Feb. 14, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



49 



The next time I was successful, and buried the hook well 

 into his waist, just a little abaft of midships, and held on. I 

 pulled and so did he, and I found we were well matched. I 

 did not know how this nov»l "tug of war" was going to 

 nor when exactly. In about ten minutes I felt sure he 

 would turn the scales at a ton. and I was about to ask the 

 crew to clap on a watch tackle, or make some other absurd 

 request, when I came to my senses. My position is worthy 

 of notice. Mv knees were 'traced against the planking till I 

 thought 1 should start them. My back got such a kink in 

 it as to be a til subject for carrying in a sling; my arms 

 were fearfully straiued by reason of pulling with that out- 

 ward tendency so much harder to endure than a straight up 

 and down haul. Mv ryes, being so intent on watching my 

 captive, had necessarily at the same time to watch the corn- 

 ed izoino-, the rising and lowering of every wave, which 

 began fcOactlifeea pump in my nausea box, and would 1'or- 

 'ever lower me in the estimation of the crew. 



1 am proud to say r neither gave in nor let on. I just let 

 the perspiration run, the Augers cramp, the back gripe, the 

 knees grind, and attended to the solid avoirdupois outside. 

 1 succeeded at last, he came iu, although he had his revenge 

 in doing so. for as he slid into the bottom of the boat he 

 made a Bkating rink of it, with material more slippery than 

 greased ice. down which I went as if determined to follow 

 him to I he bitter end. 



This was my first as well as my worst. I gaffed ten 

 more that evening, but I hooked the others nearer the bows 

 of the. fish than the stem; and if ever you have occasion to 

 educate greenhorns who wish to go sturgeon fishing in a 

 heavy sea, lay down, as a first principle, the rule -'gaff as 

 previous as you can behind the head." 



1 think 1 was deserving of the congratulations 1 received, 

 for 1 did not make a miss with eleven fish, which totaled 

 more than as many hundred pounds in weight. Vebax. 



Port Kowan, Out,, "Feb. 6 



LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 



[From Report of lite Maito&Jft&h Commission..} 



WfE have expended more of our slender means for the 

 V 7 last two or three years, in trying to protect this magnifi- 

 cent fish of Sebago Lake from tho'organized gang of poachers 

 that destroy them on their spawning beds on Crooked River 

 and other tributaries, than we could well afford. Were these 

 fish better known, this lake would be more visited than even 

 Dominion waters, and with the same outlay of time and less 

 money, with as great success. Sebago Lake is worthy a 

 special appropriation from the city of Portland or the rail- 

 roads running into it for its protection from the vandals that 

 hue its shores, as an investment that would repay a hundred 

 fold in attracting travel. The habits of the fish have not 

 been carefully studied by the local anglers. We* do not deem 

 them more shy than are salmon always in dead waters, even 

 on the best salmon river. We do not believe they have been 

 fairly aud persistently tried with the fly. We ourselves have 

 never had lime to devote to it of more than one individual 

 day. On the best salmon rivers we have known of successive 

 blank days, without a rise to the most tempting flies the 

 angler's book would afford. Experienced anglers would at- 

 tribute the inertness of the fish to climatic causes, the pre- 

 mouition of approaching storm and m most cases with cor- 

 rectness. Sfebago Lake is worthy the persevering study of 

 auy good angler, and we think widi surety of reward. Troll- 

 ing, always in a light wind to ripple the water; trolling by 

 night should also "be tried: casting the fly by night; deep 

 fishing with fine tackle and live bait. It is worthy of a sea- 

 son s study and trial. Beautiful as Lake Como for a cottage 

 home. 



Some very large landlocked salmon have been taken in 

 the spring at the mouth of Songo River. A poacher was last 

 year arrested and convicted for spearing a salmon of twenty- 

 four pouuds weight on Crooked River. An account comes 

 to us to-day of a salmon found stranded on the banks of 

 Roger's Brook, which measures thirty -seven inches in length 

 and weighed twenty -two and one-half pounds; as it was 

 somewhat shrunken from long exposure, it was estimated 

 that when first out of water it would have weighed thirty 

 pouuds. The Grand Lake or Schoodic salmon is very much 

 smaller than that of Sebago Lake, four and one-half pounds 

 being deemed a monster fish, while the average would not 

 exceed one and one-half pounds. Both the Schoodic salmon 

 and the Sebago salmon have free access to the ocean, and in 

 both lakes have Sa&nio mlar, or sea salmon fry been freely 

 introduced for some six years past. In this connection we 

 here publish a copy of an old document for which we are in- 

 debted to J. F. Pratt^ M.D.,-of Chelsea. 



To Honorable ilia Senate and House of Representatives of the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in Genera/, Court as- 

 sembled : 



The petition of the subscribers inhabiting near Crooked 

 River humbly showeth that iu said river is a kind of trouts of 

 an uncommon size, weighing from three to fourteen pounds. 

 Some have been caught which weighed seventeen pounds. 

 These fish run up the river in the months of September and 

 October, but are scarce at all other times of the vear. They 

 have been, and might continue to be, very beneficial to all 

 who inhabit near said river, which runs from a pond, in Ox- 

 ford, near Bethel southerly line; from thence it runs through. 

 said Oxford and. through Waterford, a part of "Nor- 

 way and of Philip's Gore, Otisfield, and a part 

 of 'Raymondtown into a pore between Raymondtown and 

 Flintston, where it falls into Songo River, and with it into the 

 Great Sebago pond. These fish have for severai years been 

 prevented from passing up said river by wares built whoUy 

 across the water by the inhabitants near the mouth thereof, 

 and as there is uo law to prevent them, they not only boast of 

 having availed themselves of all the benefitof the fish in years 

 past, but declare they are determined to do it in future, to the 

 great injury of the other inhabitants above them, who nave 

 tor ought to have) equal right to the benefit of the fish. We 

 therefore humbly request your honors to take the case into 

 your considei ation, and to make a law for preventing the ob- 

 ; t ruction of these fish in said river and its connections in the 

 months of September and October, and as in duty bound will 

 ever pray. (1800). 



Both at Grand Lake stream and*ebago these fish have 

 been always called trout, indeed at the latter are known by 

 no other name, black spot and red spot indicating land- 

 locked salmon and brook trout. These fish have proved a 

 great success in Moosehead Lake and iu Rangeley waters. In 

 the former they are taken more or less every season ; one of 

 four and one-half pounds and some of smaller size have 

 been taken the present year. As in Moosehead none but 

 Schoodic fish have been planted, four and one-half pounds, 

 if correctly reported, would indicate increase of size Irom 

 the present stock. In Rangeley. salmon of four and one- 

 half pounds have been taken, and on the spawning grounds 

 in 1882 a number of very large fish were observed'tliat w"ere 

 estimated at much, greater weight. Here we are in doubt as 



to the increase of weight from present slock, as some fry from 

 Sebago were planted in Rangeley waters several years since. 



How to class these fish, amid all this conflicting matter, we 

 are' still in doubt, but. as none but Schoodic fry have been 

 introduced into Moosehead Lake, we must look there for 

 evidence as to increase of weight iu new waters. We shall 

 continue to introduce these fish into both Moosehead and 

 Rangeley in as large numbers as OUT restricted means will 

 allow, until we have established a, sufficiently strong breed- 

 ing stock to afford the yearly supply of young fish to con- 

 stitute their future breeding home. The rule then should be 

 rigid enforcement of tin 1 laws, for the most skillful and per- 

 sistent angling with baited hook ©r flies, will never exhaust 

 Che fish of any waters. Rigid laws enforced, will always 

 preserve a sufficient stock. The cunning of fishes is coeval 

 with the angler, and the education c*f experience will 

 preserve its ratio with each. A strict observance of 

 close time, and fair honest angling, is only requisite. 

 We planted this year 225,000 fry in the follow- 

 ing waters: At Moosehead Luke, 100,000, hatched at 

 the excellent hatchery of O. A. Dennen, near the 

 Kineo House, iu charge of Capt. Brown. At Rangeley, 

 100,000 at the Oquossac hatchery, in charge of T. C. Hewey. 

 At Enfield. 25,000, iu charge of A. J. Darling. These last 

 were divided between Island Pond, Molunkus Pond and Cold 

 Stream Pond. It is a subject of common observation, that 

 these beautiful fish, do not now frequent in accustomed num- 

 bers certain favorite localities on Grand Lake stream, where 

 they formerly abounded, This has led to the hasty conclusion 

 that they are lessening in numbers, and the cause attributed 

 to artificial spawn taking The region of Grand Lake, so 

 near the boundary of two distinct governments, would 

 naturally make its wild recesses of forest the favorite resort 

 of questionable, or rather unquestionable, characters from all 

 sources. The poachers of every possible grade exist iu 

 numbers ouly equaled by black flies, and as deserving of 

 extermination. Again, angling is now a mania, a fashion, 

 and five hundred nsh where formerly but one cast his fly. 

 Fish have their pastures, their feeding grounds, the same as 

 our domestic stock. Destroy the feed of a pasture and its 

 stock will abandon it and go elsewhere or starve. Certain 

 flies are bred oh the- bottoms of rivers amid the gravel and 

 earth. Cover this bottom with tan-bark or shingle waste or 

 sawdust and the bottom of the river no longer produces 

 food for fishes; the tly bred from the egg or worm that the 

 bottom of the river supplied with the cougenial element no 

 longer rises there; the fly that hovered over its surface to 

 deposit its eggs that begat the worm and in turn the fly, no 

 longer tempts the fish. "" Streams that formerly bred shad by 

 millions, cannot now feed one, even if millions were there 

 planted, for the riyer, now bottomed by poisonous sawdust, 

 produces no food for the baby shad to support it on its way 

 down to the ocean. A factory on the river's source may 

 make a fortune for its owner, even if not allowed to destroy 

 all the fish in the water that runs below his mill. He mav 

 not make it at so little trouble, but has he a right to do it if 

 he deprive, a family even of one meal of food a" week'? 



Iu response to many letters from Aroostook and other 

 sources, asking relief and redress,, which we are unable to 

 afford, we will propound to our legislators the question, 

 "If a stream running through a section of country supplies 

 both food and recreation to the inhabitants, has any one a 

 right, by establishing a factory upon its sources or its shores, 

 to so poison its waters as to destroy the fish aud thus de- 

 prive others of the value of the f ood destroyed ?" Is not 

 even the beauty of a stream running through one's land*a 

 consideration of price aud value? Has as any one a right, 

 by establishing a factory above one's property, to destroy 

 its beauty by throwing waste into it, or its fish by empty" - 

 ing the washings of a starch or other factory into it? Indus- 

 try and ingenuity have a- right to their reward, but not at the 

 price of the food, or the value of the beauty of the hum- 

 blest homestead J 



THE pEST COLOR FOR LEADERS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been greatly interested in Mr. Wells's able article 

 on the color of leaders. His suggestions appeal to all anglers, 

 and I feel confident that there are very many among your 

 readers who could, "an if they would," give other bits of 

 experience, which would be extremely useful to them. 



I notice that in your Game Bag and Gun and your Canoe- 

 ing columns, especially, your correspondents are constantly 

 volunteering hintsand advice to others, while in the angling- 

 column I see nothing of the kind. Can it be that anglers 

 are less generous than other sportsmen, and areunwilliug to 

 aid their brethren by their own experience and experiments? 

 It looks a little like this, andl cannotbelieve that this is true. 

 Yet, my purpose in sending you this note is to inquire of 

 Mr. Wells, whether his experiments were conducted quite 

 in the way to acquire the best knowledge as to how dif- 

 ferently colored leaders appear to the trout in the water. 

 What t mean is this. The fish and the leader are both in 

 the water, and only this medium intervenes between them. 

 The former sees the gut through only the water. In 

 Mr. Wells<8 experiments, however, he saw the leaders 

 in the first case through air, glass and water, and in the 

 other through air and water. Might not these different 

 media through which the visual rays passed, make a differ- 

 ence in the color appearance of the gut? I put forward this 

 opinion rather timidly, for I feel that I do not know enough 

 about the subject to discuss it intelligently, but I have 

 vague recollections of college text books, which spoke about 

 these matters. The rays from the eye would pass directly 

 toward the object through the air, but when they impinged 

 upon the water, would be deflected so that the object would 

 appear to occupy a position which it did not have.' Whether 

 or no the fact that the eye looked into the water from the 

 outside air would make any difference in the apparent color 

 of the gut, I do not know, but would it not be worth while 

 to look at it merely through the water, that is with the eye 

 immersed ? 



In order to acquire the best possible notion of how the 

 leader looks to the trout or salmon, we should, it appears 

 to me, try to make all the conditions under which we look 

 at it, as nearly as possible, like those to which the fish is 

 subjected. 



I should be glad to see this subject further discussed by 

 Mr. Wells, and others as able as he. If this be done, 

 anglers everywhere will be benefited. 



The points I have mentioned are no more than suggestions, 

 and as such, I submit them to those who are wiser than I, 



New Yokk, Feb. i\_ COUPLES. 



1 One in Seven of those insured under the Accident Policies of 

 The Travelers, of Hertford, Gorm., iu 1883, was killed or injured by 

 accident-, and received cash benefits.— Adv, 



The Sagacious Catfish: of Washoe. — The catfish of 

 Washoe Lake having all buried themselves in the mud ntthe 

 bottom, therein holding themselves in a semi-dormant state, 

 refusing to heed the beguilements of the angler, some miners 

 the other day concluded to play them a trick. The men, at 

 the suggestion of one of their number, who said that iu win- 

 ter catfish always remained buried iu the mud until they 

 heard the first thunder in the spring, exploded a giant-pow- 

 der cartridge on the shore. Sure enough, the fish thought 

 they had heard it thunder, and swarmed to the suiface. The 

 men were delighted with the success of their experiment, 

 and were about preparing their hooks and lines when a new 

 movement among the fish attracted their attention. As 

 though some signal had been given or word passed, every 

 cattish, great and small, turned toward the Sierras, stuck his 

 head out of the water an inch or two, took a long look then 

 disappeared beneath the waters of the lake — went down into 

 the mud again. The miners now fired halt a dozen r.irlnd- 

 ges — all they had with them — at various points around the 

 lake, but not a fish showed itself. They had all taken a good 

 square look at the. Sierra Nevada range, and had seen that it 

 was still white with snow, — ~pirginut (Jw».) Shvferp'i 



Fish and Game in Virginia.— Norfolk, Feb. 5.— During 

 the last week of spring-like weather, the rockfisll {RotoM 

 liiuatus and not elirysops) have begun to run up the Eliza- 

 beth River, and a few are caught daily in purse nets, all in 

 excellent condition, hard and fat. The run is of much 

 larger fish than those of last fall and early winter, when 

 they were abundant, but seldom heavier than two pounds, 

 the great majority falling far short of one pound. W« 

 getting them now up to nine pounds weight, a female of 

 seven and a half pounds having roe developed about as large* 

 as a mau's finger. No salt-water fish in the market; of fresh- 

 water kinds none but inferior sorts, viz., perch, brown, 

 speckled and yellow, black bass, called chub here, andstna'd 

 pond pickerel. These fish are all caught in ponds, and are 

 very inferior to the same fish of the North. Of game, the 

 market is well supplied duriug this warm weather with can- 

 vas backs, mallard, widgeon and black ducks, none, how- 

 ever, in very good condition. With thcimometei down to 

 freezing, all of the best ducks go to New York. A few rab- 

 bits and squirrels make up the list. — P^ixo. 



Bass Injured by Freshets. — Mechanicsburg, Pa., Feb. 

 9. — Owing to the high water in the Connoduguinet Creek, 

 and the consequent breaking of the ice, quite a number of 

 large bass have been washed ashore, the majority of them 

 being more or less injured. Some of our fishermen have 

 taken advantage of this opportunity to secure said injured 

 fish, and it is a question with our game protection sportsmen 

 whether the gentlemen are legally allow ed, under existing 

 Pennsylvania State laws, so to do.* I await your answer.— 

 R. S. " [As the laws of Pennsylvania forbid the taking of 

 bass at this season and only allows them to lie taken with 

 hook and line at any time, we think their capture in the 

 manner stated is illegal. At the same time, it seems to mil i- 

 gate the offense if the fisTi are injured so badly as to be 

 strewn on the shore. 



A Fishing Dog.— Oxford, Feb. 8. — Elitor Forest and 

 Stream: This is too good a story to keep. While Fish 

 Warden Pettiusill was at Oxford, investigating the recent 

 violation of the fish laws, he wished to buy a foxhound of 

 Louis Edwards, a well-known fox huntei of this place. The 

 hound was let loose from his kennel for inspection. He 

 immediately got over the fence and returned with a good- 

 sized trout, which he laid at the fish warden's feet. You 

 can imagine the feelings of his owner, especially as he is rot 

 a fisherman, nor has he been fishing this wiuter. The fox 

 hunter has not been near the village siuce.— Josn Jeemb. 



Fly-Rods Long vs. Short. — In ten years' bass fishing I 

 have found that a rod of 16 feet would catch more fish than 

 one of 11 or 12 feet; it has proved so with both rods in the 

 same boat, the long rod in stern, casting on same side of the 

 boat, aud consequently fishing over water partly worked, 

 also in following boats using short, rods. Therefore I am in 

 favor of long rods, and would be pleased if your readers 

 having two-handed rods would give weight, dimensions aud 

 timber, dimensions at ferules and also between joints. — R. 

 H. Dixon. 



Grayling and Troct Eggs.— At a recent meeting of 

 the London Piscatorial Society, Dr. Brunton read a paper, 

 which tended to prove that if the grayling fed on the eggs 

 of the trout at all, it was to a very small extent. He hacl on 

 the previous Saturday taken several grayling from immedi- 

 ately below the scours on which trout were spawning, and 

 had carefully dissected them immediately after capture, 

 without finding any trout eg s. 



Salmon Fishing Wanted. — "West Chester" asks: Can 

 any of your readers inform me where a novice can find good 

 salmon fishing for ten days or two weeks at not too great 

 cost, and what will be the license fee, the route, approximate 

 expense of the trip and the time necessary, allowing two 

 weeks on the stream ? 



PENNSYLVANIA ANGLERS' ASSOCIATION. 



[An address read before the Anglers' Association of Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania at its annual meeting by A. M. Spangl.^r, President.] 



IN accordance with the request of the Association at its last 

 meeting, 1 have prepared some remarks in regard to the 

 operations and obligations of the Anglers' Association during 

 its single year's existence, though I have not attempted any- 

 thing like a detailed statement. That duty properly belongs 

 to the Executive Committee, whose first annual report will be 

 submitted to-night, and which will contain full information 

 on those points. 



My special object in the preparation of this paper has been 

 to present for your consideration a few plain suggestions in 

 regard to the course, which, in my judgment, the Association 

 should pursue in order to more effectually secure its primary 

 purposes, namely, "The preservation, protection and increase, 

 of edible fish, and tlie enforcement of the laws concerning the 

 same." 



If these suggestions, or others of equal or greater value, are 

 adopted, salutary results must inevitably follow, and a great 

 public good be achieved. 



It is only a few years sinee the importance of fisheulture 

 and fish protection first, began to be thoroughly impressed 

 upon the public mind of this country. European nations had 

 long before recognized and appreciated their ti ue value, and 

 with commendable prudence made adequate wholesome pro- 

 vision for checking the improvid"ence that bad so nearly de- 

 pleted their waters. This was accompiished by the only two 

 seemingly possible methods — the enactment and enforcement 

 of stringent protective laws and liberal appropriations for 

 propagating purposes. I need not state that those, nations are 

 to-day reaping a rich return for their investments. 



It was not until the vetera,n Seth Green and a few others 



