April 5, 1888. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



209 



THE MAINE OPENING. 



rpHE trout season is opened in this State, though not 

 JL under very favorable auspices. The weather on 

 Monday, the first legal day of the season, opened with a 

 snowstorm, fol owed by a very disagreeable rain. This 

 prevented several devotees of the rod and line from 

 "going down to the Cape," and they will wait till the 

 weather is warmer. But Sunday was a most charming 

 day, and the temptation to take down the rod, which 

 had reposed all winter, was very strong. In fact it was 

 too strong for several sportsmen in the vicinity of Wor- 

 cester. Hiring a tpani, they drove several miles to their 

 favorite stream. But there is a general statute against 

 fishing on Sunday. Some of those who intended to try 

 the trout in the same stream, as ? oon as it coidd legally 

 and decently be done, informed the officers of the law, 

 and the dispatches to the morning paper said that there 

 were five arrests for fishing on Sunday. Later dispatches 

 say that on Monday the sportsmen "were brought into 

 court, where they plead guilty and were fined a merely 

 nominal sum each. Public sentiment, in favor of the 

 Sunday law is not strong enough for the protection of 

 fish and game. 



Ice in the Maine lakes must be remarkably thin, if all 

 reports are true. The latest from the Upper Dam, An- 

 droscoggin Lakes, say that Richardson Lake is open from 

 the mouth of the river, along the shore, nearly down to 

 the Narrows, and that the Narrows are nearly all open. 

 This is something very unusual, if true, and it would 

 indicate a very early departure of the ice from the 

 Androscoggin lakes, and an early opening of the trout 

 season. The idea that the lake is thus open has set 

 several fishermen crazy to be on the ground, though the 

 law in Maine is not really off till the first of May. But 

 there is a special law which permits inhabitants of the 

 State to take trout after the first of March for their own 

 use at their own homes. This form of the law will doubt- 

 less let in a good deal of early fishing from these open 

 spots in the lakes. Such fishing is a disaster and never 

 should have been permitted. In one sense it is nearly as 

 bad. as fishing from the spawning bed, or from fishways. 

 The trout, which have been shut from the light all win- 

 ter by the thick covering of ice, immediately seek these 

 open spots to feed. Hence they fall an easy prey to the 

 live minnow and the trolling hook which these early 

 fishermen employ. They sometimes succeed in taking 

 enormous quantities of trout, only to be wasted. 



Alas for such public sentiment as shall prevent any 

 man from taking only such quantities of trout as are 

 needed for his table! The advantages that these fisher- 

 men, who want all the trout there are, get over the 

 reasonable sportsman, who takes his vacation late and 

 is satisfied with a few trout on the fly, are so great that 

 the reasonable man is sorely tempted sometimes to wish 

 that there were no laws nor attempts toward protection ; 

 then all could go in and take a hand in the trout while 

 they lasted. But sober, second thought soon separates 

 the fly-fisherman from the trout butcher. If killing fish 

 were all, then a charge of dynamite would be sufficient 

 to bring about all the trout in any pool to the surface, 

 where they could easily be gathered in by any covetous 

 fisherman. But such sportsmen should at once go on a 

 whaling voyage or two. There the cutting up of mighty 

 whales would be likely to give them their till of the fish 

 business. 



But there is something new on the way for these 

 trolling fishermen. Experiments are being made in the 

 direction of keeping minnows in hermetically sealed cans, 

 and keeping them alive too. I understand that they have 

 already been kept alive for seven days, and that experi- 

 ments are still in progress toward keeping them much 

 longer. To keep them seven days, even, is an achievt- 

 ment to the trolling fisherman. That length of time 

 would permit of almost any transportation, and the 

 fisherman can be sure of his live minnows as soon as 

 he reaches the fishing grounds. ■ Special. 



the tip. Wo saw thousands of trout in the water, but 

 with the low temperature of course few cared to rise. 

 We spent but little time as it was necessary to retura to 

 Sandusky before night. However, one magnificent 

 specimen, most brilliantly colored. Weighing |lb., was 

 taken. 



This is one of the most prosperous angling clubs in 

 the country. The original shares were $115. An offer 

 has been recently made of $700 for a share. The club 

 has invested about $30,000 with a membership number 

 of 65, which consists of professional men, merchants and 

 manufacturers in Sandusky, Cleveland, Columbus, Cin- 

 cinnati, Toledo and a few other places. It is officered 

 as follows! J. C. Jollinger, President; Gr. W. Bills, Vice- 

 President; B, F. Ferris, Secretary, and William Melville, 

 Treasurer. 



A great additional interest to me was found in the 

 tameness of the many birds which were seen along the 

 banks; English snipe, kildeer, plover, robins, blackbirds, 

 sparrows, phcebe birds. One of the phcebe birds was 

 extremely anxious to "take in" a little brown gnat 

 which I was casting. Indeed, I had to exercise a good 

 deal of skill to avoid hooking the pretty little creature. 

 This vicinity is noted for English snipe, quail, partridge 

 and woodcock. Sandusky Bay and the marshes near by 

 abound in ducks in the spring and fall. Not far away 

 is the finest black bass, rock ba^s and yellow perch fish- 

 ing in the world. The superintendent, Andrew Englert, 

 is a Bavarian by birth and a typical gamekeeper. His 

 father and brother are foresters and gamekeepers in 

 Germany. He is a very successful fishculturist, breed- 

 ing many thousand trout eggs in the club's hatching 

 house. 



1 am not sure whether the famous record made by 

 twenty-one gentlemen, a part of them members of this 

 club, on black bass, has ever appeared in your columns. 

 I certainly have not noticed it, although a constant reader 

 since the very first issue of the Forest and Stream. 

 3,900 pounds of black bass were taken by these gentle- 

 men in one day's fishing, I believe fish ranging from 4.1b 

 to 41bs. What a magnificent country we have for fish- 

 ing and game ! The laws which are being steadily en- 

 acted; the growth in the public sentiment in favor of 

 preservation and protection; the friendly co-operation 

 between the farmer and the owners of streams, ponds 

 and lakes, and the shooting and angling fraternity; the 

 constant introduction of new and valuable game and fish 

 from foreign lands, indicate golden days in the near fu- 

 ture for these sports of field and flood. 



I sincerely trust the time is not far distant when 

 ever j man, woman and child in the land will have an op- 



Eortunity of catching fish and shooting game within an 

 our's walk of their respective homes. 

 Detroit, Mich., March. 35. GEO. SHEPARD PAGE. 



THE CASTAL1A TROUT STREAM. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In Sandusky last week, I fortunately made the ac- 

 quaintance of Mr. B. F. Ferris, secretary and founder 

 of the Cold Creek Sporting Club Co. With the usual 

 courtesy and hospitality of the angler, he invited me to 

 visit the famous Castalia stream, six miles distant. Al- 

 though it was just dinner hour, yet like every true 

 angler, I'd rather see and catch a trout than eat at any 

 time. With the thermometer at 28°, and six inches of 

 snow on the ground, we started out for the drive to Cas- 

 talia. The wonderful river (it is worthy of that name) 

 takes its rise in the middle of a large pond where it 

 flows forth from the ground in volume sufficient to run 

 two or three grist mills. Indeed, until within the last 

 few months, it was so employed. But little surface 

 water enters the stream. The temperature is quite con- 

 stant the year round, running from 45 to 48; it was 48 

 when I tried it. as before stated, with an air temperature 

 of 28". As we reached the covered wood bridge crossing 

 the stream a pistol shot from its source, we looked down 

 between the crevices of the boards into the clear waters 

 below. I said to Mr. Ferris that I had the eye of a hawk 

 for brook trout in water, and believed I would spy the 

 first one, even in waters with which he was most fami- 

 liar. The result proved my statement to be correct, be- 

 cause the first trout observed was lying almost motion- 

 less in water about four feet deep; a magnificent speci- 

 men fully 18 inches long, which would weigh about three 

 and one-quarter pounds. 



Mr, Ferris desired to get out his rod and line and try 

 for him, but I protested that this magnificent fish should 

 be left for others to look upon, and as a propagator of 

 his species. The stream at this point was about 80 feet 

 wide, and would average two feet in depth. This will 



Lake Champlain.— St. Albans Bay, Vt.— Canada has 

 at length fallen into line; the Canadian authorities have 

 decided to grant no licenses this spring for net fibbing in 

 Mississquoi Bay, the principal spawning ground for the 

 wall-eyed pike" Thus a stop is put to that sort of fishing 

 throughout Lake Champlain, as the New York and Ver- 

 mont laws already prohibit it. Last spring the Canadian 

 authorities granted licenses to seines only; no licenses 

 were granted for pound or other nets — the curse of any 

 fishing waters. Hon. H. Brainerd, Fish Commissioner of 

 Vermont for the past six years, has been very active and 

 earnest in his endeavor to secure protection against net- 

 ters to the game fish of Lake Champlain, and the excel- 

 lent fishing we have had with hook and line is in great 

 part due to the protection given by law. We can now be 

 assured that the fishing in the Great Back Ray will con- 

 tinue to be good, and keep up its record as being the best 

 of northern fishing waters. It is the natural homo of the 

 small-mouthed bass. Large numbers were caught last 

 season weighiug from 4 to Silbs. each, and the catches 

 were large in number as well as in size, as can be verified 

 by hundreds of your readers who fished for them in its 

 waters. High water always insures us splendid bass 

 fishing, and the great depth of snow on the borders of 

 Lake Champlain will this year give us high water. The 

 fishing— opening of season, June 1 — is always good. 

 Great Back Bay, of Lake Champlain, is having quite 

 a boom now, for its superb fishing and camping 



grounds. — H. L. S. \x 



N 



Sunapee Trout.— Washington, March 22 —Editor 

 Forest and Stream: I will not venture to intrude my 

 individual opinion into the Sunapee trout discussion, but 

 beg to refer to Lr. Gi'inther, the most astute ichthyolo- 

 gist who has yet appeared, where he says: " As with 

 other animals, the* more certain kinds of fishes are 

 brought under domestication, the more readily do they 

 interbreed with other allied species. It is characteristic 

 of hybrids that their characters are very variable, the 

 degrees of affinity to one or the other of the parents 

 being inconstant, and as these hybrids are known readi- 

 ly to breed with either of the parent race, the variations 

 of form, structure and color are infinite." These re- 

 marks were incidental to an observed very marked fre- 

 quency of hybridism in the salmon family. I wish those 

 interested in the subject of ichthyology would learn to 

 study Dr. Gunther more. What he says is an apparent 

 indorsement of the views of Dr. Quackenbos of the 

 New York Academy of Medicine. It seems to me that 

 Messrs. Quackenbos and Webber have given together a 

 very intelligent solution of the Sunapee trout problem. 

 Doubtless this hybrid carries marked characteristics of 

 S. oquassa, as stated by Dr. Bean. — Charles Hallock. 



Tackle.— Casselton, D. T., March 27.— In your issue of 

 March 22. "P. L.", and '■ Skillback" give testimony in re- 

 . gard to the automatic reel, but neither touches npon a 

 give you a correct idea of the enormous flow of the j pomt Q f interest to manv anglers; viz., can they be used 



"'in minnow casting? If they, or any one else who has 



use any implement for taking or catching anv shellfish from such 

 lawfully occupied and planted o>stcr ted without the permJasdcn 

 of its owner or occupant., frhall upon conviction be deemed guilty 

 of a misdemeanor, and shall be punisbod by a fine of not less than 

 $5i.O nor more than $1,000, or by impiisonment for not. less than 

 six mouths nor moro than one year, or both, [n addition to the 

 present duties of the State Oyster Protector, as provided in Chap- 

 ter 300 Laws of 1888, it shall he his duty to guard tbe planted oys- 

 ter heds of the State and enforce the pi ovisions of this act, and 

 his salary i»- hereby increased to $2,000 per year, and he sLall be 

 allowed his traveling and incidental expenses, the hire of a patrol 

 boat or boats, and of two assistants to be appointed hy the Com- 

 missioners of Fisheries, in all not to exceed $7,000 per j ear. Tue 

 sum of if(5,0 : H) is hereby appropriated out of any money in the 

 treasury in addition to the item of $1,000 for salary of said pro- 

 tector now in the Appropriation Bill. AH acts and parts of acts 

 inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. This act shall 

 take effect on the first day of June, 1888. 



Assemblyman Savory has introduced a h'U which prohibits the 

 catching of bullheads, eels, suckers, sunfish and perch with any 

 device f i om May 1 to June lo from apoint one mile above the free 

 bridge over the Seneca River (the boundary between Cayuga and 

 Seneca counties) for a distance of nine miles down the stream to 

 the Mosquito Point bridge. The object, is to protect those fish 

 while spawning. It is further provided that at any time of the 

 year, aside from the above, shall no fish be taken with any other 

 device than hook and line. The above named fish, however, may 

 be netted for, but there is a penalty for keeping or seUingor giving 

 away any other kind. 



Assemblyman Fort's bill amends Section 21 of Chapter E34 of 

 the Laws of 1878 by adding the following to its provisions in re- 

 ;ard to Lake George: "Nor shall any person expose for sale or 

 lave m his or her possession any bullhead caught or killed in the 

 waters of Lake George or in the w iters of the inlets or creeks 

 emptying into the same between the first day of April and the first 

 day of July in any year. 



Mr. Cromwell's bill amends sections 7 and of chapter £84 of the 

 laws of 1887, so as (iu section 7) to authorize die Commissioner of 

 Fisheries to appoint and empicy an engineer at a > alary not to 

 exceed $3,500, and a clerk at a salary not to exceed $1,500, which 

 compensations and the necessary expenses for c&rrj ing out the 

 provisions ot this act shall be paid by The Treasurer upon the 

 warrant of the Comptroller upon vouchers to be approved oy the 

 Commissioners. Said clerk shall give bonds to be approved by 

 the Comptroller in the sum of $5,0C0. Section 9 is amended so 

 that this act sbaU not apply to nor be held to affect m any way 

 lands under water owned or held under Colonial patents or legis- 

 lative grants by any town or towns, person or persons, in the 

 counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings and Liehmond. Lands under 

 the waters of Gardiners and Poconic Bajs ceded by the S:ate to 

 the county of Suffolk purMiiant to chapter 885 of the lawn of 18S5, 

 or lands in the county of Westchester. The law amended hy this 

 bill is known as the Shellfish protection act. The bill itself comes 

 from tho Commissioners nf Fisheries, and it has been referred to 

 the Commit I oo on Ways and Means. 



Assemblyman Fuller's bill relates only to Chenango cnunty. It 

 makes the brook trout season from April 1 to Aug. 1. No kind of 

 fish mav be caught after the 15th of January until too 1st of May, 

 except as above. 



spring. There is no elevation in the vicinity over 100 

 feet above the level of Lake Erie. One theory respecting 

 the source is that it comes from Lake Superior. We 

 followed on down the brook about half a mile to the club 

 houses. A fire of soft coal was soon burning in the cozy 

 sitting room. Mr. Ferris opened his locker, took out a 

 splendid split-bamboo rod, with gold-plated reel, oil silk 

 line, leader, and selected an assortment of flies, and 

 handed it to me for use. This rod was a recent present 

 to Mr. Ferris from his friends in the club. I never be^- 

 fore attempted to catch trout in any civilized country 



used them, will testify upon that point, they will settle 

 what, to many, is a vexed question. — H. P. U. 



NEW YORK FISH LAWS. 



ALBANY, March 24.— Tho great ruBh of hiHs on Monday, the 

 19th, and Tuesday, the 20ch, made it impossible to give more 

 than a brief outline of several important ones which were intro- 

 duced at the time. We give below a very much more full and 

 satisfactory description of those bills: 

 Assemblyman Cromwell's bill for the protection of the planted 



loreatiouipi^u w uaum uuui, ui buy uivui.«u uuuuuy , ^ ^ Sated h tte St o SYort provides tkt any 

 With SIX inches Of snow on the ground, and lOe forming p £ rgon 0l , pfel . SO ns not the lawful nccuuaut or owner of a planted 



on the line so rapidly that it was constantly freezing to oyster bed in the waters of the State who shall take or catch or 



«$ishculture. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 



Every j>erson who it sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing protection- for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the Forest and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 



DURING the late severe snow storm the committee of the 

 National Rod and Reel Association appointed to take 

 action on the resolution introduced by Mr. Francis Endi- 

 cott, to protest against the injury done to the fisheries by 

 the capture of menhaden for oil and guano, met March 19 

 and listened to the arguments of those who favor restricting 

 the capture of menhaden, as they had previously given ear 

 to those intereste 1 in the oil and guano business. Capt. 

 Wm. P. Dunning made the following address: 



MENHADEN VS. HAND-LINE FISHERMEN. 

 Mr. Chairman— When your committee was formed for the 

 investigation of the effect of the present methods of men- 

 haden seining in the inshore waters of our coast; on the 

 destruction or dispersement of food fishes, and on the allepid 

 injury or destruction of the inshore hand-line fishing indus- 

 try, it was reasonable to suppose that all parties thertin 

 concerned or in any way honestly or fairly interested, wonld 

 have equal chance to present their claims, and that a fair 

 hearing with equal publicity would be granted and provided. 

 The menhaden fishermen, in their full force, were permitted 

 to occupy an entire sitting of your committee on the first 

 day. They presented their side of the case in the fullest 

 manner, presented all the statements that could be conjured 

 up, in an attempt to fortify their claim to be permitted to 

 pursue their labors unmolested by any legislation of 

 restraint. All that could be said was listened to and pub- 

 lished to tbe world as the menhaden fishermen's claim 

 against any legislative interference, and in defense of their 

 present methods. Since that time, and until to-day, no 

 opportunity has been given to those who do not credit the 

 statements of the menhaden fishermen as being wholly Gos- 

 pel truth, to bear testimony against their statements, nor to 

 plead for another industry of equal, if not greater im- 

 portance: an industry in which hundreds of the poor of our 

 sea coast line to one of the menhaden fishing men, are vitally 

 interested. 



The inshore hand-line fishing industry was a useful, pro- 

 fitable, and much needed pursuit, long before menhaden 

 fishing, as at present conducted, was dreamed of. At that 

 time when mennaden were a necessary adjunct to this pur- 

 suit the menhaden furnished the bait necessary to the catch- 

 ing of the other food fish, they furnished the chum that 

 baited the ground to which the food fish were enticed there- 

 by; and where the thousands of inshore hand-line fisher- 

 men could ply their vocation, earning a living for them- 

 selves and their families, and furnishing a necessary, cheap, 

 and much needed food for many a poor family which were 

 nearly dependent on it. Now tbis is all changed; the men- 

 haden men wnth their hundreds of steamers equipped with 

 all the appliances which the ingenuity of man can invent, 

 with purse nets long enough to compass the globe, and with 

 trained men in fleet boats to surround every school of men- 

 haden that, they can discover along our whole coast, from 

 Maine to the Caroliuas, scoop them up and carry them away 

 to immense oil factories to be made into oil and fertilizers 

 to line the pockets of a monopoly, instead of allowing them 

 to contribute to the subsistance of mankind, as the Lord in- 

 tended they should in the great economy of his wisdom and 

 goodness to his finite beiugs. 



To all this the menhaden men make answer: "We are in 

 no wise to blame, we do not diminish the menhaden in the 

 least, though we may scoop up, as we do, hundreds of billions 

 and carry them away annually, this is nothing; it leaves 

 just as many behind. 'Man is not a factor,' in either the 

 productiveness or the scarcity of the ocean fishes. Has not 

 Professor Huxley so determined long ago? Then how, or 

 by what reason do you charge us with a diminution of men- 

 haden, or assert that by om profitable pursuits they are 

 driven from off our coast." 



Abstruse science is not always infallible, and it sometimes 

 suffers by contact with practical experience and the intelli- 

 gent application of the relations between cause and effect,and 

 In tbis instance itisgreatly deficient. If the doctrine be true 

 why spend money by the thousands to restock exhausted 

 rivers, bays and streams that have been denuded by the 

 cupidity of man, despite the doctrine of Huxley? Why ap- 

 point fish commissioners by States, and by the United 



