472 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[JtLY 9, 1885. 



and then bringing it back with a side sweep, or toward his 

 shoulder; and if the bass are on hand I think he will meet 

 with success. The above bait is intended for bass of from 

 ten to twenty pounds. I never took one in a pond above 

 twenty pounds. If fishing for smaller bass, say three to five 

 pounds, when there is no tide, try shedder crabs and men- 

 haden pounded up and tied up in a bag with a stone to sink 

 it, lowered from the boat, occasionally giving the bag a 

 shake. If there is a light current the menhaden might be 

 cut in small pieces, say half an inch square, and occasionally 

 thrown in by the hanciful. If the bass are small, from one 

 to two pounds, try shrimp or clams, using a float. 



The fishing season has not fairly opened here, I have only 

 heard of three bass being taken. The West Island Club and 

 Graves Point had, as far as I could learn, taken none up to 

 the 25th. If I have not been explicit enough to furnish the 

 inquirer the information he desires, I will be pleased to 

 answer any inquiries he wishes to make further, that I can. 

 Most of the hassing is done here in rough water and most of 

 my fishing has been in the surf. I have fished for striped 

 bass from New Hampshire to Virginia, in most of the waters 

 fished for bass. W. M. 



Newport. R. I., June 27. 



[Will "Piscator," who wrote about bass at Robbins Reef, 

 please send us his address?] 



BASS IN NEW ENGLAND. 



THE black bass season opens in Massachusetts and Maine 

 under favorable circumstances. July 1 the "law is off," 

 and this year the sportsmen were present in full numbers. 

 Still the fish have not responded to the fly quite as freely as 

 the enthusiasts might desire, but some full creels have been 

 made. One party of three Boston merchants return, how- 

 ever, without a fish. The pond, always before a good one, 

 did not yield a rise. The Cobbosseecontee waters, in Gard- 

 iner and Winthrop, Me., are giving excellent sport. These 

 ponds — or beautiful lakes the} r are worthy of being called — 

 are easily reached by either branch of the Maine Central 

 Railroad. The distance is about seventy miles from Port- 

 land. The accommodations of boats on the Maranacook, 

 Lower Winthrop, East Winthrop, and Cobbosseecontee lakes 

 are good, and entertainment in plenty can be had at either 

 Winthrop or East Winthrop villages; or at either Augusta 

 or Gardiner, if one prefers a city hotel with a ride of from 

 four to ten miles to the bass water. These waters are well 

 stocked; the work of the Maine Fish Commission. 



But some of the Massachusetts ponds are showing a fair 

 record, especially in the western part of the State. Mr. B. 

 F. Nichols, of split bamboo rod fame, carries off the palm 

 thus far. He landed Saturday from Poduncle Pond, in 

 East Brookfield, a 4-}-pound black bass. The fish was 

 caught on a fly and with a split bamboo rod weighing only 

 3f ounces. The rod is of Mr. Nichols's own make. He 

 believes it to be about as light a rod as has yet been pro- 

 duced. The bass was secured after a hard fight, without a 

 landing net. It was shown in the window of Appleton & 

 Litchfield, on Washington street, Monday. 



__ Special. 



POTOMAC ANGLING. 



THERE has been some excellent fishing with rod and 

 line in and about the city of Washington this season. 

 Early in April the water, which had been roily much of the 

 time for two years, cleared up, and black bass, striped bass 

 (called rockfish here), striped and white perch and channel 

 catfish, were caught in good numbers, and to these may be 

 added an occasional carp weighing from five to twenty 

 pounds. Almost any time these finny exotics, the carp, may 

 be seen in their antics in certain haunts about Analostan 

 Island and Long Bridge, chasing each other in a jolly sort of 

 way, rising frequently from the water with a rolling motion 

 like porpoises, and otherwise exhibiting themselves so as to 

 make one wish for ready m^rns of gathering them in. On 

 account of their tender mouths and way of foraging in the 

 mud for food, they are hard to capture. Several gentlemen 

 have succeeded by tying a piece of kale to a smallLimerick 

 hook, with a heavy sinker attached, so as to make the lure 

 lie on or in the mud. By a "peculiar twitch," when C'ypri- 

 nus takes hold, the disturbance begins. If the bait has been 

 swallowed the hook is pretty apt to hold; if not, the first 

 plunge of the big and active fish will tear it from its 

 mouth. It requires much skilL and good management to be 

 successful, and carp, though very plenty, are seldom caught. 



At Little Falls, three miles up the river, and at Great 

 Falls, eighteen miles, bass fishing has been much better than 

 common. A friend of mine with a companion, at the latter 

 place one morning, caught five black bass weighing from 

 one and a half to three, and a half pounds each, and eighty- 

 five striped bass weighing from three-quarters of a pound to 

 a pound each. Creek minnows were the bait used. Very 

 little fly fishing is done here. At Seneca, further up the 

 river, and at Point of Rocks, near Harper's Ferry, the "out- 

 put" has been even better than at the places named. Any- 

 where from Point of Rocks to Chesapeake Bay white and 

 striped perch can be caught in satisfactory quantities by 

 those who care to angle for that kind of game. Perch, cat 

 and eel fishing has been a great attraction to the negro popu- 

 lation of Washington, who congregate eveniDgs at the fish 

 wharf and yank out enough for breakfast in an hour or two, 

 besides having a picnic. Hand lines from thirty to sixty 

 feet long, with heavy sinkers, and worms or smelt for bait, 

 are used. 



Recently there has been much sport catching channel cat- 

 fish near the Arsenal wharf. Many persons with long hand 

 lines fish from the shore, but others, and the more success- 

 ful, go out in small boats into the sedge and fish toward the 

 deep water of the channel where the vessels pass. Two or 

 three men in a boat, with worm bait, will catch two or three 

 dozen fish, weighing from three-quarters of a pound to a 

 pound and a quarter each, "and good fish, too, considerinV 



Fishing in the fall is always better in many respects, 

 though in bass fishing it requires more skill and better know- 

 ledge of localities, habits and impulses of the big and little 

 mouths, than at any other time. One of the newspapers of 

 Washington, the Star, has a daily report of the condition of 

 the water of the river, temperature and clearness at Great 

 Falls and other points this side, and the hour of high tide, 

 which is of great advantage to the gentle fisherman. The 

 editor is one of the craft and has thought for its welfare. 



J. C. B. 



"Washington, July 4. 



Scarcity of Oct.— New York, July 7 .—Editor Forest 

 and Stream: Tour readers have no doubt learned through 

 the daily papers of the frightful ravages made by cholera in 



Spain. It has been and is specially severe in the province 

 of Murcia, where all the first-class silk worm gut is made. 

 All gut factories, including our own, are closed. They can 

 not be opened before the autumn. Owing to continued 

 depression in business throughout the world, the stock of eut 

 has been allowed to run down, so that to-day there is very 

 little gut of any kind in the hands of dealers, and almost no 

 first quality gut anywhere. We, as well as a few other 

 manufacturers, have a fair supply of the various grades; but 

 there is not enough on hand to carry us through till we get 

 new arrivals in the autumn. The bad spriug and present 

 demoralization of business in Murcia will make this crop, 

 when we do get it, small in quantity and poor in quality. 

 There will be a permanent advance of at least twenty per 

 cent, in the price of gut, and a temporary advance of about 

 fifty per cent. If business were now active no doubt the 

 present price would be doubled inside of thirty days.— Abbey 

 & Imerie, 



The Coast of New Jersey.— June 28.— Fishing on the 

 entire New Jersey coast, from Barnegat to Turtle Gut. has 

 begun in earnest, and the weakfish are biting well at all the 

 inlets. Many splendid catches were made during the past 

 week. The fish at Townsend's are running larsrer than usual 

 and take mussel bait well. Sheepshead at "Barnegat and 

 Tuckerton bays are being taken in fair numbers, but they 

 still keep well out in the inlets, which makes it very uncom- 

 fortable in fishing for them when the boat is riding the in- 

 coming tide swells. Later on they will work further into 

 the bays. No bluefish yet inside, but their presence off the 

 coast indicate that they may at any moment come in. Some 

 Taylors (very small bluefish) are reported inside the inlet at 

 Great Egg Harbor. All the bottom fish are biting at Barne- 

 gat, and good strings of sea bass are every day caught at 

 the old wreck near the beach at Barnegat Bay. Why do not 

 the boatmen anchor another buoy at this favorite place to in- 

 dicate the whereabouts of the old hull? Is it because they 

 fear the amateur will locate the spot without their assistance 

 and thus deprive them of a day's wages'? The weakfish in 

 this bay will not take mussels as they do below Great Etre; 

 Harbor. Nothing short of soft crab, shedder or shrimp will 

 answer. 



July 5.— At almost every point on the New Jersey coast 

 weak-fishing is reported very good, and the fish run larger 

 than usual. I have heard of but few amateurs having been 

 successful with the sheepshead, but learn that the baymen 

 who fish for the summer hotels on the beaches are catching 

 them quite freely. Drumfish are very plentiful about Cape 

 May and at Turtle Gut and Hereford, and scarcely a party 

 leaves Philadelphia without returning with glowing accounts 

 of sport. Few fresh -water fishermen have' been successful 

 with the bass in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia this 

 season, but Susquehanna River anglers and those that have 

 extended their journeys somewhat all report the fishing ex- 

 cellent. The trout fishing season of Pennsylvania ended 

 with the general complaint that it was a very poor one, a 

 late spring in the beginning and very low water at the end- 

 ing being the cause of it. — Homo. 



West Virginia Bass Fishing.— Charleston, W. Va., 

 July 1.— Gauley is forty miles from Charleston, the capital 

 of West Virginia, Gauley and New rivers forming the Great 

 Kanawha. Our party was composed of Mr. A. and wife, 

 my husband and myself. We caught over one hundred bass, 

 not counting those of six or eight inches which we put back 

 Mrs. A. and myself were unusually lucky, she catching the 

 greater number, while I came out ahead of all in size, having 

 taken one weighing three and a half or four pounds. Once 

 we landed three fine ones at the same time. One white sal- 

 mon was caught which we turned free again. My husband 

 thinks it the first one ever caught in Gauley. We used the 

 phantom minnow. The large-mouthed and the small- 

 mouthed bass are both found in the mountain streams of 

 West Virginia. We went Hogging one night with lights, 

 and returned with twenty-one, which were nicely prepared 

 for our breakfast. One day we went five miles, walking past 

 the shoals, and took our dinners, including coffee, lemons 

 and ice, built a fire, borrowed a frying pan and cooked our 

 fish, returning to our boarding house tired, but well pleased 

 with our first experience in camping. During our stay of 

 only a few T days we went ten miles and weie very successful, 

 catching all the fish we wanted, remaining all night at a 

 farm house. We find the people pleasant and hospitable. I 

 do not blame gentlemen for wanting to take a fishing trip; 

 but I do blame them severely for not once in a while taking 

 their wives with them. I know we were no trouble, and we 

 enjoyed our trip so very much. The scenery is grand, the 

 laurel or rhododendron and the wild honeysuckle grow in 

 abundance, the rocks and the small ' 'Niagara Falls" are 

 beautiful, too beautiful for any one to describe. — Elizabeth. 



Doctor J. A. Henshall.— Next week Dr. J. A. Henshall 

 starts for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to interview the 

 black bass and trout of that region, and also to determine 

 the identity of a fish called mascalonge, which is found iu 

 Gogebic Lake and Eagle waters, and learn if it be the Esox 

 nobilior, the simon-pure article, or the great lake-rfike, 

 E. lucius. We will be pleased to publish his promised re- 

 port on the fish, as it will settle the question. Next winter 

 the Doctor will go to Florida to explore the southwest coast 

 and its fauna. 



Fly Versus Bait.— Norristown, Pa., June 29.— Tried the 

 artificial fly for the first time yesterday morning during a 

 rain storm, and in half an hour landed four black bass. 

 Total weight, estimated, three pounds. Three fishermen 

 iu sight using minnows and helgramites for bait; caught one 

 small bass weighing about eight ounces. Scene of the con- 

 test, Cattish Dam, m the Schuylkill River, belovf- Port Ken- 

 nedy.— E. A. L. 



"Fysshynge with an Angle." — Four hundred years are a 

 long stretch of life for a book. Few of the angling books of 

 to-day will live so long. Dame Juliana Berners wrote her 

 "Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle" in 1496. To-day 

 we have it in new-old style, as printed (out of pure love) by 

 Mr. George W. Van Siclen, in 1875. This reprint is itself 

 now rare. A few copies can be furnished from this office. 

 Price, $1. 



The Black Prince.— Several inquiries have been made 

 for a description of this fly. We have just received a speci- 

 men from Mr. W. Holberton, of Messrs. Abbey & Imbrie, 

 and it is a handsome fly with a killing look. The body is a 

 bright silver tinsel with a red tail ; wings and hackfe jet 

 black. This should be a good fly tor Maine and the Adiron- 

 dacks, but does not appear to be well known. 



Poisoning Drtjmfish.— That dough and glue story in 

 your last issue, in reference to the drumfish and the effect of 

 the composition on their gills, if investigated I guess will be 

 found to be "bosh." It looks to me that the paste is made 

 up of a well known fish poison, flour and water, which 

 stupefies or poisons the drum, and thus rids the oysterman 

 of what he supposes kills his bivalves. The question has 

 been asked, is it the drumfish that destroys the oyster? Is it 

 not the starfish or the periwinkle which does the damage? 

 There is a law, I believe, against using the fish poison re- 

 ferred to in fresh water streams. Does not the same statute 

 apply to salt water also?— Homo. 



igislfcultttre. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



TRANSPLANTING FISHES: 



BOES transplanting affect THE FOOU OR GAME qualities of 



certain fishes? 



[Read before the American Fisheries Society.] 



BY A. N. CHENEY. 



THIS rather imposing caption opens a wide field with many 

 ramifications, and I cannot hope to do more than skir- 

 mish around the edges of the subject, but hope thereby to in- 

 duce others to give from their personal knowledge that which 

 will cover more of the field. In one sense it is not a new 

 question to the members of the American Fisheries Society or 

 the writer, for the effect of food upon our game fishes' has 

 been discussed, and it i^ a self-evident proposition that a well- 

 fed fish, transplanted or otherwise, makes the best food fish- 

 therefore, it is safe to say that if fish are taken from lean 

 waters and planted in fat waters their food qualities will be 

 improved. 



In another sense, the effect transplanting has upon the game 

 qualities of our game fish I do not remember to have read 

 of being discussed. The question has been asked me a num- 

 ber of times, in one or both forms, by angling friends, and 

 quite recently the matter was again brought to my attention 

 by a letter from a gentleman of long and varied experience as 

 an angler, who asked if I had found the black bass gamer on 

 the hook in waters to which they were alien, than in waters to 

 •which they were native? and he answered the question from 

 his own experience, by saying he had so found them. To me 

 it seems a case of cause and effect, for an abundance of food 

 and game qualities are inseparable, and go hand and hand to 

 produce this desired result. I never caught a balf-starved fish 

 that exhibited marked game qualities on the hook, and the 

 test of gameness is accepted as the power of a hooked fish to 

 fight or resist capture by the angler. I don't believe a fish 

 can fight on a stomach that is habitually empty any better 

 than a man whose stomach is in the same state, for there is a 

 heap of courage in a good dinner, which is increased by the 

 knowledge that the good dinners are to be a regular thing in 

 the future. 



I can, perhaps, do no better than give a few results of fish 

 transplanting that have come under my own observation, and 

 I do so, looking with the eyes of an angler rather than with 

 those of a fisbeulturist. 



Before going further I might answer the question asked by 

 the friend above mentioned, by stating that the gain est black 

 bass that ever I caught were taken from waters to which the 

 fish were native, and I never caught black bass that were in 

 better condition than these same fish. I have taken bass with 

 more fat, but it was abnormal fat that took away the. dash 

 and vigor that characterize the bass, and the angler had to 

 overcome but little more than the avoirdupois of the fish; but 

 the loss to the rod was a gain to the gridiron. 



Saratoga Lake black bass stocked Effner Lake. Effner Lake 

 bass stocked Schroon Lake, Luzerne Lake and the Hudson, 

 Schroon and Sacandaga rivers. It would not be just to com- 

 pare lake bass with river bass; bat Saratoga Lake'and Schroon 

 Lake bass are gamer than Effner Lake bass. There is, appar- 

 ently, little difference in the temperature and clearness pi the 

 water in these lakes, but Effner Lake seems to have the poor- 

 est supply of fish food. Lake George black bass stocked Long 

 Pond, and afterward Long Pond stocked Round Pond. Long 

 Pond bass are least gamy of the fish in the three waters, but 

 they are far the largest. Long Pond is just a mass of fish 

 food and the water is warm and thick. On the contrary, 

 Round Pond, forty rods away, is a great spring of clear, cold 

 water, lacking outlet or inlet, with an abundance of fish food, 

 and the bass therein, while not exceeding in size the Lake 

 George bass, fight like Mends when hooked. 



Without further multiplying instances I think it prudent to 

 say that when black bass in alien waters are found to possess 

 superior game qualities it is because they have found better 

 pasturage or better water than in the homestead. 



Hudson River pike (E. lucius) were used to stock Schroon 

 Lake and river, and both furnish pike of greater growth than 

 the parent waters, but one cannot compare them game 

 qualities for they have none. 



It is natural perhaps that the quiet lake waters should be 

 more conducive to aldermanic proportions in the pike than is 

 the rapid river water, but a recent local newspaper states that 

 Schroon River has produced a larger pike than the lake. 



Oneida Pond was also stocked with pike from the Hudson 

 and it has yielded these fresh-water sharks of greater size 

 than those from any of the other waters 1 have named. The 

 pond is small and the pike soon cleaned out the food and then 

 commenced a warfare of the survival of the one with the 

 largest mouth. The large fish have been caught and those 

 that remain are all of the same size with the clefts in the 

 mouth yearning to extend back to the dorsal fin. 



I have somewhere seen a statement, and I think it was in 

 one of the reports of the New York State Fish Commission, 

 that whenever the New York lakes containing a remnant of. 

 lake tr.mt have had a contribution of lake trout fry from the 

 Great Lakes, the addition or deposit has increased the. average 

 size of the trout in such waters. This, at least, is the idea that 

 has become fixed in my mind from reading the statement ; but 

 1 do not remember that it was coupled with, or contingent 

 upon, an additional supply of fish food. 1 have closely watched 

 this improvement in the trout of Lake George, INew York. 

 Before the lake was restocked by the State the trout were 

 very poor and small, and because of the gradual taper from 

 them heads to their tails were called ''wedges" by the fisher- 

 men. I do not know as they appeared starved so much as 

 they appeared dwarfed. Every spring during the trolling 

 season when the trout were "on top," quantities of small 

 whitefish were seen at the surface, of the water, so the lake 

 was not entirely barren of food for the native trout. Five 

 years after the State made the first deposit of trout fry it 

 planted some whitefish for trout food. There was a marked 

 improvement in the trout almost from the first planting of fry, 

 and each year since the average in size of the catch has been 

 larger and the condition of the trout better. I have often 

 wondered if this was entirely owing to the food, for the ang- 

 lers can discover no increase in the whitefish fry on the surface 

 in the spring. 



In other words, does not the fresh blood or out-cross im- 

 prove the natives and leaven the whole. Among the mam- 

 mals this fresh blood is sometimes necessary to prevent a "go- 

 ing to seed," and even man in families of high degree deteri- 

 orates or "peters out" occasionally from too much blue blood 

 and not enough red. i know it is presumption on my part to 



