126 



RECREATION. 



Your informant is wrong 1 . We caught 

 550 fish in 5 days. Not bad for 5 people, 

 but respectable. G. Orth, Seattle, Wash. 



Why don't you fellows try the codfishing 

 industry? It is a decent calling; eminently 

 respectable, even, when compared with hog- 

 ging trout. With your ability and a winch 

 you could pull up several quintals of fish 

 a day. Then when you reported your 

 slaughter no one would laugh. No one 

 would call you dirty fish hogs, either. — 

 Editor. 



NIBBLES. 



I had but little of my favorite sport last 

 fall, but one day Cooper Anderson, Dr. 

 Washburn and I took a trip to Trout lake 

 after ducks, and killed 12 teal. Trout lake 

 is a beautiful little body of water about 20 

 miles from Telluride. It was once filled 

 with trout, but dynamite, nets, etc., have 

 done their deadly work, and now there are 

 few fish there. But the beautiful scenery- 

 remains ; even the fish hogs can't destroy 

 that. I preached a sermon on game destruc- 

 tion, and now both of my companions are 

 subscribers to Recreation. 



I have shot a few mountain grouse, but 

 they are getting scarce. Some deer have 

 been killed in the neighborhood, and I 

 hear occasionally of a bear being seen. 

 There is a fine band of mountain sheep 

 within 10 miles of town, but they are pro- 

 tected by law. 



The sentiment here in favor of protect- 

 ing game has been weak, but •with a dozen 

 Recreation subscribers now standing up 

 for the law the sentiment will grow 

 stronger. C. M. Coleman, 



Telluride, Colo. 



I caught my first large fish at Wolf lake, 

 Indiana, a small pond well stocked with 

 pickerel and about 15 miles Southeast of 

 Chicago. We left home at 2 o'clock one 

 morning, 3 months ago, with our outfit and 

 a sufficient quantity of gruo. After arriv- 

 ing at the boat house ana arranging for a 

 boat we went down the inlet about 2 

 miles. There we cast for nearly an hour, 

 without success, the weeds being so thjck 

 we could scarcely move the boat around. 

 After leaving that location we met with 

 better luck, and my friend H. landed our 

 first catch, a 7^4 pound pickerel. 



He had no sooner placed it in the live 

 bag than my old Bristol bent nearly double. 

 I was so excited I could scarcely stand 

 up in the boat. H. took the rod from me 

 and after playing the fish over half aa 

 hour, among thick weeds, succeeded in get- 

 ting him safely in the landing net. 



That was enough for me, a 14 pounder ! 

 I was so overjoyed that I could fish no 

 longer. Frank Stick, Chicago, 111. 



Fishing was good here last season, be- 

 ginning with large mouth bass in the spring 

 and through the summer, great Northern 

 pike (pickerel) and small mouth bass in 

 the fall, blue gills and perch at all times. 

 Frank Vrooman and Cate Walker are good 

 guides. While out fishing recently with 

 my cousin, Robert B. Buell, of this place, 

 I got a strike from a fish near the boat and 

 gave him line. At the same time my cousin 

 threw his bait out near mine and got 

 a bite. The lines both began to run out, 

 and finaily I struck my fish. When I began 

 to reel him in we found the other line 

 snarled with mine. After a few minutes' 

 fight I succeeded in getting a 3 pound 

 small mouth bass into the boat and found 

 he had swallowed both minnows and was 

 securely hooked in the gullet with both 

 hooks. Did anyone ever have a. similar 

 experience? W. B. Halcomb, 



Lake Geneva, Wis. 



I was at Avalon, Catalina Island, last 

 summer. That is the true home of the 

 game fish, likewise of the fish hog. The 

 Tuna Club is doing much good in encour- 

 aging sportsmanlike methods by offering 

 prizes for record fish caught with rod and 

 reel. Many fishermen simply play their 

 fish until alongside the boat and then let 

 them go. The yellowtail, a fish of the 

 salmon family, is the one most sought. 

 It is a hard fighter and weighs 8 to 50 

 pounds ; the average being about 14. I 

 caught 4 yellowtail that weighed 13^, 

 14^2, 16 and 16^2 pounds ; also a 22 pound 

 shark. 



W. R. Jackson, Pasadena, Cal. 



With my friend G. W. Huddleston, of 

 New York, I have enjoyed 3 delightful 

 summer outings near Deerwood, Minn., 

 105 miles West of Duluth. That portion 

 of Minnesota has innumerable lakes, gems 

 of beauty, teeming with fish and- environed 

 by forests of pine, oak, butternut, birch 

 and elm. Our camp was especially at- 

 tractive in being near a splendid spring of 

 cold water. My friend is an enthusiastic 

 and successful fisherman, and hopes to 

 spend many more summers in the same 

 spot. L. H. Woodin, Norfolk, Va. 



An eel was recently taken, down at the 

 East end of the sound, by one of the keep- 

 ers of the Little Gull light, off New Lon- 

 don, in a lobster pot. It weighed 14 pounds 

 and was 4 feet 9 inches in length. I have 

 always lived around the water, and have 

 heard of eels that weighed over 6 pounds, 

 but that one put them all in the shade. 



E. M. Leete, Guilford, Conn. 



