470 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jcxt 18. 1883. 



bite best, on the last of the ebb, slack water'and the young 

 flood. 



For bait 1 sometimes use mullet, but in the North it is 

 probable rnossbunkcrs will make an attractive bait. Each 

 bait should weigh not less than three or four ounces, bat if 

 sharks and skates are plentiful, cut, fish bait will prove ob- 

 jectionable. As a rule, I have avoided the capture of these 

 varmints by using bard back crabs for bait. 1 take a large- 

 sized hard back, remove the back shell, cut off the claws at 

 joint nearest the body, divide the crab in two pieces, and 

 use one half for a bait. If the tide does not run too rapidly, 

 I would advise piscators to test live bait in the way of a 

 young mossbunker. 



In fishing for red drum a rocky or shell bottom sbould be 

 selected, or a point near an old wreck, I can assure your 

 readers that they will find these fish bold biters, if the bait 

 is kept, from the bottom and moving. They are full of 

 fight and will be found worthy of the piscator's notice. 



Aii Fresco. 



Jacksonville, July 4. 



THE FATE OF A SCEPTIC. 



I LIST as winter was turning into spring, one of whom we 

 t) expacted better things, ventured to question in these 

 pages the substantiality of a faith venerable as man himself, 

 and whose devotees tlirong every water within the bounds 

 of human habitation. In the face of the inscriptions upon 

 Cleopatra's Needle and the traditions of Scandinavia which 

 bear witness to its truth, ignoring the records of the Swiss 

 navy in that memorable expedition of the Matterhorn, and 

 stilling the voice which cried out of the depths of his own 

 consciousness protesting against the wrong, he deliberately 

 questioned the efficacy of moistening with saliva the festive 

 clam and frisky worrn when employed by the angler in the 

 practice of his art. The world stood horrified at his pre- 

 sumption; the ichthyophagoi shuddered over the apostacy of 

 he man. 



A rebuke came from the Nile, the Hoang Ho, and the 

 sources of the Matterhorn. A cry of derision from gentle 

 anglers who, in far-off Bahar and Patua, were casting the 

 well-lubricated bait aloft into the haunts of the Anabax 

 scandens, struck the iron to his soul. Nature ceased to 

 smile, and put aside his attempted pryings with a stern 

 "That'll do, sir!" The Place de Blackford, for him, became 

 an Inferno. Then he daily read tender reproaches in the 

 dreamy eyes of Plcvrcmectkh; the fierce glance of the Gadua 

 tnar/iua tilled him with an undefined terror, while tke wail 

 of wild-eyed Scmhber over his perfidy touched him with his 

 first remorse. It was unendurable 



He secluded himself beside a rural stream and watched 

 (be lusty salmon emerge from the ovum; he became a 

 nurse to their infant wants; he planted in strange waters; 

 he invoked the zodiac, from frisky Aries to questionable 

 Virgo. Vain resort; the offended powers could not thus be 

 appeased. He became desperate; he sought annihilation. 

 He queried in his despair whether the Unioswere edible; in 

 recklessness he threw himself among men who had invented 

 gorillas, and sought the society of those to whom the octo- 

 pus was a plaything. He reared hecatombs of horseshoe 

 crabs and of dogfish, nor hesitated to devour them; he 

 poured libations of punch du Ckaillu, proved himself a cast- 

 iron receptacle and, as such, offered himself, a human 

 aquarium, to the fetes. Still a vain subterfuge; pursued by 

 a Nemesis as inexorable as the gad fly which drove the wan- 

 dering Io from land to land, from the dwelling place of 

 Scythians to peaks, lightning-blasted, the prison of the god- 

 hated, he forsook his olden haunts and turned to that last 

 refuge — the wilderness — the resort of the world's heroes of 

 hair-cloth garments, of its mortifiers of the flesh. 



The climax of his punishment is attained. To-day he is 

 a wanderer in the wilderness, far from home and friends, 

 without a roof to shelter his devoted head, a pensioner on 

 the appropriation of the State, In his slumbers will come 

 dreams of once happy hours — hours when he sported with 

 the fragrant LopMtis and made melody on his light guitar, 

 ere he had sounded the fair fame of the lovelorn virgin of 

 Havemeyer's Islam I. Ever and unon his slumbers will be 

 broken with the cry of the great white owl, "don'l — you 

 wish — you hadn't?" bringing new remorse. On land, in 

 hourly danger of being trodden beneath the rushing herds 

 of Gariaci; on lonely waters, in constant; peril of being 

 seized by the tierce Namaycuth and dragged to depths where 

 the Eaofidif arc waiting to sit in .judgment on the traducer 

 of their kin, he passes his days. 



Tears are unavailing; the pearly drops of the Osirea 

 virginiana, the gashing showers of the Jjfaioa cannot recall 

 him. Fate is long; the end cannot be foreseen. It may lie 

 that in some far off time a tightly corked bottle — empty — a 

 few buttons on the beach or. perchance, a shoe thrown from 

 the crater of Mount Marcy will be found and identified as a 

 portion of the. chattels of 'a former editor of FoitEsi and 

 STREAM, who, through heterodoxy, fell from his high estate. 



We bewail his sad fate, but feel* assured, should he escape 

 the perils with which he now seems almost hopelessly en- 

 vironed, that his penance will be rich in its fruits, and" that 

 not the least of these will be a firmer faith, a new credo, an 

 unfaltering trust in that mysticism of the craft— spitting on 

 the bait. _Wawayanda. 



TENNESSEE NOTES. 



MESSRS. Demoville, Duncan. Hicks and Foster returned 

 this weekfrorn theirannual fishing excursion to Michi- 

 gan. They did the Elk River, and though they were there 

 rather early, the sport was elegant. Mr. Foster landed a 

 twenty-pound Mackinaw trout with an eight-ounce rod, and 

 Dr. Louis Demoville a five-pound bass with similar tackle. 

 About Nashville the angling tratcrnily have had a fair amount 

 of sport since the spawning season. Geo. Goodrich caught a 

 ten pound jack out of Crow Creek. Mill Creek has been 

 seined until I here are scarcely any fish left, From South 

 llarpith encouraging accounts are given of thfiJarge increase 

 in fish this summer. Mr. J. E. Warner is doing very well 

 with his hatchery in Cheatham county. The brook' trout 

 eggs he received last, spring were successfully hatched and 

 he has now about 12,000, varying in size from the minnow 

 with his egg sack appended to one-pouuders. Mr.-Warner 

 is under the impression that when the water is as cold as 

 that from the spring which supplies Ms ponds, the brook 

 trout will not only thrive but in this climate will increase in 

 weight more rapidly than in the North, because the ponds 

 here never freeze over, and the fish feed and grow all winter, 

 I hear from different sources that those persons raising carp 

 are meeting with great success. Mr. Hamilton, living near 

 Lebanon, has a large, pond in which from a few pairs of 

 German carp placed in it two years ago, he now has 

 thousands. Dr. Salmon of Shelby ville tells the following 



remarkable, story of a new species of fish (or perhaps I had 

 better say new to this country.) 



"Several years ago a tremendous water spout passed over 

 a farm near my place, the rainfall was unprecedented, and 

 with it, 1 believe, came the fish in question. After the storm 

 was over I noticed in a small creek close by my house millions 

 of minnows, which by their peculiar action I took to be 

 strangers. Having on my place a pond in which there were 

 but, few fish, I determined upon capturing some oi the little 

 fellows in the creek, and adding them to the pond supply. I 

 did so, and since they have multiplied rapidly, filhug the 

 pond with what I consider the most delicious fish I ever ate. 

 They grow to weigh one or two pounds, resemble the white 

 perch, are free from bones, take the hook rapidly and are 

 tolerably game. The strangest feature in the whole matter 

 is, that there are no more of them in the creek from where 

 my supply came, nor are there any to be found outside of 

 my pond in the State." 



I know Dr. Salmon personally and can vouch for the 

 statement'above made. When he returns home, he will send 

 me a specimen of the fish in alcohol, and I will send it to the 

 Forest &hd Stream for identification. 



Hermann Burkholz, Charley Horn, Jack Bentley, and 

 Felix Mitchell, have gone for a week's camp fishing along 

 the banks of Duck River. They are all first-class sportsmen", 

 and have one of the most complete camping outfits in 

 the State, That, they will have a splendid time is a super- 

 fluous prophesy, and' no doubt will creel no end of fine fish. 

 A great many drum and bass are being caught in the river at 

 this place. J. D. H. 



Nashville, June 24. 



S 



NEW BRUNSWICK NOTES. 



^ALMON fishing so far has been very poor here in the 

 * Restigouche region this season ; the * salmon have been 

 both scarce and small. At one fishing stand on the bay 

 below here last year the salmon taken "averaged 26J pounds 

 each; this year "the average is below 16 pounds. A few 

 days ago there was a little run and the net on this stand 

 during two tides took forty-two fish, but the average has 

 been from five to ten salmon a tide. Reports from Mirami- 

 chi say that they are now having a fine run of fish, and that 

 the fieezing houses are fast filling up. If this is true we 

 may have a good run here later. Trout fishing has been 

 good, if anything better than for years past. The writer 

 and a friend have just returned from a visit to some newly 

 discovered lakes that lay some fifteen miles from here in the 

 wilderness, and we had the honor to cast the first fly upon 

 their waters, and rare sport we had, for they were teeming 

 with — I can't use the term "speckled beauties." for that's 

 too common; neither speckled trout, for it has been decided 

 by our "wise men" that our speckled trout are not trout "at 

 all," but Siilrdinmf., so I will say that the waters of these 

 lakes were alive with the sprightly aesthetic char With Oscar 

 Wilde like tendencies, as they showed a strong partiality 

 toward a large, bright, yellow fly. though the first and 

 also the largest Salvrlinux f. was taken with a flv sent me by 

 E. B. H., of Plymouth, N. H. Will Brother Hodges kindly 

 give us the name of that fly and where they may be pro- 

 cured, as they are the prettiest fly that I ever saw. This 

 particular one was unfortunately injured badly early in the 

 affray by a big S.f. tearing off its wings, but I am satisfied 

 that it "will prove a killing lure wherever used. Bear, 

 beaver, moose and caribou signs were plenty around these 

 lakes, and we saw several coveys of young' ruffed grouse. 

 Later in the season the sportsman could have good sport in 

 that locality with the gun as well as with the rod. 



Stajmstead. 

 Oampbellton, N. B. , June 30. 



HERETICS ON THE WORM OR FLY. 



Editor Forest and Str'aot : 



Trout-fishing is the cream of sport. To confer a benefit 

 on mankind is to preserve the trout streams. 'There is no 

 poetry in rivulets without trout, The man that don't enjoy 

 trout-fishing should be rooted out as weeds from a flower 

 garden. The man that destroys a trout stream by introduc- 

 ing pickerel or black bass is a vampire, and no better is the 

 man or hoy that fills the creel of the "Ritualists" for pay. 

 The trout 'is not so big a fool as the ritualists would have 

 you think. Put two hooks on your line, on one a worm, 

 the other a candy fly. Dandle them ever so skillfully, and 

 the trout will taJke the worm every time, and that worm is 

 always in season. This has been "my experience, confirmed 

 by observation. The "ritualist" and heretic fish together; 

 the heretic catches the fish, and if be is a country heretic, 

 the ritualist has Hie fun of getting the fish to show, 1 

 know 1 am committing a sin by stating facts tliatdon't sound 

 well in a fish story, but I consider it excusable, taking into 

 consideration the fact that trout streams, are fast becoming 

 depicted, owing to the existence of so many unconverted 

 country heretics. Is it worm or fly, let it be fly. Go on 

 with your good work, Mr. Editor. Extinguish the heretic, 

 and then the fly will have at least a ghost of a chance. Let 

 ritualism prevail, and our streams will again sparkle with 

 the golden beauties, and posterity Will bloSs you for the in- 

 heritance. TOHM Jhonson. 



We have a certain valley in this State, lying high up in 

 the AUeghanies, remarkable in many particulars. It is 

 about twenty-five miles long by six wide, almost level, and 

 the soil of unsurpassed fertility. 



It is bounded by mountains which arc not high when 

 looked upon from the valley, but, in reality, are among the 

 highest in the Appalachian range. 



A small river — the Black Fork — so named from the choco- 

 late color of its waters, rises in the southern extremity, and 

 flowing northward, leaves the valley in a fall of seventy 

 feet, making the only break in the mountain border. 



The valley is almost wholly undeveloped, and, conse- 

 quently, a grand place for the sportsman. Deer, bear, wild 

 turkey and occasionally panther, are found, while a very 

 beautiful, but far more dangerous creature than any of the 

 preceding, is now frequently met with. You are as apt 

 now to see a track made by a "tiny little shoe," or "catch 

 the glimpse of a petticoat," as see a bear. 



The sportsman's days in that valley will, ere long, be 

 numbered, and the whole of it ruined by school-houses, 

 churches, etc. 



But the trout that live in that river — quite remarkable to 

 me, and the cause of this article. 



They much resemble our brook trout, common in our 

 mountain streams, with, perhaps, a greater brilliancy of the 

 spots, caused, it is said, by the somewhat lighter color of 

 the body. They are very plentiful, but are seldom taken 



over fifteen inches in length. How are they caught? With 

 the white or red angle worm alone? Never has a trout been 

 taken from that water by the fly, dead or alive. They 

 never rise, but take the worm altogether like the common 

 sucker— by a series of weak little nibbles. Although this 

 trout loses much of his dignity by the tame manner of' taking 

 Lim, he is gamy when hooked, and equals any on the table 



Although a "Ritualist" in trout fishing. T had, on this 

 occasion, to bow quite low to the •'Heretical" worm. 



Have any of your readers had experience with this kind 

 of trout? If they should be sceptical on the subject, I am 

 ready for another excursion to the same waters. ' Wdfm. 



Philippi, W. Va. 



Near Detroit.— I send catches made about the Stay 

 Island House since May 20: May 31. Cluis. Mills Detroit 

 43 black bfiss and 3 pike; May 28, Miller and Crane De- 

 troit, 7 bass and 14 pike; June 5, 0. Miller and party of 

 four, 76 bass, weighing 242 pounds— all taken in two hours- 

 June 8, Taylor and Brown. 45 bass, next day took 65 more- 

 June 10, Allen F. Holmes, 42 bass; June 11 Milieu and 

 Holmes, 46 bass; Geo. Foot, 16 bass; F. H. Smith, 13 baas. 

 During this time over 500 black bass have been taken by 

 members of the club, whose house is only one mile from 

 Star Island House, Last year the largest catch at Star 

 Island, in one day's fishing, by thirty-three boats, was i 247 

 pounds; and many pike, pickerel and perch were also taken 

 but not counted. — James Slocum. 



Large Striped Bass.— On July 4, Mr. Ren neck of 

 New York, caught, a striped bass weighingsixtv-four oomids 

 at Cuttyhunk, with rod and reel. The fish was fifty-four 

 inches long and thirty inches in girth. The next largest fish 

 caught this season was caught by Mr. Alf. De Cordova, ti Ety- 

 eight pounds, fifty-six inches Jong, twenty-nine girth. 

 Wm. Post caught two bass at Newport about four years 



ago, weighing seventy pounds. This is the Iate'est ; 



record caught with rod and reel. 



Salmon Fishing.— Those of our readers who wish to try 

 the salmon on the Cascapedia are referred to the advertise 

 ment of "James B. " in this issue. The river is said lo be 

 one of the best. We have, a telegram fiomthat river dated 

 July 11 saying that the river was high and fishingfm; s.-,m; 

 scores as nighas fourteen fish to a rod; largest salmon forty- 

 six pounds. 



Indiana. — Greencastle, Ind., June 26.— The bass arc 

 about done nesting, and fishing is very good. There are 

 now two bass to where there was but one last year. If the 

 seines were kept out of the creek our stream would abound 

 with bass every year. Mr. Coleman, of this place, has made 

 several good catches this season.— GarbantB. 



JjrisJfcultttre. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE NOTES. 



THE salmon have made their appearance in the Merrimac 

 River at last, about two weeks later than last year. The 

 first one was seen at the Lawrence Fishway ,lune IB, and 

 estimated at about lalbs. One was also seen the sun 

 Lowell, which is ten miles further up the river, 

 jump the fall at the Dam, not having found the fishway. 

 Another -was seen in the fishway at 'Lawrence. June :jn. 

 One was taken by some hoys at, Amoskeag Falls, at M 

 ter, June 28, and Mr. Hodge took one at the hatching house 

 at Plymouth, on the 27th. The Fish Commissioners have 

 been very fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Hbdge, 

 who is an occasional correspondent of FOREST and Stream. 

 as .superintendent of the State Hatching House, in place i 

 Commissioner Powers, who was obliged to give up the charge 

 of it on account of his health, the exposure t', wet and cold 

 having threatened him with serious trouble with hi-, lungs. 

 Mr. Hodge is a keen sportsman and a good naturalist, and 

 his experience and advice have been of great, value to the 

 Commissioners in times past. 



Fishing about the State has been very good this season, as 

 the streams have been full of water. I have basketed one or 

 two nice lots, of trout from brooks which I used to fish thirty 

 or forty years ago, but which I had long since given up as 

 "played out." 



I have not heard much of the bass fishing in the Connecti- 

 cut River as <t. but two toe pike 'were taken at this place 

 last week, one of Hi'-, lbs. and one of 18 lbs. 



[Trout ashing at Sunapee Lake has also been good. Tlrree 

 trout were taken last week at George's Mills, at the head of 

 the lake, weighing together 11 lbs. 14 oz., and these are the 

 regular brook trout, not the Salmo numaycush. The stock- 

 ing of this lake with smelt, some years since, has probably 

 had something to do with the increased size and number of 

 the trout, as well as furnishing the excellent bass fishing bo 

 be found there. Count me in with Dr. Henshall on t, 

 Rod" question. Sajul, Webber. 



CHAK.Lfc.STWX, N. H., July 1, 1883. 



SHAD IN ARKANSAS. 



SO much has been said and written about shad in the many 

 tributaries of the Mississippi River, and hearing of tbeii 

 abundancc in the Ouachita River, Ark., f wrote to Dr. 

 Lawrence with reference to them, and in reply he sends me 

 the inclosed letter, which will doubtless be round of interest 

 by all persons desiring to see the propagation of fish secured. 



J. D. H. 

 Nashville, Tetin. 



Hot Springs, Garland Co., Ark,, / 

 June SO, 1882. f 



To J. D. Hill, Esq., Office of "Southern Industries," Nash- 

 ville, Tenn.: 

 My Dear Sir — In reply to your postal of 28th inst. regarding 

 information from Judge 1'erris concerning shad found in out 

 rivers, 1 will state, reiterate the fact heretofore written and 

 published in Prof. Baird's report, that white shad of the 

 greatest delicacy are annually, from March 25 to April 15, 

 found hi the Ouachita River, caught at Thornton Dam, eight 

 and a half miles fi-om Hot Springs, Ark. Shad have been 

 caught here to my knowledge since April, lSiiil. Our moun- 

 tain rivulets and streams, the rocky bed aud margins of the 

 Ouachita, for some thirty miles below the physical barrier of 

 the first dam on the river, arrest the fish in the ascending as 

 they course the rivers from the ocean at spawning 

 Shad have been caught at the falls in the Ohio, at L 

 since 183ft Some caught within the last three years. We are 

 on the Ouachita, about 1,000 miles from the mouth, and at 

 Louisville Falls, on the Ohio River, about 1,400 or 1,500 miles 

 from mouth of Mississippi River. Any scientist can find at 

 the Academy of Science, Philadelphia, Pa., shad over twenty 

 inches long that I contributed from the waters of the Ouachita 

 River, near this place. Shad, I believe, at spawning or breed- 

 ing season as an ocean fish in all our coast tributaries from 

 the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande. Shad are a game fish 

 and will rise to the green corn-colored fly, but the mouth is 

 so tender that a reel is required to drown and capture them. 



