512 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



IJtn.Y 23, 1885. 



Biack Bass in Trout Waters.— The following letter 

 was written by our correspondent, Mr. A. E". Cheney, to Mr. 

 C. F. Orvis, of Manchester, Vt., and printed in the Mont- 

 pelier Argus and Patriot. It contains such a vigorous pro- 

 test against puttintr bass in trout waters that it cannot he too 

 widely read: "Glens Falls, JST. T., June 13, 1885.— Mr. Chas. 

 F. Orvis: I was somewhat surprised to learn from your letter 

 that an effort was being made to introduce the black bass 

 into the waters of that portion of Vermont in which you re- 

 side. It strikes me that those who contemplate this action 

 have not looked into the future 'far as human eye can see,' 

 for the introduction of black bass is the death knell of the 

 trout. As you know, I am a strong advocate of this dusky 

 fish, and have sung its praises in print for at least a decade, 

 but I advise you to protest slrongly against its being put into 

 waters that 'contain trout, or waters that are near trout 

 streams or ponds. Willi all my love for the bass, I should 

 not like to hear that he had made his advent in the 'beau- 

 tiful Ondawa," Bowden Pond, or other waters near you, for 

 they are natural trout waters, and not such as the bass would 

 select if he could make his choice. I have the pleasant recol- 

 lection of the trout that, with you, I caught in Bowen Pond 

 and the Ondawa. but the bass 'would prove far more deadly 

 than did the flies that we cast with our rods. The trouble is 

 that when black bass are. once introduced into a portion of 

 country no one can tell how far they will spread. If you 

 place half a dozen mature black bass in a pond they will 

 stock it, be it a pond with an area of live acres or five 

 hundred, and they will clean out all the other fish it may 

 contain, for no other fish can stand against them. I have 

 seen a two pound bass whip a live pound pike (not your 

 Champlain pike, but Max lueiux, the 'fresh-water shark'). 

 The trout are disappearing from oil the face of this portion 

 of our continent fast enough from natural causes, without 

 the aid of the fighting bass. Hold on to your trout as long 

 as you can. but when they are gone put in the bass, if you 

 like. Say that bass are put into a pond that seems suitable 

 for them, and Where you would be glad to have them. 

 Some day an enthusiastic, angler will put a few 

 live four or five inch bass into his bait pail, 

 and on his way home from a day's fishing drop them into 

 another pond or stream, and they always locate to stay. 

 ISTear here is a pond of spring water, with no outlet or inlet, 

 and with a depth of sixty feet. A few local anglers thought 

 lake trout would thrive in the pond and 16.000 were depos- 

 ited. About the same time, unknown to us, a man put into 

 the same pond three black bass. The trout did w r ell for a 

 year, and then the bass ate them up to the last fish, and they 

 are in possession to this day. These, remember, were lake 

 trout that inhabit deep waters, but the pond was three-quar- 

 : if a mile long, instead of twenty miles, and there was 

 not room for both species. Baquette Lake, in the Adiron- 

 dacks, was a fine lake for lakeand brook trout when I fished 

 if twenty years ago, and for years after; black bass were 

 introduced, and spread out into Blue Mountain, Utowana, 

 Eagle, Forked, Little Forked, Long and other lakes, driving 

 the trout before them as they advanced, and no one can tell 

 where the limit of their distribution is to be. Last winter 

 our Legislature passed a law making it a misdemeanor to 

 deposit black bass in waters inhabited by trout; this became 

 necessary because of the facts 1 have stated above. If you 

 wish 'horrible examples' of the black bass destroying trout I 

 can furnish them. In great bodies of water like Lake" George, 

 in this State, the bass and lake trout live together, because 

 one lives in shallow and the other in the deepest water in 

 the lakes ; but the habits of the brook trout would cause them 

 to try and five in the same circles with the bass, and make a 

 miserable failure of it. You have probably read Mr. Mather's 

 description in Fokest and Stream of the Wilmurt Lake 

 speckled trout. From his description- of these fish in a 

 personal letter, and Mr. Flanagan's account in the Utica 

 Observer, 1 was at once reminded of the trout we had caught 

 in Bowen Pond. The two waters are situated each on the 

 top of a mountain, and in appearance the trout are similar; 

 both feed on insects or their larvae, which Mr. Blackford 

 make the Wilmurt trout superior to any trout he has 

 ever eaten, and as lie has eaten trout from all over the globe, 

 he ought to be a judge. Mr. Mather says the same. I hope 

 Bowen Pond will not make the acquaintance of my friend 

 the gamy black bass; there is room enough for him without 

 invading the haunts of the trout. Yours very truly, A. N. 

 Cheney." 



The JN t ew Jersey Bass Netters.— Paterson, N. J., 

 July 20. — Editor Forest and Stream; In your last week's 

 issue "Index" expresses a fear that James Gilbert and Fred- 

 erick Goldby, two men fined twenty-five dollars for netting 

 bass, will escape on the plea that an Oswego bass is not a 

 black bass. 1 do not think that there is any danger of that. 

 Neither riled any notice of appeal, and when the time fixed 

 bylaw for filing notice and bond had expired, the justice 

 bofore w T hom the case was tried issued a commitment! Gil- 

 bert paid his fine, but Golby allowed his wife to run the 

 saloon and went to jail, declaring he would stay thirty years 

 if necessary before he paid his fine. He served out three 

 days and then paid up. Half the fine in cases of this kind 

 goes to the prosecution, and twentyxfive dollars of cash, 

 formerly belonging to Gilbert and Goldby, is now in my 

 bands as secretary of the Passaic County Fish and Game 

 Protective Association, ready to prosecute the next man who 

 violates the law The accused have lost their right of appeal. 

 The previous owner of this net paid the Association twelve 

 dollars and fifty cents and the county a similar sum for the 

 fun he had with this net; and the Association is contemplat- 

 ing the purchase of a few more nets to be judiciously dis- 

 tributed for the purpose of raising more fnnds by convict- 

 ing the users of them.— Chas. A. Shriner. 



Devil Fish is Texas.— Galveston, July 14.— Editor For- 

 est and .Stream: The people of this place were astonished 

 the other day to see six enormous ray or devil fishes in the 

 Gulf of Mexico at the foot of Tremont street near the beach. 

 They were between the second and third bars, and how they 

 got there nobody seemed to know nor care, as tney were 

 evidently waiting for high tide to leave for deeper regions. 

 The whole beach was lined with horsemen and others on 

 foot, firing at them with revolvers, shotguns, repeating 

 rifles, etc. A detachment of the Sealy Rifles were also prac- 

 ticing on them. The fish were about twenty-five or thirty 

 feet long and about six feet in width Col. Sinclair, one of 

 our popular citizens, is laying plans for their capture, and if 

 caught 1 will write further about them. The fish were evi- 

 dently washed down from the Atlantic Ocean into the Gulf 

 of Mexico. It beats anything I ever saw. A large sawfish 

 was caught here the other day by some fisherman. — Red- 

 breast. [The devil fish spoken of is the Mania birodris of 

 Jordan and Gilbert, or Cephaloptera vcmpyrw of Mitchell.] 



Eagle and Gogebic Waters.— Editor Forest amd Stream; 

 By your issue of July 9 I see Dr. J. A. Henshall intends 

 visiting the famous Eagle Waters of Wisconsin this week. 

 While July is not the best month in which to catch the mas- 

 calonge, no one wishes the Doctor better success than I, and 

 I trust he will not leave until he settles forever the discus- 

 sion which has been carried on so warmly in one of our 

 Western papers quite recently by those who think they know 

 and yet who differ so widly in their opinion as to the fish 

 caught there. I hardty dare breathe my opinion, but if the 

 Doctor does not find it a different fish than the St. Lawrence 

 mascalonge, strongly resembling the English jack, then my 

 knowledge gathered from different articles' read is of no 

 value even to myself. I saw a 28-pounder caught, and thir- 

 teen others that had been taken from a neighboring lake the 

 same day. and I am willing to testify that all were shaded a 

 most beautiful green. Some authorities claim there is no 

 green on a mascalonge, or will they admit that mascalonge, 

 like trout, vary in color according to the water and its sur- 

 roundings in which they live? I trust the Doctor will look 

 after the bass in Gogebic also, and enlighten those of us who 

 have fished its waters, to which species they belong, the small 

 mouth or razor backs. H to the latter, I must say they razor 

 around in fine shape with the fly, and the Simon-pure fisher- 

 man asks for no better sport than the landing of a couple 

 of 3-pounders with a light tackle. The Gogebic Forest and 

 Stream Club start on their annual tour the first week in 

 August. Last season they were the first large parly of white 

 campers at the lake, and of course, had the cream of the 

 fishing, but a large percentage of those who have since 

 visited the lake belong to that class called pot-hunters, skin- 

 ners, etc., who, not satisfied to enjoy the sport of catching 

 the fish, they must let their bones bleach on the shore. How 

 long will the people put up with robbers of our outdoor 

 sports?— Nijirod. 



Philadelphla Notes. — July 18.— Beasley's Point and 

 Summers Point fishermen had two days of good sport 

 during the past week squidding for small bluetish or taylors, 

 just inside the inlet on the flood tide. The fish, however, 

 did not weigh over a pound, but the breeze was a good one, 

 and the many sailboats out made it exciting. Weakfishing 

 has been good at this point lately, many big fish having 

 been taken at the turn of the main channel of the bay. 

 The fish oil factory at Great Egg Harbor is doing a very 

 meager business this year, owing to the scarcity of men- 

 haden. It really look's as if many of these works w T ould 

 have to shutdown. The porpoise fishing company at Cape 

 May has sold out its net or patent trap for some reason. 

 I learn, however, this movement was necessary owing to 

 some trouble among the stockholders, and that a reorgan- 

 ization with improved nets is about to take place. For a 

 great wonder, good weakfishing has been had at Atlantic 

 City this week. One would suppose that the continual 

 seine-hauling in the thoroughfares about this watering place 

 which seems necessary to supply the large population of this 

 city by the sea during the summer months would have 

 ruined line fishing this season, but I hear, on the contrary, 

 of some immense catches with bail. One cannot go astray 

 anywhere on the New Jersey coast this month, if good fish- 

 ing is desired. Excellent reports come from all the inlets. 

 All varieties are plentiful save the bluefish. Perhaps they 

 will show themselves later on. — Hoaio. 



Snagging Bcppalo and Catfish. — The river and 

 slreamsjtre muddy and swollen, but there never has been such 

 fishing, or rather so many fish, here as there is at present. 

 The. high water having enabled them to pass over the dam 

 below here, they have found their progress checked by the 

 higher dam at this place, and for two weeks past there have 

 been incalculable numbers taken. The fishing is kept up 

 day and night, and it is estimated that there are from 1,000 

 to 1,500 pounds taken daily. The place is becoming notori- 

 ous, and is thronged with anglers from far and near, though 

 the mode of catching them cannot be called angling, at least 

 in an artistic sense. The fish are mostly catfish and buffalo, 

 and from five to fifty pounds in weight. The most successful 

 method of taking them is by snagging. Several immense 

 hooks are tied together, forming a sort of a grappling hook ; 

 this is fastened to a liue which would answer for a clothes 

 line, tied to a very stout rod or pole, and dragged around (no 

 bait is used) untif it fastens upon a fish. The angler then 

 braces himself, and if the fish is large, calls on a friend to 

 assist him, when after a great deal of lusty tugging the fish 

 is drawn out amid the cheers of the crowd. — Violet S. 

 Williams (Coralville, Iowa, June 20). 



Colorado Trout Streams. — Salida, Col., July 15 — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: I notice in your issue of* the 9th 

 inst "H. B.," Topeka, Ixan., inquires for trout streams in the 

 viciuity of Canon City. To those you mention allow me to 

 add the South Arkansas and branches, which at. present is 

 affording fine sport, also Chalk Creek, which 1 have tried 

 lately, with good success, both nearer Canon than Cot- 

 tonwood. Also allow me to correct you as to the size of 

 hooks to be used. At present coachman, governor, brown 

 hen, brown hackle (peacock body) and gray hackle (peacock 

 body) will be found the best, and don't under any circum- 

 stances use larger than a No. 10 hook. I speak from a five 

 years' experience in these waters and use 10 and 13 altogether. 

 "H. B." will find it no easy matter to catch our trout unless 

 acquainted with their ways, but can catch them with bait 

 in the main Arkansas anywhere above Canon City. Should 

 he come to Salida I can assist him to some good sport, if he 

 is an angler. Novices usually fail in their first endeavors 

 with the fly, but can have better success with bait, although 

 I can't recommend it as sport. — Kokomo. 



Netting in Jamaica Bay.— New York, July 18.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: 1 beg to call your attention to the use 

 of nets at Rockaway Inlet, etc., which accounts for the ex- 

 cessively poor fishing there has been there this season. As 

 an advocate of anglers, will you enter the field and protest 

 loudly against this outrage? There must be a law prevent- 

 ing this,"and if so, let us see the constable, enforce it ; and if 

 he is not strong enough, many of the frequenters of Jamaica 

 Bay would volunteer "their aid. If, on the other hand, there 

 is not such a law, then wide publicity may perhaps open the 

 eyes of our Albany Solons and have them make one. Sound 

 the cry. To you, aud only you, do we owe the stopping of 

 hounding; so follow your success with the stoppage of indis- 

 criminate netting in the only waters left accessible to New 

 York and Brooklyn anglers.*— Brooexynite. 



Meacham Lake, N. Y., July 14— Our fishing continues 

 good, and all hands are happy. The water is very high and 

 cool for this season of the year, and the trout have not been 

 obliged to go to the spring brooks for cold water. Many 

 large trout were taken in the rapids of the outlet in the first 

 ten days of July by Professors Newbury and Tuttle, of Cor- 

 nell, and through June many were taken in the lake trolling 

 with flies. This is a very* nice way to fish, as it requires 

 very little exertion; and, you know, a good fisherman is a 

 very lazy man. This may raise the dander of some who 

 have worked; a week for one trout. At the request of the 

 boys I have kept the score of the fish causht in the lake aud 

 inlet and outlet, wdiich were brought, to the house. The 

 number caught by parties fishing the outlet for a day we 

 know nothing of. The score for May wag 4,941 brook trout, 

 76 salmon trout; June, 2,113 brook trout, 15 salmon trout; 

 July (twelve days), 978 brook trout. There has not been so 

 little trolling for salmon trout in any season since I lived 

 here (thirteen years); all hands like brook trout fishing the 

 best. Very few small trout have been brought in.— A. R. 

 Fuller. 



Central Lake, Mich., July 10.— The fishing for bass 

 and trout in the Intermediate Lakes and their neighboring 

 streams, seems better this season than for some time past 

 Several good catches of bass are reported, though few here- 

 about have done much fishing as yet. I forward a copy of 

 the Bellaire Breeze, of July 9, with an item Stating that 

 Messrs. Briant, of Stanton, and Cheney, of Saginaw, took 

 home from an excursiou on the Cedar River some 200 trout, 

 of good size. Another "local" relates to an accident with a 

 double-bitted axe, and may serve as a corollary to the note I 

 lately sent you on that subject. — Kelpie. 



How to Catch Crayfish.^— If "W. L. A." will take an 

 ordinary minnow net, tie a piece of fresh beef in the bottom, 

 and drop it into the water where there arc crayfish he will 

 soon have more than he has any use for. They will fasten 

 fireedilyto the meat, and will not let go until taken off.— 

 G. H. Morgan, 



Fly-Fishing for Shad.— Last week Mr. Thomas Chal- 

 mers took a shad with the fly in the Connecticut River at 

 Holyoke, and one was taken by another gentleman. The 

 season is not fairly open. The water may fall some this 

 week and bring it right for sport. It continues high, but 

 unless heavy rains set in it must fall. 



■''Kengfishek's'' papers will be continued in an early 



issue. 



TINKLEWATER PROTECTED. 



TliSKLE WATER is really but an apology for a stream. On 

 an ordinary mail you might search in vain for ifc and 

 never find it. It only assumes some proportions on the town- 

 ship map, where the ambitious surveyor has made a Himalaya. 

 out of a range of little hills and a drain assumes the propor- 

 tions of the Amazon. Tinklewater, it is believed, rises from 

 the overflow of Farmer Brown's dairy, where a spring actu- 

 ally exists; but when that excellent woman Mrs. Brown has 

 a heavy wash a drought sets in for Tinklewater. Little hoys,, 

 intent on floating chip boats, sometimes dam up Tinklewater, 

 and have been known to come home with wet 

 tain seasons of the year Tinklewater quite disappears, and is 

 only remembered by the dry gutter it has left behind it. Still 

 Tinklewater lias an outlet.. With no body to speak of it has a 

 mouth, and when it does occasionally flow it is then supposed 

 to empty itself into Bogwash Pond, Bogwash is important, 

 for an enterprising miller has imprisoned its water, aud he 

 runs a small grist mill. It is possible that had there been no 

 Tinklewater there never would have been a Bogwash. 



]No one would ever have heard, then, of Tinklewater it not 

 for the Tinklewater Anglers' Association, The Tinklewater 

 Anglers' Association may be said to have made Tinklewater 

 famous. The members of that organization did not deepen 

 the channel of the. little stream, or embank it, or stock it with 

 fish. All they did was to hold a series of meetings, enlist the 

 services of the local newspaper, and advertise Tinklewater. 

 "At last," wrote, the newspaper, "our beautiful Tinkle v 

 about to receive the attention due to it. No longer will the 

 true lovers of sport be prevented from enjoying a day's. 

 amusement. No longer will the speckled beauties be hauled 

 out of our ombrageous (.sic) Tinklewater, and exhibited on the 

 slabs of the New York fish dealers. By reference to our ad- 

 vertising columns it will be seen that our enterprising fellow- 

 citizen, Peter Black, has in stock a thoroughly assorted line of 

 angling implements. Give him a call." 



Now, if the facts are sifted down to the bottom, it is doubt- 

 fid whether there ever had been a trout in Tinklewater. 

 Twenty-five years before the present date some ambitious 

 man had conceived the idea of building a summer hotel not 

 far from Tinklewater. Having only broken the ground for 

 his edifice, he had a flaming prospectus printed, into which 

 "Splendid Trout Fishing" had been introduced, but the hotel 

 never was finished. How was it possible that a mere rivulet 

 that ran as warm in summer as newly-drawn milk could have. 

 trout; Still the Tinklewater Anglers' Association voted unani- 

 mously that if there were no trout in their dribble of water,. 

 there ought to be, and it was moved and carried that the 

 absence of trout in Tinklewater was entirely due to the New. 

 York fish dealers, 



Now had Tinklewater any fish in it? When after a heavy 

 rain the miller at Bogwash had more water than he wanted 

 and closed his sluices," some few hsh did run into Tinklewater. 

 There was the cattish, the eel, an occasional sucker, the pret- 

 tily banded sunfish, minnows in abundance, aud the rarer 

 XJereh. To catch a perch was an event. It was wonderful 

 how many names were given that perch. Everybody called 

 it by a different name. Some insisted that it was a trout, 

 i at it was. a bass, while a traveled person, who had 

 once seen the ocean at a distance, called it a "sweet water 

 codfish." 



All the trouble about Tinklewater arose in this way: The 

 daughter of the President of the Tinklewater Anglers' Associ- 

 ation, an exceedingly pleasant and pretty young lady, invited 

 several friends to spend a week with hei-, and at once a. fishing 

 party was proposed. The Tinklewater Angling- AssO 

 had been quite a dead concern before this young lady, having 

 finished her studies, came to live in her father's house at 

 Tinklewater Cross Roads. Armed with their fishing poles, 

 the young ladies fished 'Tinklewater and caught nothing. Had 

 there eveii been an occasional catfish, the pretty anglers were 

 too unskilled to catch it. Perhaps there were other sources 

 of disappointment, as certain young gentlemen who had 

 promised to be present were ungallant enough not to present 

 themselves. Anyhow, the daughter of the President of the 

 Tinklewater Anglers' Association came home without a fish, 

 flushed and angry. . 



At once she went to her father. "TV hat,' she wanted to 

 know, ' 'is the use of your being the President of an anglers' 

 association when here was the Tinklewater without a fish m 

 it? Wiry don't you do something? That was the way with 

 men. They fussed over things, and talked over things, and 

 never did anything. There was that anglers' association, of 

 which you have been President for years? What's the use of 

 such an old fogy concern? I wish you had some women 

 among your officers, then we would wake you up." 



"Why, my dear," answered the President, "to my certain 

 knowledge I haven't fished for twenty years, and I don't 



