Terms, Five Dollars a Year. I 

 Ten Cents a Copy. f 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1875. 



j Volume 5, Number 5. 



1 1T Chatham 8t. (City Hall gqr.) 



For Forest and Stream. 



. — « — _. 



FLY FISHING ON THE MANISTEE, AND 

 TROLLING ON PORTAGE LAKE. 



♦ 1 



BY THADDEUS NORRIS. 



ii 



/""NLD man, 



I would rather have been with you on 

 the Au Sable than hooking and landing big sal- 

 | oaon on the Little Marguerite, where we had iced cham- 

 pagne at dinner and slept in a luxurious log house." Thus 



wrote Dr. Jim Wood, of Poughkeepsie, after reading my 



iccount of running the stream just named; he wrote me 

 \ |ilso that all the animose of former days had died out. 

 1 Killirg big salmon was only hard labor. We had both 

 Ibome to such conclusion as early as the Summer of 1869, 



when we explored the Grand Cascapediac and killed only 

 j pne fish under twenty-five and up to thirty-five pounds. 

 W 1 ''" Writing this under my own name, I can take my "affy- 



lavy" to it.) Dr. Jim said, "Let's go to some river 

 where there are nice little twelve pounders." After such 

 *| confession, I thought I would take compassion on Dr. Jim 

 4 rad ask him to go with Dan Fitzhugh and me, and run the 

 '^Vlanistee this Summer, where the lazy superannuated sal- 

 j non slayer could seat himself in the bow of a fairy litte 

 B )oat, never rising from his seat, and kill pretty grayling to 

 f lis heart's content. He jumped at my invitation, said 

 count me in— book me for the trip." When July came 



he spirit had died out, he allowed business and other 

 q natters to interfere, forgetting the glorious maxim "plea- 

 sure before business." I drew a long sigh— had laid down 



lis letter, informing me of his disappointment, and was 

 '' \gain at my fly tying, when a young limb of the law came 

 aft( q, sat down by me, and with his wonted familiarity, 

 Clicked up Dr. Jim's letter and read it. He had never 

 Soiled as much as a half creel of trout on our closely- 

 U-ished Pennsylvania streams; nor had I since I had taught 

 grim the art. "Uncle Thad," said he, "I would give my 

 n forefinger to go with you, I'll give up that cricket match." 

 ""! never had, as you know, a 'belly full' of fly fishing in 

 \fkij life. "Done," I replied. 



J This boy Jay is not only a lineal descendant of John Jay, 



At legal celebrity, but his uncle Eusebius, now 'a peaceful 



pitizen of Westchester, and an ancient chub fisher, was 



I renowned Jay-liawker in Missouri during the war of the 



jebellion, and, of course, Jay has double right to the name. 



fee had never camped out — the innocent child! We started 

 ( or Bay City on the 9th of August by the way of Pitts- 

 burgh, Cleveland and Detroit, taking the comfortable 

 * light steamer between the two last named cities. We 

 ^ pent a day and a half with Dan Fitzhugh in Bay City, and 

 ipn the evening of the 12th of August arrived at Crawford. 



)an and I had conceived the Utopian idea of trolling and 

 ^ly fishing Portage Lake for bass, maskinonge and large 

 4 Northern pickerel for^, few days, and then running down 

 P he outlet, which is one of the sources of the Manistee, 

 j nto the main stream, and coming out where the Indiana 

 , 1; ,nd Grand Rapids Railroad crosses it, and thence back to 

 ^ Jay City with our boats by rail.— Vain mortals that we 

 jiivere. We ascertained from the best sources of informa- 

 tion that came within our reach, that the outlet was small 



nth no more water after it left the lake than would float 

 |j| very lightly ladened boat, even of Daniel's admirable 

 j aodel, and much obstructed by brush and fallen logs. 

 i|o we reluctantly abandoned our programme, and deter- 

 *" nined to fish the longer and larger branch of the Manistee 

 /hree miles west of Portage Lake, and after a surfeit of 

 |li rayling fishing to cross the level land between with our 

 /ioats on a wagon and fish the lake. 



A few words geographically as to this noble river. There 



.;* a stream— also with many sources— flowing from the 

 Southeast and uniting with the main river, and which is 



ailed the Little Manistee. A good map of the State shows 



jour branches of the larger stream flowing from the north; 

 (Fae sources generally rising in lakes. The most easterly 



tses in Portage and flowing some twelve or fifteen miles 

 /nites with that immediately west, which is. a river twice 



as long and much larger, and rising much further north. 

 West of this longer stream and flowing nearly parellel is a 

 river with a more southerly head and somewhat longer 

 than that flowing from Portage Lake. The most westerly 

 of the four is even longer and, as I have heard, larger than 

 any of the three already mentioned. All of these branches 

 abound in grayling — most of the water being maiden to 

 the angler. It is the second branch alluded to that Mi, 

 D. H. Fitzhugh, Jr., explored by making two trips earlier 

 in the Summer, one of them in company with his father, 

 Mr. D. H. Fitzhugh, senior an old sportsman, now in 

 his ninth decade, and still hale and full of the ardor of 

 former years. There is a sort of a road to this branch, 

 which is seven or eight miles distant from Crawford, 

 almost level, over sandy, barren plains, and through sparse 

 timber, with little or no undergrowth. Dan's first camp 

 was north of the parellel of Portage Lake, his second just 

 opposite, and his third south. In the three trips including 

 the last, in which Jay and I accompanied him, he has 

 fished about twelve miles of the river. Just opposite the 

 middle of the west shore of Portage Lake, a man by the 

 name of Babbit, whose home is at Crawford, (or Grayling, 

 as it is now called) has established a camp for the purpose 

 of catching grayling with hook and line and sending them 

 to the Bay City and Detroit markets. It is illegal to spear 

 or take them with nets. 



It was to Babbit's camp on the morning of the 13th that 

 we made our way with a two horse wagon loaded with our 

 tents, provisions, etc. Dan and I riding or walking, as 

 fatigue or a wish to stretch our legs prompted us. My 

 young friend Jay scorning the indulgence which we found 

 so convenient, footed it all the way. We found at *Bab- 

 bit's camp a large Norway pine tree on the bank of the 

 river, one side of which is smoothly hewn for a foot or so, 

 and the figures 1840 still plainly legible on the surface. 

 It had been an old landmark of early surveyors and the 

 figures were neatly cut with one of their instruments. It 

 was from this pleasant camping place that they made the 

 "carry" to Portage Lake, which is about four miles long, 

 and from thence, after crossing the lake, it is a distance of 

 three or four miles across a low dividing ridge, to the upper 

 waters of the Au Sable. Thus was a passage made by 

 boat from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron; and doubtless it 

 was an old traditional passage used by the Indians. Dan 

 had left two of his boats at Babbit's camp on a former trip, 

 so we had none to wagon over from Grayling. Ramsdell, 

 one of the pushers, had his boat already there. We 

 lunched with Babbit and his friend Jones, who kept camp 

 with him, and for an hour enjoyed the rough playfulness 

 of his little bear, "Billy." We were never tired of his 

 sagacity and amusing antics . Let me give the biography 

 of Billy. — "Born of poor but respectable parents" — as 

 some of our school biographies of American heroes have 

 it — with two little brothers of the same litter, Jones came 

 upon them in the woods by the Manistee early in May. 

 They were very poor and very small. Jones has an im- 

 pression that the large, lean old bear who was with them, 

 and who fled ingloriously at the ineffectual discharge of 

 his rifle, was not their mother. It might have been their 

 paternal parent for the maternal instinct was not evidenced. 

 The infants ascended small scrubby pines, from which 

 they were easily shaken, captured, tied with a string 

 around the neck and taken to Jones' tent. He fed them 

 bountifully, and the orphans grew apace, both in bodily 

 vigor and wisdom. But there was constant family jarring, 

 scratching and biting, as one may suppose, for they were 

 all boys. To preserve peace, Jones did as Jacob's sons did 

 unto their brother Joseph, he sold two of them "into a far 

 country." A wandering Hebrew peddler became 

 their purchaser, and Billy remained the sole adopted child 

 of Jones. Like all adopted children he was much petted 

 and spoiled, but naturally formed a strong attachment to 

 his foster parent. He wears a leather collar around his 



Note.— I would here say that anglers or hunters wishing to secure 

 good men for the river or forest, by addressing L. P. Ramsdell, or J P. 

 Babbit, at Grayling, C rawford county, Mich., can do so. Both of them 

 have boats after Mr. Fitzhugh's model, and one, or both, (Babbit being 

 more gennrally at home) are ready to go with them, if engaged a wees; 

 •r mo preyioui to starting, 



neck, to which a short, slight chain is fastened. His 

 master has taught him many bearish tricks. At Jones* 

 command he will stand up, lie down, or sit on his grace- 

 fully sloping "latter end." He will hold a piece of fish 

 patiently on his nose until Jones counts ten, and at the 

 word "ten" will throw it upward and catch it before it falls 

 to the ground. Although omniverous he is pisciverous in 

 the extreme. When we hauled our boats ashore to dry a 

 little before starting down the river, he would smell around 

 the well holes in search of a chance grayling and lick off 

 the stale scales that might perchance have adheared to it. 

 Len Jewel had several boxing and hugging matches with 

 him, and received some small rents in his trowsers and the 

 sleeves of his flannel shirt. Billy seldom plays truant. 

 On one occasion, however, he did "abscour," as my friend 

 Jim Henry has it. Some days after he had disappeared, 

 Jones was a half a mile down the river fishing, when h6 

 heard a gruff but infantile moaning whine. "Billy!" he 

 shouted, and soon he heard his chain jingling and the 

 penitant crept into the boat, smelt and nosed his master's 

 face and hands and seated himself contentedly in the bow. 

 Billy is a robust little fellow of forty-five pounds, well 

 furred and black as a coal. The chief plague of his life 

 is a fine shepherd dog named Cap., who, although 

 he loves him and plays with him, will steal from 

 him, and go off and bury his ill-gotten food, and by many 

 felonious devices trick poor Billy out of his choicest morsels. 

 The Sunday following, as it was a day of temporary ces- 

 sation from our sport, we had an elaborate dinner, with 

 hock, which Jay had brought along, and we invited Jones, 

 but he did not put in an appearance, which Dan attributed 

 to our not having extended the invitation to his ward, Billy. 

 Cap., however, as he belonged to Ramsdell, stayed with 

 us all the time, and was of much service as a scullion — 

 licking our plates faithfully after each meal, until he would 

 make them shine again. 



This brief history of Billy and his exploits will no doubt 

 interest my nephew Charley, of Oyerbrook. But I know 

 his older brother Joe, and any other young fly fishers who 

 may read it, are as anxious as Charley's oldest brother Jay, 

 to hurry on and have a dab at the grayling. So let us stow 

 our luggage in our boats, put our rods together, get in and 

 drop down stream. Dan, who preceded us with as much 

 luggage in his boat as Len Jewel thought it could safely 

 carry, dropped down about four miles, where we found 

 him, Len and Babbit about six o'clock, pitching tents and 

 making benches, and a table. We embarked about half a 

 mile below Babbit's camp, and I lingered a little to see Jay- 

 make his first cast . "Not there, " I cried ; * 'but over against 

 the other shore by that log." Jay dropped his flies lightly; 

 up came a fish, and "SugJ" he had him. After a sharp 

 scuffle and a hard strain on his rod, bending it almost 

 double, he landed and held up a grayling of nearly a pound 

 and a half. "Well; what do you think of it?" I asked. 

 "Bully," replied Jay. We dropped down stream, passing 

 and repassing each other alternately and not stopping to 

 fish one-third of the likely places, for we had a long way 

 to run before we reached the supposed camping ground. I 

 arrived at camp first. Presently Ramsdell pushed up with 

 Jay. "What sport?" I hallowed. "Red hot," responded 

 Jay. We had each a little short of four dozen grayling in 

 our wells, all alive and kicking. Len had his tea and po- 

 tatoes on the fire, and soon a big frying pan sizzling, sput- 

 tering, and a dozen grayling browning beautifully in corn 

 meal. I had partaken of but a slight lunch of bread and 

 cheese, with a cup of tea, at Babbit's camp, and being very- 

 hungry, of course made a pig of myself with the grayling J 

 To such an extent, even, that I got up at one o'clock, fan- 

 ned the smouldering coals, put on fresh wood and some 

 old pine knots, and soon had a rousing fire. I took a mod- 

 erate "nip" from the flask on the table, lit my pipe, and 

 had scarcely smoked it out when Jay, who I had left asleep 

 at my side, crept out of the tent and joined me. "Why 

 Uncle," he said, "I woke up, and not finding you came 

 out to see if you had gone down to the river and fallen in." 

 The truth is that he had eaten three grayling of about 

 three-quarters of a pound each, and was too full to sleep 

 found. ^Soon after, Dan joined us, and then the 



