Mahch 10, 188?.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IS 3 



of wind and the pdwdel'ed wood ashes they sent flying. 

 The hardships of camping out have nothing to do with 

 your daily bread; they come in after dark, which comes 

 only too early in the' month of September. One of our 

 guides was a born joker, and kept us laughing after sup- 

 per with his yarns about life in the army, for he had been 

 among the stalwart men that Maine sent down to take a 

 hand in the war. But sleep came to us pretty early in 

 the evening, and although we lay down "all standing," 

 or nearly so, with four or five folds of blanket over us, 

 backed, in my case, by an ulster and a rubber coat, even 

 this woidd not do, and the morning watch was very cold, 

 our guides sleeping so soundly that the fire was never re- 

 plenished. They always expressed great surprise at our 

 discomfort: "Was you fellows cold with all them blank- 

 ets? Why! me and Jack had only one blanket over us, 

 and we was sweating all the time/' 



Another great inconvenience in this kind of life is the 

 confusion always reigning among your personal effects. 

 The rubber sack, generally used as a valise, keeps every- 

 thing dry enough but in great disorder, anything you 

 want is sure to "be at the bottom, and the wrong thing 

 generally comes to hand first. 



We set out to return ou foot, one of the guides piloting 

 us while the other remained at the camp. The guide 

 went ahead, through and over everything, his axe play- 

 ing about as easily as a foil in the hand of a skillful 

 fencer, now slashing off a stubborn branch, and anon 

 snipping away light twigs that seemed to offer no resist- 

 ance to its keen edge. After half an hour he found an 

 old logging camp, two or three great buildings of big 

 logs, now deserted, with saplings and vines beginning to 

 shut them in and overrun thein. One of the striking 

 things about those woods is the absence of life. I do not 

 refer to large game, for that has been driven further 

 back, but, with the exception of a partridge that I saw 

 and an owl that I heard, a few disreputable looking shel- 

 drakes on the lake, and the inevitable loon, the neighbor- 

 hood of our camp seemed abandoned by every living 

 creature. Froin the old camp we followed the tote road 

 until, after a long march, we came in sight of Roach 

 Farm, still a long way off, when our guide left us and 

 returned to camp. In the evening our guides came down 

 with the canoes and impedimenta, and next morning we 

 followed the teams back to Moosehead Lake, to try our 

 luck at the east outlet, where, fishing does not depend so 

 much upon the condition of the wind. 



The sail across the lake, here at its broadest, with two 

 or three large islands to break the straight line, occupied 

 two or three horns. At the hotel at the outlet we secured 

 a room, although the place w as rather crowded, and we 

 managed to maintain ourselves despite an attempt to in- 

 troduce another lodger to occupy the lounge, a proposal 

 which we treated with, the contempt it merited. I went 

 down stream on foot with my guide and whipped a large 

 pool industriously until near dark, without a rise. I 

 began to think my innings would result in "a duck's 

 egg,*' but I bethought myself that in all the fishing 

 stories I had read, it was about the correct thing to try a 

 white fly as dark was coming on. I found a very scraggy 

 white hackle in my book which did the business very 

 quickly, for it was taken almost at once by a three-poun- 

 der, with which we went joyfully homeward, My friend 

 had got one of the same size at the dam. Next day at the 

 .same pool and one below it, I got three fine fish, 21bs. , 

 31bs. and 3|lbs., plenty of small trout turned up and were 

 put back. During our stay here the gates of the dam 

 were closed most of the time and there was to be seen oc- 

 casionally in front of the gates a crowd of large fish wait- 

 ing for then opening to go down the river to spawn. On 

 the other side of the lake we had found fish going up 

 Roach River into the inlets of Roach Pond for the same 

 purpose: here they were going down stream. No account- 

 ing for taste. The dam was occupied a good deal by 

 persevering fishermen whose object was trout, taken in 

 every way possible; the toothsome worm and the alluring 

 grasshopper were tried with very indifferent success, the 

 fish being intent on something more important than feed- 

 ing. Some of the fishermen went down the river in 

 canoes, some went on foot, but few of them brought back 

 many fish. One of the pedestrians, returning empty- 

 handed, was condoled with on his bad luck; on the con- 

 trary, he had had capital sport and had left his fish at 

 various places down the river; doubtless he intended to 

 send a cart to collect them. 



Wednesday morning I tried the big pool again, but 

 without success, even when I put the canoe into it to 

 reach the opposite side, which was far beyond my reach 

 from the bank. Finding it no use we put the canoe into 

 the lake and paddled along the front of the dam. Very 

 soon a big trout rolled over on the surface, but re- 

 fused to respond to my efforts on his behalf. We drew up 

 cautiously alongside the boom at the furthest gate and I 

 cast toward the gate where there was a swirl caused by a 

 knothole close to the surface. Soon the tail fly, a small 

 grizzly-king, was quietly taken and I at once stepped on 

 the boom, the guide following with the landing-net. The 

 fish did not pull very hard and we thought him a little 

 fellow, but in one of his turns he passed near the boom 

 and we saw him distinctly, a very large fish, followed 

 closely by another as big as himself. We are never con- 

 tent. I caught myself wishing that the first had taken 

 one of the upper flies so that his partner could have had 

 a chance at the tail fly. The guide kept the landing-net 

 swinging about well down in the water, to keep the fish 

 from running under the boom, and this made him stay out 

 in the clear water and fight fairly. In about 15 minutes he 

 was in the landing-net and we guessed his weight to be 

 olbs. , but the scales afterward made him only 41bs.2oz. , the 

 biggest fish taken at the outlet for a considerable time. 

 This fish with the three caught on the previous day, which 

 had been kept alive, I had packed in a box with moss; 

 my friend had the same number packed, and the weather 

 being cool we were able to exhibit them in excellent 

 order to admiring friends at home on the Friday evening 

 afterward. 



Thus ended a pleasant trip of a fortnight's duration, 

 during which we' had only five days on which we could 

 fish ; but one must take the weather as it come. Of two 

 things we were pretty well convinced during our stay in 

 Maine; first, that it is' a mistake to use the large flies that 

 are so generally cast at Moosehead, our fish having been 

 taken with very small or medium sized flies, and not with 

 what our guides contemptuously called "chickens." 

 Second, that the end of September, although perhaps the 

 best time to get big fish, is not the best time for sport, the 

 fish being full of spawn and languid. The State of Maine 



very properly pays great attention to the enforcement of 

 its game laws and may be supposed to fully understand 

 its own interests, but I for one should be well pleased to 

 see the season closed a fortnight earlier. C. H. 



Bbookxyn, New York. 



LAKE TROUT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Permit me to add my mite to the store of knowledge 

 about lake trout. 



They do take the fly occasionally in Lake Superior, and 

 in deep water, too. But this is not common in my ex- 

 perience or observation. A silver minnow (revolving) I 

 have found most successful. These trout vary in appear- 

 ance, as do brook trout, presumably from the circum- 

 stances of their habitat. The flesh is from a deep salmon 

 red to a yellowish white, and I have seen some nearly as 

 white-fleshed as the whitefish. This variation of color in 

 flesh is, however, hardly greater than that in the brook 

 trout. 



My observation of the siscowet is confined to specimens 

 taken ill gill-nets. I have never seen one taken with fly 

 or spoon. Nor have I seen specimens enough to venture 

 the statement with confidence that they are never red- 

 fleshed. But I ha ve never seen a red-fleshed one. The 

 flesh has been, in those I have seen and eaten, mainly of 

 a cream or yellowish white color, without any pink tinge. 

 I have found it a very sweet fish, but excessively fat and 

 oily. I never saw a specimen weighing over 6 or Tibs. 



The lake trout, when the flesh is a deep salmon color, 

 or red, is one of the best table fishes of fresh water. (The 

 best is the whitefish, beyond all comparison, when prop- 

 erly cooked, fresh killed.) Broiled with pork or bacon 

 strips before a camp-fire, it surpasses the brook trout in 

 any form— at least to my taste and that of every one I 

 have camped with. 



Mr. Thompson's "Fishing Trip to St. Ignace Island" (in 

 "Fishing with the Fly") gives ten local names of the three 

 varieties of trout in Lake Superior. We presume he only 

 gives a part, however, as he speaks from one local 

 authority only. But when he says the "red trout" is 

 taken only in. the vicinity of St. Ignace Island he is 

 greatly mistaken. As red-fleshed a lake trout as I ever 

 saw I took off the Quebec Mines a few miles from the 

 Agawa Eiver. I saw one deep colored one weighing 

 17lbs. taken with a 2-lin. silver minnow below the falls at 

 Island Portage, on the Nepigon. I noticed on that 

 occasion, also, that the party, half-breed guides included, 

 ate no brook trout as long as the "laker" lasted. From 

 my limited experience and observation I have not felt it 

 safe to generalize, but my impression is that the lake 

 trout of deep water is darker fleshed than that of shallow 

 water. I saw several hundred pounds of lake trout at one 

 time taken by some Indians in the shallow waters of 

 Agawa Bay, and they were quite light hi color. But tins 

 woidd hardly justify the conclusion. 



Trolling for lake trout with a stiff rod or still-fishing 

 for him with bait, is a sport not to be despised, even if it 

 is not as good as fly-fishing for brook trout in the same 

 waters. But the fisherman who hooks a seven or eight 

 pounder, and uses rod and reel, has a good fight on his 

 hands. I have been told that the finest lake trout fishing 

 in the world is about the lighthouse twenty-five miles 

 east of Keweenaw Point. H. 



ON THE RIDEAU CANAL. 



SOME time ago Forest and Stream suggested that 

 sportsmen readers should make their brothers of the 

 rod and gun acquainted through its columns, with such 

 new fields of sport as they might discover. This sunk 

 deep into the minds of three of us who were on the look- 

 out for "fresh woods and pastures new," and although 

 the region through which they hunted is not entirely un- 

 known to fame, one of them thought that he would 

 record their experience for the benefit of fellow sports- 

 men. 



On Tuesday, Sept. 7, a party of three, whom let us call 

 by their Christian names Charles, Frank and Louis, left 

 the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River on a 

 shooting and fishing excursion, their destination being 

 the Rideau Canal. This so-called canal consists of several 

 lakes lying between Ottawa and Kingston and connected 

 by locks. The lakes vary in size from an ordinary pond 

 to a sheet of water twenty odd miles in length. The dis- 

 tance between the two cities named above is said to be 

 one hundred and twenty-six miles. This Rideau Canal 

 is a great resort for fishermen all through the summer 

 and part of the fall, and during the latter season for 

 gunners. 



Charles and Frank left Alexandria Bay, the Thousand 

 Islands, at an early hour in the steam launch Spry, 

 chartered for the trip. At Clayton, twelve miles further 

 up the river, Louis joined them. A two hours' run 

 brought the party to Kingston, where they took on their 

 pilot, obtained a clearance for Ottawa, after a hard strug- 

 gle with pig-headed Canadian custom house officials, and 

 entered the canal. 



The first locks reached were at Kingston Mills. The 

 stream ends at the base of two hills, between which the 

 Spry was locked up into a small lake, the name of 

 which, if it has one, the writer is ignorant of. This body 

 of water, like all the others on this route, is submerged 

 woodland. The flooding of such a considerable surface 

 is elf ected by the damming of the stream between the 

 hills and by the flatness of the surrounding land. These 

 lakes are almost entirely filled up with stumps of trees, 

 trough which channels are cut for traffic. The good 

 hunting grounds were not reached by the Spry on her 

 first day out because of the long delay at Kingston caused 

 by her Majesty's bulldogs. At Washburn, sixteen miles 

 distant, she was laid up against the bank for the night. 

 The party took a moonlight walk among the few scattered 

 houses of the settlement, and then retired to dream of 

 coming slaughter. 



The Spry left Wasbburn at half-past six on Wednesday 

 morning, proceeding to Sand Lake, where she arrived 

 about noon. Charlie, Frank and Louis promptly hauled 

 out their rods, and while dinner was preparing captured 

 eight fine bass. After dinner shooting was in order. 

 Charlie, Frank and Louis each took boat and oarsman 

 and started to patrol the large shallow bay filled with 

 stumps, and just opposite the island where they were 

 tied up. Woodducks and black ducks were plentiful, 

 but as neither the party nor the guides knew anything 

 about the place, they had to content themselves with six 



birds. This ill fortune pursued the trio in their shooting 

 throughout the trip. The fishing, however, proved ex- 

 ceptionally fine. At Mud Lake, thirty miles or more 

 from Kingston, two hours and a half yielded us thirty- 

 four bass, all weighing from l|lbs. to 21bs. and all exceed- 

 ingly gamy. There are said to be very large fellows in 

 more remote corners of the lake, but as we had at this 

 place even worse luck in shooting than at Sand Lake, we 

 didn't wait to try for them. 



We arrived at Ottawa on September 16, stopping two 

 days at Tay River, where we shot six ducks. The bag for 

 our eight days on the Spry was seventeen ducks, nine 

 snipe and fifty-four bass. We only fished on three dif- 

 ferent days, and not moie than six hours in the aggre- 

 gate. We caught several pickerel, perch and small fish, 

 which were returned to the water as soon as taken. 



We met three other parties bound on similar excursions, 

 two fishing parties and one of hunters. The former re- 

 ported good luck, one of them having taken seventy -two 

 fish in one day; and judging from the avidity with which 

 the bass and pickerel seized minnows and frogs, this is 

 not surprising. A person well acquainted with the 

 locality could have very good sport with the gun, even 

 as early as September ; but the real duck shooting does 

 not begin till a little later in the fall, when the cold drives 

 the birds from their northern feeding grounds; then very 

 good bags are made over decoys. 



The country about the Rideau is, for the most part, 

 almost uninhabited. One can feel that he really is in 

 the wilderness. Camping is necessary, and the sports- 

 man can add the pleasures of camp life to those of rod 

 and gun. A steam launch can be obtained at Kingston, 

 Clayton, or Alexandria Bay, the latter is the best place; 

 or the hunter can hire a rowboat only and for a trifle will 

 be towed by any of the tugs plying these waters. A 

 steamer runs between Kingston and Smith's Falls (sixty- 

 flve miles distant) twice a week, but the pleasure seeker 

 should bring all he needs with him, good accommodations 

 being few and far between. 



Let the sportsman engaging the services of any oars- 

 man or yachtsman at Alexandria Bay, Clayton, Kingston 

 or intermediate points (all towns on the St. Lawrence 

 that I am well acquainted with), make a written agree- 

 ment with said oarsman or yachtsman, or he will rue it, 

 as we did. For a good oarsman and fisherman, who will 

 work for you and not talk too much (a rare thing among 

 Thousand Islands boatmen), we can heartily recommend 

 Stephen Simmons, of Alexandria Bay. 



We hope that through our efforts brother sportsmen may 

 find a way of spending as pleasant a week as wo did on 

 the Rideau. C. F. and L. 



THE FLY-CASTING TOURNAMENT. 



IN our issue of Jan. 13, we gave a list of the pro- 

 posed rules which the association recommended at 

 a meeting on Jan. 8. They were not adopted, but 

 were merely provisional, subject to the action of the 

 Committee on Rules. This committee met on March 1, 

 and we give the result of then- labors, noting only the 

 changes made in the list as published before. 



Rules 1,2,3,4 and 5 proposed at the meeting of Jan. 

 8. were passed without change. 



Rule 6. The word "must" was substituted for will, 

 making same read: "Persons entering these contests will 

 draw lots to determine the order in which they will cast, 

 and must be ready to cast when called upon by the 

 judges." 

 Rules 3 and 9. No change made. 



Rule 10. Strikes out the paragraphs "With a straight 

 line. And so that the fly or flies shall be upon the water 

 before any portion of the reel line touches its surface. 

 Touching the mark with either of the three flies used 

 will be considered a hit, and that of the three flies which 

 falls nearest the mark shall determine the distance of 

 that cast from the mark." 



Inserts the word "stretcher" in the paragraph relating 

 to accuracy, which now reads; "He shall be adjudged to 

 be the superior in accuracy who, on an average of all his 

 casts, places his stretcher-fly nearest the mark." 



Rules 11 to 13 are not changed. 



Rule 14 (Salmon Casting) is changed to read: "Thef ore- 

 going rales shall govern. Rods may be used with both 

 hands and not be limited to length, except in class made 

 for shorter rods, and only one fly shall be required. De- 

 licacy and accuracy casts to be made at a mark 70ft. 

 distant from the contestants." 



Rule 15 (Black Bass Minnow Casting) changed to read: 

 "All general rules which do not conflict with the following 

 special rules shall govern. No rod shall be more than 

 10ft. in length Any reel may be used, but all casts must 

 be made from the reel. Lines shall not be of less caliber 

 than No. 6 (letter H) braided silk, nor No. 1 sea grass, or 

 corresponding sizes of other materials, and be of uniform 

 thickness throughout. The weight of the sinker shall 

 not be over -Joz., the same to be furnished by the contest- 

 ants. In casting but a single hand shall be used. Each 

 contestant will be allowed five casts for distance, the 

 average of them to count, and five casts for style and ac- 

 curacy, the latter points to be ascertained by casts made 

 at a stake or mark 60ft. distant from the caster, and the 

 judges to give points in accordance with the nearness 

 with which the said sinker approaches the said stake or 

 mark. Style or form to be determined by the ease and 

 grace of the caster." 



Rule 16 (Heavy Bass Casting). Rods shall not exceed 

 9ft. in length, and may be used with both hands. Any 

 rest may be used, but the line shall be of linen not less 

 caliber than the trade No. 9, with twelve threads through- 

 out its entire length. The casts shall be made from the 

 reel with sinkers weighing 2-^oz. (these will be furnished 

 by the committee.) Each contestant will be allowed five 

 casts, his casts shall be measured, added and divided by 

 five, and the result shall constitute the score. No allow- 

 ance will be made to any contestant for the overrunning 

 or breaking of his line. 



Rule 17 (Light Bass Casting). Same rules as in heavy 

 bass, except that the sinkers shall be of l^oz. (furnished 

 by the committee). 



Vermont. — Post Mills, March 3. — My rods and reels 

 must now be taken from their resting place, rod varnished, 

 reels cleaned and oiled, and everything made right for 

 the early trout fishing. Our rivers and small streams 

 have been full of water this winter and we hope the trout 

 have grown fat and large. We are now looking forward 

 for the time to come when we can wet a line in the moun-< 

 tain streams.— Ompompanoosuc. 



