48 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



(Feb. 12, 1885 



made side ditches to carry it away. Spruce branches were 

 cut, the coarse lioibs separated, and a bed four feet wide 

 made by beginning at the bottom and laying courses of 

 spruce across it with the stems toward the head, covering 

 the stems with the next layer, as shingles are laid. Poles 

 were cut and laid from the top of the log over the bed and 

 large Blabs of loose bark were laid on light sticks crossing 

 the poles. The bed was made and covered in about two 

 hours, and promised protection from dampness below or 

 rain from above. I also showed Jack how to make a simple 

 shelter under a leaning tree when time did not permit such 

 an elaborate edifice as ours. 



The trout were cleaned and a fire built; for we hud 

 matches in a small vial, and supper was cooked. The fish 

 had their heads on and were held over the coals on sticks 

 stuck in their gills and planted in the ground. Hard tack, 

 canned baked beans, bologna sausage, trout and spring 

 water made our supper and left us the sardines in mustard 

 and the remnants of beans, etc., and two trout for breakfast. 

 These we placed in the creel, suspended by a cord to save it 

 from squirrels, porcupines, and other night prowlers. It 

 took Jack a long time to get to sleep in his novel situation, 

 but when he did drop off he slept soundly. In the morning 

 he said that he never felt better in his life, and as he finished 

 the last thing that was eatable in camp he looked as if he 

 could eat tins and all. We arrived at Uncle Ben's and found 

 the kind old man splitting wood in the dooryard. He did 

 not see us until we spoke and then dropping his axe and 

 holding out, both hands, he drew a huge breath and could 

 only ejaculate: '-Well, by gosh!" Fred Mather. 



VERMONT FISH TINKERS. 



Editor ForeM and Stream: 



Our Legislature may have been actuated by the best in- 

 tentions, but it certainly made some queer work in its 

 biennial tinkering of the fish and game laws. For instance, the 

 catching of pike-perch is now prohibited from Feb. 1 to June 

 15. Now, the spawning of these fish is all done long before 

 the expiration of this close time, and they come into the 

 tributaries of the lake in the latter half of May in fine condi- 

 tion, when for a few weeks they may be taken with worms, 

 live bait and the. trolling spoon, and often give the angler 

 fine sport. The best of the fishing is near the first of it, and 

 is generally pretty well gone by at the beginning of the open 

 time as fixed by this new law. Did its f ramers know noth- 

 ing of the habits of the fish for whose protection they were 

 legislating, or were they working only for the benefit of 

 fishermen at the north end of the lake? Again, it is now 

 illegal to catch and keep a black bass of less than ten inches 

 in length, under a penalty of $5 for every such fish caught 

 and not immediately returned to the water. A bass of nine 

 and a half or nine and three-quarter inches length will 

 certainly weigh a pound, probably nearer a pound and a 

 half, and is a fish not to be despised either on the hook or on 

 the table, and why should he not be kept if caught? 



The protection given to our native sparrows is no longer 

 accorded the English sparrow, which is well; but why is the 

 woodpecker thrust out into the cold along with this pest? 

 Some slanderer must have been telling our lawmakers evil 

 tales of the jollv woodpecker. Whatever harm may be done 

 by some of the" species, I am sure that the hairy and the 

 downy woodpeckers should be reckoned among the best 

 Mends of the orchardist; and who has ever accused the 

 beautiful yellow-hammer of wrong-doing? Or the greatest 

 of our woodpeckers, the pileated, a shy, woods-haunting fel- 

 low, who is almost never seen out of the woods and rarely 

 in them? 



With all the tinkering, there was no more effective means 

 provided for enforcing the fish and game laws._ For the 

 town fish wardens get nothing for time spent in looking 

 after violators of the laws, and no pay at all unless a law- 

 breaker is convicted aud a tine collected; therefore these 

 officers do but little, though quite as much as could be ex- 

 pected. What we need are salaried State and game con- 

 stables, but the sum necessary for compensating them for 

 their time is a bugbear too frightful for the Vermont Legis- 

 lature to face. Awahsoose. 



Ferbisbubgh, Vt. . 



BLACK BASS TALK. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Much has been written about casting for trout and salmon 

 and about trout flies. I would like to hear what our black 

 bass anglers have to say about casting for bass, and what 

 flies they use. There are many favored anglers who can 

 afford to tell us how to catch the lordly salmon and the 

 aristocratic trout. We bass fishermen read these articles re- 

 ligiously and enjoy them, though few among us will ever 

 have the pleasure 'of catching a salmon, unless it be in the 

 bye and bye, when we have reached the happy fishing 

 grounds. I will venture something about black bass with 

 the hope of starting conversation on bass fishing. 



The black bass is an honest, hard-working fish, and seeks 

 not high places or cold waters, but is content to plod his 

 way in the lowland rivers, where he is "hail fellow well 

 met" with ah the oig and little "catties" for miles around. 

 He is democratic in principles and does not seek office, al- 

 though at times he will bite at tempting offers. His meat is 

 not so deiictae as that of the salmon or trout. His shape is 

 not beautiful, neither are his colors brilliant. He does not 

 figure in poetry, or in sentimental novels. As for pet names 

 such as "speckled beauty" and the like, he rejoices not in 

 them. Such are his faults. For his virtues go to the beauti- 

 ful mountain rivers of West Virginia, and commune with 

 him there, you will find him an entertaining fellow with 

 many admirable traits and surrounded by all the pomp and 

 glory affected by his lordship, the salmon. 



If bass fishermen are like trout fishermen, they catch their 

 fish in many ways, and it will be very interesting to know 

 how they cast and what flies they use. It seems that in 

 angling, and in most of the fine arts, and even among fish, 

 there are distinct schools. An artist paints a sunset, and it 

 is to him and his admirers both beautiful and natural. To 

 others it is hideous and impossible. The compositions of 

 Wagner are to many musical ears little less than divine in- 

 spirations. To other musicians they are but a succession of 

 harsh and monstrous noises. One fisherman tells us that the 

 flies should be cast sharply on the water. There are many 

 who agree with him, but on the other hand there are as 

 many who think the flies should be cast lightly, and insist 

 on delicacy. Thus say the trout fishermen. 



In casting for bass I find, when fishing clear, unbroken 

 water, a delicate cast is very necessary to my success, the 

 majority of fish being caught just as the fly reaches the 

 water. I try to make the fly remain in the air as long as 

 possible, and then drop lightly on the water. In fishing 



pools and quiet stretches, I depend almost entirely upon the 

 neatness of the cast, and as a rule use but one fly. 



On riffles and broken water I use two, and occasionally 

 three flies. I do not like small flies as I rarely catch large 

 fish with them. When large flies are used I would recom- 

 mend light bodies and hooks. When I say large flies I mean 

 the standard size, as found in the best shops, and not the 

 great fat-bodied ones, as these are very trying to a light rod. 

 When the water is perfectly calm and clear I make an ex- 

 ception in favor of small flies, and use my finest leaders. 

 Like most anglers, I have all kinds and conditions of flies. 

 1 will describe two of them which are my favorites. No. 1 

 has green (dyed mallard) wings, green hackle and yellow 

 body. No. 2, light brown, turkey wiugs, red hackle and 

 yellow body. My rods are of split, bamboo, they weigh 4^ 

 and 8 ounces. The best bass rod I ever owned was made for 

 me by the late Thaddeus Norris, it was made of greenheart 

 with split bamboo tips, and weighed 7i ounces. After using 

 it for some 3 7 ears it became warped and twisted, and was 

 sadly put on the retired list. E. F. 



Chicago, Jan. 3, 



THE RAGGED LAKE CLUB. 



RAGGED LAKE is in the Northern Adirondacks, west of 

 the Chateaugay lakes, and sixteen miles southeast from 

 Malone, Franklin county, N. Y. A club composed of 

 Syracuse gentlemen has bought sixty-five acres of land there 

 which includes three handsome bodies of water, which are 

 well filled with trout, and which they will protect. The 

 Hon. James Geddes is now at the lake preparing to erect five 

 cottages, which will be ready for occupants in May. The 

 officers of the association elected November 19, are : 



President, A- C. Belden; Vice-President, James Geddes; 

 Secretary and Treasurer, George S. Hier; Executive Com- 

 mittee, A. C. Belden, James Geddes, II. S. Holden, Fred 

 Frazer, John P. Hier; Trustees, George S. Hier, R. W. 

 Jones, O. C. Potter; Auditor, F. B. Klock. 



The list of members, twenty in number, includes the 

 names of Fred Frazer, George S. Hier, Frank P. Denison, 

 R W. Jones, Geo. P. Hier, John P. Hier, Fred P. Hier, 

 H. S. Holden, A. Ames Howlett, James Geddes, O. C. Pot- 

 ter, George S. Leonard, Frank B. Klock, A. C. Belden, Syl- 

 vester Piper, E. P. Bates, Geo. N. Kennedy, E. D. Dicken- 

 son and B. S. Aldrich, of Syracuse, and Lucius Moses, of 

 Marcellus. 



The following articles, selected from the neatly printed 

 constitution of the club, show the principles upon which the 

 club has its existence; 



5. No person or persons, except such as are duly qualified 

 as hereinafter provided, shall be allowed to stay at the club 

 house, or shoot or fish on the property of the club. 



10. No person who follows shooting or fishing for market 

 or hire shall be admitted as a member of the club, nor shall 

 any shooting or fishing for market or hire, on the part of 

 members and guests, be permitted at any time. 



31. Any member may make application for invitations for 

 persons not members of the club to the President or Secre- 

 tary-Treasurer, who shall refer such application to a com- 

 mittee of three, to be appointed by the President, and mem- 

 bers of said committee to be known .only by the President 

 and Secretary -Treasurer. This committee to decide whether 

 or not such invitation shall be allowed. Provided always, 

 that members may invite members of their family, excepting 

 males who have attained their majority. 



8. Upon failure of any member to pay an assessment upon 

 his share or shares for the term of four months, such share 

 or shares shall be forfeited and become the property of the 

 club, and be sold at auction at the next ensuing annual 

 meeting, and any surplus arising from such sale shall be paid 

 to the member in default. 



VAGARIES OF FLY NOMENCLATURE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Mr. Holberton, in last Forest and Stream, says that the 

 coachman fly derives its name from its "fancied resemblance 

 to the white rubber cape sometimes worn by coachmen." 

 This, it strikes me, requires more vivid imagination than to 

 simply accept the explanation of the late David Foster, given 

 in the pages of his book, "The Scientific Angler," from 

 which I copy: 



"A thorough command of the rod and line is as essential 

 and important as the wielding of the whip in the care of a 

 tandem or four-in-hand drive. We are reminded by this an- 

 alogy that the most skillful cast we ever knew wielded the 

 whip. We refer to the famous royal coachman, Tom Bos- 

 worth. Old Tom had, in the early part of his life, driven 

 thiee successive English sovereigns, viz., the fourth George, 

 the fourth William, and finally, for a lengthened period, 

 Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. As a successful fisher- 

 man, Old Tom, when known to the writer, was unsur- 

 passed. He would often fish in the wake of several rod- 

 sters, whose energy would exceed their skill, and would 

 extract not infrequently three times over the weight of fish, 

 by skillfully and carefully casting over the awkward and 

 most, unlikely looking spots, which the majority of anglers 

 would rarely dream of trying. A favorite freak of his with 

 the whip was to take the pipe from the teeth of a passing 

 pedestrian by a carefully calculated whirl of the whip, and 

 this aptitude was as remarkably exemplified, for a limited 

 distance, in the use of the rod. Bosworth originated the 

 coachman fly, so much appreciated for night fishing." 



In copying the above I am reminded that quite recently a 

 writer in an Enelish fishing journal criticised the use of 

 certain terms which he denominated "angling slang," and 

 expressed gratification that such terms w-ere being eliminated 

 from American angling literature. "Rodster" was one of 

 the objectionable expressions, and as I came across it in Mr. 

 Foster's book, I wondered if it was coined in England or 

 borrowed from his Yankee cousins. A. N. C. 



Glens Falls, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Streami: 



I notice that "White Hackle" calls me out on this question 

 and credits me with flinging the first stone "into the canip 

 of the fly-namers." I do not know that I can add anything 

 to the articles already written on the subject except to 

 acknowledge that there is cause of complaint that there is no 

 system in classifying our flies and no standard that is ac- 

 cepted by all. -.,,.-» i 



I have just gone over and compared thehst of names only 

 in Holberton's and Orvis's list without comparing the flies 

 which are called by the same name, as "White Hackle 

 found great differences there. On Holberton's plate there 

 are sixty-four named flies, and in Orvis's list there are 

 seventy-eight, yet Holberton names thirty-seven which are 



not in Orvis's, the latter omitting the Montreal and alder 

 flies, and naming forty which Holberton has not. Including 

 hackles I find that only twenty-eight names are used in com- 

 mon by these two authorities. Orvis names brown coffin 

 and also marsh brown, while Holberton gives both names to 

 one fly which has a blue wing and is like the brown coffin 

 of Orvis, the marsh brown of the latter has a brown wing. 



I do not pretend to say which is generally the most cor- 

 rect, and write merely to show how the authorities disagree. 

 Under these circumstances I do not winder that there is 

 confusion in the minds of anglers on the subject of fly 

 nomenclature. "White Hackle" credits me with affecting 

 ignorance of the name of a favorite grayling fly, of which I 

 said that I did not know its name, "owing to a defective 

 memory and the vagaries of fly nomenclature." The ig- 

 norance was real, although Mr. Cheney in editing my 

 article kindly put a foot note saying that it was the oak fly, 

 and I know it now. 



I do not tie flies, and when I buy them merely pick them 

 out by the combinations of color without attempting to 

 master the fly-tier's entymology and nomenclature. Of course 

 there are some names so well known that every angler recog- 

 nizes them — such as the coachman, professor, queen of the 

 water aud scarlet ibis 



If it was a possible thing to have a convention of fly -tiers 

 who would agree on a standard, one name for one fly and 

 one fly for one name, then possibly we could attempt to 

 master the system. If any one has* doubts about the con- 

 fusion of names let him take some fly that, is not too well 

 known and ask his angling acquaintances what they call it, 

 or send it to different dealers in fishing tackle for a name. 



New flies are continually devised, but we have enough 

 already. Last year Mr. Cheney did me the honor to invent 

 a bass fly, and give it my name. It is not before me now, 

 and I carefully keep it on the card with the name on it, for 

 I have, not learned to know it yet, and I may say that I have 

 not heard that the supply of bass has been diminished to any 

 alarming extent by my namesake. Reports say that a few 

 are left for the coming summer. Fred Mather. 



SALT BATH FOR TROUT AND MINNOWS 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Some one has said, "a wink is as good as a nod." In the 

 early part of 1884 the nod was given through the columns of 

 Forest and Stream, so I will use the same medium to 

 return the wink, which may be of service to seme angler in 

 the same misfortune. Some one (I forget who) of your 

 ichthyologist friends gave their experience and method of 

 treating sickly fish fry to a salt bath, and the good results 

 attained thereby. 



For years it has been my custom every summer to put 

 away a supply of minnows and shiners for fall and winter 

 fishing. Last summer I utilized a brook, putting in a small 

 dam ;ind forming a pool two rods long by three feet wide. 

 In the pool I placed three boxes, each end of the boxes 

 covered with wire cloth, eight meshes to the inch. The 

 upper box being in deepest water was intended for any trout 

 too small for table use. The other two boxes were filled w ith 

 minnows and shiners. Things went on swimmingly iu the 

 boxes and out, with a weekly increase to the trout. But 

 "the best laid schemes of mice and men," etc. One of those 

 old-fashioned rain storms we sometimes read about occurred 

 in September, and sent the water rushing from the hills, 

 kicked up Cain and my dam in the little brook, aud made a 

 general havoc. Two days later, when at dinner, a neighbor 

 passing the door asked if I was aware that my dam had 

 been carried away and my fish boxes were dry. Reaching 

 the spot I felt faint on lifting the lids of the boxes. The 

 water was about two inches deep, and what bait were not 

 dead were covered with fungi. On raising the lid of the 

 trout box I found that they were all safe, with six inches of 

 water flowing through the box. I repaired the dam as 

 hastily as possible, picked out five dozen dead fish from the 

 two boxes, and was about to throw all out and till rip anew, 

 when the thought of the salt bath occurred to me. 1 put 

 into the upper end of each box one pound of table salt, so 

 that the water would dissolve it and carry it through and out 

 at the lower end. When I left them every fish was a white, 

 downv mass with head stuck above water. On visiting my 

 patients the next day at noon, I found two dead. The rest 

 showed signs of improvement, I gave each box one pound 

 and a half of salt. Next day at noon I found many of the 

 fish free of fungi, and all improving; no dead fish. Another 

 dose of a pound and a half to each box completed the cure, 

 with no more dead fish. Wink No. 1, with thanks to 

 Forest and Stream. On the first day of October, 1884, I 

 turned loose as nice a box of small trout as one would wish 

 to see, all taken with the fly on barbed hooks. I lost but 

 one trout through the season, and that one jumped out of 

 the box when I had the cover off. Wink No. 2. 



If your Paterson, N. J., correspondent of a few weeks ago 

 wishes to save his trout alive when he lifts them from the 

 water, let them lie on the grass until the fish stop flopping 

 and become reconciled to their fate, wet the left hand in 

 the brook, take hold of the fish gently, with the right hand 

 extract the hook; then place the fish in a pail of water ready 

 for the purpose. He will find he will not lose, many fish 

 from tooth pulling, if after-treatment is properly attended 

 to, namely, frequent changes of water. 



Feb. 2 1885. THOMAS CHALMERS. 



The First Trout. — Bear Creek, Wyoming. — Editor 

 Forest and Stream: It was a June afternoon long years ago, 

 more than I care to mention, though I was Ihen a "kid" of 

 about thirteen, but with almost a man's strength, and more 

 than most men's endurance. Our party of three men and 

 another boy besides myself reached the lake an hour or so 

 before dark and immediately commenced fishing. There 

 were no boats on the lake and we did our fishing from rafts. 

 It Avas my confounded good luck to catch the only fish of 

 the evening. Of course it was a speckled trout. It was not 

 a very large one, but it had the effect of increasing my 

 stature and avoirdupois for that evening at least. The good 

 luck attending our week or ten days' stay brought me down 

 from the pinnacle I mounted that late afternoon when I 

 discovered 1 had not caught the only trout in the lake, but 

 the memory of it is a pleasant one, though the catching was 

 done with a worm. — Millard. 



The Best Rod Varnish.— Editor Forest and Stream: May 

 I through your columns, ask Mr. U. P. Wells, and any 

 others who know, how to make or where to buy a really good 

 varnish for fishing rods? Some of the rod makers have the 

 secret, but the varnish dealers do not seem to know it, I 

 will be greatly obliged for the information.— M. (Saratoga 

 Springs, N. Y., Feb. 6). 



