3§4 



RECREA TION. 



pends on their environment, and other 

 circumstances. Pond carp like pond bass 

 seem to have no ambition, and will not 

 fight. Those living in water which is often 

 changed are generally full of fight, and we 

 have landed a number whose lips were torn 

 out in previous encounters with inexperi- 

 enced anglers. There is again a difference 

 in river carp. The leather, or mirror carp 

 is gamier than the ordinary German varie- 

 ty. The latter in this locality, is a round 

 bodied fish like a sucker. A bass shaped 

 variety is the hardest fighter by all odds 

 and I am inclined to believe it a hybrid, 

 part carp and part buffalo. There is a 

 marked difference in the dorsal fin, which 

 seems to be constant. While the division 

 at the main spine and that between the 

 fourth and fifth rays has occurred in nearly 

 every specimen, I have not yet been able 

 to make sure it is specific. The most strik- 

 en difference, aside from the general con- 

 tour, is in the color. The German carp is 

 dark green on the back, shading to golden 

 yellow on the belly, and the fin and tail 

 markings are deep orange. The other is 

 bluish on the back, shading to pure silver 

 white on the sides and belly, while the fin 

 and tail markings are bright red. Whether 

 this is really a hybrid or not, the fact re- 

 mains it is the hardest fighter and the best 

 food fish of all the carp known here. 



The muddy taste of carp can be removed 

 by keeping them alive in running water 

 for a week or 2, or by dressing them and 

 keeping on ice 4 or 5 days. As carp are 

 tenacious of life, and will live a long time 

 in a net fish bag I use the former plan, hav- 

 ing a pond in my yard. Carp begin to bite 

 about June 5th, stop somewhat during dog 

 days, and then bite again until cold weather. 

 Our largest fish have been caught in the 

 middle of the day or early in the afternoon. 



J. W. Forbes. 



FURTHER PARTICULARS ABOUT SMEARLINE 



W. R. Junction, Vermont. 

 Mr. Thomas P. Bresnan. 



I saw in Recreation an account of your 

 catch of fish with your new device. Will 

 you sell me a box of it? If so at what 

 price? W. H. Cleveland. 



Oil City, Pa. 

 Dear Sir: 



I have been completely deluged with let- 

 ters from anglers asking me to send them 

 a can or 2 of my compound, at any price I 

 might name. To all I have replied that my 

 great discovery is not for sale, for several 

 reasons: 



1. The compound must be kept in a cool 

 atmosphere, and at an even temperature. 

 Otherwise it will lose its attractive power 

 on fish, and repel them with even more 

 force and power than it exerts in attracting 

 them to the smeared line. This tempera- 



ture must not exceed 72 7-8° Fahr., nor less 

 than 70. 



2. The compound (which I have called 

 Smearline) if shipped by express, might 

 play havoc with codfish, smoked herring, 

 sardines and other species of preserved fish 

 that might happen to be in course of transit 

 in the same car; because if the temperature 

 should go above 12 7-8 or below 70, 

 Smearline would get in its work and repel 

 anything that looked like a fish, either 

 smoked, dried or oiled: and canned fish 

 would suffer the most, inasmuch as my 

 compound contains a small percentage of 

 alloy of tin, and the repelling force would, 

 therefore, be doubled. 



3. Smearline could not be shipped by 

 boats without great destruction to life and 

 property ; because such large fish as tar- 

 pon, tuna, channel bass, etc., would cling 

 in countless numbers to the sides of the 

 boat and lift her clear out of the water, 

 until her propellers would revolve with 

 such enormous rapidity that they would 

 cut into mince meat all the fish that lay 

 astern. These fragments of fish would de- 

 scend on her deck like rain, so that when the 

 temperature of the Smearline was reduced, 

 or increased, all the fish hanging on to the 

 sides of the boat, as well as the flying frag- 

 ments at her stern, would be repulsed with 

 such tremendous force that the wake oc- 

 casioned thereby would sink the craft. 



4. Smearline in the hands of a careless 

 angler would do more harm than good, be- 

 cause after catching all the fish he wanted, 

 the fish hog might amuse himself by fling- 

 ing small particles of Smearline into the 

 water, just for the fun of seeing how it acts 

 when it is not smeared on a line; and for 

 the purpose of worrying the life out of the 

 fish which he could not lug home. I have 

 no respect for that class of fishermen, and 

 even if I were disposed to start a factory 

 for the manufacture of Smearline in large 

 quantities, I should want a written guaran- 

 tee from each person who bought a box, 

 that he would limit the amount of his catch 

 to 1,000 fish a day, and not make a hog of 

 himself. 



In conclusion I will add that I have been 

 offered a fabulous fortune for a pencil 

 memorandum of the formula for making 

 Smearline, but have declined to divulge the 

 secret to any one, no matter how tempting 

 the consideration may be. 



Hoping you may some day make a .dis- 

 covery that will enable you to catch all the 

 fish you want, and more too, 

 I remain yours truly, 



Thos. P. Bresnan. 



NO HYBRID CARP. 



Editor Recreation: I have always stood 

 up for the much-abused carp, but, at the 

 same time, have tried not to appear extrava- 

 gant or unreasonable in my defense of that 

 fish. 



