SALMON FISHING ON THE PACIFIC. 
)X -*- 
The writer of this has had considerable experience in 
taking salmon with the fly on many of the streams which 
enter the Pacific Ocean from the lordly Columbia to the 
latitude of Point Concepcion in California. 
_ There are very many varieties of salmon which enter the 
rivers of the Pacific, and they all have different habits in 
selecting their spawning grounds. 
Salmo quinnat .—The salmo quinnat, which is the lar¬ 
gest salmon entering these waters, is found in the greatest 
abundance in the largest rivers, principally the Columbia 
and the Sacramento. These are the salmon which are 
canned in such immense quantities on this river, and they 
are the earliest salmon to seek the fresh water streams for 
the purpose of spawning. They arrive in the Columbia 
river in April and ascend that river and its great tribu¬ 
tary. the Snake river, to near their sources in British Co¬ 
lumbia and the Rocky Mountains. They do not take the 
fly for the reason that when they enter the Columbia that 
river has already commenced’ its annual rise, and its 
waters are too much discolored for a salmon to see a fly. 
This immense run of salmon ceases by the middle of Au¬ 
gust or first of September, b which time the waters have 
again fallen to an ordinary stage and become compara¬ 
tively limpid. 
Steel Heads .—There are a few salmon accompanying 
this run of salmo quinnat which the fishermen call 
“steel heads.'’ They are much longer in proportion to 
their depth than the salmo quinnat, and are a blueish 
green on top with silvery white bellies. 
Silver Sides ,—Tliis spring run of salmon is almost im¬ 
mediately succeeded in the Columbia by another variety 
of salmon, called here silver side salmon, which generally 
weigh from ten to twenty-five pounds. They are a hand¬ 
some fish, very good on the table, and are caught for 
smoking, but not extensively for canning purposes. It is 
this variety of salmon which afford fine sport for the an¬ 
gler—“disciple of Isaac Walton'' is a little too old. As 
I have said they enter the rivers after the freshet has sub¬ 
sided and the waters are comparatively clear, 
Dog Salmon .—During the month of September and Oc¬ 
tober still another variety of salmon enter the Columbia 
and also the small streams entering the ocean and Puget 
Sound. These salmon do not seek the head waters of the 
Columbia river to spawn, but ascend all the small rivers 
and creeks which enter that river. They are a most vil¬ 
lainous looking fish and will weigh about twenty or twen- 
y-five pounds each, while the salmo quinnat arrive at 
very heavy weights—one being caught this season which 
weighed sixty-nine pounds. These salmon are called fall, 
or dog salmon. I saw a canoe load of them a few days 
since, in which more than half of them bore the marks 
of the gill net just forward of the dorsal fin. They had 
escaped by reason of the meshes of the net being a little 
too large to hold them. They are generally very dark 
colored, their backs being nearly brown and their sides 
and bellies a copper colored red : and as their time ap¬ 
proaches in which to deposit their spawn, the males have 
their snouts greatly elongated like a North Carolina hog, 
the upper jaw projecting in a curve over the lower one, 
and actually hooking over it like a parrot’s beak. Add to 
this physiognomy both jaws armed with formidable teeth 
curved backward, and you have the picture of as repulsive 
a looking fish as can be. 
The salmon whiclrenter the small streams on the lower 
coast of California are I think a distinct variety of salmon, 
and I do not know what name has been given to them by 
Professor Baird, the eminent authority on salmon in the 
United States. 
Those streams having their rise in the lowest range of 
mountains, are short, and during the dry season are closed 
at their mouths by the prevailing northwest winds and 
surf washing up the sands which form a bar across the 
mouth. These salmon appear to be waiting outside the 
barred entrance to these streams until buc)i time as the 
barrier shall break away and give them; entrance to the 
fresh water. Tliis bar of sand is piled higher and higher 
through the long dry summer, and the fresh water from 
the stream and the salt water washing over the bar forms 
a large lagoon of brackish water which backs up the bed 
of the stream a mile or two. Then comos a winter storm 
and the overcharged lagoon suddenly cuts a crevasse 
through the bar and may be nearly emptied of its waters 
in one tide; when immediately the salmon rush in 
through the breach and may be found in many deep pools 
above the mouth. They take the fly very readilyand are 
gamy and active on the line. These lagoons are seldom 
surrounded with brush, and generally the casting is easy, 
though the pools being near shore, the angler should take 
the precaution of standing far enough away to prevent 
the fish seeing the motion of the rod, as they are readily 
alarmed and will make directly for the inlet through 
which the surf is breaking, and go out to sea. These sal¬ 
mon seldom weigh over eight or ten pounds. The streams 
to the south of San Francisco Bay closed at their mouth 
are the Pescadero, San Gregorio,' San Lorenzo, San Car- 
pofero, Arrogo La Cruz, Santa Rosa, and many others, 
The larger streams or rivers above San Francisco Bay are 
also f requented by the salmon which may be taken by the 
fly. Some of these rivers are not closed at their mouths, 
such as Russian river, the Gualala, Navarro, Noyo, and 
many others. 
The silver side and dog salmon which I have mentioned 
as entering the Columbia river in September and October, 
are accompanied on their excursions by a fish, which in 
these waters afford most excellent sport to the angler, and 
are called salmon trout. They are a beautiful fish, with 
no color of red, but backs of olive green with black checks 
and bellies of silvery whitoness, These salmon trout are 
taken in great numbers by the Indians who come down 
to the streams to fish for them and send quantities to 
market, and dry and smoke them for their winter sup¬ 
plies. They catch them with salmon roe for bait. Those 
trout follow the fall salmon up the small streams to prey 
upon then- freshly deposited eggs, and are always found 
in some deep and favorite pool below a riffle. They seem 
to know that the salmon are engaged in depositing then- 
spawn from the discolored water coming down the stream, 
and as soon as the salmon retire to a neighboring eddy to 
rest, the trout rush in and endeavor to secure a share of 
their favorite food. They are very uncertain as to their 
disposition in taking a fiy, as on some days the angler can 
see them lying in large schools of forty or fifty, perfectly 
quiet, and will suffer the most attractive flies to be drawn 
over the water without moving a fin. At another time 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
when disposed to rise, when one wants the fly, all want 
it. They are very game on the hook, leaping high out of 
the water, and often by vigorous shaking when in mid 
air do they succeed in freeing themselves from the hook 
in spite of the best handling. They run in size lrom one 
to five pounds in weight. 
I caught one day in a pool on a small stream, near Cath- 
lamet, Washington Territory, which enters the Columbia 
at that place, twenty-seven of these fish on a nine ounce 
rod and they averaged three potiuds to a fish. They all 
landed themselves on the gravelly shore of the pool with 
the assistance of a pretty severe strain on the rod. 
I was engaged several years since in making a survey 
of the mouth of the Columbia, and was anchored in the 
Shelter of Baker's Bay, just inside of Cape Disappoint¬ 
ment, but a rifle shot from the ocean beach. This is a 
most picturesque spot. The cape is formed by the north¬ 
ern shore of the river projecting around from seaward in 
the form of a hook, and is composed of high basaltic rocky 
hills which are very precipitous on the ocean side, and are 
clothed to their summits with a heavy forest of Douglas 
fir or Oregon pine, and a vigorous growth of deciduous 
bushes of maple, and luxurious ferns. 
The water was salt and clear. Well do I remember my 
first salmon taken in these waters. Equipped with a 
good two handed English salmon rod of ash with lance- 
wood tips, one hundred yards of braided line, and the 
best flies, all furnished me by a valued friend, I left the 
vessel’s side, alone in my dingy, to try for silver side 
salmon, 
No salmon had ever been known before to take a fly on 
the Columbia river, and I had very little hope of success. 
I had but a few hundred yards to pull from the vessel 
before arriving near the steep and rocky shores of the 
bay, and laying in the oars I took my rod and commenced 
casting. Though an old hand with an eight ounce trout 
rod. I found a two handed rod an awkward thing ; how¬ 
ever I soon succeeded in making a cast far enough away 
from the boat to hook a salmon. What a thrill of excite¬ 
ment accompanied striking the hook into the solid tongue 
of that first salmon ! and how my heart rushed up into 
my throat as the alarmed fish made his first frantic rush 
for liberty ! There was an old log or spar with a ring¬ 
bolt in the end, projecting above the water and its bottom 
fast in the mud, and this spar was not two rods from the 
rocky bluff. With what agony of apprehension I saw my 
salmon making for the spar with the line singing through 
the water ! Turn him I could not, though the good rod 
was nearly bent double, and holding the rod with one 
hand I seized an oar with the other and tried to scull the 
boat near enough to pass the rod over the spar as the fish 
went behind it. Alas ! the salmon was too fast for me, 
and in a desperate moment as the salmon was drawing 
my tip around the spar, I cast the whole rod as far as I 
could throw it the other side of the spar, whfero it sank in 
to ay fathoms of water. I stood fora moment in despair 
at what I had done ; then took up the oars and pulled for 
the schooner. After getting my sailing master in the 
boat and a long pike pole, to which I lashed my salmon 
gaff, we pulled off again to the scene of disaster, and al¬ 
most immediately succeeded in fishing up the rod. The 
line had been run out clear to the barrel of the reel. Of 
course I had lost my first salmon and probably half my 
line, and slowly and in sorrow I reeled it in, when whizz [ 
out (lew the handle from my fingers, and away went my 
salmon, fresh for a second heat. 
The salmon and I fought it out on ‘ ‘ that line " all 
aorund the harbor, and half the military post was down 
on the shore to see the fun, and when finally 1 thrust the 
gaff into hiB shining belly and lifted him into the boat, a 
cheer went up from the shore, which with the salmon 
thrashing around in the boat made me feel quite proud 
over the adventure. He weighed twenty-five pounds. 
The genial and enthusiastic light-house keeper at the 
Cape, beoame much excited and expressed the profound- 
est regret that he had lived there ten years and never 
knew that salmon could be caught with the fly. He came 
on board to examine my tackle, and I supplied him with 
a few flies. 
What was my astonishment to see him out on the bay 
the very next day, and with the most extraordinary 
tackle which was ever presented to a salmon. He hail 
sawn a strip from a redwood board and dressed it down 
to the thickness of an inch, and with a very respectable 
taper. Pieces of wire driven into the wood at suitable 
intervals served as guides, or rings, and for a reel, the 
iron wheels of a child’s toy cart were rigged with a crank 
and securely lashed to the pole. Truly, in his case, ne¬ 
cessity was the mother of invention, and with this re¬ 
markable outfit he succeeded in catching many a lusty 
salmon. Not being able to cast with this apparatus, he 
caught all his salmon by trolling. In a week every roos¬ 
ter on the military post presented a most forlorn appear¬ 
ance ; necks and tails had both been plucked to make sal¬ 
mon flies! 
Many a salmon I have taken from the sparkling Bay 
under Cape Disappointment since that day, but the lively 
adventure with my first salmon remains an episode of 
supreme pleasure. ’ C. R, 
Portland, Oregon. 
Swimma* to 0oro0jrottM& 
No Notice Taken of Anonymous Communications. 
YsT" IVe make no charge for answering inquiries in this column, 
A. W. E., New York.—It is against the law to shoot rohlnsln 
this State. 
H. N. 8., Martinsville.—Send usyonr State ami wo will send the 
paper you want. There are a dozen places of the same name. 
T. H., Dos Moines, In.—Bow strings are made of flax. Flemish 
flax is best. The strings are imported into this norm try. Wax 
used is common bees wax. 
Chassbur, Martinsville.—What Is the best weight, calibre, 
length of barrel, and how should a gun be bored which Is to be 
used for quail shooting ? Ans. 7f lbs., 12 gunge, 30 in. barrel, left 
barrel modified choke. 
Axxtoos Sportsman.- Yus, it the paper publishes a mu pur¬ 
porting to be a likeness of yourself, you may bring action for 
libel, and any Just court will sustain you. Just how nmoh you 
should claim for damages will depend altogether upon the atrocity 
of the alleged portrait. 
<> 769 
F. H. W., Elmira, N. Y.-We could not determine with regard to 
your beagle without seeing him. Ho Bhould not have crooked 
legs, but have long ears; in fact he should resemble a diminutive 
hound. Ducks can bo killed In New York State from Sept. 1st to 
May 1st. 
R. J, C., Hazleton, Pa.—Will you give me the Arm names and 
addresses of ToUey and Grant, tbo English gun-makers? Ana. J. 
6 W. Tolley, Pioneer Works, Birmingham, and Stephen Grant, 
London. We do not know the latter's street, butn letter addressed 
to him “ Gun-makor,” will*reach him. 
M. H., Cambridge.—Can you tellthe owner (and his residence) of 
the Colley dog, Tam O’Shanter, who was at the Boston dog show 
last year? Ans. Tam O’Shanter belongs to Mr. t. W.Lawson, Box 
317, Boston, Mass., but his name does not appear in the list of 
entries at either of the BostOD shows. Tam was at Baltimore In 
1878 
C. M., Berwick, Pa.—For dog No. 1 we should suggest a course 
of arsenic. Give live drops of Fowler’s solution twice a day, grad¬ 
ually increasing until ten drops arc given each day. Decrease 
again, and stop in two or throe weeks, or sooner if the eyes begin 
to look red. Dog No. 2 we should show to a surgeon and have him 
remove the excrescences. If you attempt to do anything to it 
yourself you may ruin the sight, 
G. A. Ik, Philadelphia.—I am told that spayed bitches become 
very fat if Dot operated on at the proper age. lam also informed 
that if spayed after having a litter of pups they will not take on 
fat. Will you kindly tell me what age is the proper one for the 
operation ? Ans. They should be spayed when from six to twelve 
weeks old. In any event thoy are likely to take on fat easily. 
A. T. B., Washington, D. C.—I have a Parker 12-gun, weighing 
7 lbs. 10 or.., and use 3 dr. of powder and 1-ounee shut. The recoil 
from this charge is strong enough to hurt the shoulder after a 
little filing. Can you suggest a remedy? Ans. The difficulty is 
probably in the fact that your shells do not fit the chamber of the 
gun. Get shells the same length as iho chamber, and, instead of 
cutting them off, use more wads and turn them. With the charge 
named there should be no recoil whatever, 
,T. T. C.. New York—I would like to know bow to remove 
superfluous hair off my face? Ans. Gentlemen nsually employ a 
razor for this purpose. If this method does not work In your 
ease, you might have your wife extract each separate and in¬ 
dividual hair with a pair of tweezers. The only difficulty is that 
you may not have a wife; in that case suppose you try singeing 
the hair off. There are about six millions of patent remedies for 
superfluous hair. Suppose, if you are really in earnest, that you 
try say one-half of them. Then write us again. 
B. J. IT., Marvo, HI.— 1. Is the pedigree of Gypsey herewith in¬ 
closed correct, if not where is the flaw ? 2. Is there danger to the 
bitoh in destroying a litter of pups at birth? She was unfortu¬ 
nately lined by a pointerdog. 3. Will this brooding have any in¬ 
fluence on future litters when we breed her to a desirable dog? 
Ans. 1. We have no means of verifying it. Nor do you mention 
the breed of dog, whether it is pointer or poodle. 2. It is better 
to keep one puppy to suclclo. The teats should be bathed with 
warm vinegar. 3. Probably the markings will be affected by it. 
John Dob, Milwaukee.— 1. I have three spaniel pups now nine 
weeks old, two of them have on their bellies a small bladder-like 
protrusion (about the size of a small marblo) which seems to be 
filled with wind, and when pressed on or rubbed it goes away, hut 
retuimsagain at onoe. Be kind enough to Inform me what this 
is and a remedy? 2. Does the length and general appearance of 
the coat now indicate what it will be at maturity? Ans. The pup¬ 
pies bave umbilical bertiia. It can be cured by the following 
treatment: If the puppies are weaned, put them on their backs 
and apply to the profusion a conical shaped piece of cork with 
a broad base covered with kid or chamois and secured lu position 
with strips of adhesive plaster. 2. No. 
MixishvA.— On the assumption that the judges had authority 
delegated then to change the course, their withholding the prize 
from the winucr on the grounds that one yacht did not sail over 
the altered course, cannot be justified. As due notioe was given, 
the yacht .1 u ftevoir, In persisting sailing oyer an abandoned 
course, has no right to protest, but on the contrary should be 
ruled outaltogether. The prize by allrulesof equity should go to 
Minerva. Of what avail are the judges and their rulings, if they 
first decide upon ati altered course, and then accede to the protest 
of a yacht which, after dne notice of the change, failed to com¬ 
ply with the change made by the judges? They hnvenot shown 
consistency in their action. 
0. L. J.—Squalls on the lakes are foretold by appearances of 
sky and water, same as upon the seaboard, but they arise more 
suddeuly. In sailing free, the boom sbouldbe trimmed to an angle 
intermediate with 90s to the keel and direction of the wind. Re¬ 
member that tho head of the sail sags off more than the boom, 
and make allowance accordingly; experience is the best teacher. 
In working to windward, the boom should be trimmed in dead 
fore and alt, theoretically, but in practice allowance must be 
made for “ bag ” in the sail, so as hot to produce back sail near the 
leech. It should be trimmed very nearly fore and aft in practice, 
or‘‘two blocks " as sailors have it. Boats are kept heeled to lea- 
ward a little in preference to holt upright when off the wind, 
to keep the boom steadier, and bring a drag on the sheet in light 
winds. 
J. A. It.— To spar 3(1 ft. schooner, first find “center of lateral 
resistance " of immersed hull wi th centerboard down. Fix upou 
total area of sails, and so shape them that the “ centre of effort ’’ 
will fall about 2{ to 3 per cent, of load waterline forward of the 
former. The centerboard should be 9ft. (f in. long, and its centre 
a little forward of centre of length, though its position can be regu¬ 
lated within moderate limits so as not to interfere with cabin 
arrangements,, stepping of masts, or an undesirable cut of salt. 
By keeping it far forward, long head buurns would result, and If 
too far aft, ton long a main boom will be the consequence. Its 
position maybe shifted until alt conditions are best satisfied. Sec 
previous paper, aud boat building by Nauticus. Make area of 
lower sails about 3J limes area of load line for cruising rig, which 
will be near 1,100 sq. ft. Centerboard trunk should run up to deck 
levol; dept of board, ft it. _ 
—The Moscow papers relate an extraordinary escape of 
a young Nihilist girl named Gobieslawska from the hands 
of the police. The latter had discovered the house in 
which she was concealed, and were about to make the 
arrest, when to their surprise, they saw a balloon rising 
from the garden containing the object of their search and 
two men. They .rapidly disappeared for some unknown 
destination, leaving the gendarmes to gaze disconsolately 
after them. 
—The annual amount of pin money required by mar¬ 
ried women depends on whether she uses diamond pinB or 
rolling pins. 
