Nov. 8, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



2 S 9 



|j$ mid giver Jffishing. 



ANKLLYG HEXQRTS.— We shall, be glad to have for publi- 

 co.! ion notes of goad fishing localities. Will not our corre- 

 I'.'s.fVimr'us with notes of desirable points for angling 

 excursions? 



To {insure prampl attention, commu.tucotiovs should bead- 

 dressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and not to 

 individuals, in whose absence from the office matters of im- 

 portance are liable to delay, 



OPEN SEASONS. 



The dices! 61 open seasons, printed in our issue of Aug. 1(3. lia 

 beon published to convenient pampHefrform, and will b^aenl I 



atWrcss, postpaid, on receipt ol' 10 cents, 



POACHINC IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

 npHE illegal capture of lish in the Stale of Pennsylvania 



J has a-sumed sinli proportionsas to have aroused public 

 feeling to '. in >h - >me piir, i of indignation. Tim trill nets, 

 lisli baskets, weirs, etc., that infest the Delaware, .Juniata 

 and Susquehanna rivers have increased in n'mnbers during 

 the last year, and in some cases these obstructions extend 

 i i in |y across the rivers. The Anglers' Association of Easi- 

 er:! Pennsylvania has taken up this, matter and begun u vig- 

 i r-,ii- i is de -■''. si the poachers. It is stated "that three 

 I in tn.!-! li these 7 so-called fish baskets can be found in the 

 Delaware River between Irentdn and Port Jeryis. These 

 are permanent structures, made by driving piles in the river 

 and by a system of lalbe Crates Of " baskets. Every fish 

 (hat goes down stream, big or liltle, is killed by being 

 caught on this crate and kept out, of water. 



After the equinoctial storms these structures arc nearly 

 submerged, and can only be removed with great difficulty. 

 The lui" S tj are appropriated by these wholesale fisher- 

 men — hundreds of pounds at every haul— while the small 

 fry, including millions of young bass and shad that become 



, Li in the woodwork, are scooped up by the shovelful 

 and fed to (he bogs. Acting upon information derived from 

 various sources, the Anglers' Association recently drew up 

 a formal protest against these abuses, and addressed a corn- 

 niunicatien to the Fish Commissioners of the Stale. A 

 letter was received from Benjamin E. Hewit, of Hollidays- 

 burg. who ha* been most energetic in defending Hie fishing 

 laws. Air. Hewit says that the introduction of these engines 

 of mischief is a plain violation of the law, yet the Commis- 

 sioners look to (lie loeal authorities to suppress them. Tie 

 wardens on thi Susquehanna and Juniata. Mr. Hewit wrote. 

 have <}• oyed bi ween two hundred and three hundred 

 basket dams ietv een Ha ud the Maryland hue. 

 No idea can be had of the difficulty either in obtaining pro- 

 tective legislation for the Ashing interests or in securing 

 thoroughly reliable men to undertake the job of destroying 

 the dams. The wardens have been Bred upon repeatedly. 

 A paid is to be organized at once on the Susquehanna and 

 .Juniata rivers. 



TUNNY FISHING IN THE MEDITER- 

 RANEAN. 



THE tunny is one of the great sea travelers. It wends its 

 way not singly, hut in legions upon legions, winch scour 

 tlies< as, forming pointed-phalanxes which arc here one day and 

 far away the next. The German Sea, the coasts of Guinea, 

 those of the Antilles, the waters of Brazil, of Chile, and of 

 China, are but a few of the places they frequent. In the 

 Mediterranean they are as numerous now as in the days of 

 Polvlms. who first 'described them. 



The funnies need warm waters in which to spawn. Num- 

 bers stay during the winter in the eastern parts of the Medi- 

 terranean, where, tltev deposit their ova. at depths ranging 



r.etweeu no and 130 feel. They leave the east in May, be- 



,,.,■,: numerous near Sicily and Southern Italy, and return 

 in autumn slowly to reach their H inter quarters once again. 



Pliny, in ins book, asserts that Alexander's fleet met with 

 huge numbers of them which prevented the advance of his 

 gid'leys. and which nothing could frighten away until they 

 had passed by. 



They are of the mackerel family, like the bhiefish, but are 

 commonly three or four feet in length, and often a five- 

 footer is caught. A curious fact is the timidity of tliis large 

 lish. tie i-, easily- niuehi. and when lir-t en^-a-ed in the 

 fatal meshes of the tunny net. hardly tries to regain his 

 freedom. They prefer rocky bottoms, a fact well shown by 

 the following: The Spaniards had a long while a monopoly 

 of the tunny fishing, and seven huge fisheries were scattered 

 around the coasts near Gibraltar. All this wealth was lost 

 in one day; a tearful earthquake overthrew the town of Eis- 

 lion, thousands of inhabitants met with death below its ruins, 

 the earth seemed lo quake all over Spain, huge masses of 

 sand and gravel were torn away from the coast of Africa, 

 and instead of (he rocky deep bottoms previously existing, a 

 shallower sandy level was formed, and the tunnies forever 

 disappeared. They frequented the rocky coasts of .Morocco, 

 near Tetuau and Sale, rind the fisheries were transferred to 

 Italy. Sicily and Sardinia. 



The nets used in the Mediterranean are bag like in shape, 

 but huge in size. The Italians call them ionnari, and begin 

 in April to construct the enormous trap in which they are 

 caught. The nets arc weighted With large anchors and iron 

 bars. The men place the whole thing in some deep, rocky 

 Channel, between two Elands — as a rule the whole passage in 

 carefully closed by the nets— then a small opening is left in 

 the middle called the "door,"' which leads into a first cham- 

 ber. From this ii:-;. up frightened into another passage 

 which leads into another enormous pocket called camera di 

 ittortt, Literally the death chamber. A. door, also of netting, 

 is closed and the first one opens again, more fish arrive; they 

 find their way into the death chamber, the door of which 

 again opens. AY hen enough fish are caught, the whole 

 thing is raised by a number ol boats forming a circle, and 

 the massacre begins, as they urespeared and thrown in the 

 boats. 



Here lot me give a little of my own experience. On a 

 splendid summer day, early in the' morning. 1 left the shore 

 tittle sailboat, lateen rigged, with two Italian boatmen. 

 The sun had just risen, gorgeous with purple and scarlet 

 rays from the bosom of the deep, scattering over the waters 

 a rain of diamond and golden spark; the sky had alrei 

 suiued tha,t solt light blue, cloudless and beautiful, that is pecu- 

 liar to Italian heavens. The waves rose about us, a little crest 

 of foam crowning the shining emerald water. Rapidly we 

 sailed on. the warm wind lifting us along further and* fur- 

 ther from the black rocky cull's, and the white, britjht look- 



iug village ut their foot. In an hour or so. w^e had nearcd a 

 little clump of islands, and suddenly tacking around cue of 

 them, we saw the little fishing fleet. Strange-looking craft, 

 to an American eye, but picturesque in the extreme. Tlie 

 brown-colored sails hail been furled down, but the gorgeous 

 colors of the hulls, all painted with different hues, made a 

 wonderful scene against (he black rocks, the green water, 

 and the azure heaven. 



Nearer we get to them, and songs are heard, slow", and in 

 time with "the movements of the fishermen, who are slowly 

 raising the huge bag. We are Justin lime. We get near one 

 ol the iboats, aVid I 'watch as deeply interested and anxious as 

 when a 'silver doctor" killed my first salmon. Faster and 

 faster the net rises, and the men are congratulating them- 

 selves upon a big haul. The. death chamber is nearly at the 

 surface, uud below the water is boiling. They have raised 

 the death chambers,! last, and now wc see the" monsters roll- 

 i. '.. >l in, end sinking the boats, which have formed 



a narrower circle around the bag. The net is still more 

 raised, until only a foot or so of water is over the meshes, 

 and hundreds of 'the big fishes arc leaping wildly about in a 



vain endeavor to escap I Me .gradually narrows 



around them, and the carnage h p;h 



Armed with long spears the fishermen strike the fish. 

 Thirty or forty men are at work, tbe water boils and reddens. 

 and the huge denizens of the deep are lifted into the boats; a 

 scene of wild excitement, of shouting and of tliumping of 

 tie- half dead fish in the boats. The men veil, and laugh, 

 they shriek and swear, and still the work goes on, and flic 

 water has become purple in hue. A few big fish are dying 

 in the net, and are taken out. and a seem" of massacre is 

 ended, which f shall never forget, but which made me feel 

 sad that day when coming home, as I thought of the hun- 

 dreds of noble fish, slain without a chance to escape. It 

 seemed afterward to he murder, under that l)cautiful blue 

 sky, which so high proclaimed peace to all, and goodwill 



n rd men. G.Y. S. 



CASTING AGAINST THE WIND. 



UNDER ihe heading of ■■Some Wrinkles from Abroad,'' 

 Mr. K. B. Maiston thus writes in the Eoudon Mailing 

 (fazelU: 



' K. )!. 0. S." in his interesting notes on "Trout Fishing," 

 refers to the difficulty I have often alluded to in this paper 

 of getting a line out against the wind with a whippy rod. 

 Mr, Reuben Wood spent an afternoon wdtb me on purpose 

 to show what a split-cane rod can do in his hands, and among 

 other things he taught me how to make a 6-ounce limber 

 split-cane rod send a line right into the teeth of a strong 

 breeze. We- were casting from a punt (in the hope of getting 

 ouc of my black bass to rise), and 1 confess 1 was astonished 

 lo see how Mr. Wood could send the fly nearly twenty yards 

 again,-.! Ihc wind. "In casting against the wind,' and I 

 would just as soon cast wdtb it as against it," he said, "you 

 must lift your line from the water so that it extends behind 

 you at about an angle of 45 , and then bring your rod down 

 sharply right on to the water, and simigbl against the wiud; 

 i his iuai.es the line cut through it, and extend out straight 

 on to the water. Tbe secret is to keep the line well up be- 

 hind, and then continue the forward impetus sharply until 

 the top touches, or nearly touches, the wafer." After watch- 

 ing Mr. Wood some time I had a try, and found that by 

 following his directions 1 soon got into the way of making 

 this most useful cast, I question whether an ordinary hard- 

 wood rod would stand the sharp stroke required, nor would 

 a lone east lie possible with a light line, but in a breeze there 

 is always a good ripple on the water, and light tackle is not 

 ao necessary. I have often, when fishing up-stream against 

 a strong wind, found it almost impossible, even with a stiff 

 rod, to get much line out. and even tlien the light, gut cast 

 often blows back over the reel line before touching the 

 water, and T consider Mr. Wood's wrinkle a very good one. 



In the same paper "F. R. C. B." says: 1 find that I have 

 omitted to say anything on casting against wind. Fishing 

 With the wind blowing downstream is always more or less 

 unsatisfactory. You whip off your fly, and vou strain your 

 cod. If the wmd is not continual, advantage must be taken 

 of the intervals between the gusts; but a stiff rod will often 

 enable the angler to force his fly forward where a- Whippy 

 one is absolutely powerless, AVhen a wind is blowing straight 

 , . the stream torn the opposite bank, if it is not 'too 

 violent, a fly may begot oul by what has been termed cut- 

 ting the wind. The angler is, say, facing up-stream, the 

 water on his left, and rod in his right hand. Instead of 

 waving his rod perpendicularly, as in the ordinary cast, he 

 v. aves it horizontally, and by making the cast pretty vigor- 

 ously tne line can. after practice, he successfully got out to 

 its destination; but the young angler should see this done lay 

 an expert, as it is rather a difficult mailer to describe ver- 

 In'allv. A strong wind is almost as bad when in the angler's 

 favor as. when dead against him— i. e., in dry fly-fishing it 

 prevents the line being properly extended behind for the cast, 

 and continually causes tlie whipping off of the fly. 



A few words in conclusion about stiff rods, I quite agree 

 with a correspondent, "B. S ."in yours of Sept. 8, that the 

 Whippy rods are "mote elegant;" but 1 can hardly see how 

 he makes them out "more efficient" when every one will, I 

 think, admit that in anything, of a wind they are almost use- 

 less. Of course, any one accustomed to the limber rod will 

 he more likely at first, to lose fish when striking with the stiff 

 rod or when playing them; but these slight difficulties, with 

 a little practice, arc soon overcome. I think (hat wdien a 

 person uses the sarcastic expression "punt pole" for the «tiff 

 rod, it simply shows that the only Stiff rods he has tried 

 have been made stiff by increased thickness and consequent 

 weight in the upper part. These arc what I have expressly 

 warned my readers against when I remarked that, on no 

 account stiould the rod be top-heavy. Stiff rods can be 

 made of tlie American glued cane, or ol' the cheaper solid 

 Sane, quite free from this defect; and in conclusion I can 

 only -ay that I think I have never shown my favorite rod to 

 any angling friend but that he has expressed a wish to have 

 one like it,, especially when he has seen the long straight, 

 cast.-, 1 could make with it to the other side of a wide bit of 

 stream. 



In a foot; note following this the editor says: ■•There is a 

 style of easting against the wind which was taught us by 

 Mr. Reuben Wood when over here. With u six-ounce 

 "whippy" split cane rod we saw him time after time send 

 his line straight info the teeth of the wind for eighteeu or 

 twenty yards.' This would seem lo imply that casting 

 against the wind is not well understood on the other side of 

 the water. On many American lakes it is necessary to cast 

 against the wind in order to take trout from the" "spring 

 holes" where they lie in summer, and which cannot be ap- 



proached from the shore, especially in tbe Adirondack;*, 

 where fishing is mostly done from' boats. The praetii- is 

 common here, and an angler who cannot handle his line 

 against the wind is not considered a good ouster. 



We 



MY FIRST ADIRONDACK TRIP. 



A BOYHOOD REMINfSCRNCE 



(Concluded.) 



itieh disappointed at the course of the river. 

 We came to an old log-hut, and Fred called my attention to 

 it by some remark and towed on. and after going aljout a 

 mile we came to another old hut looking exactly like the 

 first. I asked Fred if he understood this; he said he did not, 

 but would bet that it was the same old house. We get out 

 of our boat, and sure enough il was. The river came to it 

 al first, and then turned: after going a mile it came back 

 about fifty yards below, so that we could have saved a mile 

 if we had" only known. It was dark when we arrived at 

 Union Falls, and we were wet through and very tired, hav- 

 ing come over fifty miles. We were told that we could find 

 a place to stay over night there or we would not have under- 

 taken to come. "ShU can imagine eur surprise to find only 

 two houses in the place. We slopped at the first one, and 

 told them that we wanted to stay over night, but the man of 

 the house said he would not keep any one, "if was played 

 out." Wo asked lit in what he meant, and he told us it 

 meant we could not stay; he told us that Mr. Duncan had a 

 big house opposite, and" that he thought w T e could stay there, 

 find we went and saw Mr, Duncan. He said he did not 

 know, but he thought it would be "inconvenient." We 

 told him we did not want him lo go to any trouble, all we 

 wanted was to get dry, and we would be satisfied with some 

 bread and milk. He* said his mother was not feeling well, 

 and he thought it would be "inconvenient," but he would go 

 in and see, and soon came out saying it was "inconvenient." 

 I then got mad and told him a decent man would not turn a 

 dog from his door under such circumstances, and told him if 

 be would let us come in and get dry we would go and sleep 

 in the haw- mow. Again he weni in the house to consult, 

 but one of his hired men said it was no go. his mother and 

 sisters would object, and he would not dare let us in if he 

 Wanted to. When the man again said if was 'inconvenient" 

 I felt like knocking him down. Wc coaxed and pleaded 

 with him, told him we would give him his price for staying, 

 but it was no use. At last he told us there was a mill about 

 a quarter of a mile below kept by an old man. The man 

 built it for a mill, put it in good order, but there was no 

 grain within twenty -five miles of it. What Croft wanted to 

 build a mill there for is a mystery, but build it he did, and 

 waited for twenty-five years for people to come and grow 

 grain so that the mill could run. They never came, and the 

 mill is "idly waiting," as it will continue for years to come. 



We bid Duncan good night, fold him what we thought 

 of him. and proceeded to the mill, where we found a party 

 slaying with Mr. Croft gathering hay. They had come 

 twenty-five miles to gather it on shares." Hay in this region is 

 rather scarce. We stated our case (o Mr. Croft, told him 

 our health was in danger if we had to sleep out-doors, being 

 so wet. and had not got half through when he told us to 

 come in and welcome, and he would do his best for us. He 

 was a "white man." We soon were drying Ourselves at his 

 fire, and did justice to his supper. He lived in the mill, and 

 amused himself by reading. When Fred talked of "Bedouin 

 Arabs" he found a good listener in Croft, and when speak- 

 ing of the Egyptian pyramids Croft had the nerve to dispute 

 him on their height, and soon proved that he was right by 

 some of his books. About ten o'clock we retired in an oats- 

 bin and slept well. The next morning we lefl him S-t, 

 which was more money than be had seen in a month, and 

 our axe and my pipe, which were forgotten, and felt, the 

 need of often on our way out. 



About 7 next morning we started from Union Falls with- 

 out shedding a tear at parting. We had a few rapids to run, 

 but wc got "over them easily; but about four miles below we 

 came lo Beardslcy's rapids, and wc run them at first all 

 light , Fred did tbe rowing, or rather the steering, and lei I lie 

 stern of the boat down first so be could have more control of 

 the oars. It was very exciting work. Sometimes w'e would 

 go at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour, and did not 

 know how soon We were going on a rock. After going about 

 three miles the river ahead of us ran in a straight line. It 

 was grand to look nt, but too awful to go over; the water 

 would splash up three or four feet in some places. At the 

 eui ranee of these rough rapids was what is called the 

 '•gorge," or "shell-rock." This gorge was not over fifteen 

 feet wide, and the water boiled going through it ; the rocks 

 on each side were about forty feet high, making it a beauti- 

 ful but awful spot. We got out of our boat and looked al it 

 long and well, and concluded as we wanted to get back home 

 we would "take water," but not by going through that 

 place. We consulted the map and found there was a road 

 laid down about lialf a mile to the ri^ht, and thought it best 

 to find this road and then carry our things down il until we. 

 could gel on Stillwater. We' hunted tor that load lor two 

 hours. "and got so disgusted because we could not find it that 

 we made up our minds to go through the gorge. We started 

 back about fifty yards, let our boat in the current, and in 

 less lime than lean write it, wc were one mile down, and all 

 right! We could not hear each other speak:, no matter how 

 loud we talked; we shut our teeth, and I really think I tried 

 to remember, "Now- I lay me down to sleep." 1 was in the 

 stern of the boat, and while we were going over a rock about 

 two feet below the surface the water would jump tip , 

 face and make me shiver. The boat was nearly half full of 

 water, and both were wet through when we got down. We. 

 came to the road where it crossed the river, and 

 men watching us approach. 1 asked one for a "(hew," he 

 asked me where 1 came from, and where I was going, and 

 said, after informing him; "Here, young man, you deserve 

 a plug," and he gave it to me. 



Following the river into Tiffs Fond, which is a mile and 

 a half long, with poor scenery, and after passing through it, 

 came to such rough rapids that it Was thought best to carry 

 four miles and strike the- north branch ol the Saranac, The 

 water spread out and was so rocky that we knew the boat 

 would break if we attempted to go down, not that w T e were 

 afraid to shoot these rapids, but we thought "discretion the 

 better part of valor," so wc put our things on our backs and 

 started off. This four-mile carry seemed to be about ten 

 miles, hut of course being iiot arid tired, the miles seemed 

 long. We stopped and cooked dinusr when about half-way 

 over, and never did dinner taste belter. At last we arrived 

 at the Forks, and put the boat in . and were soon gliding down 

 the river, Inure were more rapids, but not bad ones, and we 

 soon arrived at the little town of Redford, and here shot 



