Jan. 12, 1888. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



489 



Jbe powder charge was consumed I placed at 10yds. from the 

 Bhuzzle a. sheet of tough brown paper. 1 found that iu no case 

 upas the entire charge consumed. Some grains were driven 

 fjihrongh the paper, others stuck in it, and others again indented 

 Itbe paper and fell off. There, was no doutot whatever about it 

 feeing powder grains. The bullets themselves struck the sheet in 

 much the same way as would ttie same number of buckshot from 

 ■& cylinder-bored guu. 



The barrel of the ride seemed perfect, 1 could detect no injury 

 to it, indeed the rifle with a. new firing-pin and screw was per- 

 fectly serviceable and^eould have been used again. 



J. OAWBELL. 



[ P. 8.— Since 1 wrote the above report I have heen informed by 

 ithe Remington Arras Oo. that the marks on the inside of frame, 

 •which 1 supposed to have been made by the firing-pin screw beiug 

 "jumped" against the frame, have really been made by the powder 

 gas escaping around the screw.— J. C. 



en and stiver fishing. 



Address all communicatwns to the Forest and Stream Pub. Cv. 



Angling Talk*. By Geo. Dawson. Price 50 cents. Fly- 

 Bods and Fly-Taekle. By II. P. Wells. Price $2. 50. Fly- 

 Fishing and Fly-Making for Trout. By J. H. Kecne. 

 Brace $1.50. American Anglers' Book. By Thad. Norn's. 

 Wrice $5.50. 



[THE NEW HAMPSHIRE TROUT LAW. 



i"VTEW YORK, Jan. o.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 [X\ The trout law to which you refer is five or six years 

 Gold and is aimed at jiggers and grapplers. So it is inter- 

 preted hy the Fish Commissioners who all fish with from 

 ffibree to four flies, and some flies are double-hooked, 

 ffhen you know that spoon fishing is legal in New Hamp- 

 shire and that a spoon often carries three hooks. Some 

 pme who understands the use of English shoidd frame our 

 iish laws and make tliem perspicuous. No one from 

 Seading them can arrive at the true meaning. By the 

 pway, since it is unlawful for a man to have more than 

 feoibs. of brook trout in his possession at a time, what is 

 me to do when an eleven-pounder strikes his minnow at 

 Buna pee Lake? This is a good law for the protection of 

 Bmgerlings, but the Legislature should have gone further 

 and prohibited Sunday fishing. Sunday is the day when 

 pie innocents are slaughtered. They have stopped Sun- 

 Bay shooting in New Hampshire and should stop the Sun- 

 Bay fishing, also. On Sunday the hoodlums are out 

 [picking the fingerlings out of the holes. 



J. D. QUACKENBOS. 



Chareestown, N. H. —Editor Forest and Stream : I 

 have read your comments on the "New Hampshire Law," 

 in Forest and Stream, of Dec. 29, and wish to say that 

 the clause referred to, confining anglers to the use of the 

 "single hook and line," was intended to prohibit the use 

 of ' trawls," or "set lines," with from a dozen to a 

 ■hundred hooks attached, which were extensively used on 

 Lake Winnepesaukee and others of our inland waters. 

 It was not supposed that it would prohibit the angler 

 from giving the trout the choice of two or three varieties 

 of artificial flies, nor do I think it has ever been applied 

 in that manner. The law might perhaps have been 

 better worded, but its intent and meaning are fully 

 understood in New Hampshire, and I do not think that 

 any sportsman visiting our waters and fishing in a legiti- 

 mate manner need have any fear of its misapplication, 



Samuel Webber. 



[This is no doubt the case, and just as we supposed, but 

 we called attention to it to show how a person so dis- 

 posed could make out a technical violation of the law 

 against a fly-fisher who fished in the ordinary manner, 

 'with two or more flies.] 



RANGELEY SPAWNING GROUNDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



' I am much surprised at "Special's" communication, 

 which appeared in your paper last week on "Maine 

 Trout," particularly at what he says of the spawn- 

 ing beds in the Cupsuptic stream. Here at the lakes it is 

 the common talk of the hunters and guides, who have 

 boated up and down this stream for many falls past, that 

 they have never seen more trout on the beds than there 

 ■were last fall. That there were more trout on the Spawn- 

 ling beds on the Ken nebago stream (which empties into 

 J the Oupsuctic stream) this fall than have ever been seen 

 Ithere before I think is a fact that sportsman, guide, or 

 ■hunter will not .dispute. The Cupsuptic, Bemis and 

 IRangeley streams are all important supports to the Moose- 

 llucmeguntic and Cupsuptic lakes in the way of furnish- 

 ling spawning p rounds, but the seven miles of the Kenne- 

 Ibago stream, between its mouth and the "Ash Tree," 

 Iprobably furnish these two lakes three trout to either of 

 • the other's one. Some of the spawning beds are in 4in. 

 of water, others in 6 or 8ft., but let the trout alone for 

 knowing the whys and wherefores of the location of their 

 Spawning beds; why in one place they will wiggle, twist 

 and squirm their way up the tiny outlet of a muddy- 

 bottonied spring and work the bottom over till it looks 

 like another place, then, after depositing their spawn on 

 the clean gravel, work their way back again to the main 

 stream, and in another place choose the shallow running 

 water of it and work their beds over and do their spawn- 

 ing with their back fins out of water. In another place 

 they go into a currentless pool in a stream where the 

 water is 8ft. deep, when near by are plenty of shallows 

 with running water and fine gravel bottom?. Other beds 

 are located in the lake in 8 or 10ft. of water, rods away 

 from the shore, when there is plenty of spawning room 

 in streams close by. Generally both the lake and 

 stream beds are in less than 3ft. of water. 



For years before the Union Water Power Company 

 tripped up nature and made the Mooselucmeguntic Lake 

 over to suit themselves, one of the largest spawning 

 beds to be found anywhere in the Rangeley region was 

 off the Bemis bar in this lake and in not less than 8ft. of 

 water, and 40 rods from shore. Year after year they 

 came there and did their spawning, but when the 

 water was raised only 2ft. higher over then bed they 

 abandoned it altogether. This fact shows that they are 

 particular about the depth of water even over then deep- 

 water lake beds, and* by their maneuvering the last few 

 years since the Power Company has been continually 

 changing the depth of water in the lakes, it is e-^dent 

 fthat nature has not slighted them in an endowment of 

 instinct and reason, and although they have been con- 

 Wdorably disturbed for the last few seasons on then lake 



spawning grounds, they will at no distant day get settled 

 right again, whether it be in the streams or lakes. Tak- 

 ing one day with another, the spring and summer fishing 

 was never better on the three upper lakes than the last, 

 and I think it was up to the average on the lower lakes 

 also, but the fall fishing (fly-fishing especially) was gen- 

 erally unsatisfactory. This was accounted for on the 

 lake by the high water. 



The first of September being close time on all the im- 

 portant streams running into the lake, that are not closed 

 before, put a stop to the fly-fisherman's sport in that 

 direction. It may have seemed hard to some of them, 

 but that law is right and long may it stand. I don't 

 think there was ever much better sport to be had in this 

 region with the fly-rod than there was on the Kennebago 

 stream during the month of August. As far as the blue- 

 backed trout being enemy to the brook trout, by devour- 

 ing their spawn, is concerned, I am very sure that 

 this is a mistake — they are thoroughly a deep-water fish 

 and only come to shallow running water when their 

 breeding fever is at its height, and return as soon as their 

 work is done. They are very valuable to any body of 

 water where brook trout are, in the way of food for them. 

 It is a very Common occurrence to catch a trout in deep 

 water in the lake with a blueback in it, pa rtly disgested. 

 This was very common when we used to fish in-winter in 

 deep water through the ice. The blueback will some- 

 times take bait in deep water, but I know of no case of 

 their taking a fly. They are very regular hi size, hardly 

 ever weighing over a quarter of a pound, and are seldom 

 fcund weighing much less; generally they go about five 

 to the pound. The cause of their disappearance from 

 their old spa wning ground below the Upper Dam last fall 

 is very plain; the water in the lake below was so high 

 that it backed up over the "rips," where they have usu- 

 ally done their spawning, rendering the whole line of 

 "rips" as quiet as a milipond. Their leaving this point 

 altogether is probably the cause of so large a number at 

 Sawmill Brook, but no doubt there has always been more 

 or less of them that did then- spawning there. 



F. C. Barker. 



Camp Bemis, Rangeley Lakes, Dec. 25, 1887. 



ALONG THE NEW- JERSEY COAST. 



IN the inlets and bays of New Jersey this last fishing 

 season small fish have been more numerous than for 

 several years past. In the channel of the north bay of 

 Little Egg Harbor, from off West Creek to Beach Haven, 

 there was a swarm of very small weakfish averaging 

 about lib., and from 300 to 600 were easily caught to a 

 boat on a tide by boys with hook and line. Could those 

 have been young fish? They had roe in them, which 

 would indicate that they were at maturity or at a state of 

 reproduction, or are they a new race of weakfish for those 

 waters? The ordinary weakfish that are caught there are 

 much larger, from 2 to 91bs. ; 3 to 51bs. would be a fair 

 size. How r young a fish will reproduce would be interest- 

 ing to know. There also have been plenty of small porgics 

 and sea bass; question, are they the young of the sea fish 

 taken out at sea? There are many other small fish that 

 are not taken account of. 



Rockfish (striped bass) along this coast have been more 

 numerous than for two years past, and were readily taken 

 with hook and line, but not near so plenty as they were 

 fifteen or even ten years ago. Sportsmen know that this 

 fish gives about as much sport as any ordinary fish, and 

 are among the best for food. In the bays fish from 2 to 

 lOlbs. are" caught— about 41bs. would be a fair average. 

 The sheepshead, porgies, sea bass and most other small 

 fish leave the bays and inlets and go to sea, but where 

 they go there is unknoAvn: Rockfish and perch of the bay s 

 go into deep waters of fresh rivers, where they lie dormant 

 during the winter. Little Egg Harbor, Mellica rivers 

 that empties into the great bay, Metedeconk River at the 

 head of Barnegat Bay, and Great Egg Harbor are the 

 three principal rivers where such fish lay up. 



In these rivers great quantities are taken with nets 

 under the ice, I have heard of 200 tons of rockfish being 

 so taken at one haul many years ago, but I think it is 

 incredible. From what I can learn I have no doubt that 

 from five to twenty tons are often taken at a haul, and 

 that would seem to be very big. Little Egg Harbor, from 

 its mouth inward, has from 12 to 30ft. of water, and I 

 have no doubt that there is at times hi those deep places 

 a solid mass of fish. In all the rockfish I have ever seen 

 caught in these l ivers or bays I have not found any roe 

 in them, which would indicate that they are young, not 

 matured to a, state of reproduction. I am informed that 

 early in the spring very large rockfish, called "green- 

 head," come into the bay from sea and spawn; they will 

 not take bait, but are sometimes caught with nets. A few 

 days ago we caught quite a large number of perch at 

 Cape Horn, near Little Egg Harbor River, and, strange 

 to say, that every one of them had either roe or milt, 

 apparently well developed. Is it possible that perch 

 spawn in the whiter? 



In Little Egg Harbor River Ashing with the net is pro- 

 hibited except from the first of November until the first 

 of April, and the nets used there in the winter season are 

 called sink nets and are set in the channel to catch the 

 fish when drifting in the river, when there is no ice. They 

 are somewhat like a long square bag should be, are about 

 30ft. wide, open at the mouth 8ft., and about 50ft. long. 

 The tideway keeps them open, the fish being benumbed 

 by the cold water drift into these nets, and when the tide 

 slacks the nets are taken up, the fish taken out and the 

 nets turned the other way so it will drift by the turned 

 tide, and hi this way large quantities are taken. When 

 the river is frozen over then the ice is cut through and 

 the nets hauled under the ice, and it is in that way that 

 the big hauls of rockfish are made. It is this hauling that 

 people complain of, the fishermen not only catching the 

 rockfish but the little fish, and the food of all fish of those 

 waters are hauled ashore and left to perish. P. 



.National Rod and Reel Association.— New York, 

 Jan. 7, — A meeting' for the purpose of making arrange- 

 ments for the coming tournament and transaction of such 

 other business as may offer, will be held at the laboratory 

 of Mr. Eugene G. Blackford. Fulton Market, Saturday, 

 Jan. 14, at 2 P. M. By order of the President. Annual 

 dues are payable on the first of the year and members 

 are requested to forward same as early as possible in 

 order to aid the committee in determining what prizes 

 can be offered by the Association. Members in arrears 

 for 1887 will kindly send in their dues so that accounts 

 may be closed for the year.— Geo. Poey, Seot'y. 



PRIZES FOR LARGE FISH. 



R. C. F. JOHNSON, an enterprising dealer in books 

 and fishing tackle, of Duluth, Minn., last spring 

 offered a $25 split- bamboo trout rod for the largest brook 

 trout taken with rod and line, purchased from him, in 

 streams tributary to Lake Superior or adjacent waters, 

 and a $15 split-bamboo rod for the heaviest black bass 

 taken under like conditions. He gives us the -list of cap- 

 tures: 



TROUT PRIZE LIST. 



The following is a transcript from my record of brook trout 

 caught by competitors for the prize of a $35 Abbey & Imbrie split- 

 bamboo trout rod, advertised by me to be given for the largest 

 trout captured during the season with rod and line bought at ray 

 establishment: 



0. 1). Pattisou, May B, 1887, in Rice's Point Creek (a very small 

 stream within city limits), 1-Mbs. 



W. W. Douglass (voucher, Oapt. Ghas. Anderson), May 15, Knife 

 River, 3)41bs. 



Dr. G. A. Derby, May 16, Knife River, 1 9-161bs. 



Ghis Rakowsky, May 33, Lester River, 21bs. 



Dean Foster (age 10), May 30, in Chester Creek (within city lim- 

 its), T3oz. — caught trolling and does not count for the pnzo— is 

 only recorded on account of the age of the fisherman and the 

 stream in which it was captured. 



M. H. Alworth, May 30, Iron River, lt^lbs., length 14m. 



G. d'Autrcmont, June 14, Nipigon River, 3J£lbs., 4, 3!41bs. 

 Hon. A. J. White-man, .Tune Sff, Nipigon River, 3MlpS, 



H. A. Douglass, J nly 38, Washington Harbor, Isle Royal, 41bs., 

 length 31in. 



H. Owens, July 30, Stewart River, 31bs. 



Geo. R. Thompson (of London, Ontario) July 31, at Split Rock, 

 Nipigon River, SJ^jlbs. 



H. E. Part, ridge (St,. Paul) Aug. 1. in Hamilton Pool, Nipigon, 

 3 1-lOlbs. 



R. M. Bristol (St. Paul) Aug. 1, same place, 3J^lbs. 

 John Choldetch (London, Gnt.) same date and place, 3, 3J41bs. 

 each, 1, 31 bs. 



H. E. Partridge (St. Paul) Aug. 3, same place, IHlbs., length 



James G. Hunter (Duluth) Aug. 15, Devil's Track River, 4>£lbs. 

 (Not caught in compliance with terms of contract). 



N. Drake, Aug. 35, Sucker River, 3. 10-10. 3, M-161bs. 



Edward Cass, Aug. 30, Onion River, Wis., 5}£lbs. (Not caught 

 in compliance with terms of contract). 



Trout season closes in Wisconsin and Minnesota Sept. 1, and no 

 further authentic records having come in I hereby declare the 

 prize awarded to Mr. H. E. Partridge, of St. Paul, as having 

 caught the largest, trout in strict compliance with the conditions 

 upon which it was offered. 



BLACK BASS PRIZE LIST. 



W. M. Anderson, May 14, Lake Cletherall, 51bs. 

 F. W Eaton. July 30, Pike Lake, Minn., one of fM and one of 

 (libs. - 



N. P. Thayer, Aug. 8, Pike Lake, Minn., 4^1bs. 



F. W. Eaton, same date and place, 44^1bs. 

 Graham Pulvcr, Atiir. 33, Pike La kt\ Wis., : ' jibs. 



G. F. Johnson, Aug. 33, Pike Lake, Wis., 31bs. 



Joe Sullivan, Aug. 34, Hanging Horn Lake, Carlton county, 

 (ij^lbs. (Voucher. It. S. Hawkins, Barnum). 



H. Loot. Aug. 30, Spirit uike, Minn., 3Jx>lbs. 



M. Gridley, Aug. 30. Spirit, Lake, Minn., 3 7-lBlbs. 

 Mrs. J. H. O'Neill, Sept. 4, Pike Lake, Wis., 3^1bs. 

 Mr. J. H. O'Neill, same date and place, 5 ] /ilbs. 

 Mrs. G. P. Johnson, same date and place, two of 41bs. 

 C. F. Johnson, same date and place, 41bs. 



F. M. French is said To have caught a G^lb. bass at Pike Lake, 

 was sent me by D. J. Angus, but disappeared somewhere in Hotel 

 St. Louis. 



To Joe Sullivan, of Carlton county, the bass prize rod is hereby 

 awarded. C. F. Johnson. 



Duluth, Nov. 19, 1887. 



The Ohio Fish Laws.— A bill is now before the sixty- 

 eighth General Assembly of Ohio to amend Sections 6,961 

 and 6,968 of the revised statutes of that State. We give 

 the gist of the present fish laws and the proposed amend- 

 ments. It is forbidden to shoot or spear fish or to take 

 them with "trammel or pocket-fyke or gill-net," but 

 from the following sentence this appears to mean all in- 

 land waters and not Lake Erie, although it is not so 

 stated: '"No person shall draw, set. place, or locate any 

 pound-net, seine, trap or fish net in Lake Erie, Sandusky 

 and Maumee bays, from the 10th day of June to the 15th 

 day of September, inclusive. No person shall catch fish 

 in the Licking, Lewiston or Mercer county reservoirs, 

 with any device except hook and line, between the 1st 

 day of April and the 1st day of October." It is further 

 forbidden to take fish except with hook and line in waters 

 not named above. Black bass are protected from May 1 

 to June 15. No person shall buy, sell or offer for sale 

 fish out of season, but nothing in this section shall pre- 

 vent the taking of minnows for bait with nets not more 

 than 10ft. in length. It is proposed to add to this that 

 the Fish and Game Commissioners may take fish at any 

 time and place for stocking waters, artificial culture, etc. 

 It is also proposed to make it unlawful to kill fish with 

 dynamite or other explosive mixture or by poison. 



How the Fish Got There.— Dublin, Dec. 13.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream.: In Forest and Stream of 

 Nov. 24 there is a small article asking how some fish, of 

 a different kind to those in the neighboring streams, 

 could have found their way into some ponds formed only 

 a few months previously. " The fact is easily explained 

 on the supposition that waterfowl visiting the pools may 

 have had fish spawn adhering to their legs or feathers. I 

 was puzzled in the same way some years ago by finding 

 a number of the small crustaceans of the kind called by 

 naturalists Cypris, swimming in two small pools on the 

 very topmost peak of a mountain in the Himalayas, 

 9,000ft. high. The only outlet was a channel through 

 which, during heavy rains, the surplus water escaped 

 into a valley 6,000ft. below, I could not account for the 

 ova of the little animals getting there until I remembered 

 that the myriads of waterfowl which migrate every 

 spring and autumn between northern Asia and India, 

 cross the Himalayas during their passage.-- J. J. Meyuick. 



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



THE LATE PROF. SPENCER F. BAIRD. — A bill has 

 been introduced into the U. S. Senate to pay to Mrs. Baird a 

 sum of money as compensation for her husband's sixteen 

 years of labor as Commissioner of Fisheries, for which he 

 received nothing. After a lifetime devoted to scientific work, 

 Prof. Baird died poor, his salary as Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution having afforded him merely a comfortable 

 living. No doubt the bill will pass and the family of the 

 man who did so much for science and fishculture will receive 

 a just reward for his labors, which he never thought of doing 

 in his lifetime. His long and arduous work undertaken as 

 a labor of love should be renieuibered oy the nation for which 

 it was done. 



