gentlemen 

 whose experience has been confined to our northern waters, 

 do not find in the rivers and estuaries of Florida and other 

 southern States a new sensation whenever they enter the 

 lists to test the strength and cunning of the finny inhabit- 

 ants that abound there. The character and disposition of 

 the forces with which they will have to deal are^ery nicely 

 indicated in the article Ave publish. It is no child's play to 

 handle one of those monster fish, and we can fully appre- 

 "ciate the anxiety and pity the perspiration of the angler 

 who is hooked to a fifteen pound grouper or pompano, pulling 

 straight for his lair in the mangrove roots, when it comes 

 to the desperate alternative of break tackle or lose fish. 

 The writer gives sufficient data as to the selection of tackle 

 and bait and choice of ground and tide, to enable the intel- 

 ligent and experienced angler to practise his rudimentary 

 lessons with prospect of success. 



In angling for the bass (misnamed trout) of the St. John 

 River and favorite localities, we will give one hint from our 

 own experience which, if followed, will render success in- 

 fallible. The angler is supposed to be in a skiff easily 

 handled by a practised oarsman. If the water be smooth 

 and unruffled, the experienced eye will easily detect, at 

 frequent intervals, little jets of spray shoot up from the 

 surface to the height of a foot or so. This means fish. In- 

 stantly the angler must cast his fly or draw his trolling 

 spoon over the spot, just as he would naturally do when a 

 speckled trout breaks in our northern waters. He will 

 seldom fail to hook his s fish, if the plash of oars does not 

 frighten the game. A quarter of a mile below Palatka is a 

 sand-bar which is a favorite locality in December and Jan- 

 uary for " those who know," and the best fisherman and 

 boatsman there is George Lucas, whom we are pleased to 

 recommend. 



Speaking of Palatka, it is one of the very best headquar- 

 ters for the sportsman, being centrally located, with fine 

 shooting and fishing in the vicinity, and accessible by 

 steamboat from above and below, with daily mails from 

 Jacksonville. There are two excellent hotels here and 

 sundry boarding houses. The "St. John's Hotel," kept 

 by the Peterman brothers, is as comfortable as could be 

 desired, with most excellent table, and many "modern 

 improvements" not often found in Florida. We are free 

 to designate tins hotel, because we wish to advise so as to 

 ensure the fullest satisfaction of sportsmen who place con- 

 fidence in our recommendation. If the hotel- proprietors 

 can profit thereby, they certainly deserve to do so. Palatka 

 is healthy, and the ground absolutely hilly for flat Florida, 

 three-fourths of which, we believe, is actually under water. 

 Steamboats run to* Enterprise, and thence to Salt Lake, 

 from which there is short transit to Indian River; also to 

 Tokoi, from which St. Augustine is reached by a sixteen 

 mile railroad of the worst possible description and most 

 tedious rate of progress. 



One cannot be too careful in selecting his abiding place 

 in this Land of Flowers, especially if he be an invalid. 

 The four healthiest localities, and affording the greatest 

 abundance of game and facilities for sport are St. Augus- 

 tine, Palatka, Lake Monroe, and Indian River. At Enter- 

 prise, on Lake Monroe, which comprises merely a very 

 good hotel and outbuildings, and a court house located in a 

 swamp and wholly isolated, is most excellent deer, quail, 

 turkey, and snipe shooting; but from Mellenville, on the 

 opposite side of the lake, one can go back thirty miles over 

 a settled and cultivated country, abounding in large orange 

 groves and banana patches, traversed by good roads, and 

 interspersed with beautiful lakes. Game is plentiful, but 

 not so abundant as in the vicinity of Enterprise. We shall 

 give a brief sketch of the St. John River route in our next 

 number. 



—The half-dozen attentive friends who have kindly sent 

 us printed accounts, clipped from Hartford papers, of the 

 fish-way at Holyoke Dam over the Connecticut River, will 

 find a full description of the same in our issue of Nov. 13th, 

 page 218, three weeks -ago. We fully appreciate the im- 

 portance of this great and useful work, and have anxious- 

 ly noted the laborious efforts of the Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut Fish Commissioners, from the first inception 

 of the enterprise, through all the phases of opposition and 

 litigation with which it has struggled, up to the final con- 

 sumation last October. When the fish-way became a 

 finality, we were immediately advised thereof, and waited 

 only for our regular publication'-day to announce the fact; 



We trust that our readers will not only examine our 

 columns carefully hereafter, but learn to look to us for 

 latest information in matters of this sort; for we claim to 

 be a live paper, and our business relations with Govern- 

 ment and State Fishery officers enable us to obtain early 

 possession of facts of interest and value. We hope for 

 great results from the construction of this fish-way to man- 

 ifest themselves at an early day. The Connecticut is the 

 best adapted river on the Atlantic coast for the propagation 

 and preservation of salmon and shad; it is the longest, the 

 most broken by rapids, the coldest at its sources, and con- 

 tains the clearest and purest water. It was long ago the 

 natural spawning ground and birth place of salmon, and 

 only became depleted by those causes inseparable from in- 

 creasing population and ignorant and insufficient legislation. 

 Now for five years past the fishery officers have b'een assi- 

 duously employed in restocking its waters, and the results, 

 so far as investigated, have proved eminently satisfactory 

 and encouraging. Hereafter, with an unobstructed pas- 

 sage from the ocean to its mountain sources, the salmon 

 and shad will have fidl range. They can plant their seed 

 ad libitum on chosen spots, returning periodically to their 

 native spawning grounds — and with both fish and ova pro- 

 tected by judicious laws and watchful wardens, they must 

 continue to increase and multiply until the heart of every 

 angler is made glad, and the poor leap for joy at the abun- 

 dance. 



— Seth Green, who is at present in charge of the New 

 York State Hatching House at Rochester, begs us to inform 

 our readers, who may desire to experiment in the business 

 of hatching out eggs of the salmon trout or white fish, that 

 he will, on application, send a few hundred eggs on the re- 

 ceipt of fifty cents to prepay the cost of mailing them. His 

 object is to teach the American people the art offish-breed- 

 ing and to have them learn how easily this may be accom 

 plished, so that every river, lake or pond may be made to 

 abound with fish, as in former times. These will soon be 

 ready for transportation, and all that is necessary to watch 

 the process of their growth is to place them in a shallow 

 wooden box with gravel on the bottom and allow a stream 

 from spring or even hydrant water to flow gently over 

 them from one end of the box to the other. During the 

 season of 1872 and 1873, he made an extensive distribution 

 of eggs, and wishes any person who received them at that 

 time, to report the result to him or to the columns of some 

 newspaper near at hand. 



— Down at Smithfield, Long Island, not far from Hemp- 

 stead, is the trout farm of Mr. Thomas Jeffrey, who in- 

 formed the writer that he was one of the very first to 

 handle and strip a trout on Long Island. His place lies a 

 little off the main road, about a mile and a half from 

 Smith ville. He has a series of ponds for fingerlings, year- 

 lings, and two year olds, also a mixture pond with all sizes 

 and ages. As we saw it, no doubt during the worst part 

 of the year, it struck us as having a decidedly antiquated 

 appearance. The ponds were full of dead leaves, and 

 other decayed vegetable and fish matter, including large 

 dead shiners, evidently in a decomposed state, which he 

 had forgotten to cut into pieces so that the fish could eat 

 them. It was a marvel to us how the fish could live at all; 

 as it was, the yearling fish did not weigh two ounces, and 

 the two year olds not more than a quarter of a pound; all 

 of them were dwarf fish. Mr. Jeffery, who is now getting 

 infirm and quite old and afflicted with rheumatism, evi- 

 dently cannot pay that proper attention to the water and 

 fish which is essentially necessary to success; but with all 

 these drawbacks he has not only built his house, purchased 

 all necessary tools, cut dams and sluices, gravelled and 

 sanded ponds, but also derives a considerable income from 

 fish culture. We asked Mr. Jeffery the reason why he al- 

 lowed all the debris of vegetation,' uneaten and rotten fish 

 to sink to the bottom and poison the water. He replied: 

 "Oh, the first rain will clean it all, and I am getting old 

 and sick. " We bade him good day, thanking him for his 

 attention, and at the same time repectfully suggested "that 

 if the preserve was worked on half shares it would relieve 

 him of the burden of labor, and he might still derive the 

 same increase.'.' 



—The fishermen on the south side and at the east end of 

 Long Island are having remarkable ' success this season. A 

 great many codfish are being taken off Fire Island and at 

 other points on the Great South Bay, and on Thursday 

 morning one thousand bass, estimated to weigh at least 

 four thousand pounds, were taken at one haul at the Poose 

 off Southampton. 



—Ralph Keele, in Haider's Magazine, says of Lake Le- 

 man, Switzerland: 



"There are said to be twenty -one species of fish in the 

 lake; but of its thirty- six leagues of shore, according to 

 my authority, thirty leagues are so rocky as to give hardly 

 any plants or insects for their food. Leman, therefore is 

 not so well stocked with fish as many of the Swiss lakes 

 The professional fishermen go out in their boats at dark 

 and are generally gone all night. The unprofessional of 

 the Swiss shore are, I think, the most patient people on 

 earth. I have seen hundreds of them in the course of the 

 summer holding their lines from bridges and quays at all 

 hours of the day and night, and have never yet seen them 

 catch a fish. The hotels of Geneva, at least in the "°rand 

 season," are mostly supplied from the sea. The Jerra 

 which is nearest to the grayling, but, I believe, a species 

 peculiar to this and one or two other of the Swiss lakes is 

 the fish oftenest met on the table. There is a magnificent 

 kind of salmon-trout, called truite du lac, weighing often 

 twenty or thirty pounds, which sometimes graces the din- 

 ners of the Beau-Rivage or De la Paix at Geneva On 

 days when this fish is served he is paraded in all his superb 

 proportions around the dining-room by a white-gloved 

 waiter, in a sort of glorified triumph of sauce and silver 

 m the genteel lull between the soup and. the first wine, ' 



WILL BLACK BASS TAKE A FLY. 

 i( Rochester, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: — 

 F HAVE read with increasing interest each article on this 

 J- subject. I was astonished that such a question should 

 ever suggest itself to a follower of Father Isaac. I have 

 taken black bass from Canandaigua outlet and Genesee 

 river for years with a fly, and I find that I have better suc- 

 cess every year. Not by trolling as is the custom, in the 

 St. Lawrence from a boat, but by casting from a boat or 

 wading as the water will permit. Either I have become 

 more experienced or as I have heard said in regard to trout, 

 they have become educated and will take a fly better from 

 year to year if the waters are humanly fished. I have made 

 it a practice to return to the water all small fish and I believe 

 that I have been amply rewarded this year. I never had 

 better fishing in these waters. 



The hint that I have aided in the increase of this splendid 

 fish seems insignificant; but if you will think for just a mo- 

 ment and see what the increase would be by returning fifty 

 or one hundred of these fish to the water, you will not be 

 surprised or wonder at my insinuation. 



If all anglers would just keep this in mind, return all 

 small fish to the water, there would be no danger of our 

 lakes and rivers being depopulated. 



A little care, and a little humanity on the part of the 

 true angler would in a great degree make up for the whole- 

 sale slaughter of the pot-fisher. But never mind that, I 

 have thrown aside my bass rod and tackle as a whole, 

 with the exception of dressing my flies especially for bass. 

 I tie my own flies as every angler should who wishes to 

 drink in the whole enjoyment of angling. 



In its place I have adopted my Conroy trout rod and trout 

 tackle as a whole, and find that it gives me infinitely more 

 pleasure than the heavier one. 



" Now in regard to flies; I have tried the scarlet ibis, grizzly 

 king, and many others with some success, but none with 

 the success that I have had with a brown one which I have 

 made and named king fly. In this locality I have taken 

 them from the first of June to the first of October, with 

 this same fly. I think it superior to any other for the 

 reason that I have put others on the same cast and would 

 in nine cases out of ten find them fast to this fly. Also I 

 have taken off the other flies and put on just two of these 

 and would take time after time two bass of a pound and a 

 half or two pounds each at a single cast. That is what 1 

 call genuine sport. This fly might not do for other locali- 

 ties, but for these two that I have mentioned, I am certain 

 it has no equal. 



These magnificent fish seem to be very gamey here, giving 

 almost as much play as a trout. It is seldom that I let my 

 flies sink below the surface of the water. It is not 

 necessary to with this fly, but the instant that it touches the 

 water, if they are at all inclined, it is greedily taken, in fact I 

 have seen them jump clear out of the water to seize the 

 supposed prize. It looks too much like bait fishing to let 

 them sink below the surface precisely as though it was 

 really bait. When I bait fish I want to bait fish, and when 

 I fly fish I want to fly fish. 



Let it then be the aim of every trueangler to exert all his 

 influence to keep our lakes and rivers from being depopu- 

 lated of this magnificent fish. If every angler will catch 

 his fish artistically there need be no fear. If there can be 

 no better laws, let what we have be enforced, and it will 

 greatly aid us in our work. j\ L. King 



What a Frenchman Knows about Shooting in 

 America.— In the May number of the Bulletin of the 

 French Soeiete D'Acdimatation, we find a report by the 

 Count de Montebello, First Secretary of the French Lega 

 tion at Washington of what he knows about game ia 

 America, and we present some of the principal points of 

 this communication for the edification of our readers! 



Speaking of the wild turkey, which he says is found in 

 considerable numbers in Virginia and Maryland, he states 

 that it is an animal which is likely to disappear, as it is very 

 easily taken, especially in the snow. He remarks that he 

 has never hunted the wild turkey, although he has been in 

 formed of a flock in the vicinity of Washington because 

 its pursuit has not the least charms for him, as this simply 

 involves lying in wait and shooting from a covert 



The venison found in the Washington market he tells 

 us, generally comes from Vermont, the deer being found in 

 large numbers around Lakes George and Champlain, as also 

 in the woods that border the Hudson. He has heard a good 

 deal of the caribou, the moose and the elk, but has not seen 

 any of these even in skins. He apologises for not being 

 able to tell more about the birds and beasts of America, as 

 he is closely tied down in Washington by his official duties 

 and it is very difficult to learn anything of the animals in L 

 country where all the birds with red plumaee are called 

 red birds, and all with yellow feathers, yellow birds; and 

 as far as game is concerned there are as many names for 

 each kind as there are States or even Counties! 



He regrets his inability to visit Philadelphia for the pur 

 pose of there meeting Prof. Agassiz, who was not in the 

 city when he had visited it some time previously If h 

 could o^ly see the Professor he has no doubt of beln°- abl- 

 to obtain some useful information! 



-The Palatka (Florida) Herald says that never sin.e the 

 early settlement of this country has the fruit prospect been 

 more flattering. From all sections of the St John's 

 Indian and Halifax rivers, and from the interior portions of 

 east Florida, it has most glowing accounts of the bountiful 

 yield of the orange, lime, lemon, guava and shaddock 



