June 24, 1886. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



433 



so admirably managed on Saturday at Twickenham by the 

 Richmond Piscatorial Society, who this year relieved Mr. 

 Marston of the management, to the primary programme of 

 contests there are added musical performances by a military 

 band, and a handing over of proceeds to worthy societies 

 like the Thames Angling Preservation Society and the Ang- 

 lers' Benevolent Society, elements of attractiveness are intro- 

 duced not usually found iu angling as a practical sport." 



The Standard says: "Such a gathering of anglers from all 

 parts of the kingdom has not been witnessed in the suburbs 

 of London for many years, and it is certain that no previous 

 tournament has awakened more interest or attracted a larger 

 attendance." 



MAINE ANGLING. 



IT would be hard to imagine a more satisfactory trouting 

 season than that of 1886 is proving to be. The open- 

 ing of the season was remarkably early in eastern waters, 

 and in consequence the first movement of sportsmen was 

 light. But this has since been made up by a fuller exodus, 

 if we may believe hotel and camp-keepers and stage drivers, 

 who report a good trade. As to the catch of both trout 

 and land-locked salmon , it is turning out simply wonderful, 

 and is a most signal triumph, especially in Maine, for fish 

 protection and propagation. It is a fact that more and more 

 trout are being taken each year from the Androscoggin and 

 Moosehead waters, and yet the supply is not exhausted. I 

 have talked with a number of long-time visitants of these 

 waters within a few days, and in almost every case they be- 

 lieve that from the same waters, under the same conditions, 

 they can take as many trout as they could have done three 

 or four years ago, and even more than eight or ten years ago, 

 before the benefits of protection and propagation had begun 

 to be realized. Now it is certain that, in the face of this 

 reasoning, the quantity of trout taken each year has greatly 

 increased. Besides the actual record of size shows a 

 wonderful increase. It would actually seem that the trout 

 in the Androscoggin waters have grown larger instead of 

 smaller, as the excessive fishing they have passed through 

 would seem to indicate. The record of two trout of over 

 10 pounds this spring, one or both of which the Forest and 

 Stream has already mentioned, would seem to leave no 

 room for doubt as to the increasing size of these fish under 

 protection. Commissioner Henry O. Stanley of Maine, 

 evinces no surprise that such should be the case, though he, 

 with his colleague, Mr. Stilwell, is much gratified at this 

 early proof of the value of fish protection and breeding. 

 These gentlemen remark that the large trout are now left to 

 come to the hook, which formerly fell a prey to the net, the 

 spear, and sometimes even the pitchfork, on the spawning 

 beds in the fall, 



More general satisfaction was never noted concerning the 

 catch of trout among returned sportsmen than is the case 

 this season. By the Audover route to the Androscoggin 

 lakes, the guides and hotel keepers all mention this fact, 

 while the same is especially true of the Phillips route. The 

 fishermen appear to be satisfied. It is true that under whole- 

 some instructions, such as the Forest and Stream labors to 

 promulgate, reasonable sportsmen are learning to be satisfied 

 with fewer fish, but it is also true that there are more fish to 

 be caught. The wonderful success of landlocked salmon, 

 which has shown up for the first time this season, is certainly 

 a triumph for fishculture which should forever silence all 

 cavil. Accounts begin to come in of this fish being taken on 

 the i\y. I heard of one to-day, weighing six pounds, but I 

 have not yet been able to authenticate the story. 



Special. 



TROUTING IN THE NORTHWEST, 



TILE "effete East" must surrender one more of its old 

 time possessions to the young and vigorous West. The 

 trouting of the Eastern States is now conhned to a few 

 points, and those almost fished out, while in many portions 

 of the Northwest trout abound, and there are yet many 

 streams where the fly of civilization has not found its way. 

 Mr. George Lyman, who began his trout fishing in New York 

 nearly three three score and ten years ago, writes me from 

 the Sioux River, near Ashland, Wis., that he is having 

 "fairly good" sport, that he took thirty-one trout on a half 

 mile of the stream, and being satisfied quit, as a true angler 

 always does. This fishing for scores is one of the vices 

 that the angler despises. It is an evil that is severely felt in 

 the rapidly diminishing number of our game fish. The man 

 who boasts of his hundreds per day and thousands per out- 

 ing is a fish butcher and should be classed with the other 

 cormorants. 



Not far from the Sioux River is the Brule, and Mr. Lyman 

 sends me a letter from his friend, Dr. Arthur Holbrook, of 

 Milwaukee, describing some splendid sport. The Doctor 

 landed two pound trout, the result of one cast, with a five- 

 ounce rod. That may fairly be considered good sport and 

 scientific fishing. The largest caught in two days fishing- 

 was two and a quarter pounds. 



There are a number of other streams in the same vicinity 

 where the lusty trout lurk, and many small lakes where bass 

 and mascalonge can be taken in large numbers. The region 

 is also famed for its beautiful scenery. A sail among the 

 Apostle Islands, at the mouth of Chequamegon Bay, Lake 

 Superior, is one of the things no lover of nature should miss. 

 And when good fishing, life-giving air, and the good things 

 of life can be combined with it, there should be many annual 

 visitors. The location is one easy of access. In addition to 

 the-lake steamers, floating palaces, which land at Ashland 

 and Bayfield, there are several rail routes, three from Mil- 

 waukee: the Wisconsin Central; C. M. & St. P., and M. L. 

 S. & W., the latter passing through the far famed Agogebic 

 region. My next will, I hope, be from a point on some of 

 the waters mentioned. Jap. 



New Albany, Ind., June 16. 



The Fluttering Fly. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 

 Forest and Stream for June 10, I find a cut and descrip- 

 tion of a fly that Mr. Holberton is stated to have invented 

 and that Mr. Imbrie has patented. In April or May, 1883, 

 Messrs. D. & W. H. Foster, of Ashbourne, England, sons of 

 the late David Foster, author of "The Scientific Angler," 

 sent me flies tied exactly as the "fluttering fly" is repre- 

 sented in the cut above mentioned. I used these flies for 

 trout fishing the season that they were received, and pre- 

 sented samples to angling friends. "Mr. H. P. Wells may 

 recall the fact that I showed him samples of these flies just 

 about a year ago. The Messrs. Foster did not write of these 

 flies as being new or strange, but merely included them with 

 other flies without comment. How long they have been so 

 fashioned in England previous to 1883 I have no means of 

 knowing at present.— N. Cheney (Glens Falls, N. T.). 



PROSPECT LAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In former issues of your valuable paper y^ou have invited 

 correspondence as to good and convenient points for camping 

 and fishing. I beg, therefore, to call the attention of parties 

 who are in search of pure air-^some 1,800 feet above tide 

 water — pure, limpid, delicious water and rational sport, to 

 this point. All such will be highly pleased and benefited. 

 Big, or Prospect Lake, covers some eight or nine hundred 

 acres, wooded all around, except two small spots; bottom 

 and shores are rocky; the water is full of trout and pickerel; 

 four years ago 5,000 salmon-trout spawn were put into it, 

 and while none have yet been caught, there is evidence of 

 their existence, and anglers who know how to fish for them 

 will find rare sport. The location of the lake is in Pike 

 county, Pa., six miles south of Hawley, Pa., reached by the 

 Erie Railway and the Erie & Wyoming Railway. The banks 

 of the lake present many delicious points for camping; those 

 who prefer to be otherwise accommodated can find airy, clean 

 rooms and good wholesome meals at very reasonable charges 

 at the house of Mr. Wm. Aldridge, an intelligent bark miller, 

 excellent good fellow and enthusiastic fisherman, who 

 knows the lake for many years, has a number of boats, and 

 will take all reasonable pains to show strangers the favorite 

 points for fishing. 



At present there are some mosquitoes here, but they never 

 last over three weeks or so, and the writer speaks from ex- 

 perience when he says that Mrs. Aldridge fully understands 

 how to keep her house clear of those enemies of mankind. 

 The nights all summer long are deliciously cool. 



Mr. Aldridge will haul parties with their outfits from Haw- 

 ley, or they can obtain teams there. Any letters addressed 

 to him at Tafton, Pike county, Pa., will reach him. Within 

 a few days a hotel has been started on the banks of the 

 water; but as the place is new and untried, it is premature to 

 speak of its merits. 



The writer addresses himself to those only who seek 

 rational and reasonable sport; those who wish for catching 

 big strings which they cannot use and go to waste are not 

 wanted. It may here not be out of place to speak of a piece 

 of vandalism which has here been perpetrated for some sea- 

 sons past. Certain persons, claiming to come from the 

 Blooming Grove Park, have been in the habit of catching 

 bass four, five and six inches long, and instead of throwing 

 them back have been in the habit of letting them die in the 

 boats. There are too many persons interested in the lake to 

 permit such wanton destruction to continue. A few persons 

 have united to prevent it; and should the outrages be 

 repeated this season, these fellows will get a taste of Pike 

 county justice. "A word to the wise," etc. Outer. 



Tafton, Pike County, Pa., June 14. 



Newfound Lake. — The Bristol, N. H., Enterprise re- 

 ports capital lake trout fishing in Newfound Lake, a sheet 

 of water two miles from Bristol, which is three and a half 

 hours ride from Boston. The editor says : "These fish have 

 been speared in large numbers, contrary to law, when on the 

 spawning beds, and this practice has been winked at by the 

 public because it has been supposed they could be taken in 

 no other way. The past week has, however, demonstrated 

 the fact that the fish of this lake are just as ready to respond 

 to the legitimate invitations of fishermen as are the fish of 

 any other lake. Last week Major E. E. Bedee, of Boston, 

 caught in Newfound Lake: Thursday 3, weighing 8, 10 and 

 15 pounds respectively; Friday 4 trout, 8, 9, 10 and 12 

 pounds, and 1 land-locked salmon, 15J pounds; Tuesday 5 

 trout, 7, 8, 8, 10 and 10£ pounds, and one land-locked sal- 

 mon, 13 pounds. Elated, he telegraphed to Mr. Mark Hol- 

 lingsworth, of Boston, his success, and yesterday these gen- 

 tlemen caught four, which weighed 6, 7, 8 and 10 pounds re- 

 spectively, or a total of 189£ pounds in 4 days. D. II, Sleeper 

 and John S. Connor fished only a few hours yesterday, and 

 caught two weighing 8 and 11 pounds; two gentlemen from 

 Laconia caught two that weighed 7 and 9 pounds. Geo. H. 

 Fowler has also caught the past week a land-locked salmon 

 weighing 6| pounds, and one trout weighing 8 pounds, 

 and E. T. Pike a trout that weighed 8 pounds. The above 

 makes a total of 248{- pounds of trout taken from this 

 Jake the past week, practically by four days fishing by the 

 above uamed parties. Most of them were caught by trolling, 

 though the finest ones were caught with a fly. The Bristol 

 House, a first class hotel iu this village, is only about two 

 miles from the lake. There is abundant camping ground 

 about the lake (which by the way is not surpassed in beauty 

 by any lake in this State), and there are numerous farm 

 houses about the lake where fishermen can be entertained . 

 Mr. Chas. N. Drake lives near the lake, thoroughly under- 

 stands these waters, and his services can doubtless be 

 secured at any time. Mr. E. T. Pike lives near the fishing 

 grounds, has accommodations for board, boats, and so un- 

 derstands where the fish may be found, and^ Dr. H. Sleeper 

 and others have boats that can be hired at reasonable prices." 



Trout Waters op the New York Forest Preserve. — 

 Editor Fo?'est and Stream: In the most recent New York 

 State trout law, published in Forest and Stream June 10 

 last, the brook trout, brown trout and California trout season 

 opens April 1, and closes September 1, "except in the 

 counties included in the Forest Preserve, established by 

 chap. 283 of the laws of 1885, where it shall not be lawful to 

 catch or attempt to catch or kill, or expose for sale any 

 speckled trout, brown trout and California trout save only 

 from the first of May to the fifteenth day of September." 

 Comparatively few people seem to understand which of the 

 counties in the State are included in the Forest Preserve. 

 Section 7 of the law above quoted says: "All the lands 

 now owned or which may hereafter be acquired by the State 

 of New York, within the counties of Clinton, excepting the 

 towns of Altona and Dannemora, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, 

 Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren, 

 Washington, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan, shall constitute 

 and be known as the Forest Preserve." This selection of 

 counties will surprise some of the anglers who are in the 

 habit of fishing the Catskill and more southern streams and 

 have not read the. law. In Jefferson county or Rensselaer 

 county, where nature rarely prepares the streams for fly- 

 fishing before May i, the law permits fishing April 1, and 

 in Ulster and Sullivan, which are earlier counties, the 

 season opens by law May 1. One can fish one part of the 

 Beaverkill a month earlier than another part, and at the close 

 of the season the thing is reversed just fifteen days. It is 

 well to paste the names of the counties constituting the 

 Forest Preserve in one's hat, for no trout can be transported 

 from the preserve except they are accompanied by their 

 owner. This just lets the man out who buys trout when he 

 can't catch them.— A. N. Cheney. 



Fly-fishing for Shad— Holy oke, Mass., June 19.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: There is some improvement 

 noticed in the shad fishing this week, on the strength of 

 which some of the fishermen are indulging in a cigarette, 

 and others are brushing up rusty and frayed tackle in hopes 

 of having the rust and scales brushed off their own backs. 

 A few good shad have been taken with the fly, and the pros 

 pect brightens for others to follow. ' The Silver Sheeu 

 and the Cloud is so small that we offer no inducements to 

 those at a distance to try pot luck with us; why it is thus is 

 hard to explain otherwise than the United States and the 

 State Commissioners of Inland Fisheries have turned their 

 backs completely to the city and town of Holyoke and 

 South Hadley Falls, and unless there is a fight in prospect 

 over the taking a few lamprey eels from a scare-crow on the 

 north bank of the river, we never hear of them. It did not 

 used to be so, a few years ago they were in the habit of 

 coming often and tarried late, their stay was interesting 

 insomuch that young shad were brought forth by the millions. 

 Their count was instructive and reminded us of the way 

 Pat C. divided the apples: "This is one for me, one for you, 

 and one for me too, one for me, one for you, and one for me 

 too," etc., until the depleted waters before unknown to shad 

 life were filled with Connecticut river shad, and waters of 

 Europe too, got their consignment of the gamy, toothsome 

 South Hadley Falls Alosol Alas, how changed, from the 

 cold indifference of the authorities that be, Holyoke and 

 South Hadley Falls now take their shad planked in the 

 sun ma peddler's cart, when at the same time both places above 

 named, as well as Chicopee and Springfield, pay their taxes, 

 consequently their pro rata share of appropriations for 

 fishery purposes, and of which a fair share ought to be ex- 

 pended to maintain the fishing industries of South Hadley 

 Falls. — Thomas Chalmers. P. S. The spasmodic efforts of 

 a few days ago are over, cigarettes are abandoned for the old 

 clay pipe, the tackle so admiringly handled and cared for is 

 placed back in the book, and the scales are left with us.— C. 



Vermont Notes.— Post Mills, Vt.— The 15th of June 

 was the opening day for black bass and pickerel fishing in 

 this State. The largest string of pickerel ever taken from 

 Fairlee Lake was caught here to-day, and shows what a few 

 years of enforcing the laws against spearing, netting and 

 illegal fishing will do. One party of two caught 35 pounds, 

 another party 40 pounds, and one boy, thirteen years old, 

 the son of Thos. H. Chubb the fishing rod manufacturer, 

 caught alone and unaided 20 pounds in one-half day's fish- 

 ing, each fish weighing from f to 2£ pounds. Many other 

 parties caught from 10 to 20 pounds weight. The largest 

 one caught weighed 4i pounds, and many went from 2 

 pounds to 3 pounds each. As usual the boys tell big stories 

 of the large ones lost that were bigger than any ever seen 

 before. But very few bass were taken to-day, and but little 

 fishing was done for them, as the day was cloudy and thought 

 just right for pickerel. But the bass fishing bids fair to be 

 first-class, as many have been seenl around the shores this 

 spring. The lake is well stocked with perch, which fur- 

 nishes good food, and bass grow to enormous size, many 

 caught weighing from 4 to 6^ pounds each. The bass as a 

 general thing do not bite freely until about July; then we 

 predict rare sport for the bass angler. The bass in the lake 

 are all small-mouths, and are game from the word go. 

 Fairlee Lake is a most beautiful sheet of water, about three 

 miles in length and from one-half to one mile in width, of 

 clear, cool water, and has fine feeding grounds in all parts of 

 the lake for both bass and pickerel.— Ompomfanoosuc. 



Hard Luck.— Brainerd, Minn., June 19.— The trout fish- 

 ers returned from Brule Tuesday evening, but they were not 

 so heavily loaded with baggage as when they started out. 

 The party was composed of Fred Stanley, J. L. Smith, F. 

 M. Cable and A. A. Green. Their tent caught fire from some 

 unknown cause the first day out and burned everything they 

 took with them, including a photograph outfit, two fine 

 guns, clothing, fishing tackle, provisions, cigars and other 

 traps. This put rather a bad aspect on to things, but they 

 weie bound not to be driven home by fire and in three days' 

 fishing afterward they hooked 1,100 trout, Mr. Green taking 

 the bakery by capturing 518 of the number. In the burned 

 tent were 300 loaded cartridges, and as soon as they got 

 warmed up the fun began and for a half hour it sounded 

 like a volley of artillery, and although there were many 

 people in the vicinity no one dared to go near the fire to try 

 and save anything on account of the shooting. The party is 

 out $300 by the accident, but Fred Stanley says he.don't care 

 for the outfit as long as Barney escaped unharmed. 



Fly-Tying.— Athens, Pa., June 19. — " G. A. M." wants to 

 know how to tie a fly. I take the hook in my left hand, 

 and with waxed thread take a few turns around the hook; 

 then I lay the tail on and t tie that; next I take a piece of 

 tinsel, four inches long, and tie the end of that on the tail ; 

 then 1 wind the thread back up the body to within a quarter 

 of an inch of the shank. Now I take the stuff for the body 

 and tie the end where the threads is, and wind toward the 

 tinsel and one turn by it. Then I turn the tinsel back 

 toward the point, and wind the body back up the shank to 

 where I began within a quarter of an inch of the shank. 

 That quarter of an inch i leave for hackle and wings. Now 

 wind the tinsel up the body and tie; still keep the hook in 

 left hand, at the shank; catch the tip of hackle in same 

 hand and wind toward the end of shauk. When you get 

 enough on tie several times, and clip off the tip and stem. 

 Now you can tie the wings on and shellac. The reason I 

 wind the body once by the tinsel is that it never eomes off 

 when put on that way, and is original with me. — E. W. D. 



Popular Interest in Alaska. — Very rapidly the public 

 interest in our new possession increases, and scarcely a day 

 passes that some journal or other does not print some scrap 

 of information respecting this very interesting and remark- 

 able territory. The New York Times of the 21st instant 

 contains no less than three columns upon the subject, which 

 are chiefly devoted to the possible discoveries that may result 

 from the visit of an excursion party under Lieut. Schwatka, 

 to be made to the St. Elias district during the present sum- 

 mer. Mt. St. Elias and its brotherhood of mountains lie 

 some 300 miles northwest of Sitka, and are seldom visited by 

 excursion steamers. They are among the highest on the con- 

 tinent. Mr. Hallock's book, entitled, "Our New Alaska; or, 

 the Seward Purchase Vindicated," which will be presently 

 forthcoming from this office, is replete with the fullest and 

 most reliable information that can be at present obtained 

 about Alaska, and orders for advance copies are being 

 rapidly received. Its appearance at this time will be most 

 opportune, though Mr. Hallock had prepared the bulk of his 

 material prior to January last. 



