[March 12, 18*5, 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



129 



during the consultation which followed our arrival, he in- 

 formed us that he had no trout to place before us, but had 

 birds in plenty. A few moments later another party of two 

 from a neighboring summer hotel drove to the door' and be- 

 fore they alighted I heard Uncle George inform them that 

 he could give them trout. I called him aside and demanded 

 an explanation, which he gave as follows: ''I haven't any 

 trout for you, but I have a few for these two gentlemen, 

 although 1 am afraid if they were placed on your table yon 

 would call them bullheads (he referred to the fish) ; still, I 

 insist that they are trout, at least for this evening." I told 

 him that they would detect the fraud at once, but he said, 

 "Oh, no, for I have tried them once before and it worked 

 like a charm. r 



A common error, particularly in this State, is the calling 

 of apikeffi'. Vudm) a pickerel. This winter for the first 

 time I discovered that the Hudson River at this place con- 

 tained pickerel (E. reticulatus). Where they came from no 

 one seems to know; but I noticed one among some pike at 

 a fish market, and attempted to instruct a few people present 

 as to the identity and name of each fish exhibited. "That," 

 I said, pointing to a specimen of E. lueius."\s a pike." 

 "No," said one of the gentlemen, pointing to a 8k'z»& (ethiuiii 

 mtreuoi, "this is the pike." I explained that although it was 

 locally known as a pike, it was really a pike-perch, and be- 

 longed to the perches instead of the pikes, This was dually 

 accepted as correct, because the pike-perch was a Lake 

 Champlain fish, and "it did not make any difference what he 

 was called," but when 1 said the only pickerel in the. lot was 

 the specimen of Esav rdicuMus, and what they called pick- 

 erel was in reality a pike, there was mutiny, and the meet- 

 ing broke up in a row. 



The various names by which the black bass is known in 

 different sections of the country have been so frequently 

 paraded and explained that at least we know a Southern 

 "trout" means a black bass. Personally I have come to un- 

 derstand a Southern man to mean yellow perch when he says 

 "sun perch," but when he says "bob" I have to thiuk a mo- 

 ment before I can grapple with the fact that he does not 

 mean a Boat, and docs mean a bunch of deer's hair tied to 

 the shank of a treble hook. That, however, is wandering 

 from the fish question, and I return to it by referring to the 

 ■ latest alleged misnomer. During the past season readers of 

 the frogling papers have been regaled with glowing descrip- 

 tions of the excellent fishing in Northern Wisconsin and 

 M-fchigan. I will not even venture a guess at the number of 

 ir-mscalonge that have been reported as adding to the scores 

 "c! anglers from all parts of the country; but I now see that 

 a Western writer claims that these fish are not mascalonge, 

 but large pike (E. /uehix). In this case, however, I imagine 

 1 that investigation will prove that the writer is wrong, for it 

 does not seem possible that so many anglers as have been re- 

 ported as catching mascalonge could all be mistaken. The 

 fact that any doubt is expressed about the identity of the 

 fish in question shows that the ichthyological schoolmaster 

 must have been taking his vacation when some one was fish- 

 ing the Gogebic waters. In looking back over a few com- 

 munications from this region I do not find any mention of 

 pike in the fish scores, but do find pickerel reported as weigh- 

 ing about ten pounds each. These must be E. lucim, so the 

 mascalonge cannot sit on that stool; and the Western writer 

 will, it strikes me, be invited to take the floor and make an- 

 other report with affidavit attached. There is no need of 

 citing other cases of misnamed fishes, but it remains with 

 the anglers of the country to take up their pens against these 

 evils, that lead only to confusion, ,f and by opposing end 

 them." A. N. Cheney. 



&lens Falls, N._Y_. 



CLICK AND DRAG. 



Editor Forest arid Stream: 



It is quite likely that "Petra" will receive other and better 

 reasons than I may furnish supporting the click and drag 

 attachments to the reel, and yet I cannot refrain from using 

 a little space to describe methods in using these appliances, 

 where they have proved to be veiy important and satis- 

 factory adjuncts in managing the line as well as necessary 

 weapons in successful encounters. 



My tackle consists of a ten-ounce split bamboo rod, a 

 number three reel and sixty yards enameled silk line size H. 

 The click of the reel is set sufficiently light, so that together 

 with the friction of the line through the guides a two-ounce 

 pull will start the reel. The drag is adjusted to double this 

 strain, standing at a four-ounce pull, and the click and drag 

 combined furnish a six-ounce strain for a fighting weight, 

 and the rod is kept up strong near this point after a fish is 

 hooked. With live bait I keep the click on at all times 

 while fishing and set the drag when the fighting comes. 



Many ancient anglers will experience a surprise if they 

 will apply the scale test to their favorite tackle, as in many 

 instances ounces will be shown where pounds even were 

 supposed to indicate the fighting strain. Very few light 

 rods will stand a working strain of more than ten ounces, 

 and with many of them half that is the limit of safety, 

 and hence the click and drag become very important 

 appendages in fixing the limit of safety to a certainty. 

 The angler who depends on holding the reel cannot under 

 the varying conditions of exciting contests regulate this 

 strain with the unvarying measure that the clicK and drag- 

 properly adjusted automatically furnish. Besides this the 

 angler learns to judge the situation at the front intelligently 

 from the sounds that come over the line, as a sensitive click 

 not only heralds the movements of the game, but intones 

 •the style and vigor of the effort, and the nature and disposi- 

 tion of the victim. The drag steadily holds up to the 

 prescribed limit all advantage gained, and as readily yields 

 fine when safety claims it. So closely will such an adjust- 

 ment yield results that in numerous instances I have attached 

 the scale to the line to test the strain that the hooks, as 

 fastened, would bear and have made many fine captures 

 that an eight-ounce pull would have cleared the hooks from 

 the fish. 



The click and drag together afford the means of graduating 

 the rod to any fishing and fighting strain desirable, and I 

 see no way that the conditions can be so perfectly secured if 

 either is omitted. The click is primarily necessary on light- 

 running reels to prevent over-running and vexatious snarls 

 that come to all at times if reel is worked free, and it 

 further signals the least strain on the line without encumber- 

 ing it but slightly. The drag being tenacious in its hold 

 and unvarying in its movements furnishes the killing strain 

 to the rod, and this necessary strength if applied to the click 

 would not only destroy its sensitiveness and delicacy, but 

 impair the serviceableness of the reel. This graduated 

 adjustment furnishes automatically three rates of resistance 



point the ambitious angler aspires to, in "fishing flue and 

 far off," always remembering that the lightest effective strain 

 lauds the most game. 



The six ounce pull seems light and yet it is no effeminate 

 strain even when applied to the monarchs of the deep, as I 

 have seldom joined issue in a case where the defendant was 

 able to carry off straight away more, than ten or fifteen 

 yards of line under these difficulties, and I record among 

 my captives trout of four and a half pounds, bass of six and 

 three quarter pounds, muscalonge of twenty-eight pounds, 

 and a large and satisfactory score in the lighter notches. 



In an experience extending over many eventful years of 

 an angling existence, 1 vividly recall thei-eel music of many 

 close and exciting contests that were fought to a successful 

 finish. These notes from the front have so much enhanced 

 the pleasures of angling that I venture to offer "Petra'* 

 these disjointed fragments from accumulated tackle with 

 every assurance that pleasant memories will cluster around 

 a singing reel, long after our favorite streams have run dry 

 and the skillful hand has lost its cunning. Trianole. 



CHANNEL-BASS FISHING IN FLORIDA. 



Sfcicenqps Oscelldta.— "Called red drum on the Virginia coast; 

 spotted bass or spot in South Carolina, red bass or channel bass in 

 Georgia and Florida, redflsh in New Orleans.— S. C. Clarke. Hn "JXgfr 

 iiifi off the East Atlantic Coast." 



T7 Allt, semi-tropic land, where gentle breezes blow 



■*■ And flowers perennial in wild gardens grow ; 



In this bleak northern realm I dreamful muse 



Of the rose colors that thy skies suffuse. 



Fain would forget that here the frosty air 



Inclement sweeps o'er hills and meadows bare; 



Here spear-point icicles depend from wall, 



Frost pictures dim the casements of the hall, 



The river mute in pulseless slumber sleeps, 



A ghastly pallor o'er its surface creeps. 



The crystal waterfall that ere while tost 



Its volumed sheet, is now euchain'd with frost; 



A filmy veil is drawn across the sky, 



Thick down the air the gem-like snosvflaKes fly. 



The fields, the uplands stretch a frozen waste. 



And all the summer landscape is effae'd. 



But bright, O, Florida, the waning year 

 Smiles o'er thy waters and thy cloud-lands clear: 

 The fowler comes thy swarming flocks to thin. 

 The angler comes the luring spoon to spin, 

 To take by sandy beach or marshy grass 

 The tarpum, grouper, or the channel bass, 



The noble bass with scales intensely dy'd 

 At bay and inlet drift in with the tide, 

 A roving fish, deep channels it explores, 

 Mudflats and oyster-beds and shelly shores; 

 Where slimy wreck lies buried in the deeps 

 It finds its chosen haunt, its harvest reaps. 

 A fish omnivorous, it seeks its prey 

 Wherever mollusks hide or mullets play, 

 A flsh voracious, it is brave in bite, 

 Persistent, strong, 'tis valorous in fight, 

 As gamy fish the red bass has no peer, 

 No rival champion in the currents clear. 



Warm-weather fish, in summer's sunny time 

 It swarms the shores of genial Southern clime; 

 There, off the sand flat, anchor'd in his boat 

 The angler sees them fearless round him float; 

 They circle near in heedless leap and play, 

 And fall to trolling line an easy prey. 

 But when the norch winds smite Floridian coast. 

 By beach, by island vanishes their host: 

 In the deep holes, dark recesses of tide, 

 Sulking in castle, they delight to hide, 



In soft May season, when the seasai'e warm, 

 Around the sandy beach they love to swarm ; 

 The angler then thro' crested surf may press 

 And cast his mullet bait with sure success, 

 Cast it in sloughs, inside the surf that flow, 

 And gain a prize with every rigorous throw. 

 Greenpoint, L. I Isaac McLellan. 



LARGE-MOUTH BLACK BASS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In a recent issue a well-known correspondent takes the 

 part of "the under dog in the fight," otherwise the "large- 

 mouth" black bass. These dogs are very evenly matched, 

 and I think the fight should be called a "draw." This would 

 at least be a fashionable way of settling the contest. I agree 

 with your correspondent in saying that the black bass loses 

 a great deal of its activity when it attains a weight of over 

 three pounds. I saw a friend kill a six-pound bass in about 

 five minutes, the flsh was caught in the Potomac River, the 

 fight was a tame affair, and from the first there seemed to 

 be no doubt about the safe landing of the fish, the tackle 

 used was light trout tackle. 



I have fished for bass in some of the Northern lakes, the 

 Delaware, Susquehanna, Alleghany, Potomac, Shenandoah 

 and some smaller streams, also m Florida and other Southern 

 States. 



I believe that the large-mouth black bass of the North is a 

 more shapely fish and has more game qualities than the 

 large-mouth bass of the South, the latter has an enormous 

 belly, which I think is not conducive to wind or staying 

 power. I made a drawing of a Florida bass on the lid of my 

 camp box, the drawing was carefully made by passing a 

 pencil close around the fish. I looked at this drawing a few 

 days ago, and was surprised to see the marked difference 

 between this fish and the large-mouth bass 1 caught last sum- 

 mer in the small lakes near Chicago. It is obvious that 

 black bass when caught in rivers, fight harder than those 

 caught in the still waters of lakes. 



As I have never caught a large-mouth bass in running 

 water, I cannot give an opinion as to the relative gameness 

 of the two fish. I will say one thing in faver of the large- 

 mouth fish which, to me, covers a multitude of sins, and 

 that is, he is a splendid riser, frequently throwing himself 

 completely out of water as he takes the fly, and always show- 

 ing a good part of his body. The small-mouth fish rises in a 

 sluggish manner, and often sucks in the fly after the manner 

 of the plebian sunfish. The large-mouth bass caught with 

 the fly have been as large as those caught with live bait. 



In ten years fly-fishing for smah-mouth bass I have caught 



caught, but I have looked Upon them as lucky accidents. 

 These fish, when young, are very fond of the fly. When they 

 become old, they either grow wiser or change their appetites. 

 It is possible that they are too stiff and lazy for the rush they 

 know to be necessary in the capture of the restless fly. To 

 those who want to catch large fish, and fish that will rise 

 grandly to the occasion, I recommend the large-mouth black 

 bass. 



For my part I love the river as much as I do the fish, and 

 long for the clear, shady streams of the East. E. F. 



Chicago, III. 



PLEASANT HOURS WITH THE TROUT. 



WHEN business does not call him to the city, my frieud 

 A. lives with his family in one of the healthiest 

 counties in the State of Pennsylvania. Here he has a large 

 tract of land to look after, and if he could do so, he would 

 spend his whole time in that pleasant locality. 



Through the center of his property for two miles or more 

 runs a brook. This supplies water to a sawmill on the place, 

 and the pond that feeds it might well be called a fish pound 

 for pickerel. But it is the brook that gives us the most in- 

 terest, A. had often told me about this, and said that there 

 were trout in the brook. He had also asked me if I would 

 not come to his house and try the stream for him, as he was 

 no fisherman himself and did not care for the sport. At the 

 same time saying he could not promise me much fun, for in 

 his opinion I would find but few fish. But I knew what I 

 would find at A.'s, and that was a hearty welcome. I also 

 knew that if there was anything that I loved in the way of 

 pleasure, it was to fish for trout in a stream where they were 

 scarce and where some skill was required if any one hoped 

 to secure them. I had fished for them ever since I was a 

 boy, and considered myself quite an adept in "trouting," as 

 we called it. 



So it was agreed that the first week in June Mrs. Stillaboy 

 and myself should start for A.'s house, and very fortunately, 

 in more ways than one, we arrived there just before a suc- 

 cession of thunder showers that lasted until nearly sundown. 

 This, I knew, was in every way favorable to my visit, and 

 that if there were any trout in the stream I would most cer- 

 tainly catch some of them. Of this I was confident, and 

 when good "grandma" told me of what used to be in former 

 days, and how one of the farm hands would go and catch 

 trout for her, and that there was no one to go now, or that 

 they bad not the skill to get them, and how fond she was of 

 a trout. When she told me this I felt that I would have one 

 for her, even if I had to swim for it. So I said, "Grandma. 

 I will promise you a trout for your breakfast to-morrow 

 morning." I can remember how she looked at me, as much 

 as to say, "Mr. Stiliaboy, your intentions are good, but I'm 

 afraid you are making a rash promise." However, I con- 

 tinued, "You just let one of the boys show me where the 

 stream is and you will see." With this Will jumped up and 

 said, "O, grandma, I will go with him. I know the good 

 holes and I will learn to fish, too." So it was agreed that 

 Will should go with me. He was a very good fellow, too, 

 full of enthusiasm and life, and when I proposed to him 

 that we would have to go early if we wanted to get fish, and 

 even leave the house at daylight, he said, "That just suits 

 me." But now poor grandma was in trouble. "Why," 

 said she, breaking in on our plans, "Why surely, Mr. Still- 

 aboy, you will not start so early. Do you know how soon 

 daylight comes in June?" And it was with the utmost dif- 

 ficulty that I could convince the good lady that 1 was really 

 in earnest, and wanted to go at that, to her, unreasonable 

 hour. 



It was arranged at last that I should arouse Will at half- 

 past three, or, as 1 told him, ' 'when the whippoorwill began 

 to sing." His last charge to me was, "Now remember, don't 

 forget to wake me, while I thought within myself, ' 'Therein 

 little danger of that, I am too dependent upon your guidance 

 and too anxious to go." Will was told that he would find a 

 pitcher of milk in the ice box, and ham and bread and butter 

 in the dining-room closet. As I expected, the first whippoor- 

 will sang under my window at half-past three. And soon I 

 heard several of them calling, one from the rocks at the left 

 of the house, another from the stone fence in front, and a 

 third from the pine trees in the rear. When I got up to look 

 out a bow of light was arched over the eastern horizon, and 

 just above it, to the south, Venus was shining down in full 

 splendor. I could see dim traces of mist in the Delaware 

 Valley, while high on the hill where we were the air seemed 

 clear and pure. 



The first thing to be done was to call Will as quickly as 

 possible. He was sleeping soundly when I went in his 

 room and I almost hesitated to disturb him. As I laid my 

 hand upon his shoulder and said, "Will, it is time for us to 

 be getting off," (I had to shake him a little) he replied, in a 

 kind of sleepy way, "Wha'?" "Will," I repeated, "do you 

 think that it is worthwhile for us to go for fish?" Whether 

 it was the word fish that aroused him or from the fact that 

 I still had my hand on his shoulder I could not tell, but a 

 change came over him at once. He now raised himself in 

 the bed, rubbed his eyes and then said, in a bright and cheer- 

 ful way, "O, yes, let us go." 



Just as we came out of the house the birds were begin- 

 ning their full morning song. There was still half an hour 

 or more remaining, though, before sunrise, and we hoped to 

 be at Bog Meadow before that time. Venus was shining as 

 brightly as ever, while away to the west one of the fixed 

 stars twinkled dimly in the morning light. We had to walk 

 about half a mile on the highway'and then through an old 

 wood road for about the same distance. How delicious 

 everything smelt in that clear morning air; pines, ferns, 

 grasses, everything seeming to exhale its fragrance and 

 freshness as we passed along. And I could not help think- 

 ing how much men lose who know nothiug of a fresh June 

 morning in the country before the sun is up. The first thing 

 we saw of animated nature on our way was, as we came 

 through the gate, four crows in the cornfield that seemed to 

 have no regard for straw men nor strings; I found a way to 

 drive them off, though, without going to them. I simply 

 clapped my hands as though a gun cap had exploded, while 

 Will remarked, "I'll fix those fellows one of these morn- 

 ings." The next thing that greeted us was the sharp chirp 

 of a chipmunk as his tail disappeared in the stone wall. A 

 bluejay flies over us, and as he does so turns his head to look 

 at us in a way that seemed to inquire, "Why, where are you 

 fellows going so early in the morning?" And now a brown 

 thrasher mounts the top of a small beech tree and pours 

 forth a volume of song and a field sparrow gives his plain- 

 tive strain from a fence stake, and a dove is heard moaning 

 his distant bell-like note. We cross the brook that we are to 

 fish in on the way to Bog Meadow, and consider it just 



. very few large fish. During these years I have spent three ^ 



that are readily applied and instantly changed to meet months each season by the river side, and have fished at least right, and the water is falling. We will see it again,! 



emergencies, Jackie can t&lis be graduated to whatever I two days each week, A large fish has occasionally been I trust, in three hours or more and fee] my basket, heavier 



