April 15, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



227 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS.* 



CARP LAKE, MICHIGAN— Vn. 



THE morning dawned gloomy and dismal and rainy, with 

 a sharp cold wind blowing from the west that chilled 

 us to the bones, and the girls came reluctantly out of the 

 "hennery" at the call to get ready for breakfast, without the 

 usual cheerful morning "cackle," and stood shivering around 

 the glowing stoves with a far-away, wish 1-was-home look 

 on their lengthened faces. This seemed mightily to the 

 pleasurement of that philosopher Al, who was industriously 

 dodging and elbowing his way around among the blue-look- 

 ing crowd as he got the breakfast ready. Meantime chuck- 

 ling softly to himself at his great luck— as Ben and 1 figured 

 it out— in finding his kitchen and cooking utensils in so much 

 better shape than was to be looked for after the violent storm 

 of the previous night. But more than likely the little one- 

 sided chuckling match the philosopher was consoling him- 

 self with was in the nature of getting even with the girls for 

 laughing at him when told of his struggles with his tent 

 during the night; however, the exact cause of his unusual 

 cheerfulness remains an unsolved mystery to this day. 



It was indeed a spiritless crowd, but I am not quite sure 

 but old Ben and the skipper of the holler log edged along to 

 the further end of the table to nudge each other and work 

 off a shivery snicker at the general cerulean aspect of the 

 camp. 



It was pleasing, however, to note the effect of a cup of hot 

 coffee and a good breakfast on the temper of the party. 

 Loug faces shortened up, an air of good humor diffused 

 itself through the camp, and every one seemed determined 

 to make the best of an uncomfortable position without 

 grumbling. 



A rousing fire was built directly in front of the big store 

 tent, the flaps tied back, and into this the happy family 

 gathered to chat, read, amuse themselves, and wish for 

 pleasant weather. 



Sunday should be a day of rest in a camp, and I had prom- 

 ised myself to stay in as a shining example to the others, but 

 when the spirit begins early in the morning to wheedle one 

 into going a-fishin', it's not much use in trying to hold out 

 against it, and accordingly between 9 and 10 o'clock the in- 

 clination prevailed. I bailed out one of the boats, put in a 

 bucket of frogs, bait box of worms, the old bass rod and a 

 short stiff one, handy to get along with in the brush, and 

 beaded up shore to find a trout stream which one of the 

 Horton boys had told us about, that came into the lake a 

 couple of miles above camp. 



Mother Jim and her sister Fanny having been brought up 

 in the rigid old mossbacked Scotch Presbyterian faith, 

 were no doubt bonified at this move; but as tbe sin of fish- 

 ing on a Sunday is probably not greater than that of loafing 

 in camp and thinking about it all day, making imaginary 

 casts and bringing to gaff or net a brave, strong fish the 

 whiles, I settled with my conscience in this view of it, and, 

 bending to the oars, was soon out of sight around the point 

 above Horton's, looking for the landmark by which I was to 

 find the mouth of the stream. The others seemed to have 

 caught, tbe spirit of goodness pervading Mother Jim, or per- 

 haps they did not care to brave the discomforts of the cold 

 Wind and rain, and I was to have the day to myself. 



I failed to find the landmark or the mouth of the stream, 

 as it was lost in a maze of swamps and dead trees, killed by 

 the backwater, that extended back I could not tell how far 

 in the direction of the hills, and I had a pull of nearly a mile 

 further before I could find a place where I could make 

 a landing — at Alexander's Point, full three miles from 

 camp. 



Here tbe lake takes a turn in a southwesterly direction, 

 and from this point to the head is about four miles. The 

 wiDd had veered around since my leaving camp, and was 

 now blowing down this long stretch with a force that 

 kicked up white-capped waves three or four feet high and 

 rolling and tumbling, quartering down the lake till they 

 spent themselves with a roar and a cloud of spray against 

 tbe further shore. 



Directly across from the Point is a big steam sawmill and 

 a small hamlet (Bingham P. O.), and, as a matter of infor- 

 mation for the brethren, I may note that it is about nine 

 mill s from Traverse City by wagon road, and that Mr. B. J. 

 Morgan a livery man at Traverse, has a boat house here and 

 boats to hire to any one wishing to drive out for a day's 

 fishing. 



As it was useless to think of making headway agaiust the 

 heavy wind and sea, sweeping by only a few rods away, 1 

 pulled the boat up under the shelter of the point, hid the 

 bass rod in a handy pile of logs, took the other one and 

 worms, and crossing a field of growing peas, struck into a 

 road, which I followed back till I found the trout stream, 

 a puny affair a yard or two wide and slightly discolored by 

 the heavy rain of the previous night. There are trout 

 streams and trout brooks, and this was perhaps one of the 

 latter, but it took another and equally as bad a day to 

 establish the fact that there were some good trout in it, of 

 which more anon. This dreary Sabbath day 1 fished for a 

 goodly distance down and up, through an open field and up 

 into the woods into a dripping tangle of "bresh," floundering 

 over logs and fallen trees, crawling under them when I 

 couldn't crawl over, nearly stuck fast once in a treacherous 

 swamp, and ever fighting skeeters; all this without catching 

 sight of a solitary fin. 



There is a good deal of straight fun in fishing an average 

 Michigan trout stream in its wild state if you know just how 

 to do it, but it requires long practice and a thorough train- 

 ing in all the grades of true goodness to do it without drift- 

 ing into profanity, I've trieel it week days and Sundays, 

 and always with results bordering more or less on a failure. 

 It is no place for an average church deacon, for he would 

 backslide to the level of an ordinary, every day sinuer before 

 he had fished and ' fit muskeeters" five rods. I worked 

 back out of the tangle into the road, hot and tired, and 

 trudged back to the boat filled with disgust and disappoint- 

 ment, for I wished very much to treat the girls to a trout 

 supper as a peace offering, a bribe, so to speak, to go easy on 

 the skipper iu the matter of the scoring they were certain to 

 have laid up for him for the sin of Sunday fishing. But I 

 "hadn't ketched nuthin'," and the sin was perhaps not so 

 flagrant as it might bave been. 



The rain had stopped, but the wind had increased and the 

 lake was rougher than when 1 left it to hunt the trout 

 stream. I tied a troller on the bass line, and getting in the 

 boat, pulled out past the point into the waves and headed 



♦Continued from page 4C0, Vol. XXIV. , July 16. 38S5. Old Ben aug 

 gesrs that "as it lies bin sich a long spell between drinks, the 'Jones 

 family' had better apologize to the brethiin' an' ask 'em all into the 

 big tent to hev a drink— o' water.*' The apology and invitation are 

 hereby tendered.— K. 



with the wind for the further shore with the swiftly-revolv- 

 ing spoon trailing 200 feet astern, a tempting sham for any 

 bass, pickerel or maskalonge that might mistake the glitter- 

 ing, quivering thing for a new-fangled bug that he had not 

 sampled. 



It was a wild ride for three-quarters of a mile, first on top 

 of a big wave then bow buried in a roller with stern high in 

 air, raising the line clear of the water with a jerk that caused 

 the troller to skip from the crest of one wave to another like 

 a bright-winged insect full of life; again stern down and bow 

 high out, pitching and rolling we went, the boat and I, over 

 the curling waves till, when near the middle of the lake, a 

 savage tug tightened the line like a bow string, and before I 

 could free the reel handle and snatch the rod from under my 

 leg, the strain eased, and a glance at the sagging line and 

 "feel" of the reel handle tokfthe tale; the troller was gone, 

 and with it, of course, tbe mightiest pickerel or maskalonge 

 in the lake. I felt sore over the mishap, but then, one always 

 does lose his biggest fish, simply, I believe, because he is big 

 and strong and powerful enough to break ordinary tackle, 

 if inadvertently the slightest advantage is allowed, and I 

 consoled myself with a quotation, slightly altered, from old 

 Ben: "Any fool kin ketch a pound bass, but it takes science 

 to ketch a big muskylunge, espeshally ef he slips up on ye 

 when ye ain't a-lookin'." Besides, had I been attending 

 strictly to business instead of gaping around over the lake 

 enjoying the blow, I would have lost him anyhow, for the 

 water was so rough and I was going at such a pace that I 

 would not have been able to handle boat and rod at the 

 same time. There's nothing like a good excuse for losing a 

 big fish, and the brother that can't make peace with himself 

 for his awkwardness by framing a plausible and satisfying 

 reason that will cover all the weak spots in the case, had 

 better not go a-fishing. "When I found out it was not my 

 fault — and it is surprising how easy a conclusion of this kind 

 is arrived at -I felt easier; but I did not feel like telling the 

 camp of the adventure, and being laughed at as the "peer- 

 less prevaricator, "according to "Old Knots," and to this day 

 they don't know tbat "old Hickory's calamity box" is short 

 its most enticing troller. {Note — To whom it may concern: 

 Tell no "fish story" to old campers without the fish to back 

 it up; they've been there). 



After pulling down shore for half a mile into compara- 

 tively quiet water I reeled up to see how much of the line 

 had s;oue with the troller and found dangling at the end of it 

 a fragment of the broken swivel — nothing more— and this 

 accounted for the calamity. That fish must certainly have 

 been a thirty pounder. 



The philosopher had told us of a trout stream coming into 

 the lake near where I then was, out of which he had taken 

 over 70 trout a couple of days before we arrived, but there 

 was such a dense growlh of deadened trees standing in the 

 backwater along here for half a mile and extending back 

 further than I could see through the network and tangle of 

 dead trunks and leafless branches, that I looked iu vain for 

 the mouth of the stream. There were more days left, 

 however, and the stream could be more easily reached by an 

 old road beginning at the water at a point opposite camp, 

 and the signs were not good for trout that day and ' 'the J onses 

 wasn't used to hevin' trout o' Sundays nohow," all these 

 trifling drawbacks making a most gratifying excuse for not 

 taking any back to camp. 



I tied on a hook, put on a live kicking frog and at a point 

 where the shore swept back, forming a little bay, soon for- 

 got all about tangles and trout streams in a lively fight with 

 a big-mouthed bass of quite three pounds. In less than an 

 hour five more were on the stringer shedding fresh water 

 tears of regret over the unsatisfying results following their 

 several encounters with a speckled frog with a fishhook iu 

 his mouth, when, as six bass were enough for supper and 

 breakfast the boat was headed for camp, now in plain sight, 

 the stars and stripes whippiug in the breeze, a mile or more 

 down the lake, but 1 may say (this for the especial eye of 

 old Dave) that the start to" camp was not decided on till some 

 time after the fish had quit biting. 



I found the family, except Dan and Ben, iu the big tent as 

 comfortable as a good fire in front could make them, but 

 wearing an aspect of "subdued cheerfulness" that said plainly 

 they were all glad the dismal, gloomy day was about draw- 

 ing to a close I fancied, too, I could detect in the reproving 

 lance of Mother Jim the symptoms of the expected lecture 



no doubt merited (for not bringing in a mess of trout), anel 

 I could have hugged "Top" (a "nickname old Ben had be- 

 stowed on little Cora Muller) when she broke the silence by 

 asking naively, "Did you catch any fish, James Mackerel?" 

 This raised a general laugh at the expense of "James 

 Mackerel," and diverted Mother Jim's thoughts from the 

 scoring she had doubtless mapped out in her mind for J. M., 

 and taking advantage of the hilarity Top and I repaired to 

 the boat to look at the bass, the others following shortly, 

 Mother Jim with the rest, so innate is the desire in us all to 

 view the trophies of a sportsman's skill with rod or gun, even 

 though killed on a day that should be devoted to better pur- 

 suits. But if Sunday fishing is a sin, it is easier to be a sin- 

 ner than a saint, and" it would seem the brethren of the rod 

 have need to mend their ways. 



I may note that from that evening on Top and the Skipper 

 had a good many little confidences together— a relation which 

 has since grown into a kind of "June and January" friend- 

 ship, and, I take it, no man is the worse for the friendship 

 of a pure-minded, artless little girl. 



Those two old worthies, Dan and "Hyperboler Jones" (the 

 girls had so named old Ben), had dozed around camp most 

 of the day suffering in silence, but when the rain was over 

 the longing to go a-fishing was no longer to be resisted, and 

 they had bailed out a boat and taken 'their way down the 

 lake, as Ben said, "to limber up their jints an' sneak 'round 

 kinder onconsarned like an' find out whereabouts the bass 

 an' pickerel held their Sundajr schools." 



They came in a short time before supper was ready with 

 four or five bass, a couple of pickerel and a dogfish of over 

 two feet in length, the latter identical in appearance with 

 dogfish found in Lake Erie, the Wabash, Kankakee, and 

 Tippecanoe rivers ; the same eel-shaped mouth, dorsal and 

 caudal, with the same black spot on each side of the 

 tail fin near the base, and the same little bead-like, snaky 

 eyes. They may, and no doubt do, inhabit other lakes in 

 Northern Michigan, but Carp Like is the only one we have 

 taken them in. Their flesh is soft and mushy, and utterly 

 worthless for the table; the longer it is cooked the "slicker" 

 it gets; but they are a powerful, hard -fighting fish, and about 

 the meanest, vicious-lookiug devils that infest the water. I 

 merely record the fact without comment, that the natives 

 around Carp Lake call them "lawyers." 



Before supper was over the rain began to fall again, and 

 continued throughout the night. KmopisHER. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



ATTACHING DROPPERS. 



NOW tbat the angling season is so nearly ready to begin, 

 almost every angler will be overhauling his tackle, etc. 

 A new stock of leaders he will either buy or tie. So I think 

 it will be perhaps pardoned me, if I present the method I 

 have elaborated for attaching droppers to leaders, in con- 

 sideration of the fact that it will be useful to many of the 

 fraternity. It may very likely happen that this method is, 

 in slang, "a chestnut." I have shown it to a number of my 

 friends, and have found none who have seen it before. They 

 have adopted it and assure me that it is very satisfactory; at 

 least, there will be some to whom it is new, and to them I 

 recommend it, and hope those who may perhaps have already 

 struck upon it will forgive me for the sake of those who 

 have not. The drawings will, I think, explain themselves. 

 In tying lengths of gut together to make the leader, when 

 you arrive at the point where it is desired to have a dropper 

 loop, say thirty inches for a fine trout leader, or three feet 

 for a heavy trout or bass, from the lower end to which the 

 stretcher fly is looped, double the gut back, making a loop 

 up the leader, lay the other upper strand alongside, as in 

 Fig. 1, then make a curl in them all and pass loop and line 

 gut through, or in other words, make a knot, as in ordinary 

 tying. 



It will then present the appearauce of Fig. 2. Then 

 draw down tight, and, having the gut well soaked and soft, 

 take the loop just tied in one hand and the upper end, C, in 

 the other, and pull them strongly apart, so that the loop will 

 be pulled down the line. Then when released, instead of 

 pointing straight up the leader and lying hard on C, it will 



A 



point out nearly at right angles. The advantages of this loop, 

 which is seen on a completed leader in Fig. 3, and in which 

 A is the stretcher loop, B the dropper loop and C the upper 

 or reel- line loop, are these: As flies are tied nowadays they 

 invariably come on short gut snells, terminated by a loop; it 

 is highly'desirable to be able to use the same fly indifferently 

 for stretcher or dropper. It may be that some day they will 

 be tied on eyed hooks, and we can then follow the ideas of 

 some of our angling authors, but until they do, the attach- 

 ing of tbe dropper will always be a nuisance, according to 

 the old methods. This way enables any man, whether he 

 be an adept in making tackle or not, to fasten on or take 

 off in a moment a dropper as easily as a stretcher. The ad- 

 vantage of tying the loop into the line in this way is that 

 pointing up and being a short stiff loop, the dropper always 

 stands out at a right angle with the line, making it an im- 

 possibility for it to foul with the leader ; the hook is never 

 curled over the line, so if a fish strikes he gets it into his 

 mouth as easily as the stretcher fly. 



This idea is not wholly original with me, for Mr. Up De- 

 Graff, in "Bodine's," presented the leader shown in Fig. 4. I 

 tried this, but found that the loop standing on a stem, so to 

 speak, of single gut, soon dragged down and lay along the 

 line; I then tried tying the loop into the line, with perfectly 

 satisfactory results. The extra stiffness acquired in this 

 way obviates the former difficulty. As it might, however, 

 be too stiff at first, the pulling it out at a right angle is 

 recommended. It may be claimed that this loop will crack, 

 when the dropper is struck by a heavy fish, at the knot. 1 

 always soak my leaders or keep them moist awhile, before 

 using them in any case, to have them soft and pliable. I 

 have used this method for two years now, and have never 

 had an accident from it, nor have any of my friends, although 

 the leaders have been hard worked and have often landed 

 two large bass at once. As has been observed, "the proof 

 of the pudding," etc., and ! have tested this to my entire 

 satisfaction and, with the precautions I have mentioned, and 

 which should be used on any leader, in any case, I think it 

 will be, by all those to whom it is new and who care to try 

 it. Percyval. 



Opening the Season on Green Creek, L. I,— Editor 

 Forest and Stream : I opened the ball on Green Creek with 

 the best day's fishing 1 ever had there. A friend and I 

 killed 98 trout, weighing in all 41 £ lbs. We did not strike 

 any very large ones, the biggest of the lot being only 1^ lbs. 

 I lost one fish that may have been bigger, but I am rather 

 wary about estimating size of lost fish. I would rather be- 

 lieve a poor pair of scales than George Washington. The 

 greater number of fish were just about i lb. each, a very 

 nice size for light tackle, and especially considering the 

 unusually fine condition the fish are in for the season. The 

 trout are about as far advanced as I generally find them the 

 latter part of April. They are round and full of vigor, 

 take the fly on the surface and give great sport in handling. 

 Used hooks about two sizes sandier than I am accustomed 

 to fish with April 1. The best patterns of flies were Abbey, 

 Grizzly King, Lowery and Professor.— Chas. F. Imbree. 



Neyersink. Club.— New York, April 9.— The third 

 annual meeting of the Neversink Club took place at the office 

 of D. "W. James, Jr. , April 5. Alfred Roe was re-elected 

 president, and W. Holberton secretary and treasurer. The 

 club is in flourishing condition. Unusual care will be taken 

 the coming season to guard the stream against poaching. 

 Since the last annual meeting the club has purchased most 

 of the property they formerly leased.— W. Holberton, Sec. 



Two bills for the benefit of the trees have passed the Con- 

 necticut Senate. One exempts from taxation for twenty 

 years land not worth over §25 an acre on which 1,200 trees to 

 the acre have been planted and have reached the height of 

 six feet. The other, to prevent forest fires, visits severe penal- 

 ties on those who kindle fires iu wood land. There is to be 

 an arbor day. 



