Nov, 11, im] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



309 



MassuVChusetts Fish and G-ame Protective Associa- 

 tion.— Between forty-live and fifty members attended 

 tlie regular monthly 'meetiiig of tlie Massacliusetts Fish 

 and Game Protective Association at the Ti-emont House, 

 Boston, last Wednesday (Nov, 3) and passed a pleasant 

 and also profitable evening. The membership list was 

 increased by two, and fom- proposals were referred over 

 till the next meeting. Committee reports showed that 

 sine© Aug. 1 there had been some fourteen or fifteen pros- 

 ecutions of the fish and game laws made, some of which 

 had been settled and some appealed (but one only being 

 lost), and that there were before the Association about 

 eight or nine complaints, which on account of the de- 

 pleted treasury it had not seemed advisable to under- 

 take without express authority. A number of members 

 sjDoke on the necessity of responding to ajipeals for help, 

 and it being decided upon to o]5en a subscription list for 

 defraying expenses, between $150 and $200 was sub- 

 scribed and paid to the treasurer during the evening, and 

 a committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions from 

 others who were not present. 



The "Camps." — Many must have regretted the close of 

 the delightful series of sketches in Forest and Stream 

 entitled "Sam Level's Camps," descriptive of wood and 

 water life in early spring. Tliese will be glad to learn 

 that Sam has been camping again this fall, and his friends 

 are to get the benefit of his obseiwations from the same 

 gifted pen that reported the siiring experience, and in the 

 columns of the same interesting weekly. The author evi- 

 dently has watched outdoor phenomena with keen and 

 sympathetic eyes, and in point of style he is perhaps the 

 best contributor Forest and Stream has had in recent 

 years. In the use of the Yankee dialect some of the 

 habitues of Sam's camp and Uncle Lisha's shop rival 

 Hosea Bigelow himself. We think we cannot be mistaken 

 in atti'ibuting these sketches to the author of the graceful 

 little essays on "Hunting Without a Gun," which ap- 

 peared in" Forest and Stream two or tlu-ee years ago. — 

 Syracuse (JV. F.) Sta7idard, Nov. 3, 



Toledo, Ohio. — ^During the past season one of the 

 guests entertained by the Cedar Point Club, of Toledo, 

 was Franlc H. Ellis, and in recognition of the club's hos- 

 pitality they have received from Mr. Ellis a very fine and 

 costly present, in the shape of a "fire place outfit," for 

 their club house. The set; consists of a crane, andirons, 

 tongs, fire shovel, poker and water kettle. The material 

 is iron and the designs very appropriate. The andirons 

 are in the shape of a duck, head and neck, web.feet and 

 wings, and the workmanahii) is admirable. The water 

 kettle is a duck, the body of copper trimmed with ii'on. 

 The mouth or spoilt is the head of a duck with wings and 

 feet of iron, and on the side is the Cedar Point Chib mono- 

 gram. The designs of the rest of the set are made to cor- 

 respond, and the workmansliip is ingenious. The cost was 

 $1,000, including the duty. The set was made in Paris. 



The "Bltje Plover."— (See Forest and Stream Nov. 4, 

 1886.) If "Jack Snipe" will refer to Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway's "History of North Amei-ican Water Birds." 

 Vol. I., p. 212, he will find a good description of his "blue 

 plover" as the young of the "knot" or "robin snipe" (Trmga 

 canutus). The name is common on the New England 

 coast between Boston and Portland, where the adult bird 

 is always called "redbreast". — John Murdoch (U. S. 

 National Museum, Nov, 6). 



Minnesota,— Swanville, 133 miles from St. Paul,aftords 

 good grouse shooting. I went out two days and made a- 

 good bag. Ducks are abundant and there are black and 

 gray squirrels in fair numbers. Board may be had at the 

 hotel for |5 per week. There ai-e deer to be had here 

 later in tlie season, and bruin has also paid the penalty 

 time and again hereabouts. One sportsman made a bag 

 of over one hundred geese in about ten days' time in the 

 fields.— Dell. 



Pheasants for Ttjxedo Park.— Messrs. Reiche & 

 Bros, received last week a consignment of 250 Eirropean 



gheasants for Lorillard's preseiwes at Tuxedo Park, 

 •range county, New York, The birds came from Bohe- 

 mia and Silesia. 



AdOress aU communimt fons to tlie ForeM and St/ream Pub. Co. 



CENTRAL LAKE, MICH. 



CONTINUING his account of the adventures of five ang- 

 lers "In Northern Micliigan" (see last issue) our cor- 

 respondent " Dick" writes of their camp on Island No. 2, 

 in Central Lake : On entering Central Lake, three small 

 heavily-timbered islands met our delighted gaze, and ac- 

 cording to directions we puUed for the middle one which 

 is called " No. 2." It is about 100yds. wide and 200yds. 

 lon^, covered with ^rass, ti-ees and bushes, and about 

 midway on the east side is the landing and a clean grassy 

 space about sixty feet long by forty feet wide, for pitch- 

 ing tents. The island is owned by Mr. Frank Lewis, of 

 the Lewis House, a summer resort on the narrow neck of 

 land between the upper end of Torch Lake and Lake 

 Uklichigan. Mr. Lewis once built a small house on the 

 island for the purpose of entertaining tourist fishermen, 

 but the location was so far in the wilderness that sports- 

 men didn't frequent it much, and consequently Mr. Lewis 

 had the house removed. He improved the island by cleai-- 

 ing out the underbiiish and planting angle worms. 

 The worms thrived wonderfully, and fishermen now come 

 to the island from points a half dozen miles away for bait, 

 Island No, 2 is siuiated a mile from the foot of the lake, 

 a quarter of a mile from the east shore and a little more 

 than that from the west shore. There is good fishing for 

 tess, pickerel or sunfish within a himdred yards of the 

 landing; there is an abundance of shade trees and the 

 imderbrush has been pai-tially cut away to give access to 

 the breezes, which keep the' festive moscjuito away until 

 evening. The only disadvantage of the island is lack of 

 fuel and di'inkiag water, but on the east shore of the lake 

 directly opposite our landing is a spring of pm-e oold 

 water and near by an abundance of fuel. So taking it all 

 in all we think it an excellent camping ground. 

 We oircumverited the mosquitoes, at length, and this is 



how we did it. We banked the tent with sand on all 

 sides, and pinning back the flap pinned a mosquito bar 

 over the orifice, letting it trail on the ground enough to be 

 well sanded from the inside of the tent. When ready to 

 go into the tent we would brush out what mosquitoes we 

 could, and then after fastening the net from the inside so 

 that none could return, we took candles and caught and 

 killed all that remained. It only reqim-ed a few minutes 

 each evening and was a perfect success. We could then 

 pass the evenings comfortably, 



Monday morning there was a nice breeze from the 

 southwest, and Jack, Paul and Frank went fishing. 

 They came in for breakfast singing and shouting, wliich 

 we knew meant good luck; they had captured sixteen fine 

 bass, weighing in the aggregate 461bs. 



Visiting BeUaire for some needed articles, Jack and I 

 decided to try the Cedar for trout. We struck the river 

 at the bridge, which is a little more than half a mile from 

 its mouth. Jack fished dovm stream and I up, agreeing 

 to start for the boat at 3, Cedar River is a cold, dark, 

 swift-running sti-eam, and so brushy and full of fallen 

 trees that it only admits of bait-fishing. It is about 30ft. 

 wide, and the banks are such a tangle of cedar as to be 

 almost impassable; in fact, they are impassable to any one 

 save a trout fisherman. The banks in some places are 

 high, but are mostly low and swampy. The mosquitoes, 

 black flies, deer flies and "no-see-ums" are a "power in 

 the land," and it is a plucky fisherman who holds out for 

 a six-hours' fish. We tried all the different "dopes" we 

 could hear of, but didn't find anything that did very much 

 good. Oil of tar we considered the best, but it is rather 

 disagreeable, and will tan a person black as an Indian. 



Wben I reached the boat Jack showed me 27 trout, all 

 good average and the largest weighing 15oz., Dick 24 and 

 the largest weighing 13oz. Uenry, om- cook, proved a 

 character; a regular encyclopaadia of gossip and informa- 

 tion. He could not be within heai'ing of any discussion 

 without taking a hand, and would leave his work at any 

 time to inflict us with his eloquence. His ears were always 

 open to hear a question asked and his tongue always ready 

 to volunteer a reply. 



Each day of oiu* stay on the island was as lovely as could 

 be and each day's fishing brought all the fish we could 

 use — more we did not want. Each day two or three would 

 go to Cedar River after trout, so we always had at least 

 one mess of ti-out per day. After ten days on oui- island 

 Fra.nk's leave of absence being about over he regi'etfully 

 took his departiu-e. Fom- days later Paul bade us good 

 bye and a week later Jack, Bob and I said farewell to our 

 island home, and jumping into om- boats puUed out for 

 the head of Intermediate River. The ride down the 

 river that morning was most charming and will long 

 dwell in my memory as an hour of unalloyed happi- 

 ness. We reached Anderson's for dinner and caught the 

 Queen on her dovm trip, arriving in Elk Rapids f or sup- 

 per. Next day we went over to Traverse City, where we 

 staid a week, fishing in the lakes in the vicinity and timit- 

 ing in the Boardman River. While at Traverse Jack 

 caught the "king trout" of the trip; it weighed just 21bs. 

 and was said to be the largest caught that season, al- 

 though they have been captm-ed in the Boardman weigh- 

 ing as high as 51bs. DiCK. 



THE ALBANY FLY-CASTING. 



ALBANY, N. Y., Nov. 8.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 The first annual fly-casting tournament of the Fly- 

 Casting Association of Albany, N. Y., took place to-day. 

 It would be hard to select a worse day. The wind blew 

 from the north, south, east and west. Snow flew and the 

 water was choppy. Taking all in all it was a grand suc- 

 cess. There were about seventy-five fly -fishermen pres- 

 ent and it was held on Washington Park Lake. The 

 judges were: Messrs. Dean Sage, Wm. Ku-k, Wm. G. 

 Carr, James H. Manning. I inclose a score which ex- 

 plains itself: 



Length Distance 



of rod. in feet. Delicacy, Accuraev. T'l 

 H.E. Sweny 11.0 59 22i4 gj^ '25 



T.W.Olcott 11.6 53 -jgjJI 1^ 



W. D. Frothingham 10.6 57 -||^ |^ 



F-dK.Wood 10 A \ll ^ % 



Howard Paddock 11.6 72 ... 2]4 2^4 



W.W.HiE 11.6 67 171^ .... ITjI 



Dr. H. L. V\Tiifbeck 11 . ,,56 ] ■ • • • 



George Brooks 11.6 66 10 ' 'iii liy, 



Frank Tyler.., 10.6 64 5 12i| 



P.M.Luflman 11.6 |^ 12}^ 5 ITJ^ 



B. F. Reese 10.6 60 5 .... 5 



M.Stark 10.4 58 .... 5 5 



Wm.G. Paddock 11.6 63 7>6 2)4 10 



Dayton BaU 11.0 58 12}^ 2f^ 15 



The prizes for longest casts were won as foUows: First, 

 Howard Paddock, 72ft. (Spalding rod); second, Fred K. 

 Wood. 69ft. (Nichols rod); third, P. M. Luffman, 69ft. (4 

 dozen Scotch bass flies); fourth, W. W. HiU, 67ft, (oOyds. 

 enamel line). Wood and Luffman tied on C9ft. and in 

 casting oft' Wood made 74ft, and Luffman 71ft. 



The prizes for accuracy and delicacy were as foUows: 

 Fu'st, H. R. Sweny (automatic reel); second, T. W. 01- 

 cott (Bray fly-book); third, F. K. Wood (50yds. enamel 

 line); fourth, W. D. Frothingham (4 dozen trout flies). 



It is expected that the association will grow consider- 

 ably and another year will make a better show. 



W. G. Paddock, 



Another Critic on a Critic— The critic, so severely 

 criticized by "Awahsoose" and others in the last number 

 of yom* paper, would evidently subject the editor to his 

 own limitations. He faUs to recognize the fact ever 

 present to the inner consciousness of so many thousand 

 lovers of natm-e, albeit overworked and heavy laden with 

 the cares of life, that the Forest and Stream, under its 

 present editorial management, is a sovereign balm for the 

 sick and wearied soul. ^ Let yom- correspondent pass his 

 leisure in the study of statistical reports, the big'ger and 

 mustier the better, and may he find such solace healthful 

 and ent^jrtaining, for so shall he exercise one among the 

 many glorious privileges of American citizenship, but let 

 him not too strongly condemn the preference of those 

 who choose rather the dash of waves, the forest odors 

 that ever float in upon our souls with the advent of om- 

 favorite journal in the green cover, on which sitteth the 

 semblance of a sportsman who loveth natm'e for herself, 

 and who telleth Ms bosom friend, not how many fish his 

 creel contains, but how he caught them. — Kelpie. 



NUMBERING FISH HOOKS. 



THERE has been a movement in England, headed by 

 the Fishing Gazette, and backed by Mr. Cliolmonde- 

 ley-Pemiell, to reform the numbering of fish hooks and to 

 get the different makers to unite on a common system. 

 One maker acknowledges to tliree modes of numbering, as 

 follows: "Om- sneck bend hooks commence at 000; round, 

 Kir by and Limerick bends at 00; Sproat's and Pennell's 

 bends at No. 1," and adds that the No. 1 of the various 

 shapes are about equal in size but does not say how nearly 

 they apx-iroximate. It seems that the Redditch No. 1 hook 

 is the No. 12 under the Kendal system, while the No. 6 

 becomes No. 7 and the No. 10 becomes No. 3, etc. Surely 

 here is a chance for reformation, but the day of accom.- 

 plishment seems distant. 



It was proposed to have all hooks number upward from 

 the smallest, thus: 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., up to the largest 

 sizes. This method will allow of additions at either end, 

 should larger or smaller hooks be made, and would soon 

 become familiar. It is already in use by one firm, and 

 perhaps professional rivalry prevents others from adopt- 

 ing it. Certain it is that in answer to circulars sent out 

 by the Fishing Gazette to the principal makers of hooks, 

 seven firms replied, and six of these say that it Avould be 

 "impossible" for them to make the change. This is what 

 might be expected from men engaged in any business in 

 which they have sale for their goods to those who are 

 familiar with their labels, and what more do they want? 

 Anglers and fishermen must have hooks and will buy 

 them if there are no numbers at all on the packages, as 

 they coul<i select what they want by the eye, but the 

 more intelligent anglers desire that all hooks of one size 

 shall bear the same number. As one of them puts it: 

 "Imagine for a moment all the gunmakers in England 

 numbering the bores of guns each according to his own 

 particular fancy." 



We are in hearty sympathy with this movement, for it 

 aft'ects America as much as it does England, and we are 

 sorry to see the trade so conservative^to j)ut it mildly. 

 It strikes us that the claim of the makers that a new sys- 

 tem of numbering is "impossible," merely means that 

 they are indifferent to this proposed reform, because it 

 would cause them some slight trouble. A way out of 

 tliis difiiculty would be to adopt some uniform system for 

 labeling hooks, and then for convenience add below the 



numbers, in parenthesis, " Old numbers ." Witliin a 



few years the new system would gradually come into 

 use and the old ones would die. The adoption of a stand- 

 ard for reel plates by the National Rod and Reel Associa- 

 tion in this country has worked well. Moat all reels now 

 conform to it and only a few rm-al makers adhere to their 

 individual standard. " Let the hook makers meet and 

 agree to adopt a uniform standard and to use double la- 

 bels as long as may be necessary, and anglers the world 

 over will feel grateful. 



WHITE PERCH WITH THE FLY. 



THE letter in Forest and Stream of Nov. 4 in regard 

 to the white perch as a game fish was something of 

 a surprise to me. Not as regards the qualities of the fish, 

 but that a gentleman of Mr. Mather's reputation should 

 have just discovered them. As I have caught white perch 

 with the fly for years, I may be able to give a little infor- 

 mation to others who may not have tried taking them in 

 that mamier. 



White perch in this section of the country generally 

 take the fly best in the latter half of June and first part 

 of July, fiom a half hour before sunset imtil dark, when 

 they naturally are swimming near the sm-face to take the 

 "bass flies," as we call them here, which, on calm, warm 

 evenings, swarm about the ponds. This year was an ex- 

 ception. I did not once get perch, enough for a mess 

 until almost the last of July, when for a few days they 

 took the fly very freely. 1 then, one evening between 6 

 o'clock and 7:30, caught fifty wMte perch, and a few days 

 later took forty more within the sam'i length of time, an 

 average of one fish every two minutes for the full time 

 of fishing, 



T used three flies on a 6ft, leader and on one of these 

 evenmgs I took three perch at a time seven times in suc- 

 cession. As they most always swim, in schools, it is very 

 often the case that before one can be reeled in the other 

 flies Avill be taken. As I have made all the flies I have 

 used for years for trout, black bass and white perch. I 

 have experimented a good deal as regards color, and wiU 

 unhesitatingly say that, for white perch fishing in this 

 part of the country, the two flies which are most tak- 

 ing are the red-ibis and a fly made of red, yellow 

 and white. I make it as follows: Wliite body ribbed 

 ■with gold, wings red and yellow mixed, yellow hackle 

 and red or yellow tail. No doubt the Parmacheeen- 

 belle, which combines about the same colors, would do as 

 well. I use a No, 5 or 6 Sproat hook. 



There was one thing in Mr, Mather's letter which par- 

 ticularly interested me. He speaks of his white perch 

 thi-OAATLng himself out of the water. I have only caught 

 them inlakes and ponds in this part of Massachusetts and 

 just across the line in Rhode Island. In fact almost en- 

 tu'ely in om* Watuppa Lakes, near the city, but I have 

 never, out of many hundreds caught, seen one jump out of 

 water and never heard of one doing so before. I had con- 

 sidered it here an almost infallible sign in hooking a fish 

 whether it was a perch or small black bass, by noticing 

 that where it was a very rare case to reel in a "black bass 

 without its breaking water a white perch never did. It 

 is only one more proof of the difference in the habits of 

 the same fish in different sections of the coumtry. 



O. E. Borden. 



Fall River, Mass., Nov. 8. 



MmNESOTA.— Sauk Center, Miim., Oct. 27.— Gray Eagle, 

 ]Minn. , is a good resort for those who like to cast a fly or 

 oast a minnow. On the Little Falls & Dakota Railway, 

 135 miles from St. Paul, northeast. The route is via N. 

 P. R. R. , from St. Paul to Little Falls. It has some of the 

 finest fishing in this State; pike, pickerel, bass, etc., are- 

 easily brought up by a "gTub" worm or minnow. The 

 lake Is a bekutiful sheet of water one mile from town; 

 board may be had for $4 or $5 per week at the Fuller. 

 House. — Dell. 



Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct. 2S.—I have just seen 76 black 

 bass, 7 of which were small-mouths, also 6 pike, all 

 caught in two days fishing by Messrs. Moritz and Hayden, 

 of this city, at West Lakes, 32 miles north of here. Live 

 minnow used as bait. — ^J. P. H. 



