90 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



LFeb. 25, 1886. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



FLORIDA BASS. 



SINCE the Herald has vented its wrath against Florida I 

 have been almost afraid to write about the sporting 

 there, but an article in your last issue nerved me up to it. I 

 spent the month of December, 1884, in the Lake Region of 

 Florida shooting and fishing. Being a great lover of the fly 

 rod 1 carried a rig and my fly-book, but in talking it over 

 with the local fishermen f came to the conclusion they would 

 be of no use and gave myself up to bait-fishing. Bait is very 

 scarce and difficult to obtain, but the bass are not particular 

 and will take anything that has fins. One evening we 

 decided to make the first attempt and the darky cut some 

 pine knots and I made a minnow net about eight inches in 

 diameter and we started for bait. Arriving at the lake the 

 knots soon showed me the dim outlines of a minnow and I 

 made a lunge for him, but he was out of reach before my net 

 touched the water, and I tried one after another until I was 

 almost discouraged, but resolved to try once more, and suc- 

 ceeded in throwing the net squarely over the minnow, which 

 was about five inches long and almost transparent. At the 

 end of two hours I gave it up, having caught only eight, but 

 my back ached as badly as if I had paddled a canoe all day. 

 Livelier pieces of fish flesh I never saw. 



We went home and before I retired 1 took down my flies 

 and looked them over and was more thoroughly disgusted 

 with bait-fishing than ever and longed to try the feathers. 

 The next morning we started out and walked two miles to a 

 clear water lake and, having found a punt, pushed off. I 

 was then a novice in Florida fishing and open for instructions, 

 and as per orders I produced a hook large enough for a 

 striped bass and bent it on. I was amused but said nothing 

 until the darky wanted me to use his old pole, and then my 

 sportsman dignity asserted itself and I drew the line at trees 

 for poles. I jointed my fly-rod and used a braided oiled silk 

 which had done service in Mooseshead waters. I hooked on a 

 bait and was about to cast when Sam said, "Look at dat 

 fellah!" (I looked over the side of the boat and at the 

 bottom lay a large bass fanning the sand with his fins.) 

 "Does you spec to ketch dat fehah wid dat whip?" I told 

 him to back the boat a little and I dropped the bait over the 

 fish, and although the water was at least ten feet deep it was so 

 clear I could see his motions when he darted forward and 

 closed on it. 



The reel buzzed and my rod bent double, but at last I suc- 

 ceeded in stopping him, and then with a splash he cleared 

 the water, making a clear leap. My nerves were all on edge 

 and I settled to work, but he was not very gamy and soon 

 gave up. He tipped the scales a trifle under six pounds. I 

 was satisfied to let Sam use up the balance of the bait, which 

 he did and caught a fish with every one. While he was fish- 

 ing a shower came up and the surface of the lake fairly 

 boiled with the splashes of the bass. I quietly put on a 

 leader and a fly made of the breast feathers of the wood duck 

 and commenced casting and caught two or three small ones 

 but was not satisfied. I made Sam row the boat slowly 

 while I trailed the fly about twenty-five yards behind and we 

 had not gone far when T hooked into something and com- 

 menced reeling in as Sam backed the boat, but suddenly the 

 line tautened up and the reel commenced to click pretty 

 fast. 1 thought I had hooked into a 'gator but the next lunge 

 was too quick for anj^thing but a fish and I knew he was a 

 big one. 



Yisions of fifteen and twenty pounders, which the natives 

 tell about, flitted across my mind and then I thought of my 

 eleven-ounce rod, light line and small fly and knew I had 

 work before me if I saved him. He made another lunge and 

 broke clean out of the water, shaking his immense gills and 

 dropping with a splash. I gave him the butt, but it was of 

 no use, off he started, and when he had hardly left me a rod 

 of line, I turned him and he came in like a turtle until within 

 twenty feet of the boat and off he started with a tremendous 

 rush. Twice he served me the same trick and he seemed 

 less exhausted than I, but the third time he apparently gave 

 up and I brought him to the boat, only to have Sam miss 

 him with the gaff, and off he started, ran off twenty yards or 

 more and stopped, and no pulling or jerking would make 

 him start; so keeping a steady strain on bim, he at last 

 started again as lively as ever and I was obliged to repeat 

 the operations of the previous ten minutes before he gave up 

 and I succeeded in gaffing him. I was tired out but had 

 caught my fish, and only my reader, who has hooked a ten- 

 pound fish on tackle that is only intended for a two-pounder 

 at the outside, can imagine my excitement and pleasure. An 

 hour after, when we reached home, the fish weighed eleven 

 pounds and three ounces, which can be proved by five per- 

 sons and one of them a notary public. I have caught a 

 great many bass since but never will forget that one. I 

 have caught from twenty to eighty in an afternoon and my 

 fly never failed me, but never caught a big fish by casting. 

 The May fly, or as near like it as possible, about the size of 

 lake trout flies on a double leader, killed more bass for me 

 than anything else, phantom minnow included. 



My experience has been gathered during the past four 

 winters, in which time I have spent at least thirteen months 

 among the clear water lakes situated south and east of Lake 

 Eustis, Orange county. 



One has to be very careful of Florida stories since the 

 Herald crusade, and I suppress a great many adventures 

 which would undoubtedly be set down as "yarns." It is 

 unnecessary for me to tell fishermen who go there that where 

 one person (inexperienced) gets good sport, twenty fail to 

 find it because they do not know how. The following inci- 

 dent will be a good example. 



Last winter I started out one Saturday afternoon for some 

 fun with my rod and rifle strapped to my saddle. I had not 

 gone far when I met two gentlemen similarly equipped and 

 hoping for a kindred spirit I spoke to them and in course of 

 the conversation found they were keen anglers and had been 

 fishing two weeks without success. The darky who ac- 

 companied them that day had met them at the depot and 

 promised to give them some good fishing, and consequently 

 was hired at $1.50 a day. They gave him seven dollars to 

 repair an old scow, and at the end of two weeks they had 

 no boat or fish, had paid out $25, and were thoroughly re- 

 solved never to come to Florida fishing again and were 

 making their last attempt at fishing that day. I promised 

 them some sport on the condition that they would send that 

 darky away, for I recognized him as the one who had paid 

 me a similar although not so expensive a trick. At my sug- 

 gestion they went back and got their fly-rods and book and 

 we started off for a lake I had lately found to be full of fish. 



It was stormy and warm and just my favorite time and I 

 boasted a little that I would show them all the fish they 

 wished to catch, and I did. I never saw the fish bite as they 

 did for the next three hours, and they were large ones. One 

 person rowed while two fished and when we counted up at 

 five o'clock we had sixty-five bass that would average two 

 pounds apiece, ranging from one to seven pounds, and this 

 can be proved also. At Sam's request I gave him a fly, and 

 the next day I found him diligently fishing with a float on 

 his line and the fly on for bait; he gave it back to me 

 that night saying he could not catch anythiug with "deni 

 feders." 



I d.o not like to see a man struck when he is down, and 

 Florida has received a severe blow in the last cold wave, 

 but all its enemies cannot hurt it one iota or keep it from 

 being the delightful winter resort that it is for sportsmen. I 

 speak as a sportsman and not a land speculator. 



It is true, one cannot sit on the hotel steps and catch fish 

 as in Bermuda, or kill wild turkey out of the window, but 

 good fishing and shooting can be had even in Florida. And 

 a better place for a cruise in a canoe a canoeist could not 

 wish for than is found in Charlotte Harbor or any other in- 

 let or river south of Tampa, on the Gulf Coast. Ask Ness- 

 muk. F. P. S. 



WIND. 



MANY books on angling contain explicit directions con- 

 cerning the proper weather for fishing, and especially 

 which way the wind should blow to secure success. These 

 have been copied one from another, and have become so im- 

 pressed upon the literature of fishing as to have become part 

 and parcel of the creed of many who seek recreation by lake 

 and stream. These maxims are, almost without exception, 

 taken from old English books, and no doubt had a very re- 

 mote origin. These older books have been made accessible 

 to the modern angler by the most excellent reprints of Mr. 

 Thomas Satchell. without whose researches and enthusiasm 

 few of us w r ould ever have had the pleasure of beholding 

 their pages; the originals in many cases being confined to 

 two or three copies, which are treasured in public or private 

 libraries and are without price. In days when these weather- 

 wise sayings were recorded, the English angler was, owing 

 so the difficulties that attended travel, mainly confined to 

 the waters of his district which could be reached in a day, 

 either by coach or on foot ; and therefore a saying regard- 

 ing the wind, in which he found some truth, may have been 

 applicable to the eastern coast where the west wind blew 

 down the stream, and therefore must have been somewhat 

 at fault on the opposite side of the island where the same 

 wind blew up the stream. 



This subject has been brought to notice by a correspondent 

 in a Western State, who writes, asking if there be any truth 

 in the old legend, which says : 



"When the wind is in the north. 

 The skillful fisher goes not forth; 

 When the wind is in the east, 

 It is good for neither man nor beast; 

 When the wind is in the west, 

 Then it is at its very best; 

 When the wind is in the south, 

 It blows the baitin the fish's mouth." 



I answered him that the last couplet probably contained as 

 much truth as the remainder of the stanza. His query set 

 me to looking up what some of those old authors have said 

 on the subject, and while there has much been written on 

 the weather in general, I will quote only a few things which 

 relate more particularly to the wind. In an old notebook of 

 mine the following occurs, copied years ago from some 

 source now forgotten: 



"Whanne ye west wynde it schall blowe 

 Fort ye flscher he schall goe; 

 Yet if to eastward it scball change, 

 Furder ye flscher seball not range; 

 Whanne from ye nort ye wynde schall come, 

 Ye wisest flscher stayeth home. 

 But if to southward it schall veere, 

 It bryngeth to ye flscher cheer." 



The Germans say: 



"Bei Ostwind und glanzendem Sonnenschein 

 Beissen die Fische nicht, das prage dir eiD ; 

 Doch fragst du, welch' Wind dem Angler am besteri, 

 So sage ich, der von Suden oder Siidwesten." 



This may be translated : 



"When the wind is east and the sun shines bright 



Bear this in mind, the fish w r on't bite. 



But if you ask, 'What wind is best?' 



I'll answer, 'From either south or southwest.' "* 



Dame Juliana Berners [1450] says: "And if it be a cold, 

 westeling wynde and a darke, lowryng day, then will the 

 fysche commonly bite all day. * * * Ye shall angle, as 

 1 said be for, in dark, lowryng wedur when the wynde blow- 

 ethe softly, and in somer seasen when it is brennyng hot. 

 It is from September unto April and in a fajr Sonne day is 

 good to angle in, and if the wynde that seasen leave any part 

 of the oriente northe, the wetur then is good, and wen it is 

 a greate wynde, it snowyt, reynet or haylyth, thonderyt or 

 lightneth or also minynge [sweltering] tioyt that is not to 

 angle. " 



Note now how Master Leonard Mascall [1590] bodily steals 

 from the Dame, not troubling himself to change her phrase- 

 ology, rightly thinking that in those days a book one hun- 

 dred and forty years old washout of print and unknown to his 

 generation. Collectors of angling books were rare in his 

 day, and Mascall might have thought that he was alone in 

 the desire to preserve such as he could find. Certainly he 

 did gather and unblushingly appropriate their contents and 

 pass them off as original, not dreaming or caring that a 

 Thomas Satchell was to arise who would not only ransack 

 the libraries of the world for old fishing books, but would 

 actually reprint them verbatim for anglers nearly three hun- 

 dred years later, and that the literary angler of that remote 

 period would be able to judge how much of a work was 

 original, or what portion the author had seen fit to — 



*Since the above was written I have come across the following in 

 Salter's "Angler's Guide:" 



"Wnen east wind blows or sunshines bright. 



Then don't expect the fish will bite. 



If ask'd. 'What wind suits angling best?' 



I answer, 'The south, or southwest.' " 

 Whether Salter took this from some old German saying, or whether 

 some German translated it from him, is beyond my knowledge. In 

 the language of the showman when asked, "Which figures in the 

 painting represented Daniel and which the lions?" I can only say: 

 "Which ever you please my little dears, you pays your money and 

 you takes your choice," 



"convey, the wise call it." What he borrows from Dame 

 Juliana on this subject is (note the almost identical lan- 

 guage): 



"Here ye shall vnderstand in what wether ye shall best 

 angle as aforesaide in the darke louring day, when the wiude 

 bloweth southly from the south or west; in the summer sea- 

 son when the sunne is very bote, it is then naught to angle, 

 but from September vnto April! , it is then good in a faire 

 sunny day, the winde being then good ; if it haue any part 

 of the Orient or east, it is then naught to angle, for they will 

 not byte, or when it is a great winde, snow, raine, or haile. 

 or in a great tempest of thunder, or lightening, for it feareth 

 them, or els in a swooly hote wether, all these times are not 

 good to angle for to take fish." 



Dr. Edward Hamilton tells us: "Recollections of Fly 

 Fishing for Salmon, Trout and Grayling," 1885; in comment- 

 ing on Walton's "Dark Day and a Right Wind:" "A dark 

 day and a right wind no doubt is every fly -fisher's wish 

 when he goes a fishing— but which is a right wind? 

 'When the wind is in the south 

 It blows the the bait in the fish's mouth. ' 



"Others are loud in the praises of a westerly wind, but to 

 quote from the 'Compleat Angler' again, Walton hits the 

 mark in the following passage: 'And yet, as Solomon ob- 

 serves, that 'he that considers the winds, shall never sow,' so 

 he that busies his head too much about them, if the weather 

 , be not made extreme cold by an east wind, shall be a little 

 superstitious, for as it is observed by some, there is no good 

 horse of a bad color, so I have observed, that if it be a cloudy 

 day and not extremely cold, let the wind set in what corner 

 it will, and do its worst, 1 heed it not." 



John Dennys [1613], who in rhyme tell us the "Secrets of 

 Angling," gives such directions that if one relies upon his 

 minute instructions, he need only consult "Old Probabili- 

 ties" twenty-four hours in advance, in order to foretell what 

 sized creel he need carry. He warbles: 



"But if the weather stedfast be and cleare, 

 Or ouercast with clouds, so it be dry, 



And that no signe nor token there appeare, 

 Of threatening storm through all the empty skie. 



But that the ayre is clame and void of feare 

 Of ruffling windes or raging tempest hie, 



Or that with milde and gentle gale they blow, 

 Then it is good unto the brooke to goe. 

 ********* 



When faire Aurora rising early shewes, 

 Her blushing face beyond the Easterne hills, 



And dyes the heauenly vault with purple rewes, 

 That far abroad the world with brightnes flls, 



The meadowes greene are hoare with siluer dewes. 

 That on the earth the sable night distills. 



And chanting birds with merry notes bewray, 

 The neere approaching of the cheerfull day. 



Then let him goe to riuer, brooke or lake, 

 That loues the sport, where store of fish abound. 



And through the pleasant fields his iourney make, 

 Amidst sweet pastures, meadowes fresh and sound, 

 Where he may be best his choice of pastime take 

 While swift Hyperion runnes his circle round; 

 And as the place shall to his liking proue, 

 There still remaine or further else remoue. 

 And finally boils it down to this : 



All windes are hurtful if too hard they blow, 

 The worst of all is that out of the East, 

 Whose nature makes the Fish to biting slow. 

 And lets the pastime most of all the rest; 

 The next that comes from countries clad with Snow, 

 And Articque pole is not offensive least, 



The Southern winde is counted best of all, 



Then, that which riseth where the sunne doth fall. 



In my own experience and from that of gentlemen with 

 whom 1 have fished, I incline to relegate all this weather 

 wisdom to the books of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. If 

 it were true that such formulas " could be laid down, they 

 would apply only to particular streams. The youthful 

 angler who burdens his mind with these quaint old sayings 

 and allows them to control his judgment in the selection of 

 a day when he may sally forth, "armed and equipped as the 

 law directs," will forego many a good day's fishing. 



I remember in particular one morning in the Adirondack 

 region before the month of May had advanced into its teens, 

 when a young friend who had camped with me over night 

 and was filled with the knowledge that comes from such 

 sources as I have mentioned, rose and looked out of the 

 tent and said, "There is a raw east wind and it is not worth 

 while to go on the lake to-day." I decided to go, after 

 arguing the question with him a little while, but he staid in 

 the camp and read during the morning. I had three hours 

 of most excellent fishing; The fish rose to the fly freely and 

 on my return to camp I brought him thirteen as fine trout 

 as the lake produced, averaging nearly a pound each. I 

 have fished with him many times since and to-day it is 

 amusing to hear him scoff at the precepts which he had 

 formerly regarded as being part of the fundamental rules to 

 be observed by an angler. 



Without doubt a strong wind blowing directly up or down 

 the stream may at times affect the fishing; it is probable, 

 however, that the temperature of the water in hastening or 

 retarding the developement of the insect larva and causing 

 them to rise speedily and take the winged state or to remain 

 at the bottom, has more effect on the appetite of trout 

 than the direction of the wind. Sir Humphrey Davy says : 

 "We cannot* judge of the senses of animals that breathe 

 water— that separate air from water by their gills; but it 

 seems probable that, as the quantity of the water is con- 

 nected with their life and health, they must be exquisitely 

 sensible to changes in water, and must have similar relations 

 to it that an animal with the most delicate nasal organs has 

 to air." 



There seems to be more good sense summed up in that 

 sentence than all I have quoted before. I have spoken 

 mainly of trout, and if any of our fishes are affected by 

 slight'ehanges of temperature which affect the motions of 

 their delicate insect food, the trout would seem to be the 

 most susceptible of these influences. I very much doubt 

 whether pike are influenced by the wind at all. It is pos- 

 sible that they, like the trout, are inclined to take the lure 

 more or less freely as the sky may be overcast or clear. But 

 I doubt if many other atmospheric changes have any in- 

 fluence upon them. 



My own rule is to fish when I feel like it and to take the 

 weather as it comes; and I have never been able to forecast 

 my catch by a glance at the sky or by the movement of the 

 treetops. I have made good catches on most unlikely days; 



