Matich 23, 1882. | 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



151 



of privilege, " that; "the bacon we was a-cating was not 



WS hisn, but it had laid on the pier three days 



and he just tuk it." "Dod rot it," said Captain Foster, "I 

 never could stand temptation nohow, that's the kind of 

 sailor I am, and that there bacon laid there three days and 

 three, nights, just, as long as Jonah was in the whale's belly, 

 and I felt justified, as no owner appeared, to corral on to it " 

 Saul the captain; 'Til be ding-blamed if it ain't the best 

 bacon I ever did set. my tooth in' what do you sav. Lawyer 

 _ Dug, ' as he facetiously called the junior lawyer. * Douglass 

 looked wise and said he was not more than twenty-five yVars 

 old; he didn't count the ten yearsof hislife— when he lived at 

 "Forked River" — but he had studied law with that eminent 

 conveyancer John G. W. Ware, and that that, pre-eminent 

 legal luminary had told, him it was the common law of Gape 

 May county that when you found anything floating about 

 loose it, became flotsam and jetsam, which are law terms that 

 mean any man may pick up the thing and keep it," 



"Now," said lawyer Dug, "that is what I call John G. W 

 Ware's common law, and it is verv common around here mid 

 I therefore hold the bacon to be Captain Foster's under the 

 Ware statute of flotsam and jetsam, or as Ware more tersely 

 expresses it, "the hog is yours under the Chinaman's ml'.' 

 •no catchee no habbee!' " Captain Foster expressed himself 

 satisfied and his conscience at ease by the clear and lucid 

 explanation of lawyer Douglass, and we devoured the bacon. 

 And I am bound to admit that the snapping mackerel 

 cooked by the festive Foster over a charcoal '"fire was a 

 recherche dish, and scarcely a bone could lie seen anions the 

 breakfast debris, when Douglass whistled to Miller" the 

 couplet which narrates what the Governor of North Caro- 

 lina said to the Governor of South Carolina. 



While all this junketing was going on we were uearing the 

 mackerel grounds where the Mi moat do congregate irom 

 the last, of June till the first of October. Right "ahead of 

 Us was the piiot boat E. C. Knight, comrnauded bv Captain 

 Bennet, as brave and noble a sailor as ever trod a deck. To 

 our delight the gallant captain and the crew of the pilot, 

 boat were hauling in the ponderous mackerel as fast as their 

 lines could be hauled in and the fish unhooked, no light task 

 with three hundred feet of line out. Captain Jake, a 

 sailor, who had clearly mistaken his calling, for the camp- 

 meeting lost what a sea-fearing life had gamed in him, soon 

 put out the two lines and outriggers on each side of the Van- 

 dalia, and one line for the stern. 1 took the middle line and 

 rigged it with a blue squid, a large hook with a lead minnow 

 making the body of the squid, and while all the skippers, 

 Foster, York and Rice, laughed heartily at this new device! 

 they were compelled to admit before the day ended that, the 

 blue lead squid caught more fish than both "the other lines, 

 which Foster had equipped with a Virginia hook— a round 

 piece of wood and an eel skin drawn over the wood. The 

 objection to that kind of a line for mackerel is that it floats 

 on the surface merely, when it ought to lie just beneath the 

 surface. In many instances we could see the fish dart after 

 the hook which went skipping over the water in so deceptive 

 I a fashion as to deceive a wiser game fish than the greedy 

 "horse mackerel," as this fish is sometimes called. Even I he 

 sailors quarrel about the proper name of the mackerel, and 

 when we caught three with black stripes of the mackerel 

 species, clearly, two old men at Sewed's Point raised their 

 canes at each other in angry altercation whether these three 

 should lie called "bonita," snapping, or horse mackerel. I 

 leave it to the fish savants to decide. 



At first luck seemed to lie against us. and we were tor- 

 mented with the sight of the glistening sides of the mackerel 

 going_ up and over the sides of the pilot boat thick and fast. 

 Captain Bennett even sent some men over with a present of a 

 dozen mackerel still alive. This stirred the Norse blood of 

 old Foster, and he said "he would be dog gonncd if the 

 Vandalia didn't do some ketehin' fish or bust a sail:" At it 

 we went. And the Vandalia came around to the wind and 

 made for the red buoy, the most famous spot of all the fish- 

 ing spots on "the banks." As we sailed with a stiff breeze 

 something began to haul away at Douglass' line and mine 

 simultaneously. 



"By the everlasting Jingo, a whale !" shouted Douglass. 

 I pulled and Douglass pulled, while Miller, of the skipping 

 spirit, smiled, so did the skipper. Soon our- lines seemed to 

 I mix, and yet we pulled and with a long pull and a strong 

 pull we landed a fifteen pound mackerel," both swearing it 

 was our individual fish, when Captain Foster with a middle 

 township oath decided that the unoffending mackerel had 

 swallowed both hooks! And true it was. As we bounced 

 our joint mackerel, a sort of tenant in common, on the 

 Vandalia's deck, out jumped a herring arid a dozen small 

 fish larger than your little linger. 



As to the character of the mackerel I cannot say much, 

 but next to a shark I reckon it is the greediest fish that 

 swims. As to its voracity it is a case of negari non potest 

 quiii! 

 . I had a curiosity to open this bouncing mackerel after we 

 had taken out both hooks. Its heart was not, like that, of 

 ■any animal, bird or beast, ever seen by me. Taking out my 

 watch I observed the contraction of the valves of the heart, 

 and the muscular action continued to be plainly risible for 

 twelve minutes after the heart was taken from the fish, and 

 while it remained in the palm of my hands. 



The fun became fast and furious, and skippers Foster and 



Jake stood back to give us a fair fish, a free ballot and a full 



count. And for two mortal hours, till tired nature and our 



torn hands demanded rest, we engaged in the friendly rivalry 



Ms to who would pull in the most mackerel. I have ploughed 



a ten-acre cornfield of potatoes at. old Hanover in Indiana, 



but I never remember being more tired after an honest 



day's toil behind a plow, than! was at 4 P. M., when Miller 



fflgled a halt, throwing overboard the pair of cotton stock- 



Jings which the " Wild Joey" in his kindness of heart had 



i presented him to save his" fingers, instead of gloves, as he 



^'hauled in the difficult fish. 



We had seventy-eight fish outside of the dozen given us 

 by Captain Bennett, We felt good, and we fell, that we had 

 fasted longer than Tanner. That big mackerel, so lately 

 bounding over the blue brine of the fishing banks, fell no 

 more ravenous when he grabbed both hooks than we now 

 did. 



We roused Skipper York with our joint and stentorian 

 lungs, demanding "food." We plainly told him, as he 

 pirouetted below the deck, cutting a double shuttle (for he 

 was happy and full of the flotsam-bacon, having gorged 

 while we fished), that he had to do one of three things, viz. : 

 Cook, ciimb or drown! He said he would rather cook than 

 drown, and soon the sea-coal tire burned in the little fiery 

 furnace. We dived down to the bottom of Douglass' basket, 

 where to our delighted vision Miller's rapacity had spared us 



-• — «»»- ■"-■ uui mi.ii^iii;v.u >iiuuu uLiiiLj. ci i ai'ULat ) j_ic*vi ^Liditju ixfi 



ig chickens, eight tomatoes and "chunks of butter 

 thickly spread on corresponding chunks of bread." I took 



the Durkee dressing and without peeling the tomatoes, I 

 soon had a " salad for the solitary" that gastronomic Sam 

 V\ ard would not have despised under like circumstances. 

 And when the fish was done we dined. It was not the old 

 wme and fat venison of the pious ^Eneas, but it was ele- 

 gant, and no venison or "sweetbread in a box" at "Wil- 

 bur's 'when the waiter expects fifty cents, or wants you to 

 buy a ball ticket every time he looks at you, ever tasted so 

 sweet as I osier's bacon, fresh mackerel.' salad a la Chateau- 

 briand, one hard-boiled egg apiece and ice water. 



But in the west the clouds began to look angry— a faint 

 streak of black which quickens a sailor's eye with anxiety— 

 caused Foster to order Rice to steer straight for Cape May 

 Potnt, for no sailor willingly goes over the "harbor bar that 

 moans" after dark; too many drowned men have paid the 

 penalty of daring after dark that, dangerous surf. 



How York sang that "His father" was a robber bold " 

 and sung camp-meeting roundelays; how the quiet Rice en- 

 joyed the fun; how Douglass moaned because the bacon was 

 gone; how Foster told us how fond his aunt, in Cold Spring 

 was of "shrimps;" how fully we all enjoyed this one day's 

 sport alone with old ocean and the mackerel, I will more 

 fully narrate in another chapter. J M S 



Camden, N.J. ' " 



THAT BIG BASS. 



I^CENE— Robbin's Reef ; time, 11 o'clock on a pitch dark 

 kJ night. Three earnest fishermen wailinsr for slack water 

 and a bite, during the last two hours. Promptly at high 

 water slack I strike a weaklish of five and a quarter pounds 

 and feed rather offended that it does not turn out to be a bass 

 the fish we are sighing for. Ebb tide setting in strongly we 

 change to the other side, the anchor is let go, and presently 

 Fred sings out that he has hooked a big bass. Watching 

 his line I see that it runs out rather slowly but in a desperate 

 fashion, and know by this that the fellow on the other end 

 must be a rouser. Although Fred is a steady fisherman, it 

 has not been his luck yet to' capture a big bass, and conse- 

 quently he becomes somewhat flurried as the fish will not let 

 up at all, neither making a decided run nor lying down to 

 sulk after the approved fashion of that tribe, but 'keeping at 

 a slow, powerful tug. 



I have taken in my line on the first outcry and am all 

 ready with the gaff. Our third man hops around and is 

 getting wilder every minute, he being but a novice in the 

 gentle art, and handling as yet but a handline. Finally 

 Fred can't hold on any longer, his wrist giving out, and 

 he instrusts me with the rod. Heavens!" what a grind 

 there is on the reel. I make up my mind the fish is no less 

 than fifty pounds, and confidentially give it to ray friends that 

 he may turn out to be an eighty-pounder. We have been 

 playing the bass now over half an hour, when I find of a 

 sudden that our position has greatly changed, the boat having 

 drifted through the eddy to the easterly side of the reef. 

 Our third man has not let out anchor rope enough. This 

 is done, and at the same time the bass begins to sulk and lies 

 as immovable most of the. time as a sunken log. 



Once in a while he shakes his head in a sorf of discouraged 

 manner, as I fondly believe, but his great weight makes even 

 this movement ponderous. However" I cheer my friends with 

 the hope that he is certainly giving up, and hand the rod 

 back to Fred, who commences with new ardor and strength 

 to play him, giving vent freely to his pathetic feelings hi at 

 last hooking a big one. As the monster still shows "no sign 

 of moving, and the use of the butt having no impression 

 whatever on the surly brute, we. resolve to row up to him 

 and poke liim up. We are afraid to let him lie and pick up 

 strength again. With what extreme care the anchor is 

 lifted, how tenderly the oars are handled, and with what 

 suppressed agony Fred, standing in the sternsheets, handles 

 his rod. Soothingly and admonishingly I speak to him, 

 guarding him against, slack line, while we arc driving the 

 boat slowly through the water. The line is getting less and 

 less, Fred's eyes bulge out more and more; now we must be 

 almost atop of him. ' Crash on the stem of the boat— and 

 before us looms, about two feet above water, the everlasting 

 lobster car-stake of Joe, the lighthouse keeper, with Fred's 

 hook clinging lovingly on the bottom of it. 



I gently drop a veil over the proceedings of the next ten 

 minutes, but shall I ever forget the despairing look that 

 settled into Fred's eyes as he surveyed his first big bass? or 

 the bitter pang of wounded pride that shot through me, 

 who ought to have looked through the whole sham at 

 once, > or the crazy ravings of our raw recruit, who saw- 

 visions of unlimited bragging among his friends taking the 

 form of a hard matter of fact stake/ We had to break the 

 line. Let no fisherman condemn us. I have played many a 

 bass, and still was I deceived by a lifeless, unfeeling stake. 

 Of course it was all owing to* the movement of The boat. 

 Even when we had anchored, the boat swayed to and fro, 

 and that occasioned the imagined shakings "of the head. I 

 have to add, that we fished in a languid manner, relieved 

 only once in a while by a sudden outburst of pent up feelings 

 on the part of Fred, until 7 o'clock the next morning, adding 

 only another weakfish of one and a half pounds to our basket. 

 The bass were non est that night, Pisc.vtok. 



LARGE POMPANO. 



VS your paper is the medium of entertainment, instruc- 

 tion and information between American sportsmen, I 

 write to you to tell you what I saw at the Boston Club of 

 this city on the 4th of March, and to ask if you have e\ er heard 

 of anything like it? — viz. a pompano of" the following im- 

 mense, dimensions: Length, three feet seven inches; weight, 

 thirty-three and a half pounds, and thirty inches around"the 

 It was positively a pompano, and not a "caraux." 



rag thirty-five pounds. willTie served in steaks 1T at the"above- 

 named house by the caterer of the South to" his numerous 

 customers this afternoon, Sunday. March .5, 1883; and the 

 following days, and don't you forget it." 



Three species of pompano have been known to our coast 

 for a long time. The favorite one is Sfdchynoka < 

 caMcd "pompano" on the southern coast, "eavalle," or "crev- 

 alle," in South Carolina, and "pompvnose" at New Orleans 

 Another species is the 7'. ovatus, or short pompano. an rival 

 fish, and the third is T. glatieus. All these are small fishes, 

 and seldom exceed two pounds. Within the past, two years 

 occasional specimens of an African species, the T. gar, 

 common to the Canary Islands and the west coast of Africa. 

 has been occasionally taken on our coast, and seem lobe 

 getting more plentiful. The first, one weighed twelve, and 

 the last one eighteen pounds. This fish grows large, and is, 

 no doubt, the one mentioned by our correspondents, whose 

 figures exceed that of previous captures. To distinguish this 

 species it may be well to call it the "African pompano." The 

 following is Gunther's description: "The height of the body 

 is two and three-fourths in the total length ; the length of the 

 head four and a half; one of the caudal lobes four times. 

 The snout is obliquely truncated: the upper maxillary reaches 

 to nearly below the centre of the eve. The anterior rays of 

 the dorsal and anal extend beyond the middle of the tins if 

 laid backward. The dorsal, caudal and anal lobes black." 



shouldi 



It was one of three brought in the city; one said to be larger 

 and the other smaller, the smallest only weighing twenty- 

 eight pounds. Any number of people saw il. and I and many 

 others ate of it. Has it ever been equalled that you know of? 

 A t we] ve pound fish is the largest 1 have ever known of before 

 this one. — H. K., (New Orleans, La., March B). 



Three pompano, caught off Pensacola, Fla.. at one haul of 

 seine, were brought here on Friday last. Their dimensions, 

 given on enclosed slip, is substantially correct. The flesh of 

 the thirty-five pound fish was good", hut not quite equal to 

 that of smaller pompano, say of three or four pound weight. 

 —.1. E. Mel)., (New Orleans, March 0). 



Mr. McD. gives the following dimensions: Twenty-eight 

 pound pompano — breadth, twelve inches; length, thiiiy-nme 

 inches from tip to tip. Thirty-five pound pompano— breadth, 

 fourteen raphes; length, forty-one inches. One of these 

 fish was served up at Leon's, pnfi at the Boston Club and one 

 at, Astredo's. Referring to the latter, a local paper of the 9th 

 says : 



"'The largest pompano ever caught in the world, weigh - 



Hood's Cuarb— so called "Bull Trout" of Cocur d'Alene 

 Lake. Drum Major Sattcs, Second Infantry, now stationed 

 near Vancouver, W. I., after a careful study and examina- 

 tion of the habits of the Bull Trout, claims that this beautiful 

 fish is the Hood Charr first described bv Dr. Richardson, 

 although first discovered bv Lieutenant Hood in Pine Island 

 Lake. It is not a little remarkable that this fish should have 

 so long remained unknown, as it, is common in every lake 

 and river from Canada to the northern exteemiby 'of the 

 continent. One of the remarkable characteristics of our 

 Bull Trout corresponds with that of the Charr in the great 

 height of the dorsal fin. He is a bold and daring biter 

 voraciously ssizing a bait of sucking earn pork aaer heart 

 or belly of one of its own species affixed on a hook. Drum 

 Major Sattes used, as bait, on the 7th of February, beef, and 

 caught two. One weighed four pounds and two 'ounces, the 

 other four pounds and four ounces. They were caught by 

 cutting a, hole' through the ice, using a twenty foot line and 

 a 46 cal. bullet as sinker, at the head of Spokane River. 

 This fish attains the weight of fourteen pounds and over in 

 Coeur d'Alene Lake, and takes the flv readily in season 

 Captain Mills. Second Infantry, caught with an ordinary 

 salmon-fly one that weighed over twelve pounds, just above 

 the head of Spokane River. From mid-summer until late in 

 the fall he is caught with a surface I roll, no sinker being 

 used. The spoons mostly used are the Abbey & Imbrie 

 fluted Nos. 4. 5 and 6; Whitehall, McDonald, and Peck & 

 Snyder's propellor. The minnow for trolling has proved a 

 failure. Our trolling is done by a slow and steady rate by 

 oar, about two miles an hour, 'length of line usually fifty 

 yards or more, considering the depth of water. Three en- 

 four pounders have been caught in the Spokane River with 

 troll where water is from 24 to (3 and 8 feet deep. The back 

 and sides of the Cocur d'Alene Chan- (Bull Trout) are 

 intermediate between olive green and clove brown, lighter 

 toward the under side with a gold or bronze cast. ' The 

 spots are as big as a pea, a few of these spots on the gill 

 covers. Belly under the jaw white. Tire spots are bright 

 yellow above the lateral line, and below a ripe orange oolor 

 darkest midway between lateral line and bellv. the lower 

 jaw, when the mouth is closed, projects beyond the upper 

 one, and it appears longer when the mouth is open. The 

 rest of the description corresponds with that on pa<>-e 129 

 "Frank Forester on Fish and Fishing." Mr. GoHyns, an 

 English gentleman, while fishing last year, called this fish a 

 Charr and the same as those caught, in the inland lakes of 

 Ireland and Scotland. • 



A Plucky Game Pkotector.— Ithaca, N. Y., March 13, 



1882.— State Game Protector Norton resides here and is 

 closely watched by the Anti-Fish and Game Club. His 

 movements are sent abroad by signal or some other system. 

 The game protector was going to Geneva and had boarded 

 the train. It is about a mile from the city limits to ibe head 

 of the lake, and the train has to ascend a "hill and through a 

 thick forest. When opposite the lake, and the train going 

 about twenty -five miles an hour, the game protector saw 

 through the forest down on the lake several parties with 

 seines. Norton ran out of the ear, and having but one arm 

 threw himself out on terra firlna. He struck at first on his 

 feet, and next, on his shoulders, and then stood up on his 

 head in a soft dirt pile, and ended his tumble bv rolling down 

 the hillside a few rods. Brit Norton stood upon the "hillside 

 and took a hst of the actors and witnesses. He lias had ten 

 illegal fishermen arrested, and their trials are all pending. 

 The game club of this county now support Norton, but the 

 fish club support the fishermen. The only money sent to 

 the comptroller by the eight State game protectors was sent 

 by Norton as the result of several arrests he made on this 

 (Cayuga) lake. Then,- is a seeming determination on the pari, 

 of Norton to enforce the State game and fish laws, and if he 

 can only get such information as he can use to advantage; 

 be will Stop illegal fishing in all the surrounding lakes and 

 .streams. This informal ion he solicits. His intention and 

 backbone are both well illustrated in the dive from the train 

 in such rapid motion. Let us hope thai his nimble will 

 prove beneficial to the poor fish and those of us who have 

 any respect for the dignity of the State and its laws. 



Curns.— There are several fishes with soft fins called 

 chubs. The angler's chubs are the >,,... ■.rulin, 



(Mitch. Putnam) called chub, horned-dace and corporal, in 

 different parts of the country, and the S. bulhri^ (l;,-,r. 

 Jordan) called fall fish, dace and roach, Ties.- lishes grow 

 m favorable waters to a length of fifteen to eighteen inches, 

 and a weight of a pound to a pound and a half. They tire 

 common to fresh water streams from New England to 

 Virginia and the Carolinas, anil west to the Missouri leu-ion. 

 The first named fish lias a black spot at. the base of ibe dorsal 

 fin, There are smaller fishes, as Cni/ir/,!/,,,* hinultji*. and 

 others which frequent the same streams and have horny 

 heads. These latter seldom exceed six inches in length. 



Troltlxg m Delaware Coo'ty. N. Y.— The trout fish- 

 ing will, perhaps, lie very good here this Bpring. Wc have 

 the finest bass fishing here, or as good as anywhe 

 State, in mid-summer. It has always been a conundrum to 

 me why so many people from your city go up on the Bcavejr- 

 kill and on the Neversink streams, where the scenery and fishing 



