374 



RECREATION. 



A ST. LAWRENCE SALMON. 



I have taken Recreation a number 

 of years and have frequently read therein 

 stories of salmon fishing which convey the 

 impression that it is comparatively easy to 

 land a salmon. Of course, with a good 

 angler, the chances are 2 to one in favor of 

 the fish being landed ; but with a tyro, this 

 is not always the case. 



In July, 1902, I spent 2 weeks at Matane, 

 a small lumbering village at the mouth 

 of a river of the same name, on the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. The Matane is a tidal river 

 and during the spring tides the sea water 

 covers a considerable rapid of about 12 

 feet in height. The river is noted not so 

 much for the number as for the size of the 

 fish caught in it. The largest taken last 

 season weighed 31 pounds. The river is 

 divided into pools, of which a table is 

 made up, so that each angler has a certain 

 time during the day at each pool. 



The morning after I arrived the rapids 

 were allotted to me from 7 a. m to 8. Al- 

 though I had often fished for lake and sea 

 trout, I had never before fished for salmon. 

 After fishing about half an hour, I raised a 

 salmon, but did not hook him at first. In 

 about half a minute he returned, made a 

 beautiful rush at the fly, and was hooked. 

 He was not a big fish, weighing, as far as 

 I could judge, about 12 pounds. Instead 

 of rowing to the shore and gaffing him 

 there, I tried to land him from the boat, 

 with the result that after playing nim 

 about 5 minutes he got alongside the boat 

 and began rushing from side to side. The 

 strain on the rod was too great, as it was 

 bent almost perpendicularly, and suddenly 

 it snapped, the line became straight, and 

 the fish was off. 



I rowed back to the club house, spliced 

 my rod, and returned. I fished some time 

 before I got another rise; but just as I 

 was thinking of returning, I hooked an- 

 other salmon and was able to land him. 

 He weighed 14 pounds, not a big fish, but 

 the biggest I had ever caught at that time. 



After half an hour's rest I went on to 

 the next pool, where the water was quieter, 

 and I soon had a large fish hooked. He 

 was fresh from the sea, and rushed and 

 jumped about in a truly marvelous way. I 

 had hard work to keep my rod up, and, 

 alas ! after I had played him about 3 min- 

 utes, he gave a huge jump in the air and 

 fell on the line. In the excitement, I for- 

 got to lower my rod, so as to give the line 

 slack, and in consequence the weight of 

 the fish broke the taut line and he got 

 away. 



I had no more rises that morning, but 

 during the afternoon I caught 2 more beau- 

 tiful fish, one weighing 18 pounds and the 

 other 16. 



During my stay at Matane, I caught al- 



together 28 fish, averaging about 11 pounds 

 apiece. 



R. H. Irwin, Ottawa, Ont. 



NIRBLES. 



Mr. Fred. Funder, Republic, Wash. 



I am informed you recently caught 140 

 trout in one day. Will you kindly advise 

 me if the information is correct; also the 

 length of the smallest fish? 



G. O. Shields. 



Republic, Wash. 

 Those are facts. The smallest fish was 

 7 inches long. There is great fishing here; 

 no trouble to get 100 fish. 



Fred. Funder. 



No decent man would ever take 100 fish 

 in a day. It is only degraded, infamous 

 fish hogs who do that sort of work. — Edi- 

 tor. 



In November Recreation I saw an in- 

 quiry from D. Smythe for an artificial bait 

 to take channel catfish. Although not an 

 artificial bait, I will suggest one that never 

 fails with me. Take a minnow, pinch off 

 its head and run it on a hook, like a worm. 

 Start hook about ]/ 2 inch from tail, run it 

 straight through ; turn the minnow over 

 and start back through the large part of the 

 bait. 



Chas. Scoggan, Buechel, Ky. 



I have just returned from a trip to Flat- 

 willow. We traveled over 35 miles of 

 rough roads and trails to get to good fish- 

 ing. Once at Flatwillow, fishing and hunt- 

 ing are of the best. There are trout that 

 weigh 5 or 6 pounds. The largest we got 

 was i l / 2 pounds. 



A. J. Scheibelhut, Newyear, Mont. 



Will Carleton gives some good advice to 

 anglers, in a recent poem : 



But he started me a-thinkin' : When you 



fish, as fish you will, 

 Be a sportsman, not a butcher ; try to catch 



an' not to kill ; 

 Keep enough to serve your eatin', let the 



surplus fellers go ; 

 Send the small ones to their mothers — 



give 'em time to fat an' grow ; 

 An' when pullin' in the fishes don't be slow 



to recollect 

 To secure 'em in a manner not to forfeit 



their respect. 



She — Doctor, is Denver a good place to 

 go for rheumatism ? 



Doctor — Sure. That's where I got mine. 

 — Detroit Free Press. 



