Nov. 3, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



287 



dealt with. He said that he would take his chauces on it. There 

 the matter stands; for reasons best known to myself 1 did not 

 arrest them. 



About the middle of September, 186$, I found Mr. Stewart fishing 

 at the dam with two large bait hooks on his line, one six or eight 

 inches asove the other. On the upper hook he had a minnow, 

 which was hooked on so it would revolve. On the lower hook 

 there was no bait at all. 1 told him that he had no right bylaw 

 to fish In this way. and requested tutu to stop it. Geo. D. Huntoon. 



It appears that Huntoon" s course in demanding the 

 amount of the fines was in accordance with the Maine 

 practice in such cases. When a person has been detected 

 in a violation of the game law, or is charged with violat- 

 ing it, the officer may at his discretion, instead of arrest- 

 ing the party, receive from him a sum of money equal to 

 the fine provided, to be held as a surety for the appearance 

 of the individual before a justice, either to stand trial or 

 to plead guilty. If the officer pursues this course, offend- 

 ers are given the privilege of going before a justice and 

 paying their fines without having" been subjected to the 

 indignity of arrest. In reply to an inquiry on this point, 

 Commissioner Stilwell writes as follows: 



SfcAttE of Maine.— Commission of Fisheries and Game.— Ban- 

 gor, Oct. 5.— Editor Forest and Stream: As a general rule, an 

 officer is never armed with a warrant unless wheu looking for a 

 kuown party who has committed an offense. If while on a tramp 

 through the forest, or on a stream, he detects a man or men in the 

 commission of an offense, he arrests them on the spot, without a 

 warrant, that he may take them before the nearest trial justice 

 and obtain a warrant and trial or commitment. If the men wish 

 to avoid going out under arrest, or wish for time, they can give a 

 bond with a penal sunt and sureties. Jn the wilderness bondsmen 

 are not always accessible, and the warden does precisely what 

 honest Hun toon sought to do and did, viz., he made them deposit 

 in bis hands a sum of money equal to the penalty for the offense, 

 gave them a receipt stating the sum deposited and the condition 

 that they were to appear before a trial justice at a certain place 

 and "plead guilty." Not appear for trial, but to plead guilty. 

 Huntoon caught them in the act, and even Mr. Stewart must, con- 

 fess that, according to his own statement, he was paHiccps crim- 

 inls. Huntoon did not, even exact full penalty, which should have 

 been £30 instead of §25 each. The Commissioners have the fullest 

 confidence in the fidelity, integrity and truthfulness of Warden 

 Huntoon.— E. M. Stilwell. 



In his conversation with us on Sept. BO Mr. Stewart 

 mentioned, as among those who had visited the Upper 

 Dam while he was there, Mr. A. N. Cheney, of Glens 

 Falls, N. Y., and Mr. Franklin E. Taylor, of this city. 

 We wrote to Mr. Cheney, and on Monday, Oct. 3, called 

 on Mr. Taylor., who had just ret urned from Maine. Mr. 

 Taylor told us that while at the Upper Dam he had seen 

 Mr. Holiingsworth fishing in one of the gates of the dam 

 Lu a manner which left no room for doubt in his mind 

 that the fisherman was trying to take the fish by jigging 

 them. Mr. Taylor is an angler of long experience and a 

 member of the "influential Oquossoc Angling Association, 

 whose club house is at Indian Rock. 



Mr. Cheney is well-known to readers of the FOREST AND 

 Stream as an angler and a writer of repute on angling- 

 topics. His reply to our inquiry was received on Oct. 4. 

 It read as follows: 



Glens Falls, N. Y., Oct. 'Z.—EdiUir Forest and Stream: Your 

 letter asking what I knew about Mr. Stewart's and Mr. Hollings- 

 worth's fishing operations at Upper Dam, Maine, is received. As 

 Mr. Stewart mentioned my name to you as one of the anglers who 

 were at Upper Dam while he was there, I take it that he is not 

 averse to my explaining to > r ou what I then learned. 



I was at Upper Dam while Mr. Stewart was there, and I left 

 Upper Dam most thoroughly disgusted with the manner in which 

 big trout are potted at that, place. 



On the evening of Sept. 14, Mr. W. D. Cleveland, Rev. Mr. Becl:- 

 with. both of Houston, Texas, and myself arrived at Upper Dam 

 on our way home from John Danforth's camp at Parmacheene 

 Lake. Among others at the Upper Dam hotel were Mr. Stewart 

 and Mr. Holiingsworth. Mr. Cleveland was anxious to get a big 

 trout to bring out. and show to his friends, and offered to buy such 

 a fish if it could be had for money. Failing in this he accepted as 

 a gift from Holiingsworth a trout that he had alive in a fish car. 

 This fact, that a member of the party with whom 1 was had 

 accepted a fish from Mr. Holiingsworth, made me loath to criticise 

 the peculiar style of fishing of Mr. Stewart and Mr. Holiings- 

 worth, for if my informant is correct, which 1 do not doubt, this 

 peculiar style is what I was brought up to call "jigging." 



After our arrival and during the evening, Mr. Stewart, in reply- 

 to Mr. Cleveland, said the big trout were taken with a fly. Later 

 in the evening Mr. Free-land Howe, of Norway, Me., intimated to 

 me that the big trout were not, even taken with bait; but he was 

 then quite careful not to commit himself as to the exact manner of 

 their taking off, although he told me that if I was near the "horse 

 stalls" in the morning I might see how the thing was done. 



In the. middle of the dam the water issues from four or five 

 gates, when they are open, and the gates are separated by parti- 

 lions, making openings on the lower side, say about 5ft. wide and 

 12ft. long, with a wooden floor not unlike horse stalls in a stable; 

 hence the name which is applied to these death traps. The water 

 in the, stalls, which are four or five in number, was at the time I 

 inspected them, I judged, about 2ft. deep. On either side of these 

 stalls are narrow inclines of woodwork, running from the dam 

 structure down into the water. Some distance above the water 

 the structure hangs partly over the stalls. Beyond the incline, at 

 either side, water issues from other gates on a higher level than in 

 the stalls, and ruus down over aprons to the pool below. The leak- 

 age from the side gates causes a current to set up into the horse 

 stalls between. The pool is 7") to 100ft. down stream from the stalls. 

 You will see from my rough description that if a trout runs from 

 the pool up into one of these stalls there is no way for it to get out 



except to return the way it came, and you know that in September 

 trout show great determination to get up stream at any r cost, and 

 when once in the stalls they are not easily turned back. 



At 5 o'clock on the morning of the 15th Mr. Cleveland and I 

 went on the water below the dam, where there were several other 

 boats, and cast our flies in the pool and river. When the fog 

 lifted we saw that Mr. Stewart's boat was in one of the "horse 

 stalls," and there he remained until he went to breakfast, two 

 hours later. His fishing seemed to be done by peering into the 

 water over the side of his boat, and I was curious to know what 

 his actions meant. After breakfast time all the fishermen except 

 Mr. Cleveland and myself went ashore, and then we pushed our 

 boat into the stall at the extreme right, just vacated by Mr. 

 Stewart, and found it as I have described above. We both pro- 

 nounced It a death trap for any trout which might get in there 

 and be jigged for. 



One angler, a clergyman, had a guide, and the two went into the 

 stall at the far left and remained for a short before the guide put 

 his employer on shore. The guide returned at once alone to the 

 stall and was there when we arrived. As we pushed out of the 

 right hand stall, after looking it over, the guide in the left 

 stall was seen to be fast to a trout and he motioned to 

 us to wait. His fish soon ran down into the pool, and there he 

 "played it," and finally made several ineffectual attempts to net 

 it. I called to him that 1 would help him; and While pushing my boat, 

 toward his I asked Mr. Cleveland to let me see the trout after he 

 had netted it and before passing it over to its owner. Mr. Cleve- 

 land put my net under the trout and swung it around into the 

 boat in front of me, when we saw that the trout, was hooked under 

 the tail with a bare hook of large size, without even an apology 

 for a bait of any kind. The guide said he was fishing with bait, 

 but I should imagine that when trout seize a bait, with the "tail 

 holt" they would not swallow the bait. To me it seems absurd to 

 expect a trout in one of these stalls in September to take either 

 fly or bait except under the tail. At the breakfast table we in- 

 formed the gentleman that his guide had taken a trout in the 

 stall and he informed us that before coming in he had seen two 

 trout in the same stall. After breakfast we found that the guide 

 had taken the second trout, so both were accounted for. 



I went with others on the footway of the dam after breakfast 

 to see the water let on from one of the gates (I will speak of this 

 later), and looking down into the stalls saw Mr. Holiingsworth 

 fishing with what appeared to my eye to be a bare hook with a 

 fly fastened to the leader just above it. Later I was told by Mr. 

 Howe that I had hit the tackle exactly. Mr. Hollingworth was 

 jerking his rod and short line as a man does who is trying to jig 

 trout. While 1 was gettiug ready to start on the steamboat, Mr. 

 Hollingworth came down into the pool from his stall fast to a big 

 trout. I watched the struggle for a few moments from the hotel, 

 but the fish escaped. Later, while talking with Mr. Hollingworth 

 on the dam, he said as if in apology for his style of pot-fishing, "I 

 did not think I ever would engage in tliis, for it is not very sports- 

 manlike, still it is exciting once a trout is hooked." He left me 

 to translate "this" according to the knowledge that I might, have 

 gained. 



The same morning Mr. Stewart caused the water to be let on 

 from one of the gates (not one of the horse stall gates, for that 

 would disturb the "preserve," but a flanking one) to "stir up the 

 trout in the pool" below. He then announced that it would be a 

 good time to fish above the dam with bait, prepared himself ac- 

 cordingly, and quietly took himself to one of the stalls below the 

 dam. 1 think that any one who understands the habits of trout 

 will snrmise that the water was let on to create a current to draw 

 the trout t strong with the breeding instinct, up stream in the 

 hopes of finding an outlet to spawning grounds. Of course, when 

 they were "stirred up" and came into the stalls they were in a 

 pen, so to speak. Mr. Stewart fished in the stalls before and after 

 breakfast, but I did not see him fish the pond or stream below 

 while we were there. 



When we left on the. steamer for Middle Dam Mr. Freeland Howe 

 came with us, and we talked of the fish murder going on at Upper 

 Dam. Mr. Howe then told Mr. Cleveland and me that Mr. Stewart 

 took trout out of those stalls by hooking them foul on the outside, 

 and that he, Mr. Howe, sat in Mr. Stewart's boat and saw him do 

 it. You may call it jigging or hooking or whatever you choose. 

 Mr. Howe said that a bare hook or fly, or both, wore used, and the 

 trout were first seen in the stalls, and then with the line shortened 

 on the rod they were hooked at nntil the fly or hook fastened them 

 somewhere. Sometimes the fly hooked the trout, sometimes the 

 bare hook did it; but the dead minnows seen in Mr. Stewart 's boa t 

 were only a blind. Mr. Howe made t he above statement without 

 reservation or pledge. 1 carefully made a memorandum of what 

 he said and read it to Mr. Cleveland, who will confirm the accur- 

 acy of it if you wish. A. N. Cheney. 



On Oct. 5, the day following the receipt of the above, 

 when Mr. Stewart brought us his disclaimer, he told us 

 that Mr. Howe was one of those to whom he had sent 

 for signature the statement signed by Mr. Ramsey and 

 others. We then wrote to Mr. Howe as follows: 



"We ha\ e been told that you have personal knowledge of the 

 trout fishing methods employed by Mr. T. B. Stewart, of this city, 

 at the Upper Dam Camp, Me., having been with him when he 

 caught trout. The Forest and Scream has accused Mr. Stewart 

 of having jigged trout, U 6., caught t hem hy striking a, fish hook 

 into them somewhere in the body other than the mouth. Mr. 

 Stewart denies having taken fish in this way, but claims always 

 to have taken them in a perfectly legitimate and sportsmanlike 

 manner. Our only desire is to get at the truth in the matter, and 

 if we find that, we have wronged Mr. Stewart we will gladly 

 do him justice by saying so. Will you kindly tell us whether we 

 have made a mistake or not?" 



To this in due time came the reply: 



Norway, Me., Oct. 10.— Editor Forest and Stream: Your favor of 

 the 5th is received, and I have seen the correspondence hy Mr. 

 Stewart, and 1 beg. leave to be excused from saying anything upon 

 the subject.— Freeland Howe. 



Capt. Fred. C. Barker writes as follows: 



Camp Bemis, Me., Oct. 15.— Editor Forest and Stream: In reply 

 to your note inquiring about the reported illegal fishing at the 

 Upper Dam, Maine, in September last, by Mr. T. B. Stewart , of 

 I your city and Mr. Mark Holiingsworth. of Boston. J will state that 

 I have never seen Mr. Holiingsworth fish otherwise than fairly; 



but of Mr. Stewart I cannot say the same. On the afternoon of 

 the 15th or 10th of September last, in one of the deep gates of the 

 Upper Dam, or rather just below the gate in the compartment in 

 which the gate stands, which is planked on the sides and bottom, 

 and covered over head by the bridge of the dam. making a space 

 about 18ft. long or deep, 7ft. wide, and 15ft. high, with the water 

 about 4ft. deep, I saw Mr. Stewart fishing from a boat, which was 

 hitched to a, Bpfke driven into a plank on the side and near the 

 mouth of the compartmettt. The bottom could not be seen, as 

 there was quite a current in the water* owing to the gate being 

 hoisted a little. Mr. Stewart bad an ordinary fishing rod and was 

 fiBhing up near the gate. He drew his tackle from the water and 

 dropped it back again as many as three times while I stood within 

 eight feet of him, and I plainly saw two ordinary-sized bait hooks 

 attached to his leader, one six or eight inches above the other. 

 Neither one of the hooks was baited. He was yanking these, 

 hooks up and sideways, the same as one would yank a grapple 

 through a sucker pool, where the bottom could not be seen. I 

 don't know that he called that jigging, or an attempt to jig; per- 

 haps he has not the word in his fishing vocabulary; but it could 

 nor be called fishing by the "ordinary mode of angling." I did 

 not see him hook a, fish, but I was told by two or three persons 

 tha,t he hooked one very soon after I went away, but whether in 

 the side or the mouth I did not learn. Just before Mr. Stewart 

 weilt to fishing there, a gentleman came from the same place 

 leading a la rge trout. The fisherman was standing up in his boat 

 with his rod in his left hand, and the trout led like a horse. In 

 his ri^ht hand he held the oar with which he paddled the boat 

 along. There was plenty of room to take the trout in just, below 

 the apron of the dam, in sight of perhaps a dozen ladies and gen- 

 tlemen who were standing on the bridge of the dam: but, a fter a 

 turn or two in the pool, he paddled up to a pier of the dam; a friend 

 of his stepped in, took the oars and rowed about ten rods away 

 from the dam; the boat stopped, side toward the dam; the fish 

 was brought up on the opposite side, and the landing net was 

 slipped under him. Perhaps the hook was in the right place; no 

 one but the fisherman and his friend saw where it was. 



F. C. Barker. 



What is to be understood as a "jig" and as "jigging" in 

 this connection must depend upon the words as they were 

 employed in our article of Sept. 29. The explanation then 

 given was this: 



The jig is a very simple implement. It consists of a hook or a 

 number of hooks attached to a pole or to a line with or without a 

 rod. That is all there is to it; no bait, no fl> r , nothing but just bare 

 hook. This is let down into the water underneath the fish or by 

 the side of it, and jerked upward or sidewise. The hook is driven 

 into the fish's belly or side or head or tail, and there you have 

 him!— Forest and Stream, Sept. 29. 



The correspondent who first alluded to the trout shown 

 in Boston has thus replied to our inquiries: 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



So far as Mr. T. B. Stewart's big trout are concerned, I do not 

 feel that it would be just to myself or to the readers of Forest 

 and Stream to let the matter drop without explaining my posi- 

 tion, since I wrote the account of the trout in the show window, 

 the same that; were treated editorially in the number of that 

 paper issued .Sept. 29. 1 have not the slightest ill-feeling toward 

 Mr. Stewart, and I would not do him even the smallest injustice. 



The first intimation I had that the fish were taken in any other 

 manner than the one I reported to you, came in this letter from 

 Mr. Stanley: 



"State op Maine, Commission or Fisheries and Game.— Dix- 



field, Me., Sept. 28.— Friend : I notice an article of yours in 



Forest and Stream, under date Sept. 15. entitled 'Maine Waters.' 

 In the article is mentioned Mr. T. B. Stewart, of New York, as a 

 very successful fly-fisher at the Upper Dam for large trout. Now, 

 a few days ago I got several letters from sportsmen at the Upper 

 Dam saying that parties were hooking the large trout on the way 

 to their spawning beds, at the Upper Dam, by means of two or 

 three, hooks one above the other. I wrote George D. Huntoon, our 

 warden at Kangeley, to go down there at once and catch them if 

 he could. He did so, and caught T. B. Stewart, of New York, and 

 a man from Boston hy the name of Holiingsworth. They acknowl- 

 edged the offense; and they deposited with Huntoon $53, he giving 

 them a receipt therefor, and they agreeing to meet him at, Ando- 

 ver last Friday, plead guilty, and settle the case. Wheu they got 

 out to And over, they declined to plead guilty, but wanted him to 

 keep the money and say nothing more about it. Ho would not 

 arrest them at Andover, as he did not have the evidence, etc., 

 that he could get at. * * * I recollected the article of yours f 

 saw in the Forest and Stream, and thought I would write you 

 the particulars, as I get them from good authority.— Henry O. 

 Stanley." 



The day after receiving this letter the Forest j> nd Stream of 

 Sept. 29 came to hand, containing your editorial comments, in 

 which you said the fish had been jigged. 



In my account of these trout I stated that they were caught with 

 a fly. I also congratulated Mr. Stewart, on his success as a fly- 

 fisherman at the Upper Dam, at which celebrated fishing resort f 

 have been well aware of his being a good part of several trouting 

 seasons. I have always, till within a couple of seasons, heard him 

 spoken of as a fly-fisherman, one who would not care to stoop to 

 taking a trout with a worm even. I am quite sure that I have, 

 heard Mr. Stewart declaim against the practice of taking trout 

 by any other means than with the fly. What I said in the Forest 

 and Stream about Mr. Stewart's taking those show window trout 

 with the fly, I said because the story of honorable gentlemen to 

 me was to the effect that they were taken with the fly. Mr, Ap- 

 pleton, of the firm of Appleton & Litchfield, owners of the show 

 window where the trout, were when I saw them, told me that they 

 were taken with the fly. Mr. Appleton says that he understood it 

 distinctly from Mr. Stewart himself that the trout were taken on 

 the fly, and even the name of the particular fly was mentioned. 

 Mr. Appleton also says that the trout were entire when he showed 

 them in his window; for he dressed them himself, and he is sure 

 that there were no marks of hooks on the fish. The large trout, 

 caught by Mr. Holiingsworth was handled by Mr. B. F. Nichols, 

 of split-bamboo rod fame. He made a plaster cast of the fish. 

 This fish was minus the intestines and gills when it came under 

 the hands of Mr. Nichols; he saw no marks of hooks. So much 

 for the fish as they appeared in Boston. Mr. Stewart says, in his 

 disclaimer in the Forest and Stream, or rather brings the 

 written statement of witnesses to snow that they were caught in 

 "a perfectly legitimate manner." But just what this manner of 

 fishing was Mr. Stewart does not state, neither do his witnesses. 

 The section of the Maine law bearing on this, reads: 



Sec. 51. Whoever at any time catches, takes, kills or fishes for 

 any sea salmon or landlocked salmon, trout, togue, black bass, 

 Oswego bass or white perch, by means of grapnel, spear, trawl, 

 weir, net, seine, trap, spoon, set line, or with any device or in any 

 other way than by the ordinary mode of angling with a single- 

 baited hook and line, or with artificial flies, forfeits not less than 

 ten nor more than thirty dollars for each offense, besides one dollar 

 for each fish so caught, taken or killed. And all set lines, grapnels, 

 spears, trawls, weirs, nets, seines, traps, spoons and devices other 

 than fair angling as aforesaid, are prohibited in all fresh-water 

 lakes, ponds and streams; and when found in use or operation in 

 said waters, they are forfeit and contraband, and any person find- 

 ing them in use therein may destroy them. 



But there were other witness to the fishing of Mr. Stewart than 

 those who have given their written statements. Some of them 

 were gentlemen whose word is unquestionable. Col. Nutt, presi- 

 dent of the Atlantic & Pacific "Railroad, saw him fishing. Mr. J. 

 Parker Whitney, well-known as the owner of the beautiful Mus- 

 quito Brook camps, saw him fishing at the Upper Dam more than 

 once. Mr. Freeland Howe, of Norway. Me., a sportsman well- 

 known in these regions, saw him fishing there. 1 ha\ e understood 

 that Mr. Howe now declines to make a statement, though at first 

 expressing considerable indigna tion at the way fishing was being- 

 done there. But the testimony is amply sufficient to prove that 

 Mr. Stewart flshed otherwise than with the fly in the usual 

 manner, and to show that my former statement in the Forest 

 and Stream, that Mr. Stewart, is a devotee of fly-fishing only, 

 admits of some question. 



Col. Nutt says that he has seen Mr. Stewart fishing under con- 

 ditions that would hardly indicate fair angling with a fly, though 

 he never saw him actually take a trout, with a jig. Col. Nutt says: 

 "One occasion I especially remember. Mr. Whitney, whose guest 

 I was at the time at his camp at Musquito Brook, and I went, one 

 afternoon to the Dam to try our success with the fly. It was in 

 September last, about the time there was so much excitement 

 about Stewart's big trout. Mr. Whitney was casting a fly below 

 the Dam, but I was not fishing, only watching him and admiring 

 his casting. Mr. Stewart was fishing at the raceway in his boat. 

 I don't know as he saw us. The water was making a good deal ol 

 noise and he certainly could not have heard us. Mr. Stewart was 

 ! near enough for me to recognize him, but neither of us spoke, if, 

 indeed, he saw me at all. His boat w^as propelled up into the 



