252 FOREST AND STREAM. 
—A letter from our Jacksonville, Florida, correspond¬ 
ent, dated May 19th, speaks of the fishing in the St. John’s 
River as being exceptionally good. At Doctor’s Lake, 
twenty-five miles above the city fresh water “trout” and 
drum are taken with a hook, while large quantities of mul¬ 
lets are netted. Down the river, in salt water, bass and 
sheepshead are caught. 
—Dr. J. H. Romeyn, of Keeseville, is at Bartlett’s, Sara¬ 
nac Lake, this being his twenty-fifth season. 
—The Rev. William 0. Winslow left Boston on Monday, 
May 25th, for the Adirondacks, it being his sixteenth visit 
to that region. 
—Black bass fishing has commenced in earnest on the Po¬ 
tomac. A letter from a frequent correspondent says: 
Washington, May 20, 1874. 
Editok Forest and Stream:— 
Every eligible rock that juts, out into the current of the Little Falls of 
the Potomac River is occupied from earliest dawn until twilight by pa¬ 
tient bass anglers. There is need of much patience, as the truth is the 
black bass have not yet come in any number in the lower part of what 
may be termed the Upper Potomac, although a local paper is full of the 
marvellous baskets filled. By the 24th we hope for good fishing. We use 
live bait exclusively. I have frequently fished with fly and spoon, but 
have never succeeded in taking one with either, although immediately 
afterwards and in the same spot I have caught numbers with minnows. 
S. L. P. 
—In the following letter our attentive correspondent 8. 
C. Clarke, Esq., gives us *some novel information respect¬ 
ing the coast fishing of Florida. The fishing, it seems to 
us, is of rather too heavy and miscellaneous a character 
to be pleasant, though it might have suited old Polyphe¬ 
mus, who used to “bob” for whales.” 
New Smyrna, E. Florida, April 27, 1874. 
1 I hear often from the natives of two large and valuable fishes of these 
waters, which, from their great size and activity, are seldom caught—the 
jew-ftsh and the tarpnm. Yesterday one of the former was taken by a 
New York gentleman with rod and reel. It was a small specimen, 
weighing only eighteen pounds, but made a furious fight of 15 or 20 
minutes. It seems to be a near relative of the grouper, and to belong, 
like it, to the perch family. It is a short, thick-set fish, with large fins, 
and looks like a giant blade bass or a tautog; color, olive brown; scales 
small, head large, with well developed mouth and numerous small teeth. 
The first dorsal fin has 11 spines; second dorsal, soft; anal fin long, like 
the esocidce. When hooked it runs for a hole, like a grouper. Speci¬ 
mens have been taken in these waters on a shark line, which weighed 
two to three hundred pounds, so that I think it must be the larger of the 
percoids. The flesh is rich and well flavored, and as I have only seen 
this one specimen in four winters’ fishing- here, I think it must be a rare 
fish. 
The tarpum I have not seen. It also is rare, and is described to be¬ 
long to the mackerel family, growing to the weight of 80 to 100 lbs. A 
surface fish, very active and strong, with brilliant silvery scales the size 
of a dollar. It is rarely taken with hook and line, as it generally carries 
away the tackle, however strong. It goes in schools and leaps from the 
water when struck, either with hook or spear. The only successful way 
of killing the tarpum, I am told, is to strike it with a harpoon, to which 
is attached by a strong line a small empty cask; the fish, by struggling 
with this buoy, exhausts itself so that it may be approached in a boat 
and killed with a lance. I lately hooked a mysterious fish or fishes (for 
the same thing happened to me three times within an hour) which ran 
out 50 or 60 yards of line with a single dash, and then breached bn the 
surface, takiug away my hooks. It was so strong and swift that in try¬ 
ing to check it a thumbstall of thich buckskin was cut through by the 
line as if by a knife, and my thumb burned by the friction. This was 
either a shovel-nosed shark, which runs off in this way, not turning like 
the common shark ora tarpum, and as a school of these fishes has.been 
often seen near the spot where I hooked my fish, I am iuclined to think 
it was this species which I then encountered. The rush was more like 
that of a fresh run salmon than of any other fish I know, except that 
this one did not leap out of the water like the salmon. 
Not having access to any works on icthyology, I am unable to give the 
scientific names of these fishes. They are mentioned under the above 
names by Captain Romans, who wrote a “Concise Natural History of 
Florida,” about 1773. New York anglers who kill 30 or 40 lb. striped 
bass with the rod, would find in the jew-fisli and tarpum foemen worthy 
of their steel. 
The variety of species which one meets with in these waters in a few 
days’ fishing, while it adds much to the variety and interest of the sport, 
causes a great loss of hooks and lines. 
Perhaps you rig with small hooks for pigfish or whiting, and a redfish 
of twenty pounds takes away your hooks; or you are fishing with larger " 
tackle, for redfish and a giant ray takes your hooks to the bottom 
and stays there, or a furious shark of 206 lbs. cuts off your line at the 
first turn he makes. I succeeded in capturing a Nurse shark five or six 
feet long, with rod and reel. This is a shark of rather sluggish habits 
(whence its name), Somnios us brevipenna ), with teeth too small to allow it 
to cut off the line. After 15 or 20 minutes’ play it was gaffed by our 
boatman. S. C. Clarke. 
—A correspondent sends the following notes of salmon 
fishing in Ireland, whieh are by no means radiant or rubes - 
cent: 
Glen Vay., Abbeylex, Queens co., Ireland, I 
May 13, 1874. f 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I have had no fishing yet. Have been out twice, but not a rise; plenty 
of fish in the river, but not a drop of rain for more than a month (I 
should say, more strictly speaking, a few April showers, lasting perhaps 
half an hour). The river is dreadfully low, clear and calm, and it would 
be a very guilable salmon that would take the fly with the hook, gut and 
ine reflected over his very nose. I am much disappointed and pray for 
rain, as indeed do farmers and everyone else, for the crops are being 
burned out of the ground. Yours very sincerely, W, H. Poe. 
Salmon Flies.— Fourth and Last Cast. —“Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians,” and great is, or was, Blacker of 54 Dean 
street, Soho, London. I don’t know that he is alive now, 
but twenty years ago he published the most beautifully 
illustrated little book on fly-making, that angler ever cast eye 
on. The most delicate hooks, and the most gaudily and 
truly colored wings, and liackles; so airy and natural that 
where Blacker himself has not fastened them on, in his 
illustrations, you almost hold your breath for fear you may 
blow them away. And then his gold and silver twist or 
flat tinsel following the gay wrappings around the bodies 
of the salmon-flies—and all this on paper—is enough to set 
any one, collecting a fishing library crazy. If such a one 
has’nt “Biackers’ Art of Fly-making,” I can only say he 
ought to get it, if lie can. But we are business men, (the 
editor and I,) and like the pills that Josh Billings adver¬ 
tises, “don’t go fooling around, but attend strictly to busi¬ 
ness.” So we will spend no more time with Mr. Blacker, 
but herewith present our plain untinted plate of four sal¬ 
mon flies. Some of the readers of this column may have 
seen them before. The only native amongst them is the 
second one from the top, of which I shall discourse by and 
by. The others . are copied, (honest) from “The Book of 
the Salmon.” I introduce them to shew what are “feelers” 
and “toppings” and “loops” and “collars” and “heads and 
shoulders” and tags and so On. We scarcely ever use a 
more elaborate salmon fly than the second, for the waters of 
the Dominion, and a Shannon fly or one of Whitney’s flies 
tied for the Maine waters, the “Toodlebug,” for instance, 
or one of my own mixed wings made for the same waters, 
unless the river was very high, would scare all the Nipissi- 
quit or Cascapediac or Restigouclie salmon out of a pool. 
A knowledge of the technical names of the minor appur¬ 
tenances of a salmon fly is not essential to one who plies 
his seventeen foot withe or scarcely to one who makes his 
own flies for American rivers, but to be thorough we must 
name all the little adjuncts and accessories. 
should be double, or say two ply, for mallard, of which 
most wings are made, is very light, and requires delicate 
handling. In preparing it, stroke back the fibres gentlv 
and firmly until all their ends are square, clip off with your 
scissors, and lay it on the table; prepare another in the same 
way, and lay it on top of the first, placing it where it is not 
apt to be disturbed. 
Now, if allowed, we will use the small vise figured in our 
first paper. Firstly —Secure the hook well between its jaws 
Secondly —Wax your silk, and commencing near the bend* 
wrap up to the head with a dozen or so turns. Thirdly— 
Laying on the gut loop warp down opposite the bend, per¬ 
haps a few turns below. Fourthly —Lay on the gold twist 
secure the end and winding if three or four turns back, op¬ 
posite the point of the hook, fasten it, allowing the surplus 
to stand outward towards the head. Fifthly— Put on the 
topping for tail so that it curves handsomely upward and 
secure it with two turns of the wrapping silk. /Sixthly— 
Fasten in the tip end of the hackle, the back uppermost. 
Seventhly— Having pulled and picked your dubbing and 
rolled it in the palm of your hand into a conical shape 
(very little is required,) twist in the small end with your 
wrapping silk, and spinning both silk and dubbing almost 
up to the head, fasten with a half hitch. Lightly —Twirlino- 
your vise, follow with four turns of the gold twist, fasten 
and then follow close behind with the hackle, the under¬ 
side next to the dubbing. You are now ready to put on 
the wing. There are two ways—one is, after doubling it to 
tie it on as described; another (as taught me by“Mr. Harry 
Yenning,) is not to double but to lay it flat on the top of the 
hook with the fore finger and thumb of the right and com¬ 
press it with the corresponding fingers of the left hand; 
bending the two edges of the wing so that an equal propor¬ 
tion will enfold the hook on both sides. Now with your 
wrapping silk take tw'O turns; look to see that the wing is 
put on evenly and sets properly, and taking a half dozen 
more turns make it secure with a half hitch. Putting on 
the feelers to have them set uniformly is a nice job. The 
pair should be taken from opposite sides of the blue and yel¬ 
low maccaw-tail feather; that on the far side to be fastened 
in with two turns of the wrapping, then that on the near 
side. In making the head observe that the black ostrich 
hurl has a convex and a concave side, and is to be wrapped 
on very closely with the convex side outward towards the 
eye of the loop. Clip of the surplus but-end of the hurl 
and fasten with the invisable knot. With a small sharp 
stick dipped into copal, varnish the last wrapping of the 
silk, being careful not to let it touch the hurl. 
When mallard is scarce the under ply of the wing may be 
of turkey, making it more solid than if it was all mallard. 
As a rule salmon flies are wrapped, palmer fashion, that is, 
the hackle over the whole length of the body. The bodies, 
as will be observed, are very slender in proportion to the 
size of the fly. * Thaddeus Norris. 
I will therefore call the reader’s close attention to the 
third figure. The tail is what is usually called a “topping,” 
i. e. feather from the crest of the golden pheasant. The 
body is wrapped with floss silk, ribbed with gold twist, 
e. i. stout gold thread, which is followed by a hackle 
almost to the head where, as will be observed another 
feather is tied on, a blue jay, for what is termed a ‘ ‘shoulder. ” 
There is a mixed wing of golden pheasant neck, teal, 
guinea hen, and light brown turkey, with a topping much 
longer than the tail surmounting the wing. The head is 
of black ostrich lierl, wound on closely, both for ornament 
and to hide the butt end of the wing where it is clipped off. 
Referring to the fourth figure, a “tag” just at the butt of 
the tail. A tag may be of ostrich herl,‘ or pig’s or seal’s 
wool, or floss. The “feelers” which by a great stretch of 
imagination are supposed to represent the antennae of a 
natural fly—are the two long fibres of macaw tail feather 
tied in on each side of the head and extending back over 
the wings; and another stretch of imagination is to sup¬ 
pose that a natural fly carries them thus. The third or 
fourth fly figured is much too large for the rivers of Canada 
at .an ordinary stage of water. The third might do <3n very 
high water after it has gone down just enough for the fish 
to commence noticing a fly. 
The second figure is a very plain fly, the “Blue and 
brown,” or “Nicholson,” named after an old salmon fisher, 
“a broth of a boy,” of St. Johns, New Brunswick. There 
are a few turns of flat gold tinsel, or gold twist, then a tail 
of mallard and golden pheasant’s ruff; the body of reddish 
brown seal’s or pig’s wool, wrapped with a blue and reddish 
brown hackle; the wings are of mallard, and, according to 
Mr. Nicholson’s style of tying, stand well up. The size of 
the hook given is for high water, when the dubbing and 
hackles are of lighter shades. As the water falls the hackles 
and dubbing should be darker. On low water and bright 
weather dark brown and purplish blue are best; the nook 
decreasing in size as the water falls. In fact, trout hooks 
numbers 3 and 4 (Conroy’s O’Shaughnessy’s numbers) 
are as a general rule large enough for the rivers of Canada; 
numbers 1 and 2 are full size for high water. 
One who has become somewhat proficient in tying trout 
flies, can easily make one for salmon. But at the risk of 
repeating to some extent the directions given for the for¬ 
mer, let me describe the tying of a plain salmon fly, and 
leave the ambitious amateur to his own ingenuity in mak¬ 
ing an elaborate one. The blue and brown, as described, 
has two hackles, one of each color. We will take a fly with 
one; say the Fiery brown. 
Lay all the materials before you—a short topping for tail, 
a bit of gold twist (three inches or so), fiery brown dubbing 
of mohair or pig’s or seal’s wool, a hackle of redder shade 
than the dubbing, the wing ready folded, a plumelet of 
ostrich hurl, a bit of blue and yellow maccaw tail feather, 
and a gut loop. The latter is so cut that when doubled it 
will be long enough to come about where the tail is tied on, 
the ends to be beveled, and, bending it over a coarse needle 
or an awl, an eye should be formed, as is not represented in 
the illustration. The wings of a salmon fly, as a general rule, 
Yachting mid Routing, 
All communications frbm Secretaries and friends should be mailed no 
later than Monday in each week. 
HIGH WATER, FOR THE WEEK. 
DATE. 
BOSTON. 
NEW YORK. | 
| CHARL’ST’N 
h. 
m. 
h. 
m. j 
1 h. 
m. 
May 28. 
9 
22 
6 
8 1 
5 
22 
May 29. 
10 
5 
6 
51 1 
6 
5 
May 30. .. 
1 io 
49 
7 
33 | 
6 
49 
May 31. 
11 
31 
8 
14 
7 
31 
June 1. 
eve 
15 
9 
1 
8 
15 
June 2. 
1 
3 
9 
49 1 
9 
3 
June 3. 
1 
54 
10 
36 1 
9 
54 
—Though so short a time has elapsed since the issue of 
the Seawanaka yacht club’s circular to the owners of 
schooner yachts belonging to recognized clubs, the com¬ 
mittee has already received two formal entries for the Cor¬ 
inthian Cup—the Foam, Mr. Sheppard Homans, and the 
Idler, Rear Conn S. J. Colgate, and it is confidently ex¬ 
pected that the list will be enlarged shortly by the addition 
of the Palmer, the Peerless, Clio, Agnes, Triton, and pos¬ 
sibly one or two of our neighbors from Boston. The ves¬ 
sels regularly entered are expected to sail under the flag of 
some particular club, and be manned by members from 
that club, which will give an outside interest in the matter 
in addition to the personal feeling concerning individual 
yachts. 
—The Union Regatta of the Boston and Dorchester 
Yacht Clubs took place last Thursday afternoon, notwith¬ 
standing the drenching rain, rough water, and chilling east 
wind. Careful preparations had been made for the occa¬ 
sion, and had the weather been auspicious, no doubt one 
of the finest regattas of the season would have been wit¬ 
nessed. The Dorchester fleet numbers seventy yachts, and 
that of the Boston Club half that number or more. The 
prevailing storm led many to suppose that the regatta would 
be postponed. Indeed, so general was the absenteeism 
that one class was not represented at all, namely: the first- 
class keel sloops, and in another, the second-class schooners, 
only one started, the Una May, and she did not return. 
Thfi distances were: for first-class schooners, twenty 
miles; lecond-class schooners, ten and a half miles; second- 
class keel, and second and third-class centre-board sloops, 
eight and a quarter miles; and fourth-class centre-boards, 
five and a half miles. The first-class schooners Avere sent 
off with a flying start, there being only two contestants, 
the Curlew and the Wivern. The "following is a tabulated 
statement: 
FIRST CLASS SCHOONERS. 
Return 
Sailing Time 
Name and owner 
h m s 
h 
m 
s 
Curlew—S. L. French. 
...J 6 24 20 
3 
59 
20 
Wivern—N. Wales. 
. 6 25 00 
4 
5 
9 
FIRST CLASS CENTRE-BOARD SLOOPS. 
Kelpie—S. J. Capen.. 
. 4 20 48 
1 
58 
38 
SECOND CLASS CENTRE-BOARD SLOOPS. 
Fire-Fly—G. II. Balch. 
. 4 24 15 
1 
35 
22 
Secret—J. Binney. 
.Not taken. 
THIRD CLASS CENTRE-BOARD SLOOPS. 
Water Witch—W. K. Pettingill. 
. 4 41 15 
1 
37 
5 
Ida-W. O. Holmes. 
. 4 42 54 
1 
38 
44 
FOURTH CLASS CENTRE-BOARDS. 
Tulip—W. Burgess. 
. 4 4 2 
59 
52 
Bessie—W. W. Lewis. 
. 4 5 18 
1 
1 
8 
Cora—C. V. Patten.*' 
---..4 9 0 
1 
4 
50 
Pink—I. B. Mills, Jr. 
. 4 10 29 
1 
6 
* SECOND 
CLASS KEELS. 
Fearless—J. A. Woodward. 
. 4 26 4 
1 
37 
11 
Sunbeam—W. S. Nickerson. 
. 4 25 19 
1 
37 
26 
Ruby— T. W. Preston.'.. 
. 4 29 51 
i 
40 
58 
Volante—C. Barnard._ 
....4 31 46 
l 
42 
56 
—The sloop Whistler, Captain Hawes, has arrived 
from 
Fairhaven. 
