FISHING. 



513 



Personally, I care little for lake fishing, 

 even though the trout run large, the only 

 exception being in July and August, when 

 the natives will tell you the fish are not bit- 

 ing. Put on a No. 12, or No. 14 midge, use 

 very fine tackle, and the magic hour between 

 sundown and dusk should certainly, reward 

 you with at least half a dozen trout well 

 above the legal limit. 



Many of the neighborhood boys are good 

 bait fishermen, and they do well in spring- 

 time and early summer, but drawn gut and 

 midge flies are beyond their horizon. That 

 is the angler's opportunity. 



If you are ambitious of very heavy trout, 

 the Laurentians may not come up to your 

 ideal, but the fishing in the waters of that 

 wild northern range is very charming, never- 

 theless, and several New Yorkers of my ac- 

 quaintances revisit them each summer. Use 

 light tackle, and then a two-pounder will 

 yield you lots of fun, and bring your heart 

 up to your collar-stud before you have "him 

 safely in the landing net. 



WISCONSIN CONDITIONS. 



Editor Recreation : 



The numerous lakes comprising what is 

 called the "Lake District" and lying between 

 here and the Gogebic Range, North and 

 about seventy-five or 100 miles East and 

 West, furnish excellent fishing for musca- 

 lunge, pike and bass, while in the rivers are 

 pickerel, muscalunge and pike. In the smaller 

 streams are plenty of brook trout, though 

 the best' trout fishing seems to be in the 

 streams South of the middle line of the 

 State. Minocqua is considered the gateway 

 to the "Lake District." 



There is good deer hunting in all the 

 counties in the northern part of the State, 

 and I think Vilas, Oneida, Forest and Lin- 

 coln counties furnished their share last fall. 



The Indians and many of the homestead- 

 ers disregard anything that looks like a game 

 law, to such an extent that it is getting to 

 be the fashion among some of the town 

 people to avail themselves of the privileges 

 extended to those in the rural districts, and, 

 in that way, there is a good deal of hunting 

 and fishing out of season. 



One farmer told me this winter that he 

 had venison on his table every day in the 

 year; and a man in Vilas county last fall 

 hunted deer for three months before the 

 season opened, and then sold what deer he 

 had left when the season was open to would- 

 be hunters. 



This man claimed it was not safe to be 

 in the woods during the open season, as there 

 were so many hunters then. 



State election last fall had a good deal to 

 do with the game wardens staying in town. 



It seems to me that the only way to get at 

 the wolves successfully would be to go 



right at them while the pups are young, and 

 to keep at them ; one man can kill as many 

 in a few hours while the pups are young as 

 100 men could do in a day's drive. Twelve 

 dollars bounty is paid here. 



Some of us here have intended to see 

 what we could get by making drives, but the 

 game has been so on the move and with the 

 difficulty of getting around in the deep snow, 

 we have not got started yet, but may soon. 

 W. F. Bingham, Tomahawk, Wis. 



MAINE WATERS. 



Editor Recreation : 



Maine and fishing are synonymous. All 

 wielders of the rod have heard of the giant, 

 square-tailed trout of the Pine Tree State's 

 waters. Nowhere, excepting in the Nepigon, 

 has Salvelinus fontinalis been taken of so 

 great a weight as in Maine. And there are 

 other fish beside the speckled trout. The 

 landlocked salmon and the togue, are taken 

 in numbers in many of the lakes, and as for 

 smaller fry, namely : the little spotted fonti- 

 nalis, of the brooks, their name is legion. 



Moreover, it is not a far cry to the State 

 of Maine from any of the Atlantic coast 

 cities. From New England, the Boston and 

 Maine will carry the traveler with celerity, 

 and in comfort, to Bangor, which is prac- 

 tically the jumping off place, as from here 

 routes diverge to every point of the compass. 



During the past ten years I have paid many 

 visits to Maine and although I cannot claim 

 to know anything but a small fraction of the 

 good fishing waters, yet my experience may 

 be of use to those who have yet to learn the 

 delights of a fishing trip to the grand old 

 Pine Tree State. 



Greenville, on the Piscataquis branch of 

 Moose Head Lake, eighty-seven miles from 

 Bangor, is one of the best places in the whole 

 State for all-round sport. Moosehead Lake 

 is an imposing body of water, more than forty 

 miles long, and as much as eighteen miles 

 wide in places, although its average width is, 

 perhaps, not over three or four. The air is 

 very pure and clear, as the surface of the 

 lake has an altitude of 1,000 feet above sea 

 level. 



Just as soon as the ice goes out, the fishing 

 begins. From early May until mid-June live 

 bait is the most successful, but from June 

 15th, or earlier some years, until the end of 

 July, the fly is to be preferred. The average 

 weight of the trout in some sections is not 

 less than three pounds, and a great many 

 fish have been caught which would tip the 

 beam at seven or eight pounds. 



The Mt. Kineo Llouse, situated at the foot 

 of Mt. Kineo, whose crest is a full thousand 

 feet above the lake, is one of the finest in- 

 land summer hotels of the continent. 



