290 



RECREA TION. 



KILLED A TON OF FISH. 



I inclose a clipping from the Dover (N. 

 J.) Index. 



I lived in Dover a number of years and 

 know the Rockaway river. It once af- 

 forded fine fishing, but for several years 

 past few trout have been caught in it. The 

 Port Oram furnace no doubt poisoned 

 many fish before the wholesale slaughter 

 recorded in the clipping. 



James Rourk, Philadelphia, Pa. 



The clipping reads: 



" Fish Warden George Riley was sent 

 to Dover on Friday to investigate a matter 

 which has created great excitement along 

 the Rockaway river from Port Oram to 

 Denville. On Wednesday the fish in the 

 river and canal at Dover began to show 

 symptoms of distress. They came to the 

 surface, spun around and finally turned 

 belly up and died. The canal and river 

 cross each other at Dover and both above 

 and below the meeting point thousands of 

 dead fish were seen. They represented 

 every thing from 4 pound bass and big 

 brook trout down to minnows, crawfish, 

 frogs and eels. It was evident something 

 poisonous had been put into the stream. It 

 even drove the muskrats out of their holes 

 in the bank and made them seek dry land. 



Mr. Riley said he saw over a ton of dead 

 fish. He was convinced the source of the 

 trouble was at the Port Oram iron furnace. 

 The furnace was blown out for repairs on 

 Monday and Tuesday and an immense 

 quantity of refuse from the stack and flues 

 was allowed to escape into a brook running 

 into the canal. Some violent poison gen- 

 erated in smelting the iron had been dis- 

 solved in the water and poisoned the fish. 

 The evidence led directly to the door of the 

 furnace. The dead fish were thick all along 

 the brook leading down to the canal. Other 

 streams not in connection with the canal 

 were unaffected, but the fish in the river 

 were affected by the poison as far down as 

 Boonton, where they could be seen holding 

 their heads out of water as if to get fresh air. 

 The fish commissioners will certainly pros- 

 ecute the case under the law which pro- 

 vides a penalty of $500 for allowing delete- 

 rious matter to escape into waters inhabited 

 by game fishes." 



IN GOOD OLD DAYS. 



Chicago, 111. 

 Editor Recreation: Fifty years ago all 

 that was needed to catch bass and pike in 

 the Niagara river near Buffalo, was a cot- 

 ton chalk line, a cane pole, bullet sinkers, 

 and a flat headed Kirby hook looped on. 

 Gut snoods were an invention for dudes, 

 and he who used a reel was far on the road 

 toward imbecility. A pole — there were no 

 rods in those days — was superfluous, except 

 where one had no boat, and was forced to 

 fish from the pier. 



I have often seen bass and pike playing 

 in the water beneath the boat in 15 to 20 

 feet of water, and watched them bite. 

 Crawfish were the common bass bait, and 

 were usually a tempting morsel, but there 

 were times when it was next to impossible 

 to get a fish. On such occasions it was not 

 uncommon for the fish to make a rush at 

 the bait as if to scare it off the hook, stop- 

 ping when a foot or so away, and standing 

 still to see the effect. Now, if a crawfish 

 were dropped overboard the bass would 

 take it in with hardly an effort, unless the 

 crawfish attempted to get away, when it 

 was soon overtaken. 



On one such occasion a bass, after mak- 

 ing several attempts to frighten the craw- 

 fish off the hook, undertook to knock it off 

 with his tail. His attempt was unsuccess- 

 ful, as the hook struck him just behind the 

 anal fin, resulting in landing him in my 

 boat. 



While I have no use or sympathy for the 

 European so-called German carp, I think 

 the fear of their eating the spawn of the 

 black bass groundless, because the bass re- 

 mains near the nest until it becomes a 

 nursery, and woe be to any intruder. This 

 fish has a habit of raising the dorsal fin 

 stiff and erect, and running under his antag- 

 onist with this bony saw, which is unpleas- 

 ant for his enemy. Anything inanimate 

 that comes over the nest is taken in his 

 mouth and carried away. It is this propen- 

 sity to remove obstructions that makes 

 bass fishing so remunerative to the fish hog 

 during the spawing season. 



C. C. Haskins. 



A BIG CATCH FOR A SMALL GIRL. 



Briggsville, Wis'. 



Editor Recreation: Although a girl 

 and but 13 years old I am fond of fishing. 

 We live on the bank of Lake Mason, which 

 is 3 miles long and one mile wide. We fish 

 through the ice, in the winter, by means of 

 tip ups. When I was about 9 years old 

 papa, Mr. Kellogg and I went out for a 

 half day's fishing, on the lake. They fished 

 for pickerel and I for small perch, with a 

 thread line and a minnow hook. Finally I 

 got tired of holding the line, so papa made 

 me 2 little tip ups; with which to fish for 

 perch. After leaving the hooks in the water 

 a few minutes I had a bite, and on pulling 

 my fish out of the water found it to be a 

 3 pound pickerel, the first one I ever 

 caught, and on a minnow hook and thread 

 line at that. I had barely got that hook 

 back in the water when the other tip up 

 " made game " and on hastening to it I 

 found a one pound pickerel on that hook. 

 That day I caught 20 perch and the 2 pick- 

 erel with 2 lines, while Mr. Kellogg and 

 papa had to be content with a few perch. 

 What do you think of that for a catch? 



A year or 2 afterward papa, my brother 



