FOREST AND STREAM 
139 
side. We began casting from a boat in tlie various chan¬ 
nels below the bridge, at and near the foot of the rapids. 
I used all the recommended flies with patience and perse¬ 
verance, and then went through a well stocked book. There 
are few large flies which have ever been tied that I did not 
try in the course of the day. It was all in vain, and no 
shad rose. It was about two o’clock P. M. when I changed' 
to almost the other extreme of size. I did not use gnats, 
but these were only a little larger than gnats. I am not 
given to calling fly hooks by numbers, because the num¬ 
bers vary so much. These would perhaps be called by 
some anglers No. 10 hooks. They were the smallest flies 
in my book. The first bobber was light lemon color body 
and wings, the second green drake, the tail fly a dark blue 
body with dun wings. We had observed many dead flies 
drifting down the river whose color was tolerably well imi¬ 
tated by the green drake. As this cast' went out on the 
rapid, and swung across the foot of the swift water, a 
heavy fish struck the first bobber, the lemon color. He 
took the fly gently, barely nipping it, with his head up 
stream, and went off with a swift and easy swing. Up to 
this moment I had been skeptical on the shad question. I 
had taken herring on the fly, but I had doubts about this 
variety. My doubts were removed. A moment later the 
fish made a swift rush across the current, and then went 
into the air two feet high, shining with an iridescence that, 
is scarcely to be equalled by any other fish. The struggle’ 
that followed was one of the most exciting imaginable. 
The shad behaved like a civilized and polished black bass. 
His rushes were strong and swift, and always graceful. 
He went into the air several times, always with a beautiful 
leap. The swirl of the silvery fellow on the tight line was 
like a flash of white light along under the water. He 
fought hard and long, and again and again, when I thought 
him within reach of the landing net, and tolerably well 
used up, he went off with all the freshness of youth, health, 
and strength. It was more than fifteen minutes before I 
landed him. I have said him, but it proved a female, full 
of roes. If you do not know the splendor of color in a 
fresh caught shad, let me tell you that the gorgeous tints 
are beyond description. I worked now for some time with¬ 
out another rise, when, as the heavy drops of a shower 
began to fall, a large and fine fish struck the tail fly, blue 
and dun. He was heavier than the first, tie had hardly 
touched me when Trumbull struck one on a light brown 
color, the same fly which my first had taken. It was lively 
sport as our two fish-went out of water, first one then the 
other, and their swift but graceful movements kept us busy 
in avoiding a foul. It -was certainly fifteen, and perhaps 
twenty or thirty minutes (who can measure time at such a 
moment) before I conquered this fellow, and cast again, 
letting the line go down the current, and simply drawing it 
across and back, with some fifty feet out. Did I say that my 
leader was the very finest gut that can be procured? I 
waited some time, and again, as a shower began to fall, I 
felt a touch, followed quickly by another; one shad had 
taken the lemon, another the green drake. This was a sit¬ 
uation which of course defies all skill. The heavier fish 
dragged the lighter one hither and hither until he became 
angry at his load, threw himself into the air with a swift 
leap, snapped off the slender gut, and left me to land the 
smaller ffsh, which I did after a struggle similar to those 
I have described. It is useless for me to go on telling the 
successive fish which we took. The flies took equally well, 
though of such various color. 
Comment on the account seems to be unnecessary. All 
anglers know how small a dependence is to be placed on 
one day’s experience in fly fishing. There may not be for 
.years another day like that, when the fish are in the same 
humor,_ and when the same flies will take. Midday expe¬ 
rience is of little value for morning and evening guidance. 
This is certain, however, that the shad requires very deli¬ 
cate handling after he is hooked. His mouth is very thin, 
delicate, and translucent, and the hook . takes but a slight 
hold in most cases. Ho fish that I felt struck hard. Each 
one seemed only to open his mouth and take the fly daintily 
with his lips, just as I have often felt grayling in Switzer- 
hind and in England. I recommend a light rod. I used a 
nine ounce rod, and lost several large fish. This season I 
propose k) use a seven ounce Morris. It is possible that in 
the evening and morning fishing the shad may take larger 
lies, and the larger hook may have a firmer hold. In that 
case a heavier rod may be safe. I found after long work 
that casting in the ordinary way was useless. Only once 
did a shad take the fly on the surface. An odd sight gave 
me a hint. As the afternoon advanced a number of men 
came out on the high bridge and began fishing with long 
hand lines, trailing a hundred feet of line down the river. 
Imagine our astonishment, when these lines swung near 
our boat, at observing that these anglers were fiy fishermen! 
Think of fly fishing with a hand line twenty fathoms long. 
But I took the hint, and thereafter let my line trail down 
stream, and moved it across the current and back. The 
flies were of course just under water, and the fish took 
them very much as they might take the dead flies of which 
I have spoken. But once hooked, the fish seemed to wake 
np, and I have never found more game in anything with 
fins. 
It yet remains to learn when and where the shad will rise 
to the fly. . There is no reason why Holyoke should be the 
only place in the country. The waters of the Potomac, 
Susquehanna, Delaware, and Hudson ought to furnish 
equally good sport. If those who have the opportunity 
will try the waters especially near the foot of a fall, where 
the upward run of the fish is interrupted, we shall perhaps 
soon have knowledge of abundant places for this sport. 
I here is ample room at Holyoke for a hundred rods along 
the rapids, and the shad, in the height of the run, are in¬ 
numerable. I trust that some one will let us know whether 
they will take the fly in salt water. I have taken other va¬ 
rieties of the herring' with the fly in salt water in a swift 
tide-way. 
I venture to suggest, as the subject is so wholly new, that 
anglers on different waters examine with care whether any 
particular fly abounds on the water, and especially whether 
it is found dead-in the water; and that an imitation of such 
ny, \f it be found, be thoroughly tried. On the Connecti¬ 
cut, in day fishing, I should again use small flies, with yel¬ 
low or lemon color predominant; but this is only exneri- 
mental advice. 
I have written this account with much hesitation, for I 
am well aware that the next few weeks’ experience will 
show that my information, based on one short day’s work, 
is of small value. But let us hope that it will induce bet¬ 
ter anglers to try the shad this spring, and give us such re¬ 
sults as will be of permanent use. 
I am very respectfully yours, W. C. Prime. 
Centreville, Wayne County, Ind., March 18,1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I know nothing practically of fly fishing. Hundreds of the readers of 
Forest and Stream know as little as I do, and we are anxious to learn. 
Weappeal to you, as the head of the profession, to teach us. Of course 
we have no trout or salmon, but our streams are full of black bass, some 
being caught that weighed seven pounds. Near my house is a creek 
with a gravelly bottom and fed by springs. There are many deep holes, 
and under logs and stumps and rocks in the banks, where enormous 
bass make their homes. Please give us instructions in Forest and 
Stream how to catch them with a fly, what kind of flies to use, how to 
cast, the kind of and time of day, the season, how soon to commence, 
and many other things which you know that we want to know. By giv¬ 
ing us such instructions you will greatly oblige us. A word in regard to 
Forest and Stream. I have attentively read every number since the 
first, and have learned more of natural history than from all the best 
books I have ever read. While in geography it serves as a journal of 
geography. Long may it live and prosper. 
Just now is a dull time in sportsmens 1 news, but in due time I will 
write up all that goes on where I travel. Truly yours, A. M. % S. 
- —---- 
St. Johns, N. B., March 30,1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
No doubt but there will be many inquiries through your columns re¬ 
specting the fishing on the southwest Mirimielii River this season, and 
to save trouble and delay, I thought it would be best to inform your 
readers that, in future, J. H. Phair, Esq., Fredericton, will have the sole 
management of the salmon fishing on that river. Any inquiries ad¬ 
dressed to him will be promptly answered. I am, yours truly, 
C. A. Robertson. 
J fhot §?un mid iiiffe. 
GAME IN SEASON FOR APRIL. 
Wild fowl, snipe and geese to April 15th. The remainder of the 
month is a close season. 
L Under the head of 11 Game, and Fish in /Season ” we can only specify in 
general terms the several varieties, because the laws of States vary so much 
that were we to attempt to particularize we could do no less than publish 
those entire sections that relate to the kinds of game in question. This 
would require a great amount of our space. In designating game we are 
guided by the laws of nature, upon which all legislation is founded, and 
our readers would do well to provide themselves with the laivs of their re¬ 
spective States for constant reference. Otherwise, our attempts to assist them 
will only create confusion.~\ 
—Mr. Scott Rodman and Stephen Courter killed on 
day last week on the big piece, Pine Brook, M. J., 32 Eng¬ 
lish snipe, and are averaging 12 birds to the gun per day. 
Mr. Rodman remarks “that the weather keeps very cool, 
and the birds are more plentiful than any previous year for 
a long time. The gentlemen who come down here are so 
full of business that they cannot stay over twenty-four 
hours, generally out of breath, -and enquire repeatedly when 
the train starts.” 
—Mr. Henry Ohland and John Brown, of Philadelphia, 
have just returned from the Coliansey Creek meadows, 
Cumberland County, Mew Jersey, with 70 English snipe. 
This is the best bag that has come into the Quaker City 
thus far this spring. 
—Advices from Virginia say that Messrs. Laurence & 
Lynch are having rare sport, averaging 16 brace of English 
snipe, a day to the gun. “Details as soon as I arrive in the 
city.” 
—Some few birds have been killed on the Hackensack 
meadows. The birds will most likely leave this latitude 
about next week, hut it depends almost wholly on the 
weather. 
—General W. E. Strong of Chicago, who is on a visit to 
this city, called in at Conlin’s gallery last week and made 
the following extraordinary score with a Ballard rifle. At 
seventy-five feet he made thirty-one consecutive bells, then 
missed, and continuing to shoot he againgmade forty-three 
consecutive bells, making seventy-four bells out of seventy- 
five shots at the “word.” Size of the target bull’s eye two 
inches in diameter. After this successful practice, he fired 
twenty shots each at three of Conlin’s ready measurement 
targets, at the “word.” The first measured fourteen and 
seven eighths of an inch, the second 14 13-16 inch, and 
the third 15f inches, at the “word.” Size of paper target 
bull’s eye one inch. 
—The magnifieient Gatling gun won by the Seventy 
Minth Regiment at Creedmoor on October last, was on ex¬ 
hibition at the Astor House on Saturday last. It is a splen¬ 
did piece of ordnance, and was gallantly won by the Seventy 
Minth, a team of twelve, at 500 yards, in seven shots, hav¬ 
ing made 199. 
—Captain A. H. Bogardus of Elkhart, Ill., and Ira A. 
Paine of this city will shoot a match at pigeons for $500 a 
side and the championship of America. The match is to 
take place on the 18th inst., at Woodside Park, Stamford, 
Conn., and both are to shoot at fifty single pigeons, H and 
T traps, Rhode Island rules. 
—Mext Saturday Ira A. Paine and Edward Tinker, of 
Providence, R. I., are to shoot at twenty-five double pig¬ 
eons for $500 a side at Providence, R. I. 
—James Ward, the one-armed champion of Canada, who 
was defeated by Paine last - Saturday, at Stamford, Conn., 
has challenged Paine to shoot another match, same condi¬ 
tions, to take place in Buffalo. He claims the referee did 
not make Paine shoot by the rules in their last contest. 
Paine has accepted the challenge, and agrees to allow the 
Canadian champion expenses to shoot the match at Stam¬ 
ford, Conn. 
—A caribou was seen in Marshfield, Maine, last week, 
one of very few seen in forty years. 
—The season for wild goose shooting will close on »Long 
Island about the 20tli April. Wild geese that have been 
first winged and then tamed are used for stools nowadays 
in place of the old fashioned wooden stools, and are -deem¬ 
ed very valuable. They are lined to stakes placed out of 
sight near the bars where the wild geese usually stop to 
feed, while the gunner conceals himself in a box sunk 
in the sand, and partially covered by sea-weed or meadow- 
grass. When flocks of wild geese are passing, these par¬ 
tially tame ones will call them, and usually they will fly 
near by or light, when the gunner rises and shoots. Ex¬ 
perts have killed as many as twenty-five at a shot, 
—We have heard of several large hags of wild geese be¬ 
ing made, an immense flock passed over Atlantic City, 
and alighted at Long Beach near Barnegat last Monday. 
This is a favorite resting and feeding ground for the birds 
on their flight north. Wild fowl are plentiful and in great 
numbers all along the Great South Bay, Moriches and East 
Hampton. 
—Wild geese are now passing over Maine, going north to 
breed. By the way, have any of our readers been in Lab¬ 
rador, during the breeding season and watched the old 
mother ducks launch their newly hatched broods upon 
aqua pura? It is a sight worth seeing, and ludicrous in its 
aspects. Years ago, during a summer cruise in high lati¬ 
tudes, we used to'see ’the nests of the gulls, eiders, shel¬ 
drakes, et id omne genus, upon high clefts in the rocks, 
and wondered how the parent birds managed to con¬ 
vey their helpless young to water almost the instant they left 
the egg, and before they could even, toddle, or waddle. So, 
one day we lay perdu, and when all was still and the coast 
apparently clear, we saw old Mrs. Eider lie flat on her 
stomach close to the edge of the nest, and receive the fledg¬ 
lings on her expanded and outstretched wings; then with 
the whole flock aboard, she carefully scuttled over the 
rocks to the water, and slid into the liquid element like a 
ship from the ways, and when she was well out into deep 
water, she settled down and dove out of sight, leaving the 
young ones floating like dead leaves on the surface, and not 
at all alarmed at this sudden induction into their natural ac- 
quatic element. 
—Reminiscences of great hunting days in time long gone 
past are al ways of interest. What took place among the Mal¬ 
lard geese, only as-far back as 1858, may seem as if almost 
occurrences of a century ago. From a most thorough 
sportsman and kind correspondent, Middlesex, we take the 
facts of a four week’s hunt, some sixteen years ago, in the 
neigborliood of Chillicothe. The sport was varied be¬ 
tween shooting on a rice flat, and a goose pond, and occa¬ 
sional visits to snipe ground. In four weeks Middlesex, 
and his companions, taking it easy, shot eleven hundred 
ducks, one hundred and four snipe, six geese, fifty-two - 
prairie chickens, and twelve squirrels. Every week says 
our correspondent, “we sent a box home full of birds to 
our friends, and railroad directors, superintendents and 
conductors were all recipients ofgame.” 
X —A wild boar has been ravaging the neighborhood of 
Union, Kentucky, until his depredations became so great 
that the citizens turned out in a body to rid the vicinity of 
the dangerous pest. On the 14th instant, says the Coving¬ 
ton Advertiser, one hundred and fifty persons, with dogs 
guns, etc., met in the public square of Union, and'proceed- 
ed to the farm of J. D. Smith, on Gunpowder, which the 
vicious animal had visited the night previous. Here 
“Medoc,” a noted dog belonging to Lucian Dickerson, 
found tlie trail, the entire pack was soon in full cry and 
was not long in rousing the monster. 
After a run of more than an hour through the dense 
tickets and among the bluffs, the boar broke cover towards 
the open country, with the dogs in hot pursuit. Here the 
hunt grew very exciting, the pursuers being frequently in 
full view of the chase, and using their guns whenever they 
could, and the dogs (fox-hounds) pressing the game closely, 
hut as yet unable to bring him to bay. In fact it was almost 
certain death for one. to approach him, his formidable 
tusks proving such fearful and deadly weapons of defense 
that lie had, up to this time killed eight outright and 
wounded four. 
Finally a powerful bull dog was let loose and immedi¬ 
ately attacked the furious Least. Then ensued a fierce and 
desperate struggle. The boar fought as if he knew that his 
life was in the balance, and tlie dog was equally game. 
The latter seized the maddened animal by the right fore- 
shoulder, and in despite of stabs and.gashes from the sharp 
tusks held on with the tenacity for which the breed is 
noted. Tlie hunters coming up joined in the battle with 
pistols, clubs and stones, and under the attack of the com¬ 
bined forces the boar was at lcngth'stretched on the ground 
conquered only in death. On examination it was found’ 
that during the chase he had received fourteen shots all 
inflicting severe wounds. He weighed about five hundred 
pounds, and his tusks wefe eight inches in length by actual 
measurement. 
I lie chase lasted about four hours, and a notable feature 
of the closing scene was the fact that though the dog was 
nearly torn to pieces and his antagonist was covered with 
wounds, neither uttered a cry during the fierce death strug¬ 
gle, hut both were grim, silent, relentless, and game to the 
very last, and not until the hoar was dead could the dog 
be inducod to release his hold. 
—The following is the text of act passed Feb. 7, 1874, by 
the Missouri Legislature for the protection of game in that 
State. There is no provision as respects close seasons for 
fish:— 
xin aui tuc jjicocjL vctLiuu uj. feline, HHimais and birds 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri 
as follows :— c ’ 
Sec. 1 . It shall be unlawful in any place in this State to 
catch, kill or injure, or pursue with such intent any 
wild buck, deer, doe, or fawn, between the 15th clay of 
January and the 1st day of September; and it shall also be 
unlawful to catch, kill or injure, or pursue with such in- 
teat any wild turkey between the 1st day of April and the 
1st day of September; and it shall also be unlawful to catch 
kill; or injure, or pursue with such intent, any pinnatec! 
grouse, commonly called prairie chicken, between the 1st 
day of February and the 15th day of August; and it shall 
also he unlawful to catch, kill or injure, or pursue with 
gUch intent, any ruffed grouse, commonly called pheasant 
