228 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fOex. 14, 1886. 



HAY BAY. 



LITTLE FALLS, Oct. 3, 1886.— I have just returned 

 from a trip to certain not very well known fishing 

 grounds in Canada, where I was led to believe that within 

 convenient distance of each other, were bays most thickly 

 settled with the noble muskellunge, so thickly that the 

 veriest tryo could be reasonably sure of a day's" catch far 

 in excess of tliat of a well-outfitted expert, anywhere else 

 in the world; waters bordered with stony" bars, and 

 Bprrakled with '"dro^Tied islands"' on which the gamy 

 bass indrdged in crab hunting, which, however, the cast 

 minnow would invariably supersede; lakes in which these 

 bass were even more abundant, and of such size that one's 

 credulity was strongly tested when hearing of them, bass 

 which reduced to an insignificance the two and three- 

 povmd big ones of my previous experience, comparable 

 only to that of the two and three pound brook trout when 

 referred to by my friends of the Oquassoc AngUng Asso- 

 ciation, who, demanding from Mooselucmaguntic or Molly- 

 chunkamunk, trout in length equal to the names, speak 

 contemptuously of the two and three pound little ones. 

 If all I heard was tiaie, I had before me, when I started 

 upon my trip, a reasonable prospect that on my return I 

 could, greeting as did EoUo, when he exclaimed, "I too 

 have slain a Peruvian," say, I too have slain my forty- 

 pound muskelltinge and my five-pormd bass. Looking 

 over my gear I f oimd little "in which I could place the 

 confidence necessary. My sundry spoons and lines, of 

 which a year ago I had a ioox full, had one after the other 

 yielded to the successive strikes of the ceros, amber- 

 jacks and barracontas, wbich had at Key West last winter 

 reduced me to cod hook, jjork, clothes line and darky 

 labor to haul in, and my bass gear had by as many con- 

 flicts with Spanish mackerel and skip jack's, together with 

 much soaking in sea water, become demoralized. So I 

 ordered a fresh outfit, v> liich did not arrive as it should 

 have done, and my resolution to wait for it another day 

 was not strong enough to withstand my impatience to be 

 otf , and unwisely as it proved I started without it, calcu- 

 lating that I would devote my eai-her work to the muskel- 

 longe, the best of gear and tackle for which sport I could 

 be sure of finding among the outfit which my Clayton 

 boatman woifid jirovide. My objective point 'was Hay 

 Bay, in Canada, and the route proposed took in Clayton. 

 There may be some among the Forest and Stream 

 readers who would like the benefit of my experience. I 

 will give it to them, and that's a great deal cheaper than 

 I got it. Fh-st, then, when you go to Canada fishing or 

 shooting, and are tempted to leave anything you may 

 want behind you, to be forwarded, don't; for as far as 

 express and mail facilities are concerned, Alaska is almost 

 as liandy as Canada. My gear shipped on 20th, was, on 

 22d, forwarded from Clayton to Picton, and Avhere it is 

 now (Oct, 3) I don't know. The express company and I 

 are searehitig for it. so far without result. I reached 

 Picton on the 25th, and left on 27th, disgusted, gearless 

 and fishless. 



Hay Bay is a long narrow arm of Lake Ontario, stretch- 

 ing to the northeast about twelve miles, from the chan- 

 nel, which is the route of tlie steamers from Kingston to 

 BeUeville. It is about sixty miles from Kingston, eight- 

 een from Glenora, fom- (over land) from Conway and six 

 from Picton. The head of the bay is about four miles 

 wide and deep and is reached by a channel from two to 

 three miles wide. The banks are covered with very com- 

 fortable looking farms, which are very fertile and produce 

 much barley, apples and peas, and thousands of dozens 

 of eggs are sent therefrom. There is no village up the bay, 

 and although there are many steamers running between 

 Bath, Picton, Deseronto, Glenora, Napanee to the end of 

 the route, Belleville, most of which have wharves and 

 stopping places at several httle settlements en route, none 

 penetrate Hay Bay. It has remained almost a term in- 

 cognita to the outside world and a safe resort for the 

 muskellunge, where with suitable water and food they 

 had become very plentiful, a state not gi'eatly disturbed 

 by the occasional captm-e of a few by farmers in the very 

 seldom leisure moments of harvest time, provided as they 

 were with most indifferent boats and gear. 



There are several routes by which it may be reached, 

 the one I should recommend" is via New York Central to 

 Kome, N. Y., thence to Cape Vincent by R.W. & O. R.E., 

 thence by steamer Maude to Kingston, arriving about 

 1 P. M. , in time to get a very jioorly cooked dinner (unless 

 you have better luck than I had) and to take passage by 

 steamer Hero, leaving about 3:30 P. M. for Belleville. 

 The steamer reaches Conway at 6 P. M. and if the weather 

 is bad and wind from northward it is advisable to land 

 youi'self and boat, hire a team and hay wagon and haul 

 across to the bay, aboiit four miles ; if pleasant it will be 

 as well to go on "to Glenora, arriving at 7 P. M. There is 

 at this place a very comfortable hotel kept by Mrs. Comers, 

 a lady from Massachusetts, you will be sure of a good bed 

 and breakfast and supi^er, if you have not taken that on 

 the Hero. Then in the morning start as early as you 

 please in your skiff. There is said to be good fishing in a 

 great many i^laces passed over on the eighteen mile row. 

 Another route is by Grand Trunk R. R. , from Kingston 

 to Picton, leaving the latter place at 6 P. M. the next 

 morning in tow of steamer bound to Belleville, which will 

 drop you at Thompson's Pond, the entrance of the bay. 

 Or you can go on from Glenora by the Hero to Picton, 

 reaching there about 8 P. M. and taking next morning's 

 steamer. In either case it is necessary that you should 

 provide yourself at either Clayton or Alexander Bay with 

 boat and boatman and all that that implies; he will bring 

 Ms muskellunge gear, and if you are in the ducking sea- 

 son (after middle of October) decoys, etc. Many of the 

 boatmen own all that is necessary. 



Singular as it seems, on this long line of water front a 

 boat is hardly to be gotten, certainly not a good one, and 

 no one has anything in the way of gear. Even at Glenora, 

 which is, I am informed, a very tlu-onged and popular 

 summer resort (the landlady told me that during the past 

 season there had been over "twenty thousand guests, many 

 of course just for the trip), not a boat can be had; and 

 were there boats, if one wanted to try the bass gi-oundsin 

 the vicinity, said to be good, he coiild do no better than 

 catch minnows by hook and line, or grasshoppers for bait. 

 All around the vicinity are beautiful coves and islands, 

 smooth water and fair "^fishing. One would tlaink that a 

 boat livery, with some of the boats fitted to make the Hay 

 Bay trip, w^ould be a most paying investment. Mrs. 

 Comers told me the ,^ood fishing to be had, rather hop- 

 ing, evidently, U) sedaf:e me off from my Hav Bav destina- 

 tion. "How'shall I fish for them?" "Why off the wharf," 

 « -But what shall I do for bait?" ' 'Why there are plenty of 



grasshoppers, " Aside from this serious deficiency Glenora 

 (among the boat people it is known as "Stone Mills," but 

 this title does not at aU suit the lady) is quite an odd little 

 place. Like Port Townshend in Washington Territory, 

 the business portion of the town is on a naiTOw plateau a 

 few feet above the water, leaving just room enough for 

 the road and the front part of some of the houses, a high 

 and steep bluif , on the abrupt face of which the rear ends 

 of the houses rest, reduced from two to one story. On the 

 top of the bhrff, 180ft. above Lake Ontario, from which it 

 is nottln-ee hundred yai-ds distant on a horizontal measm-e- 

 ment, lies a very pretty lake about a mile long and broad, 

 in which are many fish (but no boat). This lake is pre- 

 sumed to be a part of Lake Hmon, with the water level of 

 which it coincides. A fifteen minutes' brisk chmb from 

 the hotel's back porch, during which we cross a wild look- 

 ing deep ravine, or glen, takes one to the sumniit, which 

 is a tableland, from the precipitous edge of which a splen- 

 did view is obtained of ah. of the adjacent waters and 

 towns. At the foot of the bluff, and operated by the 

 lake's water, brought down through great iron pipes, are 

 several stone miUs, The operatives of these mills five in 

 a little village on the tableland. This ' 'lake on the moun- 

 tain" has no known inlet, and it is the lion which dra\vs 

 so many guests. Even without the view, the sharp exer- 

 cise in the morning's ah paid me for my climb by a most 

 beautifrU appetite for breakfast. Either thi-ough this 

 appetite or a change in the natme of the fish, thejjickerel 

 on which I breakfasted was a inost excellent fish, hard, 

 flaky and well flavored, my previous experience of the 

 fish having been quite the reverse. When I caught him, 

 just before reaching Kingston (I rowed in the skiff a good 

 poi-tion of the 21 miles from Clayton to Kingston), I 

 noticed that it was, to me, remarkably plump and short 

 for its weight, 61bs,, and accepted Tom's suggestion to 

 save him for our breakfasts, he saving that since the 

 advent of the menhaden (branch a'lewives) the pickerel 

 have been getting fatter and better eating, probably 

 through the abundance of food, and I hereby indorse Ms 

 views, and never again will I despise and condemn un- 

 tasted the fish, however much Ms failure to be a trout may 

 and probably will annoy me upon some of my f utm'e trips 

 to Adnondack lakes. 



Let me put myself right on the re^iord ; when I say 

 pickerel in this letter I simply follow the ordinary nomen- 

 clature on our side of the river (on the other the^^ are 

 more correct) and refer to the Esox reticulatm, at least I 

 think I do; but I may, through my very recent Canadian 

 experience, get a bit confused. They get right on this 

 fish by calling it pike, but they get off the track by calling 

 the wall-eyed pike "pickerel." I lost half a day's fishing 

 by the glowing accounts of the fine still-fisMng for "pike" 

 I could have by going to a certain cove. Now a six or 

 seven-potmd pike, from my point of view, was decidedly 

 Avorth trying for; but when I got to work and found that 

 my only game was pickerel and weeds, and had con- 

 tributed a couple of leaders to the combination, I remem- 

 bered that my informant was a Canadian. And as we 

 rowed back to better ground, I ti-ied to get it all clear in 

 my mind. It ought to be simple, but this is the way it 

 shaped itself: A big pickerel is a pike and a little pike is 

 a jMckerel, and a pike (wall-eye) is a pickerel and he's a 

 pike-perch, too; and sometimes, if you are not thoroughly 

 up on muskos, a ten or twelve-pound pickerel is, you are 

 assured, a muskellunge, by either the boatman, who is to 

 be rewarded for such fish, or the man who wants to sell 

 him to you. I tried to straighten it out by the aid of the 

 scientific names, of which I remembered some, but not 

 being able to distribute them positively, I gave it up and 

 concluded to call the fish by the names I have always 

 known them by. 



I had adopted the route to Kingston via Clayton, be- 

 cause I had thus an opportunity to select my own boat 

 and boatman, for I knew no one upon whose recommen- 

 dation I was willing to rely for an employe who was to be 

 my companion as well as guide, I preferred to chance it 

 on suiting myself. And I was extremely fortunate, and 

 if the Forest and Stream will allow me I should like to 

 say a good word for Tom Pm-cell, even if it does look a 

 little like ringing in a "free ad." Tom's boat is the most 

 perfectly outfitted boat I ever went fishing in. Every- 

 tMng that by any chance could possibly be wanted was in 

 its place. Trying in vain to tliink of something I could 

 catch him minus, I asked for a mirror and a bit of Pear's 

 soap to shave with; the mirror was there and a bit of soap, 

 not Pear's. The boat is a beauty, rowing and sailing well, 

 but Tom himself just suits me to this extent, whenever 1 

 go that way again and can get him, I shall. He is oblig- 

 ing, skillful and temperate, a little too orderly, perhaps, 

 for my use, as it brings out my own carelessness by too 

 sti-ong a contrast, EverytMng had a fixed place, and 

 after use went back to it, and every time a fish was caught 

 and the prehminaries of boxing accomplished, no further 

 fishing was done until every trace of shme and blood had 

 been sponged away, and at the end of a day's fishing, with 

 the box full, om- skiff was as neat as thoiigh just out of 

 the boat house; that is to say, his end of it was, mine, I 

 confess, at times got a httle mixed. 



Leaving Geneva Tliursday morning, a pleasant row of 

 some eighteen miles carried us to the fislung ground in 



the Upper Bay, the entrance to which is marked by an 

 island. Hardly had we entered than my starboard bell 

 rang sharply and I hauled in a good sized pickerel. It 

 was some time before it rang again, and while waiting 

 for a strike I will tell you wliat Tom then told me, as we 

 circled, as to the discovery, so to speak, of this resort, 

 "The first we heard of Hay Bay as a fishing place was 

 about two years ago, a mart Mred by .Johnson of the 

 Walton Horise, got talking a good deaf about the fishing 

 he had seen when he worked on a farm at Hay Bay, 

 Whenever one of onv boats came in witli a big fish or a lot 

 of them, he would hold out that that didn't begin with Hay 

 Bay, At first we all thought that he was blowing, but 

 finally Johnson, who's something of a sport and hkes it 

 as well as any of them, thought he'd look into it, so with 

 a couple of men who were stopping with Mm he went up 

 in a steam yacht to have a try at them. Well, the first 

 day's work convinced Mm. They stopped two or three 

 day and came back with the prettiest lay out I ever saw. 

 There were over fifty muskos and qmte a number of big 

 ones. Well, that started it, and our boats and the Alex- 

 ander Bay boats went up with parties and they just 

 scooped a pile. Last year a good many went but there 

 was a gi"eat deal of bad weather and northeast wind, and 

 the fisMng didn't pan out so well, but quite a lot were 

 taken," 



I heard from another soiu'ce that a good many were 

 disappointed last year by going dh'ect to the bay expect- 

 ing to find their boats outfitted like the Clayton boats, 

 but the best they could get were scows, and as for .spoons, 

 lines, etc., those used by the natives were anything but 

 enticing. This year the fisMng has started fairly and a 

 great many are going in, Tom was engaged for another 

 party, A great many charter steam yachts at Clayton 

 and live aboard of them, thus making sure of lodging, 

 tM'ee such ^larties were there during my three days visit, 

 one party steauiiug over to Picton for lodging. 



The farmers who live along the bay were utterly unpre* 

 pared for visitors; but they are beginning to wake up to 

 the situation and learning how to take care of people, 

 several of them have buUt boat houses and I believe sev- 

 eral boats have been bought; but they are very slow and 

 conservative. At the date of my visit there was no boat- 

 man to be had, and no ice and very few sleeping rooms. 

 I fortunately secm-ed the one bedroom in the house of a 

 Mr. Sjjencer, and I suspect, from the contents of the 

 wardroljc, that in so doing I evicted the madame. There 

 1 was comparatively comfortable, for, although it opened 

 off from the other room — wMch was kitchen, sitting 

 room, dining room and bedi-oom at night (by aid of cots) 

 c<3mbined — I could shut my door and be alone. But I 

 was satisfied. The table was good, cooking good, cleanli- 

 ness prevailed, and if I had been a long-lost brother I 

 could not have been shown more kindness; and I could 

 but regret that I had not postponed my trip for two weeks, 

 for in a week the carpenters had promised that the addi- 

 tion to the house, w^Mch would when completed add six 

 good rooms, a parlor and dining room, all very pleasant 

 ones to the outfit, should be habitable. And Mr, Spencer, 

 awakenmg to the necessity, intended going to Picton and 

 bring from there a few tons of ice. 



I think it very likely that some cursory remarks made 

 by me when I found that, through lack of ice, it would be 

 impossible for me to send home my fii'st muskellunge — 

 my veiy first, for with all of my fishing I never before 

 took one of the Eaox nobiUor — may have helped to influ- 

 ence Ms decision. Another strike soon after Tom was 

 sure was a musko, for we were in deep water, but we 

 failed to hook him. It was thus evident that one good 

 fish, at least, remained in the bay; and we resolved to go 

 for him after dinner, for which we rowed in to Spencer's, 



Starting about 3 P, M., with our tMee lines set, we 

 found on the bay two other boats, in one of which were 

 two young gentlemen from one of the steam yachts, 

 known as the Stewart party, who had already taken four 

 good fish. As my boat passed theirs they sti-uck a large 

 fish, and we kept where we could see the circus, the re- 

 sult of wMch was a saved fish, which, as they held it up, 

 was nearly two-tMi-ds as long as the boy who caught him. 

 Tliat looked warm, and very soon after I had hold of a 

 very close mate to it, but on subsequent measiu-ing and 

 weighing I was beaten, theirs was Sllbs. , 43in. , mine 251bs. 

 and 41in. Tom was a Httle anxious about my saving so 

 large a fish for my maiden effort, but when it came along- 

 side at last, as qmet as a lamb and never attempted to 

 dodge, when he administered the final coup, he expressed 

 his "satisfaction at my method of handling Mm. He 

 hardly reahzed that although a novice at the muskos, I 

 had h'ad plenty of experience in handling fish for Avhich my 

 25-pounder could have been used on a gang for bait. This 

 was the sum total of my catch on my first day. On our 

 way home, starting at sunset, I had a very good strike 

 hat failed to catch. 



The next morning opened with a dense fog. We trolled 

 from 6 to 8, half the time too close to the shores, as we 

 foimd by catching pickerel and weeds. I took one fish 

 weighing lOlbs. After breakfast, the wuid being N. E., 

 and'Tom assuring me that there would be no more troll- 

 ing, I took my bass gear, such as I had, and gun, and 

 started on an investigating tour, fishing thoroughly severa 



