208 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



| April 9, 1885 



TROUT FISHING IN ALASKA. 



Editor Forest and Strmm: 



In the summer of 1882 I Lad the good fortune to be located 

 at Fort "W range!, Alaska, and being a lover of tlie sport in 

 all its phases, I availed myself of every opportunity to at- 

 tempt the capture of the different varieties of fish to be found 

 in that locality. 



The trout season I found to be at its height in the month 

 of September. Being ouly an amateur, I must refer you for 

 a description of the different species and their habits to the 

 article written by that veteran contributor "Piseco"in "Fish- 

 ing: with the Fly. " 



The stream we found to be most prolific was about four 

 miles from Wrangcl, the source of which was presumably a 

 lake in the mountains, although we never had the hardihood 

 to explore it so far as that, being conteut with the success 

 we had about a mile from the outlet. The Alaska trout I 

 found to be entirely uneducated, and nothing would induce 

 them to take a fly. I struggled in vain to provoke a "rise," 

 and gave tlL?m the choice of all the different varieties in my 

 fly book, but had finally to content myself with taking them 

 as every oue else does in that section, with salmon roe; a 

 most disagreeable bait to use, but still the only thing that 

 possesses any charm for the Alaska trout. Our mode of ob- 

 taining the salmon was either by shooting or by pulling them 

 out of the shallow parts of the stream, using a large hook 

 attached to the end of a short pole. There never was any 

 difficulty in securing bait, as the lower part of the stream 

 was usually swarming with salmon struggling toward the 

 source. 



It was such a lovely morning with the sun shining brightly 

 — a rare treat for Alaska — that after breakfast three of us 

 decided we would take advantage of it, and pay our finny 

 friends a visit. Hastily putting up a lunch and collecting 

 our guns, rods and tackle, we started with our "Siwash" 

 (Chinook for "Indian") crew. After a pleasant pull of about 

 an hour we reached the moMth of the stream. Pulling up 

 a short distance, we left the boat in charge of one of the 

 Indians, and with the other two started on our way up to 

 the rapids. We caught several salmon on the way iip, and 

 secured a good quantity of bait which we rolled up in some 

 green leaves to keep moist. In the course of an hour we 

 had arrived at our destination, the home of our victims. 



After resting a short time, and taking lunch, we lighted 

 our cigars, jointed our rods, and prepared for the sport which 

 commenced at once and was lively beyond description. The 

 strikes were not as spiteful as those of our Eastern trout, but 

 what they lacked in quality was compensated for by their 

 frequency. The task of keeping our hooks supplied, with 

 the soft gelatinous bait occupied a good deal of time, for it 

 had to be renewed at about every cast, this causing many 

 inward imprecations. 



After casting in the rapids for an hour with decided suc- 

 cess, 1 concluded I would work the stream higher up, and 

 as the banks were very nearly perpendicular, I was obliged 

 to make a detour, but managed, by dint of perseverance and 

 some hard climbing, to come to a pool about thirty yards in 

 diameter, and at the foot of a fall of about fifteen* feet. I 

 could see the determined efforts of the salmon in their at- 

 tempts to scale the fall, a feat not easily accomplished, for 

 if they got too near the rapid current they would be dashed 

 back end over end into the pool below, and then would re- 

 new the attempt. Jointing my rod I made a cast into the 

 pool, and was immediately rewarded by a vigorous strike, 

 and landed a trout weighing two pounds. After securing 

 several more, I had the extreme pleasure of establishing a 

 telephonic connection with a member of the salmon family, 

 and the tenor of his conversation was decidely of an aggres- 

 sive nature, although he evidently objected to a "short cir- 

 cuit." 



After a hard struggle, in which I was obliged to humor 

 his manifest liking for the other side of the pool, I succeeded 

 in persuading him to form my acquaintance on terra firma. 

 Putting him on the scale I found that he brought the pointer 

 down to six and a half pounds, which caused me to regard 

 my eight-ounce lancewood fly-rod with a good deal of satis- 

 faction. 1 secured three more salmon, varying from three to 

 five pounds in weight, but no more trout. 



By that time I concluded I had enough sport for one day, 

 and "made my way with my spoils down to the others, whom 

 I found had also had excellent sport. What to do with 

 our fish seemed a difficult question, but the two Indians soon 

 decided that. Cutting a young sapling and stripping the 

 limbs from it, they took it at either end on their shoulders 

 and we hung the greater part of the fish across it. Taking 

 the remainder ourselves, our little procession started down 

 the bank of the stream, reached the boat and pulled home, 

 arriving about dusk, pretty well tired out, and with a rav- 

 enous propensity for dinner. After discussing a good meal 

 we examined our catch, and found we had 250 trout, weigh- 

 ing 450 pounds, and four salmon weighing about fifteen 

 pounds. All of our friends had an abundance of trout the 

 next day. Reel-Plate. 



Washington, D. C, March 27, 1885. 



LOOPED LEADERS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your correspondent "M." makes inquiry how to tie 

 leaders with loops for flies. The great superiority of looped 

 leaders over those without loops, in convenience of changing 

 flies, in strength and durability, is at once apparent to all who 

 have ever used them. Every fly-caster ought to be able to 

 tie his own leaders so as to be ready for any emergency. 



I will attempt to describe the method I have used for 

 several years with entire satisfaction. After soaking the 

 gut lengths in tepid water until they become pliable, I select 

 a heavy length for hooking to line and tie the simple old 

 slipping noose, and loop the end once around leader and 

 draw tight to prevent the knot from untying. In tying the 

 Strands together I use the double water knot, which is very 

 strong and permits close trimming of the ends. This knot 

 is tied by laying the ends to be tied parallel, between the 

 thumb and fingers of the left hand; then with the right hand 

 take the short end and coil around the other strand twice, 

 the second coil being in front of the first and between it and 

 the left hand. Then slip the end through the coils back 

 parallel with the other strand and draw tight. Now reverse 

 and fasten the other end with the same knot, and draw the 

 knots together, after which the ends can be clipped close. 



At the joints where loops for flies are to be made, draw 

 through the knot in the upper strand enough gut, say three 

 inches or so, to tie the knot and have enough to spare for 

 the loop. Draw the knots together, then an inch, or inch 

 and a half above the knots, form another double water knot, 

 draw tight, and slip down on the shoulder of the knots. 

 This forme a loop of the gut which cannot loosen, and 



which stands out at riehl angles to the leader, so that neither 

 the loop itself nor the flies can fray or weaken the leader by 

 friction. J 



The loops should be placed from two feet six inches to 

 three feet apart, so that the flies will drop separately. If 

 the amateur will tie a few leaders by above method he will 

 be delighted with their strength, security, convenience and 

 economy. r ob Roy. 



Syracuse, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



<.i? elative t0 tJie <l uer y of " M " m y° ur issue of March 26, 

 "How to fasten flies," permit me to say that after trying 

 many plans I have adopted a method which I find entirely 

 satisfactory. It is simply to use leaders with loops at one or 

 more of the knots. Then fasten drop fly in the same manner 

 as end fly. The advantages of this idea seem so obvious as 

 to need no explanation. Observe one thing. When tying 

 the leader to the line have the loop for the drop fly point 

 away from the end or stretcher fly. This seems contrary to 

 common sense, and did not occur to me until late last 

 season. However, upon trial it will be found to obviate the 

 tangling of drop fly with leader when casting, and to give 

 the same fly a surprisingly lifelike struggle and skip on the 

 water. e. L. R. 



Blossburg, Pa. 



DOES THE BLACK BASS LEAP? 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I notice that "Nesstnuk" in "Woodcraft" states that the 

 large-mouthed black bass does not leap out of the water 

 when hooked. I do not know where he obtained his informa- 

 tion, but my experience has taught me differently. I left 

 Connecticut last November for a pleasure trip through 

 Florida, and after some traveling about, found myself here 

 in the best place for bass fishing I ever saw. I lost no time 

 in unpacking my rod and getting started. As this is 

 comparatively a new country there were no guides to show 

 me the best fishing grounds, so I started out alone in my 

 canoe. I had a score of lakes to choose from, and selected 

 one (Lake Saunders) which looked as if it must be full of 

 fish, and of which marvellous stories are told by the settlers 

 here. Bass weighing thirty and forty pounds, they claim, 

 have been taken from this lake. 1 camped on the shore and 

 spent one afternoon trying different flies with poor success, 

 and getting a little discouraged, 1 shot a wood duck and 

 made a fly from the mottled gray feathers, and prepared for 

 another trial. The second cast was rewarded by a strike, 

 and I hooked what I was sure was a large fish. 'He made 

 my reel sing for a moment, and my rod (which was made by 

 Win. Mitchell, N. Y., and weighs eight ounces) was bent 

 nearly double in my attempt to keep him from the grass on 

 the edge of the lako. I turned him and soon had the 

 pleasure of seeing him leap at least twelve inches clear from 

 the water, and before I landed him he had jumped three 

 times completely out of the water. He turned the scales at 

 7 pounds 1 ounces. 1 caught four more before dark and 

 they weighed respectively 2i, 3, 3f and 5 pounds. I went 

 to my camp with my nerves tingling with excitement and 

 in love with my rod, which had worked beautifully. I will 

 admit that a two-pound small. mouth bass at the North 

 would have given me more work than any of the five, but 

 the pleasure in landing such large fish more than recom- 

 pensed me for what the fish lacked in fighting qualities. 

 Each of the five leaped clear from the water at least once, 

 and at least nine out of ten of the fish I have caught since 

 have done the same. I have caught as many as 25 in one 

 afternoon, ranging from 1 to 8 pounds, and on one occasion 

 caught two that weighed 9$ and 10 pounds respectively, but 

 have never been successful enough to catch any larger ones, 

 although one of my lady friends caught one on a spoon hook 

 that weighed seventeen pounds. Perhaps "Nessmuk" on 

 .reading the above may feel inclined to call me a "trout 

 hog," but I can assure him that I never catch more than I 

 need, and on the above occasion when I caught twenty-five, 

 I wanted them for a picnic. I have never been out without 

 some success and almost always catch a good string, and 

 have found invariably that my "wood duck" fly is the 

 killing bait. I never did and never shall concede that there 

 is any fishing equal to the trout and salmon fishing of Maine, 

 but when the waters of that State are frozen solid and there 

 is very little fishing to be had there, the warm, pleasant 

 days and fine bass fishing of Orange comity, Fla., make a 

 very good substitute. F. P. S. 



Eustic, Fla., March 20. 



The Suffolk Club. — The gentlemen of South Haven, 

 L. I., had magnificent sport with the wild trout in their pre- 

 serve on the opening day T , when the weather was all that 

 could be desired. On April 2 and 3, however, the weather 

 changed, and the fish would not rise. The take on the first 

 day was 114 fish, which averaged about three-quarters of a 

 pound. No one enjoyed the sport better than Mr. Grafton, 

 the president of the ciub, who is a rare old sportsman, both 

 genial and courteous, and one who greatly delights to make 

 every one happy. The Suffolk Club was organized in 1866, 

 and is situated on the Connecticut or Carmen's River, which 

 empties into the Great South Bay. The club owns in fee 

 about 600 acres of land, and there are two ponds on the prop- 

 erty, one of about thirty-five acres and one for preserving 

 small trout, of about five acres. The stream or brook ex- 

 tends about about two miles north of the large pond toward 

 Yaphank. There are fifteen shares and at present fourteen 

 members; these are; Messrs. J. Grafton, President; Mr. F. 

 W. Meyer, Treasurer; Mr. J. N. Piatt, Secretary; P. Town- 

 send, Peleg Hall, J. W. Gerard, T. C. Meyer, O. H. Skep- 

 ard, F. Schuchardt, Charles H. Strong, J. L. Cadwalader, 

 Philip Schuyler, Henry W. Fearing and J", H. Campbell, 

 As there was a large run of fish on the spawning grounds 

 and an unusual supply from the bay by the fish ladder at the 

 dam, the club have magnificent fishing this season. The 

 trout average about three-quarters of a pound. The club 

 depends entirely upon the natural resources of the stream 

 and pond for the propagation of and food forthe trout, which 

 are of a rich salmon color. Bait-fishing is prohibited, and 

 fish under half a pound are thrown back. The club members 

 are well-known gentlemen in social circles, and have no de- 

 sire to have their organization become in any way notorious. 



Seals and Fish.— Stephen Ellis, who made the first fly 

 that caught a salmon in California, and who has probably as 

 much experience in salmon fishing as any other man on the 

 coast, is able to give some facts with relation to the destruc- 

 tion of fish which confirm opinions that have for a long time 

 been held by the Fish Commissioners. The source of great- 

 est destruction is, in his opinion, the seals. In the Columbia 

 River, where he has fished for many years, he has often had 



the entire catch of a net destroyed. He has seen seals pur- 

 suingfish, driving them from one end of the net to the other, 

 and biting pieces from their bodies. It is seldom that they 

 take more than one bite, and that is usually from the neck, 

 and the wound is of so severe a character that death usually 

 ensues. As a seal will eat at least thirty pounds of fish a 

 day, the number of fish destroyed to procure this amount 

 will be very large. But even when a seal has appeased his 

 hunger, he still continues to inflict fatal wounds on the sal- 

 mon in simple sport. Mr. Ellis has seen seals bite pieces 

 from salmon and then throw them from their mouths, hav- 

 ing already eaten enough. In his opinion seals destroy at 

 least one-third of the salmon that seek entrance to the river 

 through the Golden Gate, Another source of destruction 

 exists in the fine nets set along the banks of the river, in 

 which the salmon fry, from four to six inches long, are 

 caught as they come down from the spawning grounds'. Mil- 

 lions are yearly caught by Chinamen and Portuguese and 

 dried for export. They never come to this market, and are 

 not only virtually lost, but their destruction constantly 

 diminishes the number of fish by which our waters must be 

 stocked. These two causes alone are sufficient to account 

 for the constantly diminishing number of salmon in the Sac- 

 ramento and Columbia rivers,— San Francisco Bulletin. 



Trout in North Carolina. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Vigorous spring, even at this altitude, has at last reduced 

 tenacious winter to everlasting somnolency, wrapped him in 

 his eternal winding sheet and pleasantly consigned him to 

 the category of the past; and while nature is "preparing to 

 don her vernal robes and rehabilitate herself in gorgeous 

 beauty, and while the gentle zephyrs are again gently fan- 

 ning the mountain maiden's cbeek, the small boy as well as 

 bipeds of a larger size are disporting themselves with the 

 speckled brook trout. They seem quite plentiful, and bas- 

 kets of from forty to fifty are easily taken , ranging in weight 

 from an ouuee to a pound and a half, which is the largest 

 caught here. From here we have easy access to the follow- 

 ing good streams: Cullasaja, Nautohala, Little Tennessee 

 and Chattooga rivers, besides a great number of creeks and 

 brooks.— J. W. W. (Highlands, N. C, April 2). 



Tarpon Caught with Rod and Reel.— Jacksonville, 

 Fla., April 2. —I met your correspondent, "Al Fresco" (Dr. 

 C. J. Kenworthy), this morning. He was in a dejected 

 frame of mind because that tarpon has been taken with rod 

 aud reel before he had a chance to test his elaborate devices. 

 A Mr. Wood, of New York, took at Punta Rassa last week 

 a, tarpon measuring five feet eight inches and weighing sixty- 

 eight pounds; tackle, rod and reel. "Al Fresco' - says the 

 Florida tarpon is bound to beat the Canada salmon. 1 saw 

 a letter from "Nessmuk" asking "Al Fresco" to come over 

 and share his camp-fire log. — Wing. 



«gis1jctiUtm. 



THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



While spending the last summer at Westport Harbor my 

 attention was called to a letter in one of your back numbers, 

 written by Mr. Daniel H. Church, in which he attempts to 

 show that all kinds of fish are now as plentiful as beforo trap 

 and purse seining was known. This statement is so directly 

 opposed to the facts that there appears but one way to ac- 

 count for it, that it was not written for fishermen to read. 



I have been requested by the fishermen to give my observa- 

 tions of the last fifty years. It will require so large a space 

 for the consideration of the whole question that I will leave 

 the food fisb for some future ocasion, and tell what I know 

 about menhaden. 1 will confine myself principally to that 

 part of the coast lying between Seaconet Point and Gooseberry 

 Neck, and across Buzzard's Bay to Cuttyhunk, a distance of 

 about twenty miles, it being a section second to none for all 

 kinds of fish common to our coast, and with which I have 

 been familiar all my life, and I am more than sixty years of 

 age. 



Mr. Church tells of the quantities captured every year as 

 proof of his statement, and of the immense schools seen at 

 certain periods as being larger than ever before known. I do 

 not think that Mr. Church or any other person, has any 

 statistics by which tney can compare the present with fifty 

 years ago, for then menhaden were quite too common to 

 excite even a passing notice. It is reasonable to suppose, if 

 any one had been interested in the subject, when the whole 

 coast was alive with fish all the season, that in the fall when 

 they were leaving, they could be seen in larger quantities than 

 Mr. Church ever dreamed of. 



Where are all the menhaden that filled Long Island Sound, 

 and all its bays, and Hew York Bay to Sandy Hook, then 

 east all along the coast to Montauk Point? Of all the men 

 that in former years caught fish by hauling their seines to the 

 shore not one is now seen on Long Island beach. They have 

 long since ceased to exist. How many fish are now taken in 

 Gardiner's Bay as compared witfi the past? Fifteen years 

 ago I saw as many as seventy-five different companies all 

 busy taking fish. Now, how many can be seen? 



Why do the menhaden fishermen cruise from Maine to the 

 Chesapeake Bay, if fish can be found as plentiful as ever? 

 There is no man that knows better than Mr. Church that it is 

 as useless to cruise over this old ground where fish were once 

 so plenty as it would be for him to take his horse and wagon, 

 and hunt for them in the backwoods. Many is the time when 

 a boy I have stood on the rocks at Westport Harbor and have 

 seenthe whole surface of the water, from the shore far out 

 at sea, in all directions as far as the eye could reach, covered 

 with menhaden. They made their appearance early in the 

 season and remained until cold weather, unless the first fish 

 were constantly relieved by a new supply. At Gooseberry 

 Neck bar, there were a number of seine companies, which 

 depended altogether on hauling fish to the shore, and large 

 numbers were caught every year and sold to the farmers, at 

 twenty to twenty-live cents a barrel. I remember well the 

 first company of purse seiners that fished along this part of 

 the coast, also how quickly all of the shore fishermen dis- 

 appeared, and have ever since been numbered with the past. 

 I have spent the whole of the last four seasons at Westport 

 Harbor, and every pleasant day have sailed over these waters 

 and have not seen one school of menhaden, and, with the 

 exception of two days last fall, have not seen the steamers 

 when they appeared to be catching Ash. Aud then they 

 were several miles out at sea. 



It is also claimed that menhaden do not come on the coast 

 to spawn, as other fish do, but spawn out at sea, in the fall. 

 That I do not deny, for the reason that I know but little 

 about it and I think that is as much as any one knows. This 

 I do know, that in the spring more or less menhaden make 

 their appearance at the head of Westport River, and also a 

 few herrings, where they remain until late m the fall. In 

 the month of July I have repeatedly caught in the same net 

 full-grown fish, and young ones three inches long. Later in 

 August the young ones are from four to six inches in length. 

 The young herrings are about as large as the young menhaden, 

 and as one grows as fast as the other, they must begin at the 



